Sundays are for....

holding hands...

favourite knits...

noticing the small stuff...
the arrival of winter birds

crunching autumn leaves

sneaking in a cat nap
most of all sundays are for...
blending in harvesting the tomatillos and making salsa (recipe coming soon....)

whiskers

Happy Halloween

Early Morning, Early September....

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. ~P.D. James


I haven't been sleeping well lately. I don't know what to attribute it to, but I tend to wake up before the sun comes up. Which isn't really that early considering our latitude and the time of year....

This time, I awoke to a perfectly crisp autumn morning. I slid out of bed careful not to wake the G or the furry Bisbeast sleeping at the foot of the bed, and headed out into the fresh autumnal sunshine for an early morning walk.

I wasn't the only one with the same idea and I came across these guys as well. I love the long shadows that early morning and late afternoon have to offer. Here's evidence of all the rain we've had lately.
And the first of the autumn leaves to make an appearance.
...And creatures large and small.This is one of the posts I never got around to putting up back in September when the pics were taken. Better late than never, right? Forgive me?

Lunch Break Update

Hi. Greetings from my place of employment. Can you believe that THIS is where I work! How lucky am I?

Over lunch (orange scented couscous with chicken and almonds - yum.) I've been enjoying the autumn glory here and here and feeling inspired to do a bit more of my own exploration through the camera lens.

I also want to urge you to pick up The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. What a cool book. I'm particularly enamoured by the idea of communicating with dogs only through posture and sign language - a language invented on an isolated farm in most-northern Wisconsin, no less.

That's about it for this lunch break. Talk soon!

Remember me?

Just hangin out
Originally uploaded by TheQueenBean

I bet you're wondering if I fell off the face of the Earth. Man, life got busy for me over the past few weeks. School started three weeks ago and I've been wiped off my feet with lesson planning and photocopying. You know how it is.

The weather's been better the past couple of weeks and every waking second is spent trying to synthesize enough vitamin D to get through the long and impending winter months. I've made up my mind to live more and sleep less this winter.

I've even made myself a list of Things I Want To Do. I split it into a timeline of This Week, This Month, In Three Months, Before Next Year, In 3 to 5 Years, and In My Lifetime. Sounds ambitious, don't it? An excerpt:

In 3 to 5 years, I would like to:

• Have visited most of the countries in Europe
• Volunteer to help with the 2012 London Olympics
• Complete a Masters Degree in Education
• Return to North America to live
• Be credit-card-debt-free
• Have a better relationship with my mind-body - explore spirituality?
• Have and raise a child/children
• Complete a Triathlon
• Finally begin writing that novel that's been spinning round my head the past three years
• Finish a quilt.....

You get the idea.

I'm listening a lot to Sera Cahoone, Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket. Resurrecting Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch. Wanting to hit the road with Jeff Tweedy.

I'm taking The Life In The UK test this week and reading my handbook: A journey to citizenship to jump through the seemingly endless hoops that being an ex-pat requires.

I'm taking my Driving License test at the end of the month.

Bisbee has a gaping hole on his head - battle scars from The Cat Fight Kitchen. Feral cats have figured out how to get in to the house through the cat flap and our kitchen has been showdown central. Another round of antibiotics for the Bisbeast and live traps for the Ferals.

The G started his new job in public health this week. Yay! I interviewed and didn't get a full time job teaching here at the college, but try and try again.

That's about it from here. I'll load some more recent pics up soon. I promise. XO, Bee

Autumn Pic of the Week

Though it can hardly be called autumn any longer, it's becoming more and more wintry everyday. It's below freezing tonight, there's already frost on the corners of the window frame, and we're seriously re-thinking how charming living in a quirky Victorian cottage is afterall, bearing in mind it hasn't been updated in 50 years. As the hub says, "It's blowing a gale through here." And that's just through the front door, nevermind the back! I guess we'll just have to cuddle.
Cheers!

Tuesday's Autumn Pic of the Week

Sunrise through the spiderweb.

The Wagtail on the Roof

The view out my work space window this morning. I am completely in love with this photo!

Have you seen this? I sooooo need to start journaling again......

So, get this! You know how I've been moaning about how homesick I am? Well, I finally said sod it and I just bought a last minute ticket to the States. I leave on Thursday! Woot Woot!! It's not exactly home home, (sigh.... Seattle) but it's my parents' home in sunny Tucson. And get this! My sister's flying down from Alaska with her herd - how lucky are we that we can all just get together in Tucson on a whim!? Thanking my lucky stars.... Or as a Danish vet I once worked with always said in a singsong instead of thanks: 'Thanking You.'

Tuesday's Autumn Pics of the Week

I hereby promise to pull my head out of my past. Just after this post, that is. Here are some of my favorite fall photos of all time.

