Snippet: I am an omnivore, but...

 

... I do enjoy this cookbook immensely and recommend it. He is an omnivore too - but one doesn't miss anything here. In Bavaria I have time to cook - and though the recipes sometimes demand a lot of time for snipping and hacking the vegetables, the result is always very satisfying and often surprising - and the times he recommends are reliable and so exact that even the Gratin Dauphinoise was really done. 

The only fly in the ointment for "big success" in Germany might be his really, really complicacted name - even I - though I studied English literature and language - can seldom bring it to my mind if I want to recommend it. His book on Fruits was translated into German - and I found it in the "Books for cheap"-basket  - I can only see one reason: nobody, wanting to order it in a bookshop, could recall or pronounce his name. 

But "River Cottage" - that is in my mind and high on my list for future visits in England! 

If I had to give recommendation stars, he would get five out of five. 

A Snippet of Vita's Wisdom on Flowers

 

"I find, and do not doubt that most people will agree with me, that November and December are quite the bleakest months of the year for finding 'something to pick for indoors'. A flowerless room is a soul-less room, to my thinking, but even one solitary vase of a living flower may redeem it."

(Vita Sackville-West "In Your Garden") 

La Vie en Rose

 

Yesterday I wanted to pre-order my favourite rose "Gertrude Jekyll" for my Bavarian balcony too, and by chance I found this link:   

https://www.welt-der-rosen.de/adressen/dtl2.htm   (you have to copy it, sorry) 

"Only" for German rose gardens, but the idea of such a specialised survey is bright. There are three rose gardens in my neighbourhood which I never heard of.  

So fascinating, enthusiastic (and a bit fanatic) - I would enjoy and use a list of rose gardens for England when pandemic allows me to come again.  

Snippets.

 

My new idea to serve you sometimes just "Snippets" fascinates me. 

As before I will write long posts, but more often a short one - sometimes I will serve you a Lungo, sometimes an Espresso. You might want to chat with me, or just enjoy the cuppa in silence. 

Variety, change: life is bursting with possibilities.  

Whenever you see the photo above it signals: "Snippets". Hope you have as much fun as I! 

Snippet: Fasting

 

I add something new to my blog: "snippets" shall be short posts about something that shoots through my mind - evoked by a newspaper, or a blog, or something I experienced. 

In German telephone booths (used before the unimaginable time before the existence of cellphones), hung a plate with the words "Fasse dich kurz!" = "Make it short". (Very difficult for me) 

So: 

At the moment I do a "sort of" fast, just for fun: for four weeks I do not drink any alcohol. Instead of the glass of wine in the evening (with 0,1 - 0,2 l a ridiculous thimble in they eyes of the hardboiled) I drink a nice cup of herbal tea.  No problem at all - I just wanted to find out if I miss it. 

Till now I don't. 

Query: Do you fast? On what? Why? How long? Do you feel an effect? 

 

Pink Puschel-Mania

 

I think the English word is "pom pom" - but "Puschel" is how we call it - and which is at the moment the most cherished word of the triplets. 

Never in my life I had dreamed that I would wear a cap with a pom pom. (You can remove it by a big snap fastener). 

When I went to Berlin for Christmas I promised to send photos to the Little Ones - so you see the Pink Puschel standing in front of the Literatur Café, in front of the Charlottenburger Schloss, the manor house in Britz - and so on. They loved it. 

And then I had an idea. I went into a fur-shop in Berlin and luckily found "it" - three beautiful very-pink-Puschels for the triplets. They are so delighted! 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Tomorrow I travel to Berlin, so I will use the opportunity to send you, my blogger friends, the best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Stay healthy and in good mood, be thankful for family and friends. I hope to see you all in 2022! 

Yours truly

Britta