Monthly Archives: March 2012

Friday Favourites #… Let’s Just Say March

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I took this photo of my flowers yesterday with the “Pure” setting on my camera. I must say I’m sort of loving the cooler tones and though I wasn’t aware my regular photos were “impure”  I’m thinking  one of these days I must get around to reading the manual that came with the camera. One of these days.

Just need more time. Seriously.

I did and do intend to post more than I have lately, but re-entry has been a process, let me tell you.

Did I mention it rained?  So, you know, that made things even busier…

But, all excuses aside, I’m happy to be back and revisiting  ”Friday Favourites” again!

 It’s been awhile I know.

As usual, it’s a completely random potpourri

but variety is the spice of life, right?

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and speaking of spicy, (oh how I love my bad segues :) )

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Slim Paley photo

I have a new obsession.

Roasted Shishito peppers.

Now, first let me say I’m well aware “obsession” is a word getting tossed around a little too cavalierly these days, but I don’t know how else to describe something, a mere vegetable no less, that I can’t stop thinking about since discovering them a scant week ago. I thank my ever chic friend Kendall Conrad, for introducing/addicting me to these at  Soho House in L.A.  Kendall says the secret is anchovy (paste?) which you don’t really taste, but she should know, considering she has a cookbook under her belt and happens to be the only person I know besides me that carries her own salt in her bag.  Honestly, these peppers were out of this world. How many times can one casually glance down at a side plate and count stems inconspicuously? As I was out pacing Kendall 3 to 1, I think I now hold the world record.

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I also enjoyed  a romantic dinner with my husband at the always wonderful “Bouchon”  in Beverly Hills.

Don’t we all, men and women alike, have a little collective crush on Thomas Keller?

His  olives…

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His  ”Ile  Flottante”- The BEST I’ve ever had and it’s one of my favourite desserts so I know from Floating Islands.

If you ever find yourself at Bouchon, it’s a must.

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Then I went to Costco.

Plain and simple, I just shouldn’t be allowed to go there alone.

Anytime you’re buying bathing suits on clear plastic torsos that stick out of your shopping cart like a headless porno doll, you have to acknowledge you’ve lost all control.

 Naturally it doesn’t fit  (it looked so much better on the doll) and the question is; does it need to be returned on the plastic body or can I just hide my shame in a brown paper bag??

I guess the upside is I can drive in the carpool lane on the way there.

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What was I thinking? I thought it looked vaguely 70′s Swimming Safari.

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Then there were the memory foam pillows with built-in gel cooling systems.

The jury’s still out on those.

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Wait, where was I going with this?

Oh right- I do have two Friday Favourites from Costco;

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Not only did I buy swimwear and pillows, but I also bought mascara.

Borghese Mascara and guess what? Once you wrestle it out of the packaging (give yourself a good 1/2 hour) it’s really good!

I even put it on my bottom lashes (the true test) and it didn’t budge all day.

Two tubes for only $14.99 (God forbid you should ever buy one item in Costco) so I wouldn’t wait.

 I’m picking up more when I return the swimsuit.

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 I know this is terrible- I SO rarely drink sodas-maybe 3 times a year and never, ever diet ones,

but gosh I’m a sucker for these old fashioned cokes, ice cold, in the glass bottles.

I just couldn’t resist!

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Slim Paley Hipstamatic photo

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Lastly, as “Mad Men” made it’s return this week ( mortified to admit, a newbie and hooked already) I’m reminded of one of the most stylish men of them all…

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You might have spied this book in the tulip photo on my previous post.

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I really felt my husband just had to have it…

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You know we all need a little inspiration sometimes when we’re getting dressed…

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Not to mention a friend/spotter at Costco 

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Happy Weekend All!

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A Little Palette Cleanser

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Happy Weekend Everyone! Isn’t it wonderful that Spring has arrived?! (Although Winter barely made an appearance in many places this year)

 I’m finally getting back into the swing of things, though my holiday lingers in my thoughts like a beautiful dream that promises to last for a very long time.

 Still, it seemed it might be time to give you a break from travel posts and offer up a little colour palette cleanser as it were.

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As you can see in my photo above,  I arrived home to a lovely big spray of purple and orange tulips- how pretty are they?!

Hermes scarf, Chanel bracelet

 I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but  I’m a little gobsmacked at the amount of orange and purple I’m seeing everywhere- a frisky combination to be sure, despite their relative proximity on the colour wheel.

