Phil Collins + Talented Gorilla = Brilliant.

Something dawned on me tonight as I was crocheting and listening to Phil Collins' greatest hits (Hold the comments please! I have already been informed that I am a premature granny. It happened one night in halls (dorms) when I was teaching my fellow 18-year-old room-mates how to knit. We were skint (poor) and had to make our own fun, ok?) I realised that my Texan hubby had never had the pleasure of watching the most EPIC advert (commercial) of ALL TIMES, brought to the UK audience by Cadbury's chocolate. You know which one I'm talking about Brits...here it comes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo


America, you are welcome!

Apologies Butterfly...

I've just found out that you're male. Sorry for calling you a 'she', but you shouldn't be so darn pretty! 

Apparently the Tiger Swallowtail is native to North America and the males have four tiger stripes on each fore-wing.

On a walk in the burbs...

Texas gave me a real treat today as I was walking and admiring houses in the burbs (is that creepy? It might be when I linger a little too long outside really nice ones, I have no idea). I spotted this butterfly (she's practically wearing a neon vest, so she was hard to miss) amongst the leaves:

I looked her up and she is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. Her wing span was about 3 inches. Beautiful!  

Blue sky thinking...

The Texas sky is HUGE. I really do feel like I'm in a snow globe, minus the snow. This fact hit me on our recent trip down the I-35 to San Antonio. The landscape is as flat as a pancake, and the ratio between land and sky is probably 1:5000. I could see for miles (I'm lying. I'm pretty blind without my glasses, so I could just about make out my husbands facial features in the seat next to me. He's always moaning at me to wear my glasses. Maybe I should. But I digress). I'm a hill person. As a child, I knew I was on holiday as soon as the rolling Devonshire hills came into view. They were (still are, unless someone's flattened them) green with smooth curves and freckled with sheep. I always thought I'd live somewhere with hills. But I moved from my flat homeland of Essex, to the equally flat Lincolnshire, to the doubly flat Texas. Hills are obviously saved for special occasions in my life! But, as we drove to San Antonio and the sky loomed above us, I realised something. The sky is bloomin' awesome! Just as beautiful as hills and mountains. And living in Texas, with it's vast flatness, I get to see even more of it. So that's good! That's my blue sky thinking. 

Hannah and Max...Part 2

Soooo....Hipster House was as I'd feared. I'm pretty sure they caught a disease there, which caused them to be poorly for two days. But, after a period of starvation, rest and my disinfectant dance, we rallied ourselves for the final few days, in which we ate frozen yoghurt, basked in the sun, shopped (sorry Max) and explored Down Town Dallas a little more. Check out the Pioneer Plaza Cattle Drive:

This guy was particularly pleased to see us! It's the laughing cow (Brits, you know what I'm talking about)

They had a fantastic time in Austin, and felt the early buzz of festival life as the city prepared for the South by South West bonanza. Hubby and I, however, got to experience the traffic it caused as we battled our way through the streets to pick them up and begin our journey to San Antonio. While sitting at a traffic light for a few hours, we witnessed one man and his kebab come face to face with the bonnet of a car. It was pretty scary, but luckily the man was unharmed, although his kebab, which he had only just purchased from the Kebabalicious van, was reduced to a smear on the windscreen and an empty pitta. 

In San Antonio, we were greeted by a re-enactment of the Alamo battle (although the participants refused to 'die' as it was raining and the ground was wet - pah!) and hordes of Spring Break crowds. We stayed at a 'quaint bungalow' that my sister found on airbnb, owned by the wonderful Marcus, who had stocked the bathroom and kitchen with every single thing we might need. The furniture was antique, the floor was wooden, the bed was squishy and the kettle whistled (such a homely sound!). Despite the rain, we had a great stay, and a brilliant meal at the Iron Cactus on the River Walk.

Hannah and Max arrived home safely, and we will now resume our Skype relationship until April, when I get to see their faces again in England!      

For my sister, aka 'the bacon lover'

Do I need to say more? 

Ok, I will. Featured are many incredible ideas for utilising bacon to its fullest potential, including 'bacon bowls' (which involves some serious lattice work), spiced bacon eight ways (I can't even NAME 8 spices), The Italian Elvis (you just know that's gonna be good) and Bacon Burger Dogs (...). But where bacon really comes alive is in the dessert section, where we have delicacies such as Bacon-Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, BLT Club Cake, Chocolate-Bacon Cupcakes, Pancetta Pops (I kid you not, they're basically bacon lolly pops - you can see one in the photo above) and Pecan-Bacon Squares 'a la mode' (I'm sorry, but you just can't posh-up bacon, no matter how much French you know). 

Who knew bacon was so versatile?! As the magazine encourages us to do, I say 'cheers' to bacon! 

Hannah and Max in Texas - Part 1

My sister and her boyfriend flew in last Thursday for a two week stay with us in Dallas. After a looooooooooooong old flight with a delay in Minneapolis, they finally arrived, dishevelled, jet-lagged and with the distinct odour of plane on their clothes.

So far we have been to Walmart (it was top of their list), Arbor Hills nature reserve, Fort Worth and Downtown Dallas. They have experienced a rodeo, a cowboy saloon, twinkies, biscuits, IHOP bliss, Texas Long Horn cattle, Texas heat (23 degrees centigrade), Texas ice (minus 6), Texas BBQ, Texas Shiner Bock beer and Texas pro-gun protesters (no joke, as soon as we got out of the car, there they were. Also, I'm on camera saying that I didn't feel nervous in their presence - what else could I say when my interviewer had a rifle slung over his shoulder?!).  

Hannah and Max are now on their way to Austin to stay in Hipster House (slightly worried) and to see the sights of the capital. 

My favourite moment so far (apart from the pro-gun protesters) was when Hannah ordered a side of beans with her Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits to be 'healthy' and then, on receipt of said beans, looked at me in horror and whispered 'there's bacon in them!'

Stay tuned for Part 2!