Monday, September 24, 2012

Breakfast in the Garden in September

Two weekends ago my husband and I were having a nice long breakfast in the garden and I thought I would like to share some photos of it with you. While my husband was making pancakes from scratch, I watered the garden like a mad woman (this is what I usually do here on the weekends of August and September) and tried to set the table nicely.

While I was placing our light weight tables and chairs in a position in the garden, where I wanted us to sit it occurred to me that it would be fun to re-evoke some memories of the beautiful visits to British gardens and landscapes, castles, and not to forget the many cream teas that we had. So I got some of the souvenirs out that we brought back with us from our last vacation in England and set the table with them.




I love, love, love the Union Jack cushion, which we bought at the very last minute at London Heathrow Airport, before we had to board the plane that took us back home.



This has nothing to do with England, but with fun. My husband bought this tropical fruit called Dragon Fruit to surprise me. I have never seen a thing like this before.




The color of the fruit flesh is simply amazing. Nothing is manipulated here with Photoshop, this is just as it naturally comes! The peel of the fruit is very interesting, too. It is easy to see how it got its name. The taste was a little disappointing to me, though. There was hardly any at all to detect for my taste buds.



My husband made a decent stack of pancakes, didn't he? He also prepared a delicious sauce out of blueberries, which you can see a tiny bit of in the left pitcher. In the right pitcher is simply maple sirup, which always goes well with pancakes.




 I couldn't wait to sit down and indulge myself. It all looked so tempting.







The lollipops were a nice welcome treat from the friendly owners of the second cottage that we rented in West Sussex on our last trip. We never bothered to try them, because I was expecting to find a hard candy like mass of something super sweet under the cute Union Jack wrapping (after all it was the time of the Queen's Jubilee), but to my surprise they were simply made out of decent milk chocolate! Yummy!




The motto of the mugs should just become mine! Love the crown and the dark blue color, one of my favorites!




Even early in the morning we discovered that the sun umbrella was desperately needed. It comes in handy that we have one that is portable (at least by my husband), so that we can move it wherever we would like to set up our tables in the garden.

Believe me, I enjoyed our little outdoor breakfast very much and was in a really good mood afterwards and I think my husband felt the same. It doesn't require that much of an effort to do and you can get so much out of it. I just can recommend that you should try it sometimes, too, if you are not already doing it.

See you in the garden!

Christina

15 comments:

  1. Christina it looks great! The dragon fruit looks wonderful! I have picked it up in the farmers market before, the colors are amazing. Love love your pillow too.
    Jeannine

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  2. Such a beautiful setting, Christina ! Great ideea to use the souvenirs from England. Good memories are priceless at a breakfast like this ...
    I would chose the pancakes with blueberry sauce ... Thank you !

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  3. Dear Christina ~ What a romantic and happy post, breakfast out doors with your love, with English bits and pieces, reminding you of your lovely time in England. That dragon fruit is amazing in color and in the skin. The pancakes are making me hungry.

    Thanks for the inspiration.

    FlowerLady Lorraine

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  4. Fabulous effort with your outdoor breakfast! The pancakes looks so yummy and love the setting, like having tea cakes in one of the nice country English garden cafes here :)

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  5. What a wonderful way to just stop and enjoy a meal. Love all the British touches. I have seen dragonfruit in stores, but have never tried one. What an amazing color it is inside! Those pancakes look yummy - I may have to have a pancake supper!

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  6. Jeannine, thanks I am glad you are a fan of the Union Jack pillow, too :-)!

    Dani, thank you too, for your kind comment. You are so right about memories.

    Lorraine, what can I say? Thank you very much for your very nice comment!

    Mark and Gaz, if you say the setting looks like one in an English garden cafes I guess then I have achieved what I wanted :-)!

    Holley, I feel "just stopping and enjoying a meal", as you put it, can make all of a difference. I certainly should do this more often.

    Christina

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  7. The fruit is unknown to me but it looks beautiful. Great to have a breakfast in the sun surrounded by your memorie's of England.
    Have a wonderful day Christina.

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  8. Marijke, this is one of the advantages of living in San Diego: you can have breakfast just wearing a T-shirt in the beginning of autumn :-)!

    Christina

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  9. How fun - looks scrumptious! We eat outside sometimes in the evening, but I can't remember ever eating breakfast in the garden. Hopefully our nice weather will last and we can try it some weekend!

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  10. It's still a bit cold in the mornings here to have breakfast in the garden, we don't usually start that until November, but we have had a few morning teas out there in the last week. Dragon fruit has more sweetness and flavour if it is properly ripe - it is usually sold unripe and you have to let it ripen for a few days until it "gives" a bit when you press the skin. Your breakfast looks very regal!

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  11. What a great breakfast! I have as many meals as possible outside in the summer. That dragonfruit is wild!

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  12. charlie b., thanks, having breakfast in the garden is simply fun, at least I feel that way :-)! Hope you have a chance to try it out soon!

    Lyn, will follow your advice and let the next Dragon Fruit ripen a little bit more. I don't have anything against a regal breakfast :-)!

    Tammy, I also love to dine alfresco as often as possible. Can't agree more, the Dragon Fruit is quite something!

    Christina

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  13. What a charming breakfast you two had! I love to dress up the table and eat outside too. That stack of pancakes and the dragon fruit looked delicious. Thanks for sharing, Christina. All the best! :-)

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  14. Beth, thanks for stopping by and your nice comment!

    Christina

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  15. I always eat breakfast in my garden and play Puzzle Mochalov

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