Just about 2 weeks before I left Seattle for Europe I took a solo day trip out to Leavenworth, except I didn't actually make it to Leavenworth because I got so distracted along the way by all the pretty fall colors and pulled off the highway somewhere just beyond the pass. I hopped out of the truck and pulled by some sort of invisible magnetism, I began bushwhacking my way along this golden river that was punctuated by Quaking Aspen and European Birch. Eventually, I passed this old barn and there's something I still love so much about this photo. It's hard to say if it translates to you, since I was experiencing so much emotion at the time, trepidation and doubt about throwing the towel in on my Seattle life and heading abroad, excitement and anticipation about the same, there were some boy troubles as well, and of course I was caught up in the perfect autumn scene that was unfolding around me, filled with breath and with life. I wonder if it's these memories the photo stirs up in me, not so much the aesthetic of the shot. Let me know if I'm wrong about that, I'm curious.

If you were tour the spare bedroom right now, the guide would say "We're blocking, we're blocking..... and stop. The QB has finally finished knitting the amazing and versatile scarf/shawl/hoodie that is known as The Wisp. The piece should be dry in merely a matter of hours and with only a few finishing touches remaining, buttons and ribbon to be applied, she assures us that all will be revealed in the next couple of days......"

Identity Crisis and it's Tuesday, that means Autumn Pics of the Week

Who is this handsome devil? At first I thought it was a Ruddy Duck in winter plumage, but have come to believe that she is, in fact, a female Tufted Duck after scouring the RSPB guide to the birds of Britain and Europe. Did I mention I'm a birder? Isn't that dorky?

The King and I spent the afternoon walking through a new (to us) country park up the road from our house called Ryton Pools. It has a great little bird hide and I made him sit for an hour or so until my camera battery died and our hot chocolate ran cold.

Tuesday's Autumn Pic of the Week

Taken early this morning at the country park I work in.

Autumn Fare

It's officially soup season. It was 3 degrees last night, I still can't work out what that means in American (a.k.a. Fahrenheit) without looking it up online...... that's 37 degrees to you and me. Brrr.... It's time for chopping firewood, for covering the kitchen garden with frost-fleece, and it's time for snuggling. More than anything, it's time for soup, tasty, hearty, warm-you-to-the-soul-like-an-iron-and-wine-song type of soup.

Today, I taught a River Study course out at the country park I work at to a bunch of unruly, though mostly on the verge of their best behavior, 12 year olds. It was freezing, bless them! Well, not freezing officially, since it was 8, or 46, degrees, but bitterly windy and frozen fingers and cherry cheeks cold. To their credit, the kids kept their whinging to a minimum save for one strapping and bullyish young lad by the name of Liam who would've complained had I given him tickets to a world cup game. That said, we spent a good 6 hours together, slogging through the chilly, albeit dry, day at the mercy of mean mother nature, my mate Liam complaining all the while and occasionally sucker-punching other unsuspecting 12 year olds. By the time I got home, I was in dire need of some soup.

This is what I would have made, if I'd had enough time after work..... The BEST FRENCH ONION SOUP EVER. I don't take my French Onion Soup lightly, it's by far one of my favorites, only because I love the cheesy crouton on top. In fact, anything involving cheese is usually in my good books. Especially if it involves cheese AND bread at the same time. (Note: the English don't take their French Onion Soup with a delicious, cheesy crouton. In fact, my poor husband delighted in his first crouton experience only when I made this soup over the weekend.) Before I found this recipe and made this soup myself, I would have had to have given credit to the Kodiak Kafe in Anchorage, Alaska as having made me the best bowl of French Onion Soup, despite the ridiculous alliteration. Followed, closely in second place by the Salmon Bay Cafe in Seattle, Washington. Maybe you've had the pleasure of patronizing one of the above mentioned cafe's, you've tried the soup, you thought mmmmm...... Well, here's your answer to the question: how do I make a French Onion Soup to die for?

The following recipe (and the photos on this post) was adapted from one in a cookbook I found in a thrift store last month called simply and aptly, The Onion Cookbook by Brian Glover. The good Mr. Glover is kind

enough to impart us with a brief history of onions and other alliums throughout history. I found this particularly interesting, since it's never once occurred to me that eating onions might be considered an underground or rebellious act. God forbid, eating alliums (onions, garlic, leeks, chives, shallots, etc) be prohibited!! But in 17th century Britain, the unthinkable happened. Quote the diarist John Evelyn who wrote a treatise on salads, (who would write a treatise on salads today? I'll endeavor for my own treatise in a future post....) "Regarding garlick, we absolutely forbid it entrance into our salleting, by reason of it's intolerable rankness..... to be sure it is not for ladies' palates, nor those who court them." Anyone who's ever courted me, knows that the way to my heart is by means of garlic.

Further to the history of alliums, who here knew that Chicago was named after the Illinois Indian name for "the place which smells of onions." Chicagoua - the plant that gave Chicago it's name, was a form of wild garlic. (I wonder if Sufjan Stevens could've worked that into a song?) And to the Egyptians, thankfully, alliums held a place near and dear to their hearts. Onions were placed in tombs as food for the journey into the next life, laborers were fed onions, leeks and garlic as these were believed to keep them fit and well, and it was a sign of fertility to smell onion on a woman's breath.

