Hello. It’s thursday. It’s june and it’s pouring with rain. It’s not fair!
I’m sure i’m not alone in feeling that enough is enough! We want some sun and some vitamin d. Talking of sun, vitamin d and moods in general, i thought i will ignore the rain and talk about sunshine and glorious food instead and cheer you up with some vibrant photos.
It’s funny how whenever i believe i’ve conquered something, life shows me that ‘the more i know the less i know’. Does that make any sense? Well, usually i’m very good about keeping my stress levels at bay, eating nutritious food, exercising regularly and generally feeling positive and upbeat. Somehow, over the past three months all of the above had very gradually slipped, until last week my body went into lock down. Nothing drastic, don’t worry, but enough for me to listen intently and react with immediate effect.
Meetings were cancelled (thank you lovely clients), everything put on hold and with the extended jubilee weekend break i was back to my usual self in no time. Mental note to myself: don’t you like feeling like this all the time? I think i’m lucky to know my body and mind and be alert to its well being. Are you in tune with yours? When things get a little tough, how do you cope?
I did write before about food shopping at the wonderful fern verrow stall. The weather just hasn’t been great to go and take pictures of other markets.
Here are some photos i took of my food shopping a couple of weeks ago at the islington farmers market when there was sun, yes, that glowy thing! Remember? I came home and was so inspired by all that glorious and fresh food that i just had to take out my camera.
A real fennel. Yes, that’s what they look like, albeit on the large side:)
Fresh, scrumptious rocket.
Bloomin chives. I particularly like eating the flowers. They have an onion flavour and look great added to a salad.
Asparagus are back. Yeah! Not for long. The season ends around the 21st june.
Ah, mini organic cucumbers, full of flavour!
I love eating raw spinach and use it for juicing, so it has to be the young variety and definitely organic.
Kale or to give it it’s proper name: cavolo nero. I use it in soups or just lightly steam it. Yum!
A few pears, some spring onions, coriander and some parsley.
And so the struggle for slow living in a fast paced city continues and no doubt there will be moments of victory and many more moments of defeat. For now i’ve chosen victory. How about you guys? How are you feeling? Does any of this resonate with you?
Here’s to glorious, real food and to being our best at any given time. So long, I shall see you all on monday. Have a great weekend. Our week was rather short:)
30 Comments
I love your photography, Tina, and you made me really hungry now:-)
Happy Happy Happy:)
Ha ha spargel-of the wrong-colour varitey, but spargel none the less!! Particularly love the pear shot! Enjoy the ensuing wind and more rain lovely!! :-)x
Yes, Spargel… all my German friends keep teasing me about eating the white ones:)
These evocative photos remind me of what summer really should be like! Healthy living and trips to the markets, lazy days in the sun NOT rain rain rain …
Absolutely… here’s to a better summer, hopefully…….can’t quite get over our weather!
I’ve never seen blooming chives before! They look like flowers. Who knew?! Must be an English thing? I’ve only ever seen chives sans fleurs. All of the veg looks so delicious and is making me hungry, but the only problem is that salads only make me more hungry for some reason, despite how many toppings I throw in them.
I generally feel all out of sorts and disconnected after the winter as spring approaches. I think humans sort of go into hibernation mode in the cold months and eat more and eat less healthily, so maybe that’s what you’re feeling?
It’s cold here, too! What gives! It was 90 a week or two ago.
That’s interesting. Maybe you need to supplement with protein as I do. A salad on it’s own also doesn’t fill me up so I throw in steamed veg or feta cheese or cooked trout/salmon or if in a hurry some white tinned tuna. I don’t really like carbs but you could then have a piece of bread with it and voila, you won’t be hungry….:)
For me it’s more that when I don’t exercise everything goes to pot and I eat far more and less healthy.. but yes, winter is more for warm food, stews etc.. yum!
Hope weather cheers up everywhere. Friends just came back from Sardinia and had crap weather. Go figure!!!
