Meandering Monday

Today I meandered through our neighborhood before heading to the walking path to do a few rounds.

So much more to see while wandering like these lovely pinwheel marigolds.

And busy bees wherever I go.

A true case of urban gardening at this corner house where veges and tomatoes were planted to disguise the electric box.

A cozy kitty.

Wildflowers.

The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see.

Albert Einstein

Nature with her wealth of birds and flowers,

Has in her heart a place for every weed;

For her quick eyes require no microscope

To note the varied wonders and delights

That the Creator's humblest works possess.

Martha Lavinia Hoffman, "Nature"

Have a great week!

Stroll With Me

Cloud-filled skies on yesterday's walk.
(Today was rather hazy and gray.)

If I walk to our neighborhood walking path and go around it 5 times, I get in my 10,0000 steps for the day.

But sometimes I lose count of what round I'm on.

Probably because I'm distracted by the bees,

and the moths;

(sometimes both at the same time);

and the butterflies.

[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.

Elizabeth von Arnim, The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen

Found sunflowers unexpectedly growing along the side of the road in a place they've never grown before.

Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.

ECKHART TOLLE, Stillness Speaks

Sunday blessings,

A Milestone Day

Yesterday my husband celebrated a milestone birthday.

He is now officially a sexagenarian ... :)

(someone in their 60's).

I made cupcakes that were labeled the BEST vegan vanilla cupcakes, but they weren't really the best at all so won't be sharing the recipe.

The dairy free chocolate frosting was better than the cupcake and since it was only made with soaked cashews, water, coconut sugar and cocoa powder, I used it to sweeten my oatmeal this morning.

For his birthday lunch, we went to our favorite Japanese restaurant which is in walking distance of where we live.

We both had green tea and miso soup, shared a spinach and roasted pumpkin salad, (he had shrimp teppanyaki) and I had spinach & shiitake gyoza.  We are usually about the only ones in the restaurant at 1:00 p.m. and the manager is always very nice to us.  I've given her some small  hearts before so this time left her a bigger one when we paid the check.

In the evening, we headed into the city to the old souk.

Souk Al Mubarakiya

Where I visited an oud shop for the first time.

 I wanted to get more information on exactly what it is and where it comes from since it is very popular here.

Apparently (according to Wikipedia) it's agarwood (burned as incense or made into perfumes) that is only formed in a certain tree when it becomes infected with a mold.  There was one variety from Sri Lanka ...

 In Sri Lanka Agarwood producing Gyrinops walla tree is known as "Walla Patta" (වල්ල පට්ට) ...

so we asked the guy if we could see what it smells like.

And it smelled like burning wood (very expensive wood, in fact).

Some very unique incense burners.

Before heading home, we had tea and a puff pasty dessert filled with nuts, sultanas and coconut (much better than the vanilla cupcakes).

Happy weekend!

Welcome 2019!

After hubby did his end-of--year paperwork, we went for a nice long walk.

And then went downtown for lunch.

He doesn't usually go for Italian food so I was surprised that he chose to go to BiCE.

He read that it's the third best Italian restaurant in Kuwait so thought we'd give it a try since we are looking for new places to go.

Apparently there's piano music at night.

I decided to look up the restaurant and found a history of how it started in the 1920's which you can read about here.

Since I eat plant based, it's not always easy (especially in an Italian restaurant) to find items on the menu that aren't covered in cream or cheese.  

Breads and dips were complementary; I had a very simple meal of minestrone soup, beet & spinach salad, and rosemary roasted potatoes (even brought half the spinach salad and potatoes home because it was too much for me to eat in one sitting.)

 The complex the restaurant is in is celebrating winter with different painted and real scenes scattered about.

 Hope you are having a lovely day so far.

Happy New Year!