AN AFTERNOON IN THE (SAN FRANCISCO) MISSION.

Friday was an amazing, warm, and sunny day.  Perfect Northern California spring weather...Raf was heading to the city to attend a meeting, so I decided to tag along for the BART ride, but hopped off in the Mission.  I seriously love this neighborhood.  It is a bit like Brooklyn, lots of old school people who have been in the neighborhood forever, mixed in with a serious creative vibe, amazing bakeries, restaurants, bodegas, hip shops, neighborhood bars and a heavy dose of hipsters :)  One of my favorite restaurants in the city, Gracias Madre (organic,vegan Mexican food) happens to be in the heart of it all, along with my favorite thrift store, Thrift Town.

I was mostly hoping to hit up the thrift and then head over to Bi-Rite Market to pick up some organic citrus fruit (I've been craving kumquats) and then head across the street to get some Bi-Rite ice cream from the Creamery and then to Delores Park to relax in the sun a bit.  I ended up spending some time thrifting, but then wandered in to an AMAZING fabric store in the basement next door and picked up some great things for some new jewelry designs I have been working on.  Then I headed over to Bi-Rite, and realized I was a bit dehydrated, and ice cream was probably not the best choice.  I got a coconut water (so yum and refreshing!), some kumquats and mandarinquats (a hybrid, obviously) and headed past the creamery :( and over to the park.  The park was PACKED with people celebrating the amazing weather.  I got a few pictures of the crazy scene (folks selling their wares, barbecues fired up, hippy drums being played, a crazy guy hip thrusting at the crowd--creating a roar of cheering...you name it...Raf called saying that he was done early, so we decided to meet up at a BART stop and head home together.  We had a nice ride/walk home (after stopping to do some Capoeira on a patch of grass and then hanging out with some squirrels who just received the best gift--a bag of peanuts!)  It was a lovely, lovely day...I love living here!

STRAWBERRY/ALMOND/COCONUT BREAKFAST SHORTCAKE...

I'm so excited to have berry season here already!  And cherries are just around the corner.  Yay!  I am definitely making lots of jam again this year--Raf and I have almost finished our entire stock from last spring/summer (only 2 jars of fig jam left!). 

I bought a container of organic strawberries yesterday on my walk home from work (okay, so I got some gelato too...) with the intention of making a fruity breakfast before heading back to the shop this morning.  I ended up making a not-super-sweet version of my favorite childhood dessert:  strawberry shortcake.  I used Trader Joe's multi-grain baking mix (you could use any biscuit mix or recipe), and whipped up six biscuits in no time (just added almond milk, slivered almonds, and a touch of melted coconut oil to the mix), and baked those babies up in less than 10 minutes.  I washed and sliced (with my handy strawberry slicer!) and whipped cold (the thickest part of the can),full fat coconut milk into a thick cream.  After the biscuits cooled, I plated them up, drizzled them with a bit of maple syrup, topped them with the sliced strawberries, spooned on the coconut milk cream (a couple of tablespoons), and sprinkled more of the slivered almonds on top.  Best served with veggie breakfast sausage and a homemade latte!  So YUM!

HAPPY, HAPPY SPRING!

Berkeley has beautiful days all the time:  sun shining, birds chirping, green everywhere--pretty much all year round.  But, there is something magical about spring here--new blooms, fuller trees, abundant farmer's markets, fragrant star jasmine... Oh my goodness, the star jasmine.  I have never in my life smelled a more incredible flower.  Sometimes I pick a couple of the tiny flowers and weave them into my hair just to carry the scent with me a bit longer.

My plan in the next few months to is to take the time to indulge in really long walks in the hills to watch things grow and change from spring into summer.  Who knows how much longer we will live here in this beautiful place (Raf will probably be done within a year or so and who knows where our adventure will take us to next!), and I really just want to make sure that I take it all in.

MORE AUSTRALIA.

(Relaxing in the sun on this crazy tree).