Forecast for South of France next week GOOD:)
Ack, sorry about all the rain! Hopefully you’ll get a reprieve soon. I have to say I’m loving all the glorious veggies. As you know, I’m on a juicing kick. I only just discovered and tried it recently, and I’m properly hooked. Have you ever tried kale chips? Chop up a head of kale, douse it in olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, bake for 25 minutes. Delicious. (My apologies if you already had a recipe. 😉
I’ve been feeling out of sorts health wise too. So I started exercising and eating better (more veggies, less processed food). It’s definitely helping. The best thing about living a healthy life is that you know exactly what you need to do to get yourself back in the saddle and feeling good again.
Now, if only the rain would go away!
Kale chips are awesome and I’ve made it quite a few times.. never apologise for generously offering recipes:)
Great you love juicing (so much easier in the summer:) and processed food my dear is rubbish. Even when I slip, I actually never have processed food. For me it’s any sort of sugar, wheat, yeast and dairy so I can have small amounts but when it increases there comes the time my body just rebels! (to do with my intolerance to these) Lately I found myself eating more and more of these and my system doesn’t cope! People think it’s hard to have intolerances, yes it can be…The positive side, though, is that your body can tolerate far less and so if you listen and act it will forgive quickly:) I don’t drink and never have but when I ingest too much of the above I feel clogged up, mentally hazy, a bit like I imagine people who drink must feel some of the time…
Back in the gym a few times a week and I feel like new!!
Here’s to sunshine MS Carlifornia……. can we swap???
Hope you’re feeling better Tina! Going to the farmer’s market always gives me a boost too 🙂 Freshly picked anything tastes so much better! And apparently offers fringe benefits in the way of photography inspiration – lovely 🙂
Ha. Who knew fresh food can inspire photography, right?
Heather, I’m so jealous of your Japan trip and LOVED both your blog posts on this…. Ladies (and Igor), if you read this, hop over to Canal Notes and take note… brilliant travel itinery with brilliant shopping! x
Glad you’re feeling better, I trust your feet have sorted themselves out?
That first photo really made me laugh as I thought it was some huge plant until I realised it was fennel, something to do with the scale I thought it was about three foot high.
blooming chives? No need to swear at them tina. Richard’s dad always puts them in salads too, they look so pretty and remind me of June.
I have been eating asparagus until it comes out of my ears.I love it. With a little bit of butter and some pecorino. Yum.
I don’t really get affected by the seasons but I have noticed my skin has improved drastically with the warmer (& moister!)weather. Or perhaps that’s the huge amount of money I dropped on Decleor a few weeks ago!
Have a great weekend Tina.
You will get to see the pics, whether you like it or not. Am so glad I recorded it as a reminder of being more mindful:)
Ha. Didn’t recognise a real fennel, heh? Actually, it was HUGE like a plant… it was incredible!
Thanks wordsmith, nice to know I can rely on you…. I’ve changed it now!!
Oh yes, Pecorino ..yum!
You’re so funny. Decleor, you should blog about it and get them to send you free products yo review:)
Hope R likes his super duper surprise Birthday Extravaganza!!!!! x
How are you feeling, dear? Better it seems. I love this post, but I bet you knew I would! I had a few minutes in the midst of all our family stuff, and based on the title of one of the tweets you sent out, I knew I had to come and see what you were up to! Gorgeous stuff you’ve been picking up at the market!
Hoping the rain goes away and stays away and that you keep on the mend! xo
I hope you have recovered from some of your big big celebrations x
Wow. I’m inspired to hit the farmer’s market this weekend! That asparagus looks absolutely delicious. Add a little EVOO, feta cheese and an oven and I’m happy.
Oh Jennifer, I’ve got some aspargus and feta cheese in the fridge, right that’s lunch sorted….
Sorry you guys are having such a lousy summer Tina. I love going to the farmers market and coming home with lots of beautiful veg to turn into the weekends meals!
