Niedzielne karmienie kaczek...

Zrobilo sie zimno.
Niespotykanie wrecz, jak na Anglie generalnie.
I niezwykle wczesnie.

Pomyslalam sobie, jesli ludzie sa zaskoczeni mrozem, a w niektorych rejonach sniegiem, to co ze zwierzetami?...
Pojechalismy wiec nad pobliskie jezioro podkarmic kaczki.
Chce tez zainstalowac karmnik dla ptaszkow w ogrodku.

A dzis w nagrode - zastalismy takie piekne, wieczorne widoki...

***

It got so cold.
Unusually as for England in general.
And unusually early.

I was thinking, if we people are surprised by the frost and, in some areas, snow, how about animals?...
So, we went to the nearby lake with a supply of bread and fed some ducks.
Will have to repeat it soon.
And I need to put a bird feeder in our small garden.

Our reward today - beautiful, evening views of the lake...

Getting darker outside... and dark chocolate muffins;)

Upieklam wczoraj, moje pierwsze muffinki. Z kawalkami gorzkiej czekolady (podczas krojenia twardej tabliczki po calej kuchni roznosil sie jej zapach).
Probowalismy je prosto z piekarnika, jeszcze cieple. Plynne, slodkie kawaleczki parzyly w jezyk:).
Wyszly dobre.
Na pewno pieczenie muffinek powtorze niedlugo, moze inny smak...
Macie swoje ulubione?

***

Baked my very first muffins yesterday. With small pieces of dark chocolate (when chopping the bar, the whole kitchen smelled lovely).
We tried them straight from the oven, still warm. Liquid, sweet, tiny pieces were burning our mouths:).
They turned out good.
I'd like to bake another muffins soon, maybe different ones next time...
Do you have your favourite?

Zmiana dekoracji

Poniewaz dzis pogoda byla typowo jesienna, wiatr, deszcz scinajacy poziomo i ciemno bylo juz od samego rana, caly dzien spedzilam w domu. Wykorzystalam zapas jarzebiny uzbierany przy okazji niedawnego spaceru i sklecilam takie oto jesienne dekoracje.

A zapach jarzebiny przywolal wspomnienia: gdy zawsze pod koniec wakacji spedzanych w miasteczku zwanym Gabin u Dziadkow, robilam z Babcia czerwoniutkie, jarzebinowe korale:). Potem kilka dni chodzilam dumna w tej tymczasowej bizuterii;).

I nie wiem, czy to pozna pora zbierania jarzebiny w tym roku sprawila, czy tez moje wspomnienia tak intensywnie jarzebinowo pachna, ale dzis zapach ten byl taki ulotny, inny...

***

Today the weather was typical for November, windy, rainy, it was dark since the morning, so I spent the whole day at home. I used some rowan berries I had from the last walk and made some Autumn decorations.

The fragrant rowan berries brought back some memories, when at the end of the summer holidays (usually spent with my Grandparents in a town called Gabin), I used to make bright red, rowan necklace with my Grandma:). Then I wore this temporary jewellery proudly for a couple of days;).

But I don't know, if it was late to pick up the rowan berries this year, or maybe my memories are more fragrant than the reality, but today their fragrance was so faint, different...

Mercado dos Lavradores

Czyli targ owocowo-kwiatowy (i nie tylko) w stolicy Madery - Funchal. Mozna tu poczuc troche codzienne zycie wyspiarzy... kupic najbardziej egzotyczne owoce, ich krzyzowki (np. papai z pomidorem), lub tez torbe kasztanow (kiedy tam bylismy zblizalo sie wlasnie Swieto Kasztanow). Kwiaciarki w tradycyjnych maderskich strojach, czerwonych kaftanach i pasiastych spodnicach siedza na swoich stoiskach w otoczeniu lilii, storczyków i strelicji...

Targ miesci sie w okazalym budynku Art Deco z lat 40tych, jego sciany zdobia tradycyjne, bialo-niebieskie kafelki portugalskie, ktore przyciagaly moj wzrok rownie czesto co wielobarwne kwiaty.

***

Mercado dos Lavradores is a fruit and vegetable (and not only!) market in Funchal, the main city of Madeira. You can have a feel of the daily life here, buy some of the exotic fruits or their unique combinations (papaya plus tomato, anyone?), or a bag full of chestnuts (when we were there, the Festival of Chestnuts was coming up soon). The ladies selling flowers wear the traditional costume of Madeira, a red dress with a lot of colourful banners. They sit in their stalls among the baskets full of lilies, orchids and strelitzias...

Mercado dos Lavradores is installed in a 1940's Art Deco building, on the walls there are traditional painted, blue and white Portugal tiles, I had to take a look at them almost as often as at the colourful flowers.

Po-wakacyjnie...

Moje urodziny przypadaja na poczatek listopada. Dni, ktore czesto sa deszczowe, szare, srednio napawajace optymizmem... Jakkolwiek bardzo lubie jesien i jej nasycone kolory, od zawsze moim marzeniem bylo spedzenie urodzin w cieple i sloncu. W tym roku nadarzyla taka okazja jesiennego urlopu, choc wlasciwie poczatkowo plany byly inne, okolicznosci niezalezne od nas wplynely na ich zmiane, ale moze i dobrze sie stalo, bo w koncu wyladowalismy na Maderze:).

Maderska kombinacja blekitnego oceanu, bujnej roslinnosci, posepnych gor i zielonych wawazow, pysznego jedzenia i totalnego relaksu w sloncu sprawila, ze poczulam sie naprawde wyjatkowo moc spedzic w ten sposob swoje 30 urodziny:).

***

My birthday is at the beginning of November. Time, when the sky is grey and cloudy, not a very optimistic weather... Although I do like autumn and its full, intensive colours, it has been always my dream to spend my birthday in the sun and warmth. This year luckily we managed to take our holidays in November, originally our plans were a bit different and owing to circumstances beyond our control we had to change them, but it turned out to be a good thing as eventually we landed in Madeira:).

The combination of the blue ocean, lush greenery, majestic mountains and ravines, delicious food and relax at the swimming pool was perfect. I felt really special being able to celebrate my 30th birthday like this:).