Summer groove

 Firstly, I'd like to thank my readers for the wonderfully positive response I received to my last post, about having blogged here for 14 years. I write; you respond; I adapt to the response. People seem to prefer posts with a variety of themes, and posts with pictures of trans ladies doing their thing. We aim to please.

Thumbs up

  

Partayyy!

It's the height of the holiday season here on the riviera and everyone's in bikinis (well, the men aren't - more fool them!) and we've had fun this last week. The condominium "pool party" in the garden (not to be confused with the "garden party" in the pool!) went really well. We all brought home-made food. I brought Ascolane, which - if you're British - might be described as "Scotch olives" after Scotch eggs, i.e. olives encased in mortadella (baloney) sausage, further covered in breadcrumbs. (To non-British readers, a "Scotch egg" is a boiled egg surrounded by pork sausagemeat in breadcrumbs.) Also and vitally(!) some fizzy wine. I think the resident wives try to outdo one another in what they make and, as a transwoman, I'm totally into food rivalry with those other women in the block, ha ha. Just kidding (not kidding).

Anyway, our evening garden party went well. I've also enjoyed a couple of meals with neighbours. More food news below.

The town summer fireworks were beautiful and somehow the bangs seem to have been toned down to more pet-friendly swooshes. Special mention for the golden feathery bursts and the many red love-hearts cascading over the harbour.  How they get bursting rockets to form red heart outlines, I don't know. Maybe the natural fall of the stars just happens to form that uneven shape with a pointy bottom and a bow-like top. But I was content as I watched from my eyrie up the mountain where I see the bursts and blooms at eye level.

It's crowded in town with concerts and summer sales in the shops. Nothing on the sales racks has caught my eye so far. Call me cynical, but these days if it's in the sales, it's because it wasn't selling in the first place because it wasn't worth buying! 

 

Foodie news

It's the mushroom season and I've been enjoying some nice dishes, pasta with porcini sauce especially. (I'd like to go mushroom hunting myself in public woodland as I used to do as a kid but you need a license these days because of overpicking by the more selfish.)

I'd never tried caprino ravioli until now: hand-made pasta shaped like moneybags rather than traditional pillows, filled with goat's cheese, honey and walnuts, and with a blue cheese sauce. Pretty amazing.

There's also the local "trombetta" (little trumpet) squash grown locally that makes a tasty savoury "green pie" that's a favoured local recipe and is nice hot or cold. The ones in this basket don't look so much like trumpets but some really do!

 

RIP Terence Stamp

"Kneel before Zod!"

No, not that. I especially remember this actor from his outstanding turn as Bernadette in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a film that perhaps did more to improve tolerance of trans, gay and drag people than almost any other single thing. 

 

A dip in the archives: Kew Gardens

I don't dip into my archives as much as I used to but recently my lovely friend Dee posted her recollections of a picnic she and I had at the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, better known as Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens are important in my trans life. The first time I left my own home dressed in 2010 I ended up there. I also went with friends Joanne and Petra in 2011. But here's a link to Dee's record of our trip. 

I've linked to Dee's blog before. Recommended reading. 

Thanks for the happy memories, Dee. 

Sue x