Happy Long WeekendScrambled eggs on a patio with a favourite friend, a large discount at a shop that was only negotiated with a smile, a random sighting of the Queen's horses, a lovely garden centre with great customer service (Clifton Nurseries - I had someone accompany me home with my heavy bag of compost), inspecting my first few red tomatoes (this means that they will actually be edible before frost!), a gorgeous delivery of flowers from lovely PR peeps - it's been a great day so far!

The evening will be spent along the canal and it is a long weekend, what more could one ask for. Am sure there will be some good food and wine this weekend too; wishing you all a great lonnnng weekend!

Let's hope Mother Nature shines some sun on us. xx

Berry strange

Walking along the canal from Camden Market to Little Venice on a sunny afternoon (Mother Nature has blessed us with a bit of sunshine these past few days) I noticed lots of lovely blackberry bushes, the one strange thing about all these bushes was that there were loads of berries still on them. The berries were past their date of consumption and most of them were dead and all shriveled up. But not just a few spare ones that bloomed late, there were thousands of them. Why were so many berries that would make lovely treats for anyone walking along the busy canal, left unnoticed and uneaten?

I am not an expert but maybe… people either a) didn’t know that these were edible –as they probably never picked fruit/berries off a tree or bush ever (which is sad) or b) they weren’t sure if they were poisonous (again not being able to recognize basic fruit –sad) or c) they were a bit weary of eating berries from the side of the canal –probably only buy food from supermarkets. Who knows? There is not much pollution from the boats floating by at 2km/ph and there are a lot of people that walk and cycle along this path so not sure exactly why they were all left there. Another reason could be that with the terrible weather we have been having no one has really been stopping to pick berries but instead trying to rush home out of the rain.

On my first visit, there was an old man walking towards me and he was happily picking and eating the few remaining berries, as I was from the opposite direction. I was doing it half heartedly so there was plenty for him to eat when he went past, but when I passed him, he had cleaned those bushes so well there was none left! I then walked along the canal a few days later and there were absolutely no berries that were edible. Am sure that man took the last of them… well, at least someone enjoyed them!

Felix Meritis
The Felix Meritis is the independent European centre for art, culture and science and an international meeting place in Amsterdam. They cleverly turned these concrete building shields into mini tables, added some chairs and voila, a mini patio.

A great place for enjoying a drink and snack along with some Dutch sunshine along the canal!

Relaxed atmosphereDining al fresco on a bridge overlooking a canal and the relaxed and liberal attitude to sex, drugs and rock 'n roll makes Amsterdam a really chilled out place.