40

What a truly lovely time I've had turning 40.

A new fancy camera.

Copies of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark (illustrated by Tove Jansson).

Lunch at St John Restaurant with my two boys, mum, dad, brother and his gorgeous family.

Tomorrow, lunch at Pizza East with friends.

Yesterday, time with the little man and Deerylou, including the obligatory a trip to Maltby Street.

Story

I couldn't help feeling sad at the loss of Story Deli from the Truman Brewery... it opened when P and I lived close by, and in those days we were regular visitors. Happily, today I stumbled across the newly opened Storybox, which is located in the old Scooter Shop on Sclater Street, E1. A much more fitting premises, to my mind, which suits the Story aesthetic perfectly.

Welcome back! You make a wonderful cup of coffee.

Maltby Street

This morning, just as the snow started to fall, we took a short walk from home to Maltby Street for coffee (two each as one is never enough) and the best custard doughnuts you will ever taste, seriously. It's a place we visit often on Saturday mornings, but today, in the snow, it felt a little magical.

And, as a day like today requires the very best of treats, we stopped by Violet Cakes to buy a slice of ginger molasses cake and a pumpkin whoopie pie from Claire Ptak, who is very nice indeed. The samples of her candid peel were delicious!

Do take the time to visit this wonderful collection of London's finest food retailers in our corner of Bermondsey. They're open for Christmas this coming Thursday, 9.00 am to 3.00 pm.

Rhubarb Crumble

Made today, this rhubarb crumble was delicious and just what I had been craving... tart but ever so slightly sweet rhubarb which I mixed with vanilla sugar and a little freshly squeezed blood orange juice. The crumble topping was not perfect but had a pleasing shortbread biscuit flavour.

Pineberries

I couldn't resist picking these up yesterday. They really do have the flavour of pineapple and strawberry!

Weekend

A relatively restful weekend, mostly spent lunching and chatting. It was lovely to see the snowdrops at Columbia Road.

Irish Oatmeal

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. In the run up to the end of the year I often think about setting some resolutions for the coming twelve months but they never materialise.

In an effort to be good to myself, I have decided that my weekend breakfast should contain something delicious and nutritious though, so yesterday picked up some McCann's steel cut Irish oatmeal.

Perhaps not the best time of year for blueberries, but I couldn't resist.

From the market

Among other fine produce, we picked up some delicious fresh vegetables at the market on Saturday.

Weekend

Time is flying by and I'm not really sure where it's going... among other things, I've had no time to post nor to catch up on all my usual blog reading. On the plus side, I'm sure there are lots of wonderful posts for me to catch up on.

This weekend started with my first Christmas get together, a very pleasant evening with friends for drinks and supper at Crazy Bear. The food was great, as always, so I was far too full to indulge in their (and my very favourite) salted caramel dessert.

We had a day of household repairs planned for yesterday, but instead decided to take ourselves off to the Norwegian and Finnish Church Christmas fairs. We stopped for a delicious coffee at Monmouth on Maltby Street, which is where they roast their beans. It is only open for a short time on Saturday morning and they are joined by Neal's Yard Dairy and Fern Varrow. The fairs were both fruitful, I came away with a variety of toadstool decorations from the Norwegian fair and a Finnish Moomintroll baking pan and Moomin some cookies.

Today I had the second of four Sewing Clinic classes at City Lit. I'm finally learning how to use a sewing machine and hopefully is my first step towards this little dream.

Happy Birthday Deerylou

Bright, early and chilly start today, to meet Deerylou for a birthday breakfast at Monmouth in Borough Market...

Happy birthday Dolly!

Weekend

I went looking for shoes yesterday morning and ended up with a very sweet wool cape from Muji instead. On my way home I popped into Wild and Wood and sat in the cosy nook for a very well made flat white and a quick bite.

Today was a lovely grey rainy London day and for a change Columbia Road was quiet. We had coffee and breakfast in the rain at Ezra Yard and brought home some red anemones. I picked up Paumes Copenhagen Apartments, which I was very happy to find in Lapin and Me, and a copy of the newly released I Choose You from Elphick's. It's a lovely book by Silver Jungle, who are helping to protect endangered animals in the wild, and is illustrated by Lisa Jones.