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1071, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Different mornings. Kleivstua, Norway

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1070, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Sunset only gets so far. London, UK

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1069, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

The joy of crunching snow. Kleivstua, Norway

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1068, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

The time has come. London, UK

delightful encounter

Just a Little Bird..:O), originally uploaded by law_keven.

A great tit showed up on the bird feeder today, and though I didn't have my camera close and the bird was too quick even for my love's iPhone, I got very excited to see it come and go a couple of times. Not only that I feel enormous joy in seeing the bird feeder is used (by the right creatures, as pigeons hover above it and constantly fail to land on something that small), but I congratulate myself for moving it in the back of the flat, by the window of our bedroom, and for lolling in bed on a Sunday just long enough to see the visitors. Surrounded by books and notebooks, magazines and plush toys that puzzle the cleaner each week (like Catty Batty), strawberries and chocolates, a sliced Granny Smith apple (the only type I enjoy, and even that rarely) and a rich coffee (our Peruvian beans enhanced by Mayan cocoa, cinnamon, and nutmeg—eat your heart out, Starbucks!), we got used with the idea of spending the day in London, quietly, instead of heading down to a Brighton of weather as moody as here (apologies, Gareth, we'll be more determined next time). It's a very good time to fly to Romania tomorrow, just as the rain arrives in Britain, and a take a welcome break from the maddening crowd in the mountains I haven't seen in three years.

tasty, tasty mint, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

And then, as I kept reading my book on the sparsely sunny windowsill in the study, one of my favourite visitors came to lunch on the grapefruit mint. I knew there was a reason to let those flowers bloom.

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1067, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Ready to go. Kleivstua, Norway

a lovely day

drying clothes in London, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

09:45 sleeping day: I left the poor tired creature to sleep. She was curled up very cutely, and the alarms were upsetting her. So I turned them all off, and I hope she will be in the bed for a long long time :) Signed

A large bird flying very close to the open window of the bedroom woke me up. The bloody pigeon was trying to get at my bird feeder, but it's so built that only smaller birds can enjoy it, and as I got up, I chuckled at that. Mirona 1, pigeons zilch.

Even before seeing the sweet note waiting for me on the table, I stopped in the kitchen. Not to get the coffee going, I skip coffee on certain days (we're also out of the beans we like). No, just to start my day with the numbing ritual that manages to start my brain: putting the dried dishes away.

And then I started sorting the cutlery drawer, something that was needed for ages but never urgent. This way, I spotted other things, like the jam jars on a nearby shelf. We hardly ever eat jam, but I decided to try one received as a gift. I then discovered it had run all over the shelf, wiped the shelf, and finally had a taste, curious.

Blimey, O'Reilly! It tasted of oil, not even sure whether for humans or cars. It was so sick, that taste, that it covered the fruit and the sugar and anything else. To the bin it went, and another jar came up, the leftover violet jelly... covered in mould. The bin came handy again.

And so, before my brain was even on, I ended up washing two cute jars of useless content, and tasting OUR jelly for a lasting impression. My, it's good! Not perfect, but surely good, and good enough for a first go at something requiring so much work. And though plenty jars traveled to friends and family in both countries, I haven't heard complaint yet. People could simply be too polite.

Having read the note, I had my first cigarette, noticed the clothes drying in the window across the street, and pondered life in London. In good years (there was only one so far) we dry our clothes outside. Otherwise, they decorate our rooms, spread over doors, lamps, and heaters. Very elegant, don't you think?

Some employ all manners of indoor drying racks, but in London doll-sized flats that seems to me suicidal, at least. Not sure why a king size bed red sheet on my door as I write seems less dangerous. It will be a very happy day indeed when we move to a place made for people rather than pets.

My love made a surprise come back from his event in town, ready to cook lunch for me and bringing the tasty British strawberries, still in their right season of sweetness. But instead of lolling in the bath I had ready, we ended up doing Ocado and updating the main grocery list, which makes us awfully middle class and mannerist foodies.

The lunch was simple, homemade humus and noodles with dried chili, fresh mint, and fish sauce. It brought about more changes in the Ocado order (!) and the thought of Kulu Kulu Sushi, last had in December last year, I believe. So here I am, ready to get dressed for dinner out, having done some work and sorted some errands, and excited to have also gotten two tickets to Synechdoche, New York. Not bad for a day of no plans.

P.S. These posts have gotten longer, OK. What better sign that I can breathe deeply again?

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1066, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Beauty in death. Kleivstua, Norway

google search shows wimbledon score in real time

google search real time wimbledon score, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

I've heard from @suw that running a Google search for Andy Murray may have something brilliant in store and whoa, there it is, at the top of the page: the Wimbledon score of his match that is now on, facing Andy Roddick. I obviously haven't gotten rid of the geek bug, but let me tell you why this is so terribly exciting (other than me being in the office with no time to follow the match on screen). It is a step forward from Google towards real-time results, crawling more interesting corners of the web and bringing us what is HOT NOW. If you can imagine that Google is fighting Facebook and Twitter for our attention, you can easily see how real-time results might just enable Google to get us back on board. As I blogged, and refreshed the search page, Andy Murray has just gone from 1-0 to 5-4 in the second set. Well played, Andy! Well played, Google! Also, have you seen scoopler? Real-time search engine backed up by solid investment. Not my discovery per se, but probably the best find at Twitter Dev Nest London.

