Our Days in the UK

I have seen so many recipes, especially in historical books here, about blackberry and apple recipes. I wondered why they were always paired together, because it doesn't seem like the most obvious textural or taste combination to me. Well, now I know. We have blackberries and apples ripening simultaneously all around us! We don't have any apple trees in our yard, but there are lots of apple and crab apple trees growing on common land in our village. Even better, some neighbors who have carefully cultivated trees have been leaving out big buckets full of free apples for people to share. We have processed so many apples over the past few weeks. I really want an apple orchard! But for now I'll content myself with the pounds and pounds of apples we pick and gather. Blackberry-apple pie filling... Rows of apples waiting to be peeled and chopped, with a surprise head in the foreground:  More apples. These are not from the same batch as the one above. We've had S...

But before I tell you about apples, let's take a quick look at this gem of a castle that we visited last weekend. See the big grey clouds in the sky? That's a sign for us that it's time to go exploring, because especially during the summer school holidays here, if you go anywhere when the sun is shining, you will be joined by throngs of people. I'm not sure what the population density of England is, but it has to be high.  We have learned to stay home in our own little yard when it's sunny holiday time and to go out and explore when it's cold and/or rainy and/or during school hours... Anyway, this castle is on the English side of the border with Wales. A friend from church recommended we check it out because it was one of her childhood favorites. We were glad we did. We ended up visiting during a Medieval Festival there, so we got to see a jester and some presentations about food. There was also a knight contest but we didn't stay for that. ...

Well, hello! We've been busy around here so I haven't gotten around to blogging much. One of the most exciting reasons for this busy-ness has been the abundance of free food available for foraging during this summer-turning-quickly-into-fall season. First on the free food list: blackberries! We noticed blackberries ripening all around us in hedgerows a month or so ago, but they were pretty bitter. We weren't sure whether wild blackberries here would just generally be bitter, but we went picking two weeks ago and were pleasantly surprised to find the berries were perfectly sweet. Since we are literally surrounded by bramble bushes, and since I might be slightly enthusiastic about both frugality and producing one's own food, I may or may not have gone slightly overboard in my blackberry picking enthusiasm. We went out as a family every evening for a week picking various brambles around the village. We've been eating a lot of blackberry food. Our first exper...

Our final stop in Paris before heading back was the Eiffel Tour. I pre-booked tickets for us to go to the summit that morning. I am including the first picture below to: 1) prove that I managed to navigate the public bus system in Paris with my rusty French; and 2) show how happy Justin immediately looks upon entering any form of public transit. We got off at the bus stop near Trocadero, walked by the amazing fountains there, and found ourselves at the base of this... But we were only at the base for a minute, before heading up the elevators all the way to the top! Pretty nice views, although I could only identify a few of the landmarks. Paris at our feet... On one of the floors there are glass floors which those who do not get scared of heights can walk on. Clearly, our kids are not worried about heights, as they happily jumped and danced on them. After touring the tower we descended and Becca asked to ride the carousel we saw on our way in. So ...

France wouldn't be France without yummy French food! The friends who we visited with were vegan, so we made reservations at a vegetarian restaurant near Notre Dame Cathedral. However, when we left Musee d'Orsay to walk there the weather had other ideas. A huge, beautiful thunderstorm rolled in, with high winds and torrential rain, so we opted for the shorter walk to our hotel, asked for ideas, and then went to a creperie right down the street. We made it inside just before the real rain hit, so we were glad we chose the short walk. And it was really good! We all had buckwheat galettes, and we all liked them, so I'll call that a success. Rebecca looks grumpy here, but I think she's just concentrating. Also, it was really hot that day, so we were all kind of sticky and sweaty... The next morning we had a classic French breakfast in our hotel room, with hot chocolate, orange juice, and a variety of fruit, pastries, and cheeses. The kids loved it (as did I)! ...

Our first stop in Paris (after dropping our bags off at our hotel) was the Musee d'Orsay. I remember loving it when I went to Paris after high school, and as luck would have it, my friend felt the same. We both preferred it to the Louvre, so that's where we took our kids. We had a few hours before it closed, so we were able to see the impressionists (our top priority) and also Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin.  Here we go, heading up to the impressionists... The kids and I have an art museum tradition of treasure hunting. We either play the game so that the kids pick their favorite picture from each room/section, or I make a list of items for them to find. This time we did the first one, and each kid took a picture of their favorites. My phone is quite full of pretty impressive impressionism (see what I did there?) so I only included a few here. I found it interesting how consistent their preferences were from room to room. Justin distinctly preferred Monet, and lean...