Some more little things.

Life is all about little things, well to me anyway. So, I thought I would share with you some more of the little things that I like. In picture form of course.

Breakfast. Breakfast in Poland. Breakfast in Poland during berry season.

When your breakfast in Poland during berry season is on buckwheat pancakes and looks like this.

Clouds. I just love them.

I think clouds are actually greatly inspirational, especially cumulonimbus and cumulous. Cirrus are ok, but not nearly as graphic and creative.

Ladybugs/ ladybirds/ladybird beetles/lady beetles/Coccinellidae, whatever you want to call them they are just so great, gentle, delicate, cute and this year everywhere in Warsaw!

Homemade pasta, especially when it is drying out and looking like an odd sort of kelp forest.

When you ad kurki (chanterelles), butter, cracked pepper and a little garlic to homemade pasta.

Any form of cake from the wonderful patisserie Sweet Home the makers of our wedding cake and most birthday cakes since that date. Seriously delicious, like this chocolate and raspberry wonder.

Children with heads like balloons, well it is true, they look funny.

Storms, only those containing excessive rain, thunder and kickarse lightning.

Fresh homemade bread with butter, fresh homemade bread with butter and homemade jam.

These are, of course, only some of my favourite things in the world. The best part is that most of these I only truly discovered here in Warsaw. It really is a magical town.

Port and the Barossa

What is there to do at Port Adelaide other than shop at a dodgy second hand market (which I like doing by the way). Well you can always head to the lighthouse. No, I don't mean the actual nautical steel investment, although of course you could do that. I mean The Lighthouse Hotel. Forgive the rather sad website, as it is a great little place to have a bite to eat, well priced and good food. However the best thing is the beer. They brew their own and there are at least 6 on tap. I had a sampler when there which included:

Front to back: Honey Wheat beer, House Cider, Lighthouse Gingerbeer, Tusker Draft Rootbeer and the Archie dark ale

It was a nice thing to do in the middle of a beautiful sun shining day. So after that we went to the Brickworks markets, a place that when I was a child I enjoyed. Now, however, it is a slowly dying indictment of what has happened to many things that we more community oriented before people flocked to Shopping centres to buy things they really don't need and eat food they really shouldn't. It really is a shame, I hope someone takes control of it and really makes it into something great.

Instead of hanging around, we jumped back into the car to head to Brighton's Jetty Road strip where we grabbed a coffee and cake before a stroll on the jetty.

Some of us had too much fun eating.

And then put our feet up.

While I sipped my coffee

and ate my choc-mint hedgehog

Kerrin had an orange sponge cakey thing

On the jetty we could measure fish..... had anyone caught any of course.

Marty was just squinting instead

Some shared chips by the sea

The shark chopper was on patrol

As were seagulls looking for chips

Little Mali was more busy trying to look cute

Or at least sing a song.

The next day we jumped in with the sister and partner to hit the Barossa Valley. One of the fun places around Adelaide to taste wine.

Here we were surrounded by classic Australia

Even tin sheds to make it more classic, just needs a kelpie

Of course, pubs are classically Australian too.

There are many things to reflect on..... even tiles

I find it Australian that the museum looks like a pub

The Barossa is a great little day trip or even for the bigger drinker, a longer stay. It has around 170 wine companies and over 75 cellar doors that are open mostly 7 days a week. We only visited a few in probably one of the "most famous" brands Penfolds (where I recommend most things red that you can't sample with the exception of the Cellar Reserve Sangiovese), Rockfords (I recommend the Alicante Bouchet or Basket Press), Kellermeister (I recommend the Boots Cider and the 2008 Wicked Witch), and Kies (where I recommend the water and conversation with the lovely lady in the cellar door).

Somewhere I try to get to when in the Barossa is Rockford's Winery

To sample what they have lying about

And if the boss is happy, I can buy some :)

After lunch we moved onto the more serious side of things, Penfolds

Except not everyone seems to think I am serious.....

Robert Louis Stevenson once said "Wine is bottled poetry", which I could agree with as long as people think that poetry shouldn't be left to people in black skivvies sitting in a smoke filled room or drug induced haze telling others that they just "don't get it". Then again many wine snobs are a little like that.

Where as I prefer the words of Aristophanes which probably are most apt at the end of my blog post, where as he said

“Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” 

Alas, I have not wet my mind before this. Sorry reader.