Cross-posted on catching stories.

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1065, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

The tourists' view & the king's view. Kleivstua, Norway

google blog search finally has atom & rss feeds

google blog search new feature atom rss feeds, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Not surprisingly, this was the most requested feature for Google Blog Search, atom and RSS feeds (just like Google News has, for example). The lack of such functionality until today meant, in my case, not EVER using the service directly (if some of its juice got into Google search, fine). But now I am giddy with options, and cannot wait to pile my new feeds high. Why? That's why. While their results are not perfect, they're better than defunct Technorati and such services, they're free, and they're delivered to my feed reader (Google Reader, how funny!) whenever they are indexed rather than whenever I remember to run a search. They're also a much better experience as a feed than, say, Google Alerts (of which I'll remove most), avoiding repetition hopefully, though you can still get blog search results by email, as an alternative. Ultimately, they're good because they exist, because they're possible. Don't take feeds for granted. I did, and now I'm sorry: Twitter search has had feeds ever since it was called summize (loved that name & logo), but I've subscribed to very few as Twitter also had more or less ALL the history of a search, pages and pages of results going back in time. Which then got shortened to some 30 days or so. And recently even more, to about 12 days or so. Meaning that soon you won't be able to access anything old from Twitter, unless you had been subscribed to a feed (I'm now subscribed to all Twitter feeds of interest, you bet). Interesting, no? Almost seeing a revenue stream there, IN ALL THAT DATA, if not a business model, but that's a different story. Subscribe to the feeds of your top keywords in Google Blog Search and Google News. History is a good thing.

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1064, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Silence. Sundvollen & Kleivstua, Norway

in search of time

gazania row, and buds, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Can one be zen and out of time simultaneously? Can there be a place for intellectual panic coinciding with emotional calm? Because that's where I am these days, in zenic. Seeing so clearly what should be done, can be done, will be done, and then what won't. The surprise, if any, is the effortless ability to accept how things are, and to proceed without delay (other than, of course, included and accepted procrastination). I don't know what got into me, and it certainly isn't bliss, but I can live with this, I can live with zenic. Especially if I also get back to yoga, seeing that my left knee has decided to be out of order occasionally. Bikram himself says, and the teachers don't get tired of repeating it in class, that you can fuck with the Gods, but you cannot fuck with your knees. I'm sure he uses a proper word like mess, but that's not how I stored the line.

Meanwhile, taking a moment here and there to help my babies get through the first heat wave this country has seen since 2006 (a legendary summer, some say, that I spent in Bucharest, rather), with extra water and more serious bug fighting, I marveled at the speed with which developments show up with the sun and food they're getting. Pinkus, the bougainvillea is back, its first buds ready. The honeysuckle, under constant attack from a sticky fungus, is striving to grow new flowers. I haven't in three years seen a row of gazania (that pink flower, someone finally enlightened me to its name on Flickr) that glorious, and the revived chili plant is in bloom! Where are those bees when you need them?

Last night I made contact (twice! blame it on the beer) with the lady who grows this amazing garden on Cleveland Street. My biggest fan had the brilliant, if wacky, if endearing idea that I should start a pub meeting of local gardeners doing much with little, and Emma was all up for it! Now, if only I get myself into gear... I need more photos of flowery wonders on the streets around us, though I have documented at least half of them already. But all is much better to show on a classy invite just how diverse forms our passion takes, and in just how many unlikely spaces. Fingers crossed that Satruday is sunny, and there will come my first photo trip.

On the way home from the office, I couldn't help notice that the partying season of Fitzroy Square is getting bigger and posher: what with a toilet like that outside the garden? I've had the pleasure to use one during the first wedding last year, and blimey, does it feel proper! It even has a flat TV screen blasting Ice Age or some other nonsense by the sinks, because where would our loo quality time be without a spot of moving pictures? It must be envy speaking through me, dear God! I have a zen bathroom (speaking of zen) right here and yet lust over the mobile corporate loo parked in front of the park? Zenic, I tell you, zenic!

Fitzroy Square party, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

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1063, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Precisely. Kleivstua, Norway

flowers. again. really?

the first I caught, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Really :) I was finally up early enough and alert enough to catch a morning glory in bloom. And while it's not the blue I long for and will hopefully end up seeing later this summer, its purple is properly stained... with blue. Oh, joy!

oh, speaking of cuteness, how about this?

got some cleaning to do, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Meet one of my favourite chipmunks in the whole world! He (she?) lives at The Nursery in Ipswich and sees me every few months, that is, each time I'm in town. Or so I like to believe. No idea whether I'm really cooing to the same cute patch of fur each time round, but it doesn't stop me from going gaga. More so than over squirrels, which are some sort of relatives. I didn't stray much.

