wrong until you make it right..

This is one of those songs I put on when I'm feeling a bit off. There's just something so calming and comforting about it.. Maybe it's the tambourine. Maybe it's the synth effect on the vocals that give it a dreamy, surreal mood. Or maybe it's the repetition and hammering-home of the message - that everything will in fact be alright. :) 

What's your go-to pick-me-up song?

caramel without the cavities ;-)

I'm on a Psychiatry rotation at the moment, and though I'm really enjoying it, Tuesdays are a day that all my group used to dread. We have lectures from 9-5 in a stuffy little room in St Pat's on some pretty heavy-going topics. Come 5pm (come 3pm even), brains are fried and at least half the class is asleep/playing on their phones/AWOL. 

One of the girls in our group was more astute. Anna observed our battles to stay awake, watched our incessant scrolling through Facebook, took note of all those tactical toilet breaks. She recognised the need to make Tuesdays a little less heinous and a little more delicious. And so Treat Tuesday was born! 

Each week, 3 or 4 people from the group bake something and bring it in to share at our 11 o'clock break. Offering have included brownies, cookies, fifteen's (a delicious Northern Irish treat), malteser squares and a very impressive Pavlova and Yule Log (although maternal involvement was suspected in this case). The ensuing sugar high is enough to keep you going till, well, at least 3.30pm. 

When my turn to bake for Treat Tuesday came around, I decided to experiment. I had wanted to try out date caramel for awhile and happened to have a bag of dates in my cupboard at the time (pilfered from home, of course :P), so I thought I'd try a healthy version of the delicious classic millionaire shortbread. 
I was a bit worried about how they would go down amongst my classmates - not everyone is a bit of an 'eat-clean' hun like myself - but the empty lunchbox by 11.15 told me that they were a success! Nobody seemed to notice the difference - even my housemate Rachel, caramel shortbread fanatic and simultaneous raisinphobe, ate one and thought it was delicious ;) 

These squares are no-bake. The base is gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan and the caramel is dairy-free and refined sugar free and can easily be made vegan by substituting honey for agave. I used normal chocolate on top but this also could be easily substituted for a vegan alternative :)
Use a square brownie tray to make these. 

Healthy Caramel Squares

caramelly heaven..

Ingredients

Base

180g ground almonds

100g oats

4 tbsp coconut oil, melted

2 tbsp honey

Optional: 50g desiccated coconut

Caramel

250g pitted dates

2 tbsp honey/agave

1 tbsp smooth almond butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Dash of water

Topping

150g milk or dark chocolate

Method

1. Place the oats, ground almonds, sugar and coconut if using into a food processor and blitz briefly. Sitr in the coconut oil until combined. (If using honey, omit the sugar and melt the honey with the coconut oil.)

2. Press the mix firmly into the base of a tin lined with parchment paper - I had to use a large lunchbox and cling film due to lack of resources :P Place this in the freezer for 20mins until firm.

3. In the meantime, make the caramel. Place the dates into the food processor and blend until they have broken up and are starting to look like caramel. Add in the honey, almond butter and vanilla extract and blend to combine. Add a small amount of water - just enough that is necessary to loosen the mix. 

4. Take your biscuit base from the freezer and spread the caramel evenly on top. Return to the freezer for 1-1.5 hours until the caramel has set.

5. Once the caramel has set, remove the tin from the freezer. Melt the chocolate and spread on top. Allow to harden. 

6. When it comes to cutting the squares, take a cup of boiled water and a knife. Heat the knife in the water for a few minutes, wipe dry and then use to cut the chocolate. This should stop the chocolate breaking in large chunks and give you a clean cut. 

7. Store the squares in the fridge overnight or until you're ready for some guilt-free indulgence! :)

having a whale of a time

So, this is the first of those, ahem, weekly travel posts I loosely you promised a while ago :P apologies for the tardiness - I've been really busy the last while baking spelt scones, writing scenes for a panto and most recently, watching some of my classmates get half-naked on stage while wearing nipple tassles. But that's a story for another day ;)

Earlier in the blog I shared a picture of the moon that I took during my trip to Mexico in summer 2013. I spent four weeks in the Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve, located just south of Tulum, monitoring coral as part of a marine conservation project. The Sian Ka'an reserve includes a section of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.

I'm just HOOKED on diving...

All going well, we dived 8 or 9 times during the week, with weekends free to travel to local sites and cities. I could probably dedicate a whole blog to stories and photos from this trip - from diving with sting rays, barracudas, turtles and more, to guzzling tacos, to partying in Playa del Carmen (an excellent place to celebrate your 21st birthday, I'll have you know) - but for now, I'm just going to concentrate on one stand-out experience that remains to this day unlike anything else I've done.

Shark-diving was never something that had featured prominently on my extensive and ever-growing bucket-list. It wasn't that I found the idea daunting, or that I'd decided I wouldn't do it under any circumstances - the idea of being lowered into the sea in a confined space, unable to swim around, just didn't particularly appeal to me. So when fellow volunteers at Pez Maya (our camp in the Sian Ka'an) started recommending a trip to Cancun to dive with whale sharks, I was hesitant at first. However, they recounted a very different tale to what I had imagined. No cages, no barriers, but instead, the opportunity to actually dive in and swim freely alongside these amazing, colossal fish - I was sold. Jaws, here I come. 

