Warm October!

It is a strange October, a rather warm October. Currently it is +12 (before 7am), whereas around this time just last year, we were getting some -5 temps. In 2010, I posted this [photo] which pretty much sums up how October is meant to be.. cold and rugged up! So far, you can get away with wearing a thin jacket, no scarf and a t-shirt underneath! What is this madness?!

Yesterday, Em and I took advantage of the 'nice' weather and biked over to the swamps. Once there, we walked around. There were a few animals, but not so many. We saw a few geese, a few ducks but that is about it. Oh and a big, Em said small but I still say big, slug.. here are a few photos..

Leaving we saw some moomoos.. it stared at me when I stopped to take a photo but by the time my phone got ready to take said photo, the moo went screw you, I'm hungry! and back to munching it went. Here are some photos that Em took.. [colourful reflections] [taking flight] [prickly] [breaching] [don't you belong on a grandfather clock?]

Yesterday I also got my cook on and made smashed avocado and fried tomatoes on garlicy toast! [photo] and it was delicious! Great way to start the Sunday I reckon! Then for lunch I made a quinoa and vegetable stew [photo] and it was so damn good! First time I had ever made it and it has to be the best way to eat those healthy little get stuck in your toofs seeds. Really enjoyed it, and there's some for today so score!

In the afternoon, seeing as it has been a week since we have caught up with the parentals and played with the pups, we decided a nice walk around would kill many birds with one stone. No stoned were flung, nor birds killed. We headed around, overheating in the glorious +18 afternoon air and sunshine. The winds were picking up... more so on the way home, which made me glad we didn't bike. I don't overly enjoy biking into the wind. Who does, right?!

So, I wonder how long this weather will last, I welcome it. I am not ready, mentally, for the cold. Physically, I got it sorted, thermals washed and ready, scarves & hats ready, winter jacket ready, boots waxed and ready, no wet feet this year! Last year, they weren't waxed and the frakkers leaked, hardcore. Altho, I could do with some in-between boots as walking in rain in my sneakers makes for wet tootsie rolls too. We will see, with not having to walk Nemo, I might not be out so much in the wetness. I am so fussy with footwear that the thought of having to find something I like, and is comfortable is daunting. I might get 'lucky' and there be a swift change in weather.. who knows.

Oh and speaking of change.. here is something that nobody expected! I saw me a big Santa so we bought a big Santa! How awesome is this big guy? 

He's so fluffy! I am still quite amused at how early they start Christmas these days.. I mean.. really? It's bloody October! So far he is the only Christmas decoration we have out, it just seemed so mean to put him away until the first of advent! I look over at him now and then and just giggle, too funny.

Fall, Pumpkin.. Goodness.

It may have been Emma's birthday but I was the one to get flowers! That's right, folks! Emma bought me flowers! A rather beautiful fall themed selection! They are so pretty and it was such a lovely gesture.. Aren't they so pretty?!

They were a thank you for all the extra work I had to do to get the foodage ready for her birthday.. it definitely softened the blow of having to stand at the kitchen sink for nearly 2 hours ripping the heads, shells off of 2 bags of small shrimp! Not to mention grabbing the fiddly poop shute!

Fall really is a pretty time of year, especially over here.. you get some really bold colours, like so.. [photo] [photo] [photo] [photo] 

This year it has been warmer than usual, I am not saying it is hot but it has been much warmer than previous years.. most noticeably is the fact that we didn't use outside as an extra fridge to chill things like we have previous years for Emma's birthday. Also, it has rained a lot less, in saying that tho.. it started raining yesterday and is still raining today so maybe it has finally caught on that it is meant to be raining? Who knows.. I am not complaining.. I don't wanna jinx anything and I look at all the big bright red berries on the trees and just want to cry coz that is apparently a little sign of how bad winter will be and so if the berries are correct then it is going to be a bad one.. I really hope the berries are big fat liars! 

I said that we had had a form of pumpkin every day leading up to the weekend and well that is where I come to this, we did not make it with our monster crown prince, we bought it from the bottle-o! We found a Samuel Adams pumpkin beer that we just had to try! Because it was a large bottle, and at 8.5%, I didn't want to drink it all myself so we took it around to the parentals on the night we had to slap together the sandwich cake and got them to help polish it off.

I very stealthy poured a glass without allowing Emma's dad to see the bottle and then put the glass in front of him and told him to try it! He really enjoyed it and that is when I dropped the bombshell that it was a pumpkin beer! He couldn't believe it, you see he is a little set in his ways and screws his face up and wont try things if there is something he doesn't like in it. He doesn't like pumpkin, it is more a foreign thing more than he doesn't actually like it.. pumpkin hasn't been 'around' here for very long so most will write it off without trying. However, so far Emma's dad has enjoyed every pumpkin themed item I have placed before him.. as long as he doesn't realise it is pumpkin before that is. 