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1062, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Finding my way. Kleivstua, Norway

I haven't left the house today...

in bloom today, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

...but I had lovely company, and I was a busy bee. What I like about these flowers other than their obvious burst of colour is that several of them manage to be in bloom at the same time, even if they have different cycles. Recently, I wondered why I post so much about my babies, why it is so important and omnipresent. It became clear that they're my easiest get away, closest source of daily excitement, and preferred pastime when my brain needs a break. And, yes, I need to get out more. I plan to take photo trips soon, because this isn't enough practice, and I love being among people. Sometimes :)

koala bears begging for water?

KoalaSA, originally uploaded by icml2009.

For me, best thing beyond lolcats must be koala bears, though pandas come high, too. The story is old, but still terribly endearing, and I have mom to thank for emailing me about it. The author of the photo writes: South Australia experienced a heat wave at the end of January. This koala knows the best way to keep cool! The creatures came to people's houses and stopped hikers for a drink, as well. A whole bath must have been a whole other story.

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1061, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Local flavour. Sundvollen, Norway

three magic moments

three moments, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

The clock shows the time when cocktails were served last night. Martinis with a hint of orange peel that, for lack of better name, I'll call Orange Martini (tough one, I know). From that point to perhaps 3 a.m., the following dishes from my favourite chef graced the tiny balcony table, as we moved from Martini to white wine and then to coffee, the only thing I contributed:

1. walnuts roasted in Romanian forest flowers honey, with salt and oregano (small bite next to drinks)

2. clams with pancetta, chili, garlic and some more goodness (hot and divine tapas)

3. salad of smoked fishes with onion, capers, and some secret stuff, served on toast (I could eat this daily)

4. Spanish omelet with garlic, pancetta, and broad beans (a dieing tapas tradition, what a shame!)

5. salad of oranges and olives with harissa and cumin (Moroccan delight, must eat more often)

6. perfectly grilled beef fillet with new potatoes salad of vinegar and tarragon flavour, and a generous touch of Hollandaise sauce

7. his first such dessert ever, delicious passion fruit cheesecake (he joked that four OK portions of the recipe turned into 6 more than OK portions in the process, so I'd better like it or it'll be looking at me from the fridge for a while and, umm, I love it?)

A bit stuffed, even with the very small portions, and happy, I decided that the best thing after being spoiled can only be... being spoiled daily. I am blessed with such an amazing cook, so blessed that only my competition spirit allows me to enter the kitchen. That, and him not mastering this level of debauchery on a daily basis.

Today, what to do? Finish the beautiful tapas, and the first cheesecake, still too big to take in in one go, and then walk off all that in the park, as soon as the rain stopped. With great joy did I come across some of the most beautiful weeds in the world: lady's/ yellow bedstraw and scabiosa, my favourite of all times.

I was especially entranced by lady's/ yellow bedstraw, to the point where Chris became uncomfortable that I was picking more than one stem. But, hey, this flower goes a long way in Romanian history! It is used to mark the coming of summer ever since Roman priestesses of Diana (Artemis) performed their rituals on our land.

Pagan, perhaps, but the Orthodox church eventually embraced it, and how could one fight a rite of passage when heavens open and any wish can be fulfilled? Funny enough, my mother reminded me about it last week, when I lamented I haven't seen the plant in England. Well, hello, summer, and your promised heat wave next week!

free day at wimbledon makes room for archive

Finally got round to posting the two videos I made at Wimbledon. Enjoy a few ball exchanges and typical moments (players entering the court, players winning, referees changing) on the day when Wimbledon is quiet. We busied ourselves with the namesake movie, one of the few ever to watch again together. Who would have thought they got so many details right?

Lleyton Hewitt plays Juan Martin Del Potro at Wimbledon 2009 from gorgeoux on Vimeo. Hewitt won in the most beautiful match of the day.

Andy Murray plays Ernests Gulbis at Wimbledon 2009 from gorgeoux on Vimeo. Easy job for Murray to pass Gulbis in the third and final match of the day.

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1060, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

Pit stop. Kleivstua, Norway

new home for fallen babies

new invention, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

The wind has quite a talent to break some of our flowers at the prime of their lives. Myself, then, I have more than one complimentary talent: I secure as many as allow it, I hide them under larger plants, away from the wind, I spread the fallen babies around the house in tiniest vases, and I snip off the ones that look bad outside but would add colour inside for a couple more days. All fine and dandy, but so much work! Enter cute solution: one tiny ceramic pot gotten for free and the Camden Council Give & Take, some wire, some tools, and fifteen minutes later, a single, new home for fallen babies. More so, on top of the balcony table that is too small to hold a vase. More than securing the pot, it was paramount to secure the flowers, so the pot is filled with glass beads that have so far kept the tiny bouquet in place through a serious patch of rain and wind. Oh, my father should be so proud of my DIY skills!

latest news from the garden

latest news, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

The fifth hyacinth is in bloom, and for posterity, anyone can see it perfumes our garden at the same time with the roses. In June! I stopped fighting the oddity of it all. The grapefruit mint also started blooming, and the first morning glory yet will probably pop tomorrow. All good on the balcony front :)