Yesterday Olga and I went to Hampstead Heath and found the fields littered with huge snowballs. They looked like the remains of some Iron Age monument, a scattered miniature Stonehenge.
What was going on here, I'm not sure. I'm guessing people rolled these snowballs, and maybe some are even the remains of snowmen whose more delicate upper bodies have melted away. Your guess is as good as mine!
I also saw a rabbit, which must be a rarity on Hampstead Heath because of all the dogs. I'm not sure I've ever seen one there. Fortunately, Olga did not see it.
We walked a good long time and came home just as it was beginning to rain. Our timing really was perfect. I hurriedly bathed the dog and cleaned up the house, because we had some people coming over -- Dave's friend Catherine and her husband, Tom. They arrived for a late lunch around 2:30 p.m., and stayed until 6:30, when they had to skedaddle to see a performance of Handel's "Messiah" at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. I wonder if they stayed awake. We all had a fair amount of wine, and the "Messiah" isn't exactly short.
Dave made coq au vin in a white wine sauce, and vichyssoise, and his famous dried-fig-and-walnut dessert using brandy butter that one of his students brought him from Harrod's. Olga, exhausted from her walk, slept through most of the meal -- which was ideal, actually, because otherwise she would have been begging from all of us.
And here's yesterday's pottery shard, found on the Heath and added to my little collection.
Your meal sounds marvelous...I have fond memories of Handel's Messiah rehearsals and performances from my youth.
ReplyDeleteYou must be related to Sherlock Holmes or perhaps Columbo as your theory concerning the snow boulders appears breathtakingly believable. How on earth did you make that unthinkble connection?
ReplyDeleteE: I only know the famous Hallelujah chorus.
ReplyDeleteYP: So your'e saying I'm stating the obvious? (He asks, thereby once again stating the obvious.)
Snow is so beautiful when it's freshly fallen and then it gets so dirty. Snow boulders. Hmmm...I will have to think on that one.
ReplyDeleteI love your pottery shard. I have quite a few from this yard and there is just something so beautiful about a bit of history that was part of every day life.
A four-hour luncheon date? I would have died.
Love that pottery shard. I'd love to see photos of your collection. I have a friend here in California who creates the most beautiful mosaics from such shards. A four-hour lunch date is three hours and forty-five minutes longer than I can handle!
ReplyDeletenice shard. I used to find marbles while digging in the yard of the old city house.
ReplyDeleteWow, you had a very busy day and that meal that Dave cooked sounds heavenly. My thoughts on the snow boulders is about the same as yours. I can't imagine what they would be otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYes, Nova check is what they call the Burberry pattern. I never understood why the call it a "check" when it clearly is a plaid.
I want to know where and when Dave is opening his restaurant!
ReplyDeleteIt must be wonderful to live with a gourmet chef!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say how much I loved the previous Santa photo! Priceless
ReplyDeleteI think Dave should share his recipe, and that pottery shard is so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe fig and walnut dessert sounds excellent.
ReplyDeleteMaybe people were just rolling big snowballs without stacking them. We do that here! And by we I mean kids and their parents. Not me, not anymore, although I've been tempted when the snow is just right.