Greek tragedy, a trip to London, homemade treats - Spring has arrived! Click HERE for spring 2024 (Matt Smith and new Invaders in London, Ireland), HERE for 2023, HERE for 2022, HERE for 2021, and HERE and HERE for photos from Spring 2020, including our trips to Paris and the Isle of Wight.
For Nick's birthday, we enjoying preparing a UBChef meal, created by Robert Thompson our favourite Isle of Wight chef. We also had German chocolate cake like my grandmother used to make and a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, bought in Montalcino, Tuscany in 2012.
Some culinary treats at home, including sourdough bread, lemon meringue pie, toad in the hole, and a chocolate football cake. Click HERE to see my other cakes.
Sophie Grigson's focaccia barese, plus sights from Mottisfont Abbey
Firefighters in Boscombe and a former pupil turned butcher
In April, we went to London for a weekend of culture and fun. Our trip started in North London, seeking out one of the seven remaining Invaders we hadn't yet seen. We walked through Portobello Market and Notting Hill.
Scenes from Portobello Market, Notting Hill, The Estorick Collection, and Mark Wallinger's Labyrinth
These are the seven Invaders found on this trip. We will continue the search later in the year in France and Ljubljana!
The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art opened in London in 1998, the same year we met. The Collection is known internationally for its core of Futurist works, as well as figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s. The painting with colourful faces is called Music and represents synesthesia, seeing colours when listening to music.
The atmospheric painting bottom left shows figures leaving the opera house at night.
We had a lovely lunch at Terra Rossa, which serves authentic food just like we had in Puglia at Christmas, including pasticciotto leccese
After seeing director Daniel Fish's production of "sexy Oklahoma!" in 2023, we were excited to get tickets to see Elektra, starring Academy Award winner Brie Larson, Stockard "Rizzo" Channing, and Patrick Vaill. We loved the production, especially the incredibly syncronised, dissonant Greek chorus. We enjoyed a pre-show gin and tonic on the balcony, as we did when we saw Matt Smith in An Enemy of the People in 2024.
We left our super-comfortable AirBnB in New Cross to take an old fashioned Routemaster bus to Crossness Pumping Station.
Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage works constructed between 1859 and 1865. It features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork, described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork".
We were there on a rare steaming day and saw the huge mechanisms doing their thing before trying on creepy hats.
Outside, we had hornside seats to hear the Belvedere Concert Band before moving back into London for more Invader hunting. Stik's 2020 sculpture "Holding Hands" can be found in Hoxton Square, near the black Invader. We found the Snoopy post box topper near Queen Square Gardens. The photo of Kilted Yogi's Finlay Wilson is in celebration of spring.
Trudging hungrily through Shoreditch, we found newly-opened 801 Neapolitan Pizzeria, where we had slow cooked beef on polenta and a sausage and wild broccoli pizza. Fortified, we moved on, in search of more Invaders.
Various sights, including another of Mark Wallinger's Labyrinths, a few of our AirBnB, Chinatown, and The Cut.
On Monday, our last day, we went to the National Gallery in the morning. These are some of my favourite paintings.
Valencian Fishermen by Joaquin Sorolla, Van Gogh, Canaletto's Venice, and another example of "Okay, I give him a shirt".
Caravaggio, bottom left, two Vermeers, Renoir, and dumplins in stock at Culture Grub. A perfect end to our weekend in London!
Friend Juliet and I visited our local National Trust house over the Easter holidays. Pictured are this year's hot cross buns and an almond and pear lattice tart.
Creating pocket pals using AI was all the rage, and Tiny Cow got in on the act.
We visited Alresford over Easter and made rabbit stew and rhubarb ginger rolls.
Back to London on Bank Holiday Weekend, we we discovered Sicily Fest at the Business Design Centre and had a morning of listening to the Italian language and sampling Sicilian food and wine. We'll be going to Sicily for my birthday soon. Watch this space!
Sicilian goodies in London and our wisteria in full, scented bloom
We also found a longboat festival in full swing along the canals of Little Venice. (I have never before been affected by pollen, but good grief! Everyone was coughing and sneezing).
Tiny Cow made a pilgrimage to Primrose Hill and we found street art on the bridge near Chalk Farm.
Our primary goal in visiting London was to see Stephen Sondheim’s last musical, Here We Are, which was created with David Ives and inspired by two surrealist films of Luis Buñuel, The Exterminating Angel and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The show exceeded our expectations, especially the music-filled first half, which was hilarious. The National Theatre spent a lot of money on the production, including a starry cast that included Jane Krakowski, Rory Kinnear, Martha Plimpton, and hunky Richard Fleeshman, whom we saw in Company in 2019. .
A sunny walk from Boscombe to Bournemouth
The Russell Cotes Museum is filled with things to discover on each visit.
Like the Riviera