Hi, not been much on BYW2.0 yet. How is it for you? Aren’t farmers markets the best??? Gosh, no packaging and proper fresh food:)
Glad you are feeling better. I totally get this! That feeling that you need so stop and reacalibrate. So awesome that you listen to your body. We grew loads of kale over the summer an i am addicted to it! It’s great added to a juice too xxx
Love that. recalibrate. I normally only use this term for my computer screen:)
Love Kale in Juice but in small doses. Total addict myself! Hope you’re well:) xx
Very nice post Tina! I’m a big fan of using seasonal foods, and markets too when possible. Food tastes so much better when it’s in! I think it’s quite a bizarre thing when you thing of it that things like British strawberries taste like heaven for about 6 weeks, and then are like water for the rest of the year. Anyway your pictures are making me hungry, so I’m off to prepare an ickle snack! xx
How was the snack? Eating in season is the best, for health and culinary purposes. I’ve never quite understood this obsession with eating ingredients out of season just becyause it’s in a recipe…. why not find recipes with ingredients in season? Duh… Actually, there’s a business idea. Is anyone doing that???
Thanks for your comment. I thought i would see you in BYW2.0 xx
Hi Tina! Wow, I am really impressed with your sense of health and good diet. I’ve always struggled with avoiding the bad stuff…my sweet tooth is to blame for that. Luckily, I married someone very much in tune with his body and diet. Through his yoga practice, he knows what suits him and so this has changed how we eat. I don’t cook meat and rarely accompany a dish with carbs. As for exercise, it’s a love/hate relationship. I love how I feel afterward but hate motivating. Anyhow, your photos are lovely. Makes me want to live on a farm.
🙂
Ah, I’m lucky, I don’t have a sweet tooth at all… savoury for me all the way!
It’s so nice you have support in your husband with this. Sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself.
Right now, I would give anything to moveto a farm with no internet access ! Thanks x
June has been quite disappointing here too. Sort of cold, sort of raining … it’s like the weather just can’t decide what to be. Kind of annoying. I want constant sun.
Your inspiring photos of this fresh, delicious food definitely brightened my day. The colours, the textures, I feel like I’m absorbing vitamins through the screen, just be looking at them.
I love fennel and chives and rucola and spargel and cucumbers and pears – I think we could easily share a fridge Tina ;). The only thing on this list that I’m sort of unfamiliar with is kale. I mean, I’ve eaten it before, but I never buy it. So you steam it, eh? And then, if you don’t put it in soup, do you eat it as a side dish, like spinach?
I’m glad that you feel back to your normal self. I’ve had a crazy week and I’m looking forward to a calmer week ahead 😉
xoxo
Ok, deal, I have a huge fridge we can share. It’s always full of this stuff so come anytime:)
Kale comes in different varieties. I also like curly kale and russian kale and it’s good to experiment because they’re all different.
If not in soup, I like to steam it and put a little olive oil, fresh lemon and salt and , yes, eat it like spinach.
The Cavolo Nero is a bit more bitter so an aquired taste.
Alternatively try kale chips. Theresa wrote a recipe here which is the classic one. I love them but see for yourself. It’s really quite easy.
Hope your week will be calmer and I look forward to you returning to ‘our’ virtual home x
Glad you’re feeling better Tina! Your post has made me hungry again, and I should be getting ready for bed!
I’m craving some good vitamins, I think I’ve had a bit of a naughty weekend foodwise and my body wants something good now. Good thing my Riverford organic veg box is being delivered to work tomorrow 🙂
You’ve been inspiring me to pay more attention to how i’m feeling and attributing it to my diet.
Hope to see you soon lovely lady x
We all need vitamins, especially Vit D… gosh, this weather is really testing.
Oh, don’t worry, as soon as Riverford arrives you’ll be back on a health kick. It’s good to have some fun and let yourself go:)
It’s really interesting to notice our ailments and to connect them back to how we’ve been eating and for some ‘drinking’
Yes, must organise our next meetup x