Apocalyptica

When I discover new music, I tend to obsess over one or two tracks from an album and listen to it almost constantly. Am I the only person to do this? 

I'm always predominately drawn melancholic sounds. My latest obsession is 'Nothing Else Matters' by Apocalyptica which I discovered when I watched this.

Making Madeleines

I have been wanting to make madeleines for ages. To me they look so pretty in their shell shapes and are a much more grown up version of a fairy cake. I used a Waitrose recipe found here. The only thing I changed was to add 1/3 of a tsp of baking powder. 

In France you can by an array of fancy baking tins and moulds in the supermarket but of course this being England I had to buy mine off Amazon. Infact in France they have a vast choice of anything cooking related in the supermarkets that would put Lakeland Plastics to shame. They may just be over the Channel but seemingly have very different attitudes to food. I mean where are the traditional bakeries in England? My local one is the French Café down the road. Nuff said.

Festival Hats

Some festival hats spotted at the folk festival. I was going to put The Destroyers (mentioned here ) in a separate post but they're wearing hats so why not just pop them in here . . . My favourite is the boater hat and flower shown below. I always find it hard to pull of hats. What do you think? Are you a hat wearer?

Folk Festival

On the way down. Friday night.

Shelling peas for a tasty snack.

Knuckle duster - glamourous one though . . .

The balloon that escaped. The children were loving chasing it. Forget a lost children tent - just release a balloon and follow!

Two more folk related posts to follow. One on festival hats and one on the musicians. Then I promise I will give the folk thing a break . . .

Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny

I've been tweeting about the Moseley Folk Festival a bit this weekend and I have a few snaps to share. However I havn't sorted through them yet so as a treat I want to share with you a couple of videos found on youtube of one of the artists; Beth Jeans Houghton and her band 'The Hooves of Destiny'. She was sporting a fantastic beehive and blonde streak. Aside from the beehive was a lovely voice and great music.





Definitely a quirky sense of style. If you're interested in more from Beth Jeans Houghton check out her MySpace or read this.

Rabbit Trainers

Today I went to Ruth's for a cuppa and as I was leaving I saw these beauties.

"Why!" I exclaimed "who are those rabbit trainers? They're amazing . . ."

" Oh those, well yeah they belong to an ex housemate. He thinks they're too worn out, you can have them if you want."

So here we are. I took them just to photograph and share. Dedicated or skanky? Ha, well regardless of that they are a size 7 if you want them . . .
 

Café Francais

So back to work today for the first time in five weeks. As a treat my friends and I went to our local French Café, Maison Mayci. I say a treat but actally we are there a fair bit. There used to only be one on Poplar Road in Kings Heath but now another has opened in Moseley. Both a stones throw from my house so I really am spoilt for choice. 

They do a great goats cheese salad (my favourite).

and of course wonderful coffee . . .