etcetera...#4

Time to reflect.  I love going for walks in the bush (forest) and leaving work behind at the end of the day. While it may not have the incline of the road walk, it is therapeutic, full of peace and quiet except for the birds and the movement of wind and trees (and the odd tractor noise from adjoining fields, but that’s fine). 

Good food craving.  I’ve been enjoying the moments in between Christmas lunches, dinners and treats, when I return to more wholesome food.  Porridge for breakfast. I am not perfect so it is sprinkled with brown sugar, but less than normal.  And no craving at mid-morning coffee break for anything other than two chocolate covered coffee beans. I told you I wasn’t perfect.

At last, a movie. One wet Sunday after meeting my sister at Teed St Larder in Newmarket, Auckland (and bumping into the lovely Mairi from Toast), a stroll along the shops wasn’t on the cards.  Sister had to go to Smith & Caughey (department store) to purchase both a Christmas and a birthday present for me.  I used this as the perfect opportunity to escape Christmas shopping and indulge myself – so I headed off to the Rialto for Midnight in Paris. 

Not from the film, but our own night shot of Paris

Normally I avoid films with Owen Wilson but a Paris location and Woody Allen directing were the drawcards.  I’d not long finished reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway’s relationship with his first wife, set in Paris.  The book and film shared some of the same characters – Hemingway (although his “Paris wife” was absent in the film), Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas, to name a few.  It was a nice segue from one form of media to another and a really pleasant way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon, although it did make me laugh that it was raining in onscreen Paris too.

December’s book club featured The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. I have not yet read this but I really want to after listening to everyone’s comments.  Julie said she wished every book she read made her feel the way she did when she closed the pages.  How lovely is that?

Book club treats this time around – mini Christmas puddings; the yummiest, softest rocky road I’ve ever had (I have failed to understand rocky road but now I do!); white dusted, crescent-shaped Christmas biscuits and muscatels draped alongside blue brie served on caraway seed bread (the sole savoury bite).  

Vistas - I’m looking at a white horse in a field in the distance, reminiscent of the White Horse whisky advert.  No cars, no people just the horse and the wind unsettling everything as it passes through.  I like having little vistas – whether it’s looking out the window and framing a scene in your mind or creating little areas in your home.  Taking pleasure in beauty.  Do you have little areas of your home or garden that you like to linger on?

Wishing you a peaceful and happy Christmas.


I have given up with Blogger - it keeps adding spaces where there are none, hmmm.