French Onion Soup, itself, has something of an interesting story behind it. Traditionally, it was served as a sustaining early morning meal to the porters and workers of Les Halles Market in Paris. It's served in my kitchen to warm us up from the inside out during a cold snap. The secret to success with this soup is the long slow cooking of the onions. Give yourself a couple of hours, because if the onions brown too quickly the soup will be bitter, and nobody wants that. Another tip: To keep from crying when chopping onions, don't open your mouth! At least that's what my mother told me and it seems to work for me. Unfortunately, it seems like a really great song inevitably comes on while I'm chopping them and I have to fight myself from singing along and just end up doing this stupid restrained humming thing that my husband makes fun of me for. (Currently, Cat Power's The Greatest has been resurrected and is back in high rotation.) Here's how to get started with the soup:


Ingredients/Shopping List:
1/4 c butter
1 tbsp olive oil
4 1/2 lbs (2 kg) yellow onions (yes, you have to peel and chop all of them)
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp (or more!) balsamic or sherry vinegar
6 1/2 c (1.5 L) of good beef stock
1 1/2 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
2/3 c dry white wine like chardonnay
3 tbsp brandy
salt and pepper

For the croutons!
thick slices of day old baguette
1 garlic clove, halved
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 cup thinly sliced Gruyere cheese
2 tbsp finely grated parmesan or romano cheese



The Process:
Melt the butter and the oil in a large soup pot. Add the onions and stir to coat. Cook over a medium heat for 8-10 minutes or long enough for the onions to begin to soften. Stir in the thyme.

Reduce heat to very low, cover the pan and cook the onions for 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until they are very soft and golden yellow. Uncover the pan, and increase the heat slightly. Stir in the sugar and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the onions start to brown.

Add the balsamic vinegar and increase the heat again, continue cooking while stirring frequently until the onions turn a deep brown - this could take up to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil in another saucepan. Stir the flour into the onions and cook for a couple of minutes, then gradually pour in the hot stock. Add the wine and the brandy, making sure to give the cook a quick sip, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.



While the soup is simmering get the best bit started, the croutons. Preheat the oven to 150 C/300 F Place the slices of bread on a greased baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes, until dry and lightly browned. Rub the bread with the cut surface of the garlic and spread with the mustard. Place the slices of Gruyere on top and sprinkle with parmesan or romano, or both!!

Preheat your grill or broiler on the hottest setting. Ladle the soup into oven proof bowls. Float the croutons in the soup then grill until the cheese melts and becomes ooey gooey, bubbly and brown. Serve immediately!!

Jam Jar Lanterns!!

Okay, so I've been saving jars for months now for no known purpose other than I might use them for storage someday.... or something. The two bulging shopping bags of clanking glass even made the journey from our old flat in Coventry out to the country house and immediately lost rank among the boxes. The other day, while searching for a better place to store some left over cans of paint, I came across the clanking bags in the back of the garden shed and thought, oh yeah, The Jars. Struck by the image of some kind of jam jar lanterns I saw in a magazine once, I was hit by random inspiration. I headed down to the local craft shop, bought some of the cheapest plastic beads I could find, a bit of wire and string and headed home.

When I went back to the states last winter, I saw my sister using these crazy glue dots for scrapbooking and I thought they were amazing. So, I tried using them as a less fuss, no mess way to glue the beads to the jars and it actually seemed to work. I bought some of the dots labeled 'permanent', and aside from pulling on my skin a bit, the dots were really handy. A lot easier than a glue gun, and since they didn't need electricity, I could enjoy a rare sunny day in the garden.


One thing to point out if you're thinking of attempting this yourself, is how to secure the jar to the hanger. Here's what I did, but somebody please tell me if you have a better way to do this!! I measured the rim of the jar with the wire and then added a couple of inches. I made a circle with the wire and twisted the ends of the wire together until they wouldn't pull apart. Now that I had a circle I set about making some loops on either side to attach the hanging wire to. To do this, I wrapped the wire around a screwdriver and twisted until it made a loop. The tricky bit was to get the loop on the opposite side to be in about the same place so that when it was hung it would hang evenly. A few of them were a bit off, and hung a little off-kilter but I decided that just added character and wasn't too bothered about it at all. I used 20 gauge wire to hang them, and found that anything smaller was too flimsy to accept the weight of the jars.




As you can see I had all the essential gear at hand (note the pinot grigio)! I picked up a couple pairs of wire tools when I was at the shop. The obvious bit of kit was the wire cutters. But I also picked up two pairs of pliers, one with round tongs, the other with flat. The round tonged pliers were handy for making twists and spirals, while the flat ones were good for gripping and bending the ends of the wire. This is probably obvious to anyone who's ever worked with wire, but was graciously pointed out to my ignorance in the craft shop. In the end, I decided to use some old sequins and some mother of pearl buttons and hemp twine, as well as the beads, to good effect I think.




Now, I just need a nice warm night to string them out. Fingers crossed for one last summery night! ---The Queen Bee

Village Pic of the Day

It's hard to believe that summer's finally over, not that we had much of a summer in England this year. Saying that, we did have a good 30 days without rain this September....even if didn't exactly shine everyday. But even though the days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting colder (we even had frost the other morning!!) there's not much I love more than yellow leaves against a blue autumn sky.