Hey there, it is our last day here before journeying home bright and early tomorrow morning (no really, our cab is picking us up at 5:45am). It has been lovely, for real. In two weeks, I have met more nice people than I can believe. I had the pleasure of cooking again at the Coop (I got to make up a recipe to feed 100 people--I made sesame broccoli salad!) and also got to help chop for their monthly Acoustic Soup night (a big pot of soup, some sides, bread, and beers along with a bunch of live acoustic acts, all within the Coop--so cool and reminded me of our old Ithaca Soup and Spin record listening nights...sigh...). We also has the pleasure of being invited to a few lovely dinners at the homes of Raf's fellow (new) research buddies. We had an epic, day long bike trip around the lake and the city, a trip to a park in the bush (Tidbinbilla) where we saw more kangaroos than I knew what to do with. We saw beautiful black swans, black cockatoos, and more white cockatoos, magpies, emus, pelicans and parrots (all running/flying wild and free, people!). I did a lot of walking around, a lot of cooking, maybe just maybe ate too much fresh bread, tried new foods (fresh passion fruit, lamingtons, a flat white coffee (or 3) and a tempeh/tofu blend to name a few), and got a bit of jewelry making done. Overall, it was a really, really great trip and I'm really, really glad I tagged along. :)

My buddy hung out on my leg for 15 minutes before flying away!

A snack break mid bike ride.

Bike path collapse (which led to crazy, pushing bikes up a steep hill to re-route) due to flooding the week before.

Park/lake in the center of the city.

Nerd Alert!  :)

Lake.

Majestic black swans.

Yep, another swan photo.

Emu.

I forgot what this bird is called, but it is rare and protected.

Kangaroo in Tidbinbilla.

More kangaroos.

Bob, Angharad, & Raf resting in the shade on the giant rock.

Crazy trees (which only grow like 9mm a year and look like they are dancing)!

Beginning the trek up the hill at Tidbinbilla.

Mountains and Flintstone bench.

Kangaroo explosion. No really, we were footsteps from hundreds of them all day...

Hey!

Pelican.

Sweetie amongst giant rocks!

The biggest of them all!

Yup.

Passion Fruit. Eat when fragrant and wrinkly!

See?

Raf HATED it. I loved how it smelled. The taste was meh, and the seeds you swallow were weird in texture...

My favorite (and frequently frequented) bakery...(I'll miss you--sniff, sniff).

AUSTRALIA!

Hello from Canberra! I had never heard of this city before this trip, but it is basically like the Washington, D.C. of Australia (but smaller and quieter and prettier)--about 3 hours south of Sydney and a bit inland. Raf is doing some research at the ANU, so I tagged along for a couple of weeks...We will be mostly staying here in Canberra, but it has been lovely, to say the least. The people are incredibly friendly and I have been really enjoying walking all around the city, popping into all the little shops, and most of all grocery shopping. Finding new food in a new country is my favorite thing to do. I have found it to be fairly similar to British food... I also volunteered as a prep cook at the University's Food Co-op, which was great. I spent a couple of hours chopping, and got a delicious (and free) vegetarian lunch the following day! I have made friends at the amazing bakery near our apartment (picture soon) and a new friend (Rebecca! :) who owns an adorable clothing shop nearby called Fang Clothing. Last Saturday we spent the day with our host, Bob, and his family. He took us to a tower overlooking the entire city and surrounding countryside and then to the botanical gardens before heading back to his house for yummy lunch and dinner. The following are photos from that day spent out and about...Oh, and I must say the wildlife here is pretty much knocking me out--the birds alone are so amazing to me--parrots, cockatoos, the elusive Kookaburra, all flying around and squawking their heads off...outside our apartment sounds like a tropical bird paradise every morning. Oh! And when we were walking around the gardens we stumbled upon a group of KANGAROOS just chillin', looking at us like "yeah? what?". It was pretty exciting! Although to the natives it is probably about as exciting as seeing deer is to us...Anyway, more to come...

Cockatoos in the trees in Bob's backyard. At one point I counted 16. And they are noisy!

Cockatoos on the trampoline.

Beautiful red parrots at the bird feeder (bad picture, sorry).

So pretty.

Roo.

Same roo.

"Frilly lizards".

Waterfall (before we knew there were frilly lizards there).

More roos. Their legs are crazy long, all casual and bent for relaxing :)

The land surrounding Canberra.

Towards the city.

The beautiful mountains in the distance.

Bob and Raf.

K, bye!