Looking forward to Spring

Despite a sudden burst of winter snow recently, my thoughts are turning to Spring. Maybe because the sun feels a big brighter and warmer now when it's shining.

I'm looking forward to a new season of plants on the balcony. What seeds should I order this year?

I always grow morning glories to cover the rails and give us some privacy. The grow so vigorously and flower so abundantly they are always a favourite of mine.



Other contenders are cosmos and sweet peas, or maybe I'll try something new this year like miniature dahlias or marigolds.

In addition to flowers, I always make room for some basic herbs like mint, thyme and rosemary. Last year I tried dill for the first time. I didn't use it very much for cooking, but the flower heads were very pretty - like fireworks.



I'm hoping the lavender I started from seed will come back this year. With the mild winter we've had I think there's a good chance!

With plants, come insects. Some are troublesome, like aphids, but beneficial insects are great, such as big bumblebees and ladybugs. Last summer, I was so excited to find these ladybug eggs on the underside of a morning glory leaf:



The ladybug babies (which don't look anything like ladybugs - they look like strange lizards) would soon hatch and munch away on the pesky aphids. Natural pest control.

Sometimes the garden vistors are surprising. This spider who was hiding in the the rails was huge - about an inch long:

 

He was so furry, like an old man spider. I kind of hope he visits my garden again this year!

Souvenirs from Tokyo #4

Tokyo has lots of lovely, well curated vintage shops stocked with old timey goodies from North America.

Sometimes it was a bit surreal to be surrounded by items from your childhood even though you're on the other side of the world. For instance, at a shop in Shin-Koenji, I found school desks exactly like the ones I used in kindergarten. They even had Irish Spring soap (my dad used this in the 90s) and Lip Smackers (remember those?). It was a trip down memory lane.

This shop even had the twin of a Fireking mug I've had for years and years. Of course we bought it, and now they are a happy pair.



These cheery McDonald's mugs also came home with us:



We stumbled on these Yoshitomo Nara cups in Shimokitazawa. They're sold as one cup sake drinks and were only about two dollars each. The sake inside wasn't great, but the cups are adorable. We brought them home to use as drinking glasses.



That third one has the remains of last night's wine in it.

Brown Tweed

While watching a bunch of River Cottage episodes, my attention was occasionally drawn away from the food and farm animals to Hugh's tweedy English sweaters and vests.

It took a while to find a tweed I liked. It had to be 100% wool and I wanted the flecks of colour to be harmonious with each other, instead of loud, garish colours that looked too busy together. In the end I chose the new Rowan Tweed in Keld, a chocolatey brown with flecks of dark red, golden brown and dark brown.



The pattern is the Seamless Raglan from Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann. It's my favourite sweater pattern. I like pullovers with no waist shaping and seamless sweaters are so comfortable to wear since they stretch and move in all directions. This time I made a double thick folded crew neck opening - I like how plush it is!

Undo and Make New

Something I really love about knitting is how easy it is to undo. Undo a little to fix mistakes, or even undo the whole thing.

A few years ago I made a garter stitch scarf. I was teaching myself the continental knitting style, doing row after row of knit stitches, but my gauge was too tight so the scarf ended up a little stiff and consequently little worn after completion. Over the holidays I wanted to make a new cabled scarf, so I got out the neglected old scarf, found the end of the yarn, and...



...rip, rip, rip. Undid the whole thing, row by row. Soaked the wool and let it dry to relax the kinks a little. Then rewound it into new balls of wool and knit it all into something new:



The wool is Highlander by Alpaca With a Twist, a blend of alpaca and merino. It's soft, has a nice drape and knit up quickly on size 9 needles. The colour reminds me of cookies and cream ice cream.



Warm and thick with cabled goodness. Perfect for today when it was -27°C outside with the wind chill.

Snacks

Two delicious snacks I ate recently:



1. Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookie
A huge, dense cookie from my local coffee shop with the perfect amount of chocolate and sea salt on top. I'm not really into cookies (is that crazy?) but this cookie was seriously good. The best cookie I can remember eating in fact!



2. Muscat Grapes
I've eaten Muscat grape flavoured gummy candies in Japan (where gummy candy flavours get that specific) but I've never come across them in fresh form until last week. Very, very low in acidity, these grapes were so refreshing, mild and sweet. I couldn't stop snacking on them.

Favourite Cleanser

I finally found a cleansing oil I like as much as the DHC olive oil cleanser I tried in Japan. It's the Origins Clean Energy cleanser.


The oil is great at removing dirt and the cleanser also contains emulsifiers that react with water so it rinses off easily. This is a blend of different oils (olive, sesame, sunflower, etc.) and no parabens, artificial colours or perfumes. That cheery yellow colour is all natural!

Small Signs of Older Age

Small changes I'm noticing as I get older:

1. The weather affects me a lot more than it used to when I was in my 20's. Now cloudy days genuinely bum me out.

2. Baby toe nail is getting weird. It's not non-existent yet like my mom's, but it's definitely looking a bit...different.

3. I've changed my mind about some foods I thought were gross as a kid. Like persimmons (the soft, mushy kind.)

Udon

The fanciest dinner I made last week was probably this udon. I went on a bit of a cooking rampage, making side dishes for this dish and the rest of the week including a big batch of tofu fritters and shiitake mushrooms simmered in sweetened soy sauce.

Toppings are shiitake mushrooms, a tofu fritter, green onion, chopped pickled plum and seaweed.


My husband had udon noodles, I had soba.

Impulse Buys

A small bottle of perfume by Philosophy and travel sized hand cream from L'Occitane. My hands get so dry in the winter so I'll carry the hand cream around with me in my bag.


I can't remember the last time I bought a perfume. This one smells kind of like nice, clean soap and the tiny bottle is cute!

Breakfast

For big days at the office, a big breakfast:


Thin slice of ham, eggs, fried tomatoes and onions, rice and maple beans.