I must admit, I did enjoy the Fat Jack Double Pumpkin beer very much, I could have drunk it all but it was definitely a beer to share. It reminded Emma's dad of a darker but typical Christmas beer, which kind of makes sense coz it has all the same spices. Very enjoyable indeed. Not an every day drink but one I would gladly partake in again. I just love that they use pumpkin in it! Pumpkin FTW!

Hooray!

It is that time of year when the weather cools down, the colours turn into all kinds of lovely bright shades and the leaves slowly make their way to the ground for our own enjoyment. Where we can frolic in the mountains of leaves.. if we can find and be bothered to rake up a large section that is. And listen to them crunch beneath our feet. Eventually they turn into a complete hazard and become rather slippery to walk on.. it is all part of the fun! Much like snow really.. the new snow is fun to walk on, the older more compact stuff is a death trap. I guess it goes to show that maybe every season has it's own type of death trap but every season definitely has it's own distinct beauty.

Also at this time of year, it is all about the pumpkin! So that meant the week leading up to this weekend, we partook in a form of pumpkin every damn day! You see, we discovered a crown prince pumpkin at the supermarket so we snapped it up. 4kg of pumpkinny goodness! We still have over half of it in the fridge as I type this.. so throw some pumpkin ideas at me! 

This weekend just gone was Emma's birthday, so we celebrated it in true pumpkin stylez! There was a pumpkin/halloweenish theme to the dinner, but of course you couldn't really incorporate pumpkin into the very delicious sandwich cake so that was the only thing that was pumpkin-less. Said sandwich cake.. 

...looking delicious as ever! And I am pleased to report I have gotten past my dill episode so I am able to eat dill without getting the urge to vomit again. Curse you Stockholm! But at least it was only a year I was dill-less! Next thing on the agenda to try again will be dill chippies! 

We decorated the place with pumpkins, at the entrance we had the very awesome large Jack Skellington pumpkin! which looked damn awesome! [photo] and in pitch darkness! [photo] Emma did a fantastic job of him! That was not the only pumpkin carved for the evening.. we also did little pumpkins for guests to take home that we placed across the table to enjoy first.. [photo of the mini pumpkins] Guests got to take them home along with some very very VERY delicious pumpkin truffles! The first photo up the top of this post is how we packaged them to go! Yep, awesome! and this photo below is what they looked like.. whole and cut in half.

Right now I am sure you are wishing you could taste the delicious pumpkinny goodness! Do not lick your screen.. for one.. germs! for two.. it won't taste like pumpkinny spicy goodness, it will taste like a screen! haha

Now, wouldn't you be happy after a good night of good food, drink and company if you got to take home a little fun and yummy gift? I think we did a wonderful job, not to blow our own horns or anything.

The pumpkin themed continued over into dessert, in the form of the Almighty Chocokin! It has been a while since I broke out the pumpkin and chocolate cake goodness with maple creamcheese frosting! It is epic! In both flavour and size!

A good night was had by all, there was even a little fright involved and really.. a night with a slight halloweenie feel wouldn't be complete without the addition of a fright! Emma and I were in the kitchen, Cilla walked in to give Emma a fright and who gets the fright? Me. Yes, that's right, folks. Me. I scare easily. Of course that then prompted Emma to tell the little story of how when I was in the shower, washing my hair like a good girl, she walked in to say something to me.. poked her head around the corner and I screamed. loudly and as Emma described like one of those scenes from a horror movie where you think that people don't actually scream that way they just do it for impact in the movie. Hands in the air and all that. Yep. That was me. I could have died. It was pretty funny tho, I will admit that. I will also admit that it happens way more than I care to think about.. the getting a fright in the shower.. not the dying part.

Birthdays.. I am glad they only happen once a year. So much work goes into the prep of having a dinner. I am far too used to cooking for just 2. Just the way I like it.. but it is nice to entertain on the occasion and it gives me a chance to try something new.. this time it was the delicious pumpkin truffles.. which will be made again and again.. not all the time, just for special occasions coz DAMN! they be deliciousness! Those warm spices just make you feel all warm and cosy. Fall, I love your pumpkinny spicy goodness!

Nemo. Framed.

A little while ago we commissioned a drawn portrait to be done of our beautiful departed Nemo. Now he has arrived and we have got him back from the framers looking all spiffy!

It has been a little over 11 weeks, I miss him so much still and my place doesn't quite feel like a home without the pitter-patter of little Nemo foots. The grumbles of him being his grumpy self. I also have to clean up after myself.. food wise. Chopping up the vegetables for dinner and I drop some, now I have to bend over and actually pick it up instead of just leaving it to Nemo the vacuum. His vegetable fetish was like no other so we thought it very fitting for him to be sporting a vegetable print bowtie.. bowties are cool! Nemo was a cool dog who deserved a cool bowtie.

Portrait done by a lovely artist named Jo Chambers, she does some very wonderful work with animals. Not your average art pieces that's for sure. Definitely an awesome way to showcase your beloved 4 legged family member/fur baby.

Here are all her sites..

www.studio-legohead.com

www.etsy.com/people/StudioLegohead
www.studiolegohead.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-Legohead/177878882242667
www.twitter.com/StudioLegohead