There's something about Sunday mornings that seem to lend themselves to arias, Bach, Beethoven or just about any other classical music composer or opera you can think of. I've always found Ave Maria by Schubert very moving and found the above on youtube. It's with Placido Domingo and Michael Bolton, a seemingly unlikely duo if you don't know about Bolton's admiration for all opera singers. I think he does remarkably well here.
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Sunday morning
There's something about Sunday mornings that seem to lend themselves to arias, Bach, Beethoven or just about any other classical music composer or opera you can think of. I've always found Ave Maria by Schubert very moving and found the above on youtube. It's with Placido Domingo and Michael Bolton, a seemingly unlikely duo if you don't know about Bolton's admiration for all opera singers. I think he does remarkably well here.
Friday, 7 December 2012
Taking an early morning nap...
I am amazed how they can wake up in the morning, stretch a bit, eat, pop outside to do their you-know-what, and then promptly collapse in the living room for some more shut eye. It's a hard life.
Nina, our small teckel, always has a place either on my lap or by my side on the sofa.
Daisy likes to be there too but Nina isn't always ready to share me and Daisy has to sneak up when Nina is already in the land of nod.
Ben, being much larger than the other two and too big for my lap, is usually curled up at my feet on a cushion. Sometimes he forgets he is too big for my lap and will climb up on top of me.
Which is just what he did yesterday... climbed on my lap while I was having my breakfast coffee. When I had to slide out from under him to let Daisy in from the garden, he stayed put on the sofa, deciding sleep was more a priority than trying to keep me pinned to the sofa. Daisy obviously thought she should join 'em and was settled on the sofa before I'd had a chance to walk back into the room...
Ben completely ignored any suggestion on my part to vacate his comfy
spot and move to the floor by pretending to be asleep. The look from
both Nina and Daisy was to just make sure I wasn't about to suggest something similar to them.
Nap time was resumed and I ended up on the cushion on the floor - well, it was three against one, so what was I supposed to do!
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Stick-to-the-ribs food for a rainy day lunch
It never rains but it pours and today has been a downpour-all-day type of day. Some hot stick-to-the-ribs food for lunch seemed just what was needed and, on opening the fridge, the remainder of last nights dinner winked at me from it's glass bowl.
I love veggie food and last night concocted a dish that everyone thought was delicious and rather moreish.
I must confess that until I opened the fridge to prepare dinner, I hadn't a clue what I was going to make, all I knew was that hub was going to grill up some pork steaks for anyone who wanted meat (I gave up years ago to get my family to become vegetarians along with me).
After rummaging around in the fridge and store cupboard, I dug out a large aubergine, a small courgette, and a bag of fresh spinach, followed by a large tin of white beans, a small jar of capers and some de-stoned olives... a few fresh tomatoes and a packet of pasta would surely give a very satisfying meal.
With a pan of water on to boil for the pasta, I cut the aubergines into chunks, the courgettes into thick slices and threw them into hot olive oil in the biggest pan I own. I let them brown a little then added diced onion and a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Once the onion was transparent, I added some freshly ground pepper, peeled and diced tomatoes, oregano, the spinach, a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and a splash of water. Once they were nicely mixed and hot, in went the beans, olives and capers to thoroughly heat through. Somewhere around the time I the onion was transparent, the water for the pasta was boiling so I added a packet of penne (having a large family means using a whole packet at least - some dishes we get through two!).
For lunch, all that was necessary was to re-heat it all, place the pasta in a bowl and top with the veggie mix - yum!
I love veggie food and last night concocted a dish that everyone thought was delicious and rather moreish.
I must confess that until I opened the fridge to prepare dinner, I hadn't a clue what I was going to make, all I knew was that hub was going to grill up some pork steaks for anyone who wanted meat (I gave up years ago to get my family to become vegetarians along with me).
After rummaging around in the fridge and store cupboard, I dug out a large aubergine, a small courgette, and a bag of fresh spinach, followed by a large tin of white beans, a small jar of capers and some de-stoned olives... a few fresh tomatoes and a packet of pasta would surely give a very satisfying meal.
With a pan of water on to boil for the pasta, I cut the aubergines into chunks, the courgettes into thick slices and threw them into hot olive oil in the biggest pan I own. I let them brown a little then added diced onion and a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Once the onion was transparent, I added some freshly ground pepper, peeled and diced tomatoes, oregano, the spinach, a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and a splash of water. Once they were nicely mixed and hot, in went the beans, olives and capers to thoroughly heat through. Somewhere around the time I the onion was transparent, the water for the pasta was boiling so I added a packet of penne (having a large family means using a whole packet at least - some dishes we get through two!).
For lunch, all that was necessary was to re-heat it all, place the pasta in a bowl and top with the veggie mix - yum!
Saturday, 25 August 2012
To the Serra do Açor and back
We decided to take a two-day road trip which included lots of fun, too much good food and visits to a few interesting places. I highly recommend a visit to the Universidade de Coimbra, especially the Biblioteca Joanina and the Chapel, if you ever find yourself in Coimbra. The countryside and views from the hills are breathtaking (and pretty scary when going round the hairpin bends - our GPS lady kept saying "u-turn ahead"!!) so I took oodles of photos which I managed to whittle down into just three sets (four if you count the photos added to the "Clouds" set.
This was R's and my second visit to Serra de Açor and Piodão, the first time being in June 2007 when we were accompanied by my aunt and uncle. Then, the village was recovering from flash floods which had gushed down the hill damaging roads and washing away everything in its path; it has all been rennovated and we were able to walk down to the river. They have done a marvellous job and it was well worth this visit, even though it is now a bit of a tourist trap. Mind you, this is August, the month when it seems the whole of Portugal takes their annual holiday!
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Monday, 23 July 2012
Tall Ships Race
All our plans to visit the Tall Ships stop over in Lisbon on Saturday fell apart which meant we weren't able to actually get on board any of them... however, we did make it on Sunday to watch the ships move off on to the next leg of the race:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rambling_yogini/sets/72157630699018764/
Amazingly, we managed to be right at the water's edge. The wind had the ships moving swiftly pass and also helped keep all spectators cool. There was probably one person present who wasn't too pleased with it's strength as it whipped off his/her hat and plonked it into the water - no hope of retrieving it either!
(http://www.sailtraininginternational.org/)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rambling_yogini/sets/72157630699018764/
Amazingly, we managed to be right at the water's edge. The wind had the ships moving swiftly pass and also helped keep all spectators cool. There was probably one person present who wasn't too pleased with it's strength as it whipped off his/her hat and plonked it into the water - no hope of retrieving it either!
(http://www.sailtraininginternational.org/)
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