Tarabuk Cafe, Powisle

Cafe Tarabuk is just near the beautiful Warsaw University Library, a place I am yet to photograph properly, and only a few hundred metres from the Vistula. It is a really cosy little cafe. A great place to relax and read some books. We chose to sit in the window seats, which actually means sitting in the window.
It is really cool, like being a display model for the shop. That, and the fact the sun was streaming in and kept us cosy and warm there, whereas outside, if you weren't facing the sun you could turn into some form of iceperson.
I decided it would be nice to have an apple slice. Yum. The coffee was decent but a little too short on my double espresso and seemed more like an espresso. The girl was a little confused and easily distracted but very nice none the less.
They have some very cool lighting in there. For all I know, they could be stock standard IKEA wear/fare but I thought the attachment of little wildflowers to the lamp shades was very sweet.
Although, I have to admit, at first I thought they were spiders on them.
This lamp looks like a bamboo rice steamer with flowers inside it. Which, when you think about it, is still a nice idea. Although, if it is a rice steamer with flowers in it, then it is a really cool idea!
The crowd is mixed, you get glamour students there. I think this one was doing charity work as she was talking to a redhead.
The sun continued to make great freaky shadows from the plants
And the bright light brought out highlights to confuse the eye. So what is this then smartypants blog readers?
Low bright sunshine is great to take photos in.
It creates some really nice highlighting effects and allows me to be artistic(ish).
So that is Tarabuk cafe. We even bought a book there about walks around Warsaw not the normal Do it in Warsaw book, but one called "Book of Walks: Landmarks of the People's Poland in Warsaw" by Jerzy S. Majewski click on it and you can buy a copy it is dual language in Polish and English and at 34.99 PLN it is a steal! Fantastically interesting.

Snowkolka

On the road again, do do do do do do, just can't wait to get on the road again.

Ok, so off we go to Sokolka. Of course, we ducked out as early as possible on the Friday. All so that we still experienced some sunshine when we were on the move, oh and to beat the traffic too. We were heading back for little Pawciu's birthday, but alas, it is the northern hemisphere so still winter time. February was still very snowy, so sometimes it was slow going.

On the drive up to Sokolka we stopped in Bialystok to get some essentials, i.e. alcohol, flowers and chocolates. It was pretty darned chilly outside so we rushed back to the car and jumped in to get the remaining hour over and done with ASAP. The road had not been cleared though as it was still snowing and had been for hours. So the going was slow. We eventually made it there with no light remaining at all. Getting out of the car I realised I had gotten into it previously somehow without my wallet. I miraculously had left this in Bialystok! On the ground next to the Carrefour supermarket. Thanks pockets, a lot of good you did me!

Thankfully, a fabulous person found it and called my healthcare provider who called me to tell me she had it. What a relief. So the next morning back into the car for a quick trip to Bialystok, I was sitting in the back and Marty and Stani in the front. I didn't have a book to read or a computer to play computer games on, so I sat staring out the window, watching the world zoom by, or sometimes stare back at me when traffic got heavy.

I had the camera next to me and thought, hey lets be all experimental like scientists are meant to. Let's try and take some slightly slow speed photos, so I had a little play with things and came up with the below. This is about as creative as I can get. Hope you like them as much as I do.
Snow and pines, it sums up the normal drive to Sokolka.
I like how somehow the trees glimpse through.
So when we got back to Sokolka, we needed to pick up the cake for Pawciu. So we stopped at a local cake professional (aka old lady who bakes at home and decorates them all pretty like). While waiting for the chit chat, money-cake exchange to take place, I got out and poked around. I saw a really great old window in the barn next to the house and loved that it didn't make sense.
I mean honestly, cactus, in -20C?! Ahhh the world is amazing sometimes.So with cake in hand, or more to say cake in Marta's lap, we headed to the house. As Pawciu was away studying, we decided to attack the lawn.... well I say lawn but I mean half a metre of snow outside. You can see it covered this sled in half an hour from when it was last used. Yes there was a lot of snow and it had fallen fast. However, now it had stopped and the day looked a little clearer.
We needed to make a trail to the dog house and barn about 50m from the back of the house. So first things first we would need to be appropriately attired. As you can imagine we brought with us our city slicker clothes. We didn't have things warm enough and flexible enough for playing in the snow. So we ducked into the changing booth and came out transferred as simple small town yokals. Don't we look a magnificent couple.... couple of what I am not sure.
Certainly elegant..... we aren't.
They even made a sign to indicate a popular past time in this part of the world. Shovelling snow! Kids here don't need a play station, wii or that fancy internet thing! Hours of fun to be had outside.So hi ho, hi ho, it is off to work the kiddies go.
Ok one metre done now. Is it time for a rest yet?
Ok so two hours later and we have done all the way to the barn, the dog house and also cleaned out the inside of the dogs play area as it was about a metre deep in snow thanks to some sliding off the roof. So even though it was cold I was sweating up a treat. Thinking it would be a good way to cool down by lounging around in the snow.How amazing, just from lying in the snow to cool down a strange angel type shape appeared! What on earth could it mean?Anyway, the snow got moved and then the weather man decided check our resolve and let it snow for the next 24 hours or so! Hence, resolve broken. So after working so hard in the white white fields we would need some form of high energy food. What is a better idea than Birthday Cake?!
At least Pawciu looks happy about it!
Light them candles.
Burn them strong.
Ring around and sing.
Cut it and make a wish.
Great success. Pawciu is a year older, drinking a champagne and eating a hearty cake. Seems like a good start to a new year to me.
Alas, for some. All this hard work, champagne and cake was too much. Not sure why the cat was resting. All it does is lick itself and bite feet. Maybe that really is the hardest work of all.