COMBE MARTIN ROAD TRIP II

We took a road trip to Combe Martin on the border of Exmoor after being offered a holiday cottage for the weekend. Unfortunately that weekend also coincided with a amber weather warning and a risk of flooding.

The weather got pretty hairy at one point, with rivers rushing, roads flooding and white caps covering the sea as I braved the weather to get a few photos. I think the black and white really adds to how dramatic that truly was.

OLD MAN FUDGE

A few weeks ago our beloved Fudge dog took a turn for the worst. He was an old man at 15 years and contently slept for 20 hours a day, enjoyed his morning walk and was generally relaxing through his twilight years but we all knew the day had to come and frankly we'd been waiting for it. We all said our sad fair wells and he went to the vets for one last time, I suppose the positive is I have countless good memories of my first puppy and a few damn fine photographs from the last few years that I'll share below:

NOT PALEO - CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

This idea has been floating around in my brain ever since I posted my Banana Bread photograph on flickr and over the weekend I setup my micro studio (an IKEA cutting board and blanket for backdrop) to start shooting. I found a recipe for chewy cookies and decided on a half batch (because cheat day only comes once a week) then got down to shooting, in case you can't follow along with the photos I've reposted the recipe below:

Ingredients

Serves: 9

• 125g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 85g unsalted butter, melted
• 150g brown soft sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 150g chocolate chunks

Preparation method

Prep: 10 mins |Cook: 15 mins

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas mark 3. Grease baking trays or line with parchment.

2. Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays, with each cookie around 4 tablespoons of dough (for smaller cookies, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful and adjust baking time as necessary). Do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be about 8cm apart.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

STAYCATION 2012

The Rex. Oxford. Columbidos Coffee. Tapas & Live Music at Seasons. Achimi.

NEW YORK PART II

Although I feel like a bad blogger for taking so long with getting these posts up, going back over the photos stirs up memories of the amazing adventures we had back in April. I think I just need to remind myself this blog is for me, not you. Although I do like to know you're out there. Who ever you are.

Just this morning I read a Google+ post about someone's home town being Manhattan. Can you imagine that? Being in the centre of the universe for your childhood? How that would affect you? I'm sure most NYC natives hate the place, but I can't think of anything better when looking through my blinkers.

The middle part of our break was spent cramming in touristy days with our typical morning starting at OST for some breakfast before heading into Manhattan for the day. We visited the Empire State where we lucked out on the weather when compared to last time, the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island on a rather wet and windy morning and the  9/11 memorial.

I've never really spoken to anyone else who has visited the memorial, but it all felt very close to home, being in a large western city with familiar terrain and people made it feel very real. The pure terror that must have overcome Manhattan that morning would have coursed through the city. infecting everyone as it went and leaving a scar that will never heal. The memorial is very tasteful in that respect, trying to cover that scar with something beautiful. Each tower's footprint has been made into an infinity pool with water running down each side before disappearing into a central well with no details of where it goes when observed from the edge. Around the pools, names of every victim have been cut into large sections of black granite, as we walked around the pools we noticed a family taking a rubbing of their lost relatives name, as you can imagine it was a very moving gesture.