“Sounds like an awesome trip!

Avenue of the Giants is great, as is pretty much all of the “lost coast“. If you’re going up via highway 1 or fancy a side trip from 101 then Mendocino is very nice and has a typical NorCal beach with some amazing seaweed!

I also love Yosemite. One of my favorite places is Tuolumne Meadows but I’m not sure if Tioga Road is still open. I hear it was snowing there already. Get your jumpers ready. Even if you only get to the Valley it’s still pretty epic.

After that I’d recommend Bodie and Mammoth Lakes to the east of Yosemite before hitting Kings Canyon, Death Valley then Vegas.

I hope you have an amazing trip. The places you are visiting are some of my favorite places ever so I’m sure you will.”

Cheat-sheet where to stay:

Yosemite – Tuolumme Meadows campground

Kings Canyon – grab a permit and camp offroad in the many backcountry campgrounds

Vegas – The Wynn

Cucumber and lettuce seedlings

Spring has sprung and the seeds are sown. Watch out for news on our coriander, parsley, tomatoes, fennel, cucumber and lettuce as they grow.

So at Christmas my Mom took me to a hobbycraft store to buy some wool (American’s call this yarn because it is not always wool). Whilst there I found a pattern for a scarf that I really liked. It was modern and funky and the models didn’t look like 1980′s hairdressing magazine models. Yay.

So I brought it, my Mom taught me to cast on, knit, purl and cast off and I spent the rest of my holiday knitting the scarf. I was knitting and frogging and frowning and knitting and cursing and knitting and then one day in January I was finished. Yay.

So I was finished with my first scarf and starting on a new journey into a new hobby-world. The world of the knitter and the yarnie and sheep and the needles and the patterns and all the fun I had no idea was out there. Yay.

So since then I have joined Ravelry, knitted three pairs of booties, a cowl, a mini scarf, a heart and a mitten (the other one is set to start tonight!), favorited hundreds of patterns, visited Imaginknit every weekend for weeks and brought lots of needles and skeins (new knitter word) of wool. Yay.

So… here is to the new year (I know it’s March but I’ve been knitting!) my new hobby and to the knitters out there.

Knit one, purl one, slip one, curl one?

Deep cool breath.

This weekend the hours fell back. Summer is officially over and surely that means my minute adventures in gardening are over for awhile too. Afterall I don’t have much room for carrots and kale so what else can I put my pale green fingers to on these dark evenings?

Erm… bulbs?

Yes, bulbs. And my current choice is a bright white paperwhite daffodil bulb.

Paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus) are a perennial herb in the daffodil family. Their small white star-shaped flowers are borne in umbels on gray green stems. And they are so easy to force in winter. All you need are pebbles and water. Oh and some dark cool days.

I planted up three pots today after buying bulbs and pebbles from The Gardener in Berkeley over the weekend. Sweet fragrant flowers will be mine in less than six weeks. Nice. Bright. White. And light. In dark grey November.

What better way to lighten up the winter months than with a bulb?

Despite my love for Bear Naked granola, it is super expensive and we eat it very quickly. So I wanted to make some that was equally yummy but could be made in big batches and came with the wholesome feeling of being homemade. I found this recipe from none other than Alton Brown. I adapted it a little and now it goes like this:

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
• Mix 6 cups of rolled oats, 2 cups of slivered almonds, 2 cups of cashews and 1.5 cups of shredded sweet coconut together.
• Mix 0.5 cups of dark brown sugar, 0.25 cups of maple syrup (only the best Canadian #1 Light A grade will do), 0.25 cups of vegetable oil and 0.75 teaspoons of salt.
• Combine both mixtures together and pour onto baking sheets.
• Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes – stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.
• Remove from the oven and transfer into a large bowl.
• Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.
• Wait until cold and store.

I eat with cold creamy milk!

Well I have a suggestion… we went to a place in the British Virgin islands (BVI) that you could only get to via a private boat. Super laid-back, very unspolit and your own beach! Great for diving too.

Here are the details…

We stayed on Cooper Island, BVI for about 5 days back in 2006. The island is just off Tortola and the whole area is laid back and quiet but very beautiful. We rented someone’s private beach house. It was a little rough around the edges but the peaceful beachside location with views out to sea plus great snorkeling outweighed any negatives. It was truly something I had not experienced anywhere else. After we stayed on Cooper we went back to Tortola for a few days diving. The place we stayed there was nice but our few days on Cooper were the highlight. 

I’m not sure if the particular holiday we had would be luxurious and pampering enough for a honeymoon but it depends what you are after. I know for sure that the British Virgin Islands (and I hear, the US Virgin Islands) are somewhere I want to go back to for their great beaches, sea, tranquility and beauty. So if that’s what you are after then take a look.

Anyway, I’m sure whatever you pick will be wonderful, it will be your honeymoon after all! 

Go, experience and share!