 Of course what works in art & nature doesn’t always translate to fashion, but many designers this season are certainly giving it the old college try.

What do you make of it?

Personally, I don’t have the complexion to sport this bold duo anywhere near my face but I’d be happy to entertain them  in accessories and I love their pop of  colour in a room, especially for Spring and Summer.

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Prada Fall 2012

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Vogue

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Prada Fall 2012

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It works for Jennifer Anniston apparently.

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Prada

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Difficult lipstick shade to carry off, but imagine these three colours in a a floral arrangement. I have small Calla lilies in the garden almost the same colour as this nail polish so I’m definitely filing this away for future inspiration. 

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Even the runway rug at Prada was purple.

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Nature excels in the combo as always

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credit unknown

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Prada

Got tired of contemplating on how many levels this wouldn’t  work for me.

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.Consider repurposing your scarves in your home. Chic recycling.

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woops-lost credit. Don’t you love when I save you $ like that? 

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Etro

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Giambattista Valli Resort 2012

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Bottega Veneta Spring 2012

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“Rorschach” fabric or wallcovering from “Timorous Beasties“ (Love them).

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I just know these shoes are going to grow on me…

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Let’s be BOLD in some way this weekend- Why not? It’s SPRING!

xx

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Green Gold

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Slim Paley photo

Fields of TEA, the most consumed beverage on the planet

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Being an Irish lass, what better day to post about my visit to the tea plantations of Sri Lanka than on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day?!

And ye of little faith, thinking I wasn’t going to post this week!

Why I was just getting settled back in, unpacking, battling jet lag and eating Coldstone’s ice cream at 5:00am in the morning.

You know, the usual…

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Certainly one of the highlights of our trip was the time we spent along the Tea Trails.

Imagine falling into a Genie’s bottle of Hendrick’s gin and you’ll get some idea of the verdant atmosphere of this area.

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Did you notice the tiny church nestled at the top of the fields of tea? The most beautiful little church in the world, which I’m saving for another post.

Did I just mention gin and church in the same sentence? :(

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Who knew that all tea; English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Jasmine, Orange Pekoe, green, even white tea (which, seen above, is the healthiest tea of all) comes from the same tea plant?!

White tea is made from the silver tipped uppermost leaves with the barely perceptible hairs you see on the leaf above. For high quality teas no more than the top 3 leaves of the plant will be picked.

Various flavours such as “Earl Grey” are infused into the tea after the leaves have been processed by the tea factory. To Earl Grey for example, one of my favorites, bergamot is added, for Lady Grey, simply a lighter note of bergamot. For Jasmine tea the jasmine flower is added during the fermenting process, Green tea is unfermented and black tea is fermented for exactly 2 hours and 40 minutes, a minute less and the tea tastes soapy, a minute more and the leaves start to acquire a bitter taste.

And yes, that is the sound of my fingernails brushing against my lapel :)

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Our journey to Hatton began from the most adorable train station, built in 1867 and located in the beautifully named town of Peradeniya.

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Whaaat?! that can’t be right! It’s definitely my laptop.

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We had booked ahead and managed to score seats in the “Super Luxury A/C Cabin”

…or so we thought…

Only to find our “First Class” carriage doing a shockingly good imitation of a sardine tin… Ahhnd whatever happened to that air conditioning??

The train immediately pulled out of the station and as the journey was supposedly to last 4 hours (I say supposedly as Time is a rather fluid concept in Sri Lanka) we were, needless to say, horrified. The entire situation was so messing with my ‘Meryl Streep getting off the train to glimpse Robert Redford in Africa’ fantasy. Different continent, and duffel bags rather than steamer trunks & fine china but really, that was beside the point. My upper lip began to get dewy. My hair continued to expand.

After much pushing, yelling, and jostling of body bag-sized backpacks, the conductor was able to insert his way into our car and inform all those passengers from a certain tour group from a country that shall remain nameless, that they simply had to disembark at the next station TOUT de SUITE.

EXCUSEZ MOI.

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A seat at last, and who needs air conditioning (which I abhor really) when you can throw open the window to a warm breeze and this kind of view?

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Nuwara Eliya “The Little England of Sri Lanka”

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The tiny white spots you see in the photo below are the tea harvesters.

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Leaves are picked every 7 days. Each picker has their own zone and the rotating is very methodical. The bushes can live to be 135 yrs. old, are fertilized every 3 months and cut back every 4 years. One single branch is left uncut to stop the plant from going into shock. I’m going to try that with a few rose bushes next year and see if it makes a difference.

