bonfire

I've been craving a bonfire all semester and this weekend we finally got round to it. It was a gorgeous night for roasting mallows and messing around with melodicas, ukuleles and harmonicas. Gabby discovered his latent pyromania also. 

sicily

 

On our trip round Italy this summer, Gabby and I were complete gluttons - we ate tiny, gorgeous parma ham and asparagas lasagnas in Padua, mango sorbet in Bologna, massive rump steaks in the mountains near Austria and had many picnics of bufala cheese, salami and olives. But the real place that spoiled us was Sicily.


Gabby is half Sicilian, and we spent a week with his amazing family in the country house at the foot of Mount Etna. I was in food HEAVEN. Shopping at the market with his Uncle Giacomo, we'd pick up massive bags of mussels in the classic Sicilian style, with just the promise of a favour in return as payment. We ate amazing seafood antipasti at a restaurant looking over the water to Calabria, picked lemons and chillies from the garden with his little sisters, and made aranchini and granita in the hot kitchen with his Aunt Gabriella. His Nona forced me to take more helpings than I'd though humanly possible at every meal. Best of all were the long, long sit down lunches on the balcony every day with dishes spread over the whole table: massive bowls of pasta as the entree, and plenty of aubergine, sliced  finely and baked to tenderness in butter and garlic.


I can't wait to get home this weekend and not worry about skimping on ingredients. 

pi day

I came in from my last fundraising shift tonight to a flat full of friends and the smell of warm apple and maple pecan pies. We theorised themes for the next social of our fake synchronised swimming club and stuffed ourselves silly. I like our way of celebrating Pi Day.

spring

 

 

Today my gorgeous flatmate Bee and I procrastinated/ nursed hangovers respectively by avoiding the library and drinking smoothies in the sun. I love how the locals come out at the weekends, and we people-watched from South Street and the cathedral ruins all afternoon.

gray day barbeque

In Scotland at the first sight of sun the flip flops and shades come out - ultimate optimism. I headed to my boyfriend's house in the Badlands* for a windy barbeque in the garden. 

*In St Andrews, anything vaguely outside town, ie. more than 5 minutes away, is classed ominously as 'the Badlands'...

busy days and new projects

The past couple of weeks have been cray-cray crammed with reading and new projects. I recently joined the committee of Scotland's International Poetry Festival, StAnza, which is held each year in our little town. It's going to be chaotic, but I can't wait to spend next Thursday-Sunday sitting in on readings, open mic nights and slams. 

I've also recently become Editor of the Informer Section of online student magazine Owl Eyes. I'm so excited to be finally committing to an editorial role in student journalism, and the magazine feels like for the right place for me with its mix of indie aesthetics and cultural articles. That said, I'm so looking forward to having a break at Easter and cooking on Saturday nights with my family. 

missing the flat

Around this time of year, when Spring is starting but taking its time, I always start pining for our family  flat by the sea in Spain. I'm so sad that my Dad's Uncle had to sell it, and we'll never be able to live in it again! 

I have amazing memories right back to being a tiny kid, sitting on the balcony in the sun, eating shrimp and garlic butter, hot roast chicken, duck from the Chinese downstairs and tomato and chorizo salads, and playing whist and Uno for hours. 

The flat is a walk away from the gorgeous town of Villa Joyosa. Every August the fiesta takes over, with everyone taking part in giant Moors and Christians parades, complete with costumes and crazy-ass floats. Paella competitions shut down whole streets. 

The best part is the guns, torches and full-blown boat-battle at dawn, ending in a siege of the castle on the beach.

It's a shame that this little corner of the coast is quickly disappearing as it becomes increasingly industrialised and the towns and villages join up.

I love spending weeks at the flat with my family, eating churros and hot chocolate at the ice cream parlour, reading piles of books, visiting churches and mountain springs, and goofing around alot. 

I could write pages about the flat - its amazing being able to relax back into yourself, feel the heat seep into your bones, and find time to write and sketch again. I guess we'll find another haven return to year after year. 

supper

I used to find calling dinner 'supper' pretentious, but it's the only word to describe the kind of  long, low-lit meal where the chat goes on for hours. We ate mustard and rosemary chicken in a white wine cream sauce, with parmesan and anchovy dauphinois potatoes and roasted leeks and picolino tomatoes. 

Dessert was vanilla ice-cream, shaved dark chocolate and crushed biscuits, drowned and melted together with hot strong coffee.fee.

It was lovely to catch up with our old housemates and spend far too long sorting everyone we know into Hogwarts houses and discussing which decades we all should've been born in. 

family photographs

I love when my Dad visits my Grandma down in Lincolnshire, because he always brings back the most amazing old family finds, whether my now-beloved bike, bracelets from pre-war Norway, medals from my Grandad's time as a Navy Captain, or these gorgeous photographs.

My young Grandma with one of my Aunts.

I love how the trademark Patterson ears are so apparent in most of these!

My favourite - my great Grandfather chilling in a bus some sunny afternoon. 

pier-sittin'

The first day of March brought the first day of Spring. Our tutorial on EU economic policy over, there was really nothing for it but to lap up the rays by the sea.