VINTAGE BIRDS

Vintage book finds from an antiques shop in Edinburgh.

Birds of the Sea and Woodland Birds from Penguin Books collection. 

NEW RIVER WALK

We are lucky to live near one of London’s most beautiful walking spots. With only a five minute walk, we find ourselves in Regent’s Canal and enjoy. But there is another little gem in our neighbour, the path here is not so long as Regent’s Canal, it takes only like half an hour to walk from one side to the other but is a little oasis in Islington. Even we have beautiful herons in this little canal. Few days ago we had a  little chat with this fellow in the last photo.

It’s not well known as Regent’s Canal but New River is opened in 1613 to supply drinking water to London and New River Walk is open to the public every day from 08.00 till dusk.

Happy 400th year New River!

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

Yesterday evening we were at Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden for The Woman in Black, a play adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel of  British writer Susan Hill, directed by Robin Herford and performed by actors Crawford Logan and Tim Delap.

It was our first time in Fortune Theatre and we loved this old theatre opened to the public in 1924. We are not very big fan of novel adaptations in cinema except some brilliant examples but we love to see them in theatre -specially novels we read- and The Woman in Black was a very successful adaptation from the novel. Also it was very effective usage of only two persons in cast and the simple scenery to interpret the whole story and different locations.  

STREET ART IN HYDE PARK

A street art work in northeast part of Hyde Park.

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In Turkey since 31 of May people resist against the government. At the beginning it was for protecting our trees in Gezi Park...  Then it turned to a resistance to protect the democracy, the human rights, the values of our republic. Since then we lost six bright young person because of police attacks while practising our most natural right: right to protest.

Yesterday night, until early hours of this morning, Turkish people was again in the streets and  not only in Turkey, in lots of parts of the world including London, protesting Turkish government and police. 

Diren Türkiye! Resist Turkey!

EDINBURGH

In July, we made a little road trip and big part of this trip was in Scotland. It was our first time in Scotland. We loved the country, we loved the people, specially Edinburgh. We felt there at home. Even, we have been regular customer to a pub during nine days we stayed there and made new pub friends, talked with them about the life, the city, the museums, the jazz, the poetry (specially Robert Burns), sports and -even we were agreed to not to talk about politics while drinking alcohol- little bit politics. Yes, it was a very special pub and we keep it to ourselves.

When we were talking about a trip to Scotland we were expecting a rainy and cold weather even in summer and for being in such northern part of the island, we were ready to it. Buuut, during our stay there, Scotland lived most hot two weeks since last twenty years and it was heaven for us (not for Scottish friends).

We will share more photos and details of this beautiful city but as an opening, we can say that we fell in love with Edinburgh. Is one of these old, characterful, amazing cities with beautiful people and we hope to go back there again.  

SCOTTISH ACCENT

Brilliant performance by Scottish comedians Ian Connell and Robert Florence for BBC Scotland.

We love Scotland, we love the Scottish accent!

TURKISH FIGS STUFFED WITH GOAT CHEESE

In Turkey we have delicious figs and Turkey is the biggest fig exporter country in the world. August is the season of Aydın figs (yellow and smaller ones) and September is the season of Bursa figs (purple and bigger ones). This morning we found delicious Bursa figs in Chapel Market and we prepared a little treat with them as a side dish for our risotto. Result: yummy!

Cut to four vertically 4 figs until the middle. Fill the figs with 25 g goat cheese each. Wrap each one with one slice of jamon serrano (you can use also prosciutto, bacon etc). Put 3-4 pinenuts and drizzle little bit olive oil to the top of each. Cook them in the oven on 225°C until the jamons get crispy. After taking from the oven, drizzle little bit Turkish sour pomegranate molasse to top of them and enjoy!

DOORS OF CANTERBURY

Some old doors from an old city... 

A TURKISH DESSERT: SÜTLÜ İRMİK TATLISI

When the weather of London is not nice to us, there is always an extra activity in our kitchen. Today we didn't want to eat the stew we have in the fridge and  cooked mezzanelli pasta in owen (fırında makarna), aubergine salad (patlıcan salatası) and semolina dessert (sütlü irmik tatlısı). Semolina dessert, is one of the most practical desserts we cook in Turkey. Mostly, mothers’ saver for a milky dessert to serve to their children and all children (and big children) love it.

The ingredients and the recipe are super easy:

Mix 150 g of semolina with 180 g of sugar in a pan.  Add 1 litre of milk while whisking. Add 1 teaspoon butter. Cook ower low heat until getting thick (like a very thick cream soup), meanwhile keep whisking. Take the pan from the cooker. Divide the pudding in 6 small ramekins. After cooling down little bit, cover with aluminium foil and put to the fridge to set. Serve with ground cinnamon.

Note: Normally we serve this dessert after taking out the dish and upside down. For taking out easyly the dessert, make sure that you wet inside of  the ramekins with water before dividing the dessert to them after cooking. You can use different molds to serve your dessert in different shapes.

Enjoy!

FIRST DAYS OF AUTUMN

A linocut art work by Mick Armson for the first days of autumn in London: Under Hungerford Bridge... 

BIBURY IN COTSWOLDS

Cotswolds towns are one of our favorite destinations in UK. The second town we visited last week after Painswick, is Bibury which is a 600-700 persons populated little town.

The town’s most visited parts are Arlington Row and the riverside lined by beautiful stone cottages. Bibury is not a place to spend hours maybe but certainly worth to pop up even for a short walk to see these beautiful old cottages.  

PAINSWICK IN COTSWOLDS

Last week on our way to Silverstone for Moto GP, we visited two beautiful Cotswolds towns. The first town we stopped is Painswick. We walked on the narrow streets of the town and took some photos. We looked for a nice place to drink something but it was little bit like a ghost town and most of the shops were closed.

Anyway we enjoyed our walk on the streets lined of Cotswolds stone houses. The sun was not shining on that part of the day, pitty for the photos but it was nice to visit another town of this beautiful part of our little kingdom.  

AUTUMN EVENING TREAT

Last days of terrace joy in London... 

MOTO GP 2013 SILVERSTONE

When we were in Turkey, we were riding in every possible occasion but since we came to London we are away from our bikes and our riding joy and we miss to be on the way again. Normally we are not very big fans of racing bikes or watching the races from tv but we definitely enjoy to watch the Moto GP on the track.

Last four days we were in Silverstone for British Grand Prix 2013 and we came back home with lots of beautiful photos and big smiles in our faces. We watched with big pleasure big boys leaning in the curves just in front of us, heard the amazing voice of the engines during three days.

Three Spanish riders Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa crossed the checkered flag first, second and third but we supported as always our number 46, Valentino “The Doctor” Rossi. Our Italian boy finished fourth the race but still number one in our hearths.