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The tea pickers are given housing by the tea plantations as well as electricity and good schooling for their children.

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A lady walking down the road, though this doesn’t look to be tea she is carrying

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We visited the Norwood Factory in Bogowantalawa where we were given a delightful tour by Andrew Taylor, a direct descendant of James Taylor, the first tea planter in Sri Lanka. Although the factory was not in production the day we visited we were able to take a nice quiet tour and receive Andrew’s undivided attention.

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Here we begin with the freshly plucked leaves.

They must be moist enough to not break up when they are rolled between your palms.

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The freshly picked baskets of tea leaves are put into this elevator and brought up to the second floor of the factory

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Where they are spread out on these racks

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and dried for a very specific amount of time by these incredibly powerful fans

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Then lots of other crazy stuff happens.

What can I say- I lost some of my notes and was nervous about going up Adam’s Peak later that night- I was trying to preserve energy!

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I thought a few people might enjoy this sign :)

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I know that this machine shimmied and shook like crazy

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and I believe this one cut the leaves but don’t quote me

Towards the end of the process the leaves are put into a huge oven heated entirely by burning wood.

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I was rather taken with the Norwood Factory’s “5S System” which they’ve adopted from the Japanese.

I might add that the factory and all the machinery was immaculate.

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3 stages of tea

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The entire process of taking the tea leaf from the bush to finished product is accomplished in a single day.

7 days a week. 365 days a year.

There is no down season in the tea world.

From every batch of tea, a small sample is sent to all the brokers in Sri Lanka representing purveyors from around the world, from Lipton’s to Fornum & Mason. Their agents will expertly inspect the quality of leaves for colour, consistency and taste and then bid on individual lots at auction every week. A tea taster can manage 800-1,000 tastings A DAY. Take that wine tasters.

So from the field to the bank for the tea producer is a 3 week turnaround. What a great business!

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Finally, our taste test lesson, which involved swilling, slurping, spitting and face making whilst we searched for hopefully a lack of any ‘foreign’ perfume or wood smoke, while trying to ascertain a fresh citrusy scent, slight tingle on the tip of our tongues, and a general feeling of well being.

In other words, we had great fun!

Lastly, just a couple more things to remember;

Authentic tea leaves from Sri Lanka should have the name “Dilmah” on the packaging.

In order to keep tea fresh you should remove it from cardboard boxes and store in metal tins. If tea is wrapped in Aluminum foil it will keep for 3 years as opposed to 18 months, at best, unwrapped.

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And how, being a child of a certain era, could I resist adding this??!

Tea For The Tillerman

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What young girl didn’t drink copious cups of tea listening to the Cat??!

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God Cat…

Stop following me!

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The fine tea of the Norwood plantation ready to be sent around the world.

Of course this post has only barely brushed against the fascinating world of tea. There are a zillion books on the subject, one being “The Empire of Tea: The Remarkable History of the Plant That Took Over the World” by Alan & Iris Macfarlane.

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Wishing my Irish relatives and everyone that cares to celebrate A Very Happy St. Patrick’s Day

And for those of you in Ireland, Boston and New Orleans-take it easy on the green beer and “Kilt Lifters”!!

xoxo

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We Be Pilgrims

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ADAM’S PEAK or SRI PADA

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“The panorama from the summit of Adam’s Peak is perhaps the grandest in the world, as no other mountain, although surpassing it in altitude , presents the same unobstructed view over land and sea. Around it, to the north and east, the traveller looks down on the zone of lofty hills that encircle the Kandyan kingdom, whilst to the westward the eye is carried far over undulating plains, threaded by rivers like cords of silver, till in the purple distance the glitter of the sunbeams on the sea mark the line of the Indian Ocean” James Emerson Tennent

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Climbed it.

Swear.

My friend and I climbed it in the middle of the night.

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Starting off at the gates to “Sri Pada” (Sacred Footprint)


Imagine a place on this strife-riddled planet where Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims  all walk together, side by side, head to toe, in a peaceful, unified pilgrimage.

 Offering helping hands, sharing water, even carrying those unable to climb without aid,

Mostly in silence or in prayer…

(Ok, my friend and I complained a couple of times but under our breath and not until the very top…)

They are united simply in the spirit of the climb, not in dogma, as each religion holds a different belief about the origins of  the sacred footprint they seek to view at the top of Sri Pada.

And imagine that as each pilgrim takes this harmonious journey, usually commencing in the middle of the night, they are participating in something that  has been taking place for over 1,000 years.

