Christmas at Win's

We had an early Christmas with Win, Dan, Jane and Lisa. Win and Dan cooked up an Italian feast, and Jane did a super job wrapping the breadsticks in parma ham ; )

The decorations were absolutely amazing, the food delicious and it was a super celebration, complete with home made gingerbread men to take home. A few days later we kept the festive spirit going when Jane, Win, Bulli and I went to the Panto at Wimbledon. The Hoff (David Hasselhoff) was starring in Peter Pan - so cheesy but heaps of fun and I must say the Hoff is a great entertainer!

Kellie was quick with a text in the morning to make sure we picked up the breaking news. Here's Jane with the day's big headline

Win, Jane and Lisa

Win's festive table

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We didn't buy a Christmas tree this year but we did still head up to Columbia Road flower market to enjoy seeing everyone else purchase their festive fir. There are just truckloads and truckloads of trees, it's amazing. The barrow boys are all shouting out the prices trying to entice buyers, then your tree is wrapped up in netting to keep it tight til you get home. I love seeing people wrestle their trees on the walk home. It was a lovely Sunday up around the Spitalfields area, the sun was out and we got some great empanadas from the Brick Lane markets as well. It's one of the best places to be in London on a Sunday morning.

Poinsettias aplenty

Fruit stall on Brick Lane

Mistletoe

Before it's wrapped...

Now to get the tree home

Sights

High Street Kensington on a rainy day...

Global village

To mark the weekend that the clocks go back it's important to get out and about, take your mind off the fact it will be dark at 4pm everyday....so the end of BST saw me French on Friday night (thank you Bleeding Heart bistro), Italian on Saturday night (we're all having the Spaghetti a La Barca please) and Iranian on Sunday afternoon at the delightful and unassuming Patogh, and maybe a night cap at the Curtains Up to round the weekend off nicely...

Bulli, Lisa and Dale at Patogh

Autumn

I love walking along and crunching the big leaves under my feet - I'll get off a few tube stations early for the pleasure...

Something weird about autumn - you notice more light shining in the bedroom window - as the trees become more bare the streetlights peek through...

Wine tasting

It's always fun when friends come to visit and this summer Mick Walker, wine and foodie extraodinaire, came from Oz for a break and to entertain the Shorrolds/West Ken/Loughton crew. So it was a great excuse for a wine tasting. Mick picked a great selection of French summer favourites, gave us a little spiel on each and all that was left was for us to sit back and sip away!

Mick and his wine selection for the evening

Parisian summer break

Visiting Paris on the August bank holiday weekend means two things - no Parisians in Paris, and long queues at the tourist sites, so it's different to other times of year. A definite highlight was the bike ride around the vast grounds of Versailles. The queues for the palace were way too much for us to bear, but a stroll through the gardens, past the fountains and down to the bike hire and we were away...

We rode along beautiful country lanes, past lovely ponds and Marie Antoinette's digs...

I'm the little speck you can see

The palace in the background

Bulli surveys the beautifully laid out Orangerie

The fountains dance to classical music

Meanwhile, back in the city - Place Madeleine

Sacre Coeur watches over the quiet city