We are all coming to pay our respects to

the large and distinct impression at the top of the mountain measuring aprox. 68″ long by 31″ at toes and 29″ at heel resembling a footprint.

According to Christian legend and closely believed by Muslims

(let’s hear it for the Christians and the Muslims agreeing on something),

Adam was hurled from Paradise for his disobedience and stood in penance for a thousand years on one foot at the top of Adam’s Peak, after which he was reunited with Eve on Mt. Arafat overlooking Mecca.

By the ninth century, this footprint was consequently considered one of the most sacred sites in the world..

 However the imprint was also identified by Buddhists as the Buddha’s footprint, by Hindus as that of Shiva, and later in the 1500′s the Portuguese attributed it to St. Thomas the Apostle.
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Let’s just say it’s a mighty popular footprint.

 

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Pardon the poor quality of these  photos but I only have a point & shoot camera and it was very dark and quite cold.

The flickering thread of light you see in the distance are the  climbers going before us.

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After  much research and consulting with others we decided that in order to appreciate the full Monty of the Sri Pada experience we too had to venture up in the middle of the night.

A quick trip to a men’s clothing shop to buy appropriate warm  jackets (albeit ones we would normally never be caught dead in that are now sacred garments we’ll never part with!)

An early dinner at the hotel followed by a midnight wake-up call to get layered up and ready for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the base of the mountain.

The idea is to begin the ascent at 2am to assure arrival at the summit in plenty of time to appreciate the sunrise;

“Pilgrims try to reach the summit before dawn to view the grand phenomenon known as the ‘ira-sevaya’ (the effulgence of the rising sun) puncturing the eastern horizon, like a ball of fire, casting a shadow of the mountain to fall on to the valley in the opposite direction, like a cone. The ‘ira sevaya’ is considered to mean the worship of the foot by the sun-god.”

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Yo, We be Pilgrims!

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As you can see, in some places it is quite dark. The steps are rough and would hardly pass code in the United States.
It is 5,200 steps to the top. Seriously. I Shiva you not :)

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While tempted to shop on the way up (there’s a shocker), I remember that between my water, blanket, camera, sunglasses,iPhone, insect repellent, lip gloss, magnifying mirror and sunscreen, I don’t have a lot of room left.

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It did occur to me that a green banana bought at the bottom might well be yellow by the time we reached the top.

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Fashion choices for making the pilgrimage up Sri Pada really run the gamut.

Although some fellow “pilgrims” appeared friendlier than others, It all felt very Jean-Paul Gaultier inspired.

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Nearly there…

“no, don’t say that one more time.”

No, seriously, we’re really almost there.

“Shhuuh uup”

60 more steps…

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Here it comes…

The music now is a MUST;

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Skelator Hands at the ready…

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Rising through the heavy duvet of clouds tucked around the shoulders of the mountains

Here Comes the sun…

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Dawn breaks casting a surreal orange glow upon the faces of the weary travelers huddled out of the wind below the shrine.

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Some of our fellow pilgrims

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At last the sun breaks free and starts to cast the shadows

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Where’s Waldo? I mean Slim??!

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Of course we had no appreciation of how high we actually were until morning came

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Top of the World Ma!

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Adam’s Peak rises 7,360ft. from the central highlands of Sri Lanka and can be seen by sea rising above the horizon 80 miles before the coastline comes into view

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We were filled with the glory of achievement and excited to make our way down, making the silly assumption that it would be much easier than the ascent.

We were SO wrong. Coming down was brutal. The constant jarring impact of your foot against the unforgiving stone steps was no fun.

I thought if I should ever so much as see another step for the rest of the holiday it would be too soon.

It took us over 3 hours to come down! We walked sideways like crabs for the next 3 days, explaining to anyone and everyone that we had

“CLIMBED ADAM’S PEAK”

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Naturally the shops were all closed up.

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We managed to find a few that were open and got awfully excited when we thought this was FUDGE.

Flies or no flies, that moment of “Fuuuuudddggge” that pranced across my brain was so exciting while it lasted.

Alas, not sure what it was but it wasn’t fudge-still I did consider buying it to put in my left shoe…

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And all up and down- Yay Us!!

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Can I tell you how lovely it was to come back to this welcome at our cozy hotel nestled in the tea fields (and be carried up the stairs?!!)

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Are YOU in the mood for Adventure yet?!

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For more information on Adam’s Peak click here; Sacred Sites

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