The waters off Cancun play host to migrating whale sharks from mid-May to mid-September. Myself and another volunteer, Ali, went swimming with the sharks on our last weekend in Mexico. We booked with a company in Playa, and on the morning of the trip, travelled from there to the port in Cancun, where many tour companies convened to have breakfast, distribute life-jackets and rent out wetsuits. There were underwater disposable cameras for sale or Go Pros for rent, which usually I would dismiss as money-making gimmicks - however, this is one occasion when it's worth spending the money. You're deFINitely going to want pictures of this. Luckily, we were already equipped with a Go Pro, on loan from a fabulous Pez Maya buddy :)

It was a one and a half hour bumpy boat ride from the shore to where we would find the sharks, during which our anticipation and excitement continued to grow. The same could not be said for the grumpy German girl sitting across from us, whose face suggested that each bump drove the figurative stick further up her - ;) 

We were rEELly excited..

So it was to her relief and our delight that we arrived at the whale sharks' feeding area and joined the throng of boats already there. The 8 of us on our boat were divided up into 4 pairs, each pair having three opportunities to swim with the sharks. Our Mexican instructor fired off some rapid instructions - "Go when I say go swim ahead of de shark don't touch de shark don't get hit by de tail ees very painful" - wait, sorry; what was that last one?! "Ok, go go GO!"

I don't think I will ever forget that first moment when I stuck my head under the water and saw this 25-foot creature advancing towards me, its gargantuan mouth wide open and ready to swallow me up. The National Geographic profile on whale sharks comments on how "the beast.. passively filters everything in its path" - I still believe that if I hadn't gotten out of the way, that shark would have just gone on swimming and obliviously sucked me into its depths.

I'd ROD-ther not be eaten, thanks.

It was absolutely exhilarating. Our instructor would tell us where and when to look, and we would stick our heads under and fin furiously in an attempt to stay alongside these gentle giants. More than once I had to scramble to avoid being hit by a massive tail sailing serenely in my direction.. 

I'm not CODding you, I was struggling to keep up..

Ali and I couldn't resist swimming as close as possible to them, snapping away with the Go Pro at all times of course - here you can see the shark feeding on some small fish, and below you can see two remoras hitching a ride on his back!

If you need an idea of SCALE, there's me up in the corner - 

these guys are roughly the size of a bus!

We ended up getting to swim with them four times - grumpy German girl didn't want to take her last go, surprise surprise - and still it wasn't enough. It was surreal to be so close to such a huge creature, and for it to be completely unphased by our presence. If you ever need to be reminded of your insignificance in the world, I can assure you a whale shark is the creature to do it ;)

The boat ride back to the shore - and the rest of the day, for that matter - was spent reliving every second we'd spent in the water - they were "actually so big like" ;) It truely was an unforgettable affair and something I would recommend to anyone (bar maybe those with a fear of fish. I don't think any of you ichthyophobics out there would be too keen on it). The SOLE problem I had with it, much like a safari in Africa, was the potential disturbance casued to wild creatures by the sheer volume of tourists and the noise of the vehicles. It's hard to believe that this doesn't bother the sharks in some way - how great of a disturbance this is, I'm not sure. If you do ever find yourself in Cancun though, and you decide to swim with the whale sharks, make sure to do 3 things; 

1. Rent a Go Pro.

2. Get on the boat with the crabby European lady, in the hope that you can steal one of her turns later. And

3. Remember the phrase "passively filters". Ain't nobody want to end up like Jonah.  

(PS - I hope y'all noticed my none-too-subtle fish puns dotted throughout this post ;P )

spelt for choice :-)

I headed down to Athlone this weekend to visit my parents and avail of some lovely home comforts - the fireplace, the fridge, the fully-functioning shower.. One of my favourite things to do at home though is to take advantage of my mother's well-stocked cupboards and proper kitchen equipment - things our student house is definitely lacking - to bake and cook!

I'd planned on making coconut scones this weekend, after tasting a delicious one in Le Petit Parisien during the week. When I opened the press to get out my ingredients, an unfamiliar bag caught my eye. Wholewheat spelt flour. Hmm. I'd heard of spelt flour but had never used it in baking before. So I decided to experiment!

This is the flour I used - available in Holland and Barrett for €3.99!

I didn't have a recipe for these, so I was a bit nervy about how they'd turn out - but they got a warm reception from my trusted tasters :) Using frozen fruit does means they don't rise as much as other scones, so just have your oven really hot and don't have your mix too wet. 

Wholewheat spelt coconut and raspberry scones

Slurp.

Ingredients
- 200g wholewheat spelt flour
- 140g self-raising flour (***originally I said white flour and 1 tsp baking powder, but after further experimenting, I decided self-raising is the way to go!)
- pinch of salt
- 50g caster sugar
- 50g dessicated coconut
- 150g butter (I use Flora)
- a handful of frozen raspberries (or fresh blueberries)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 120ml buttermilk

Method
1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Sift your flours and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the coconut.
2. Stir in the sugar.
3. Add in the butter and using your fingertips, rub it into the flour until the mix resembles dry breadcrumbs. As always, handle as little as possible!
4. Add the raspberries
5. Pour in the buttermilk and egg, retaining a little bit of the mix for a glaze. 
6. Bring everything together with your hand.
7. Flour a work surface. Turn the mixture out onto your surface and roll it out to a 4-5cm thickness. Using a scone cutter, cut out your scones and place on a floured baking tray. Brush the tops with your remaining egg-mix.
8. Bake for 15-20mins, until golden-brown.  

a turkey's not just for christmas..

I've always been a huge fan of meatballs, even in my highchair days.

Who needs a fork when you've got hands? Now, pas-ta garlic bread..

During my school years, one of the best answers I could receive to the question of "What's for dinner today?" was "Mamma mia, it'sa meatball day!". (The Dolmios of Athlone, we were known as. ;) )   

One day I came home to find meatballs already on the table, nestled in a steaming swirl of spaghetti and doused in a rich, glistening tomato sauce, with a dusting of fresh parmesan on top. I was salivating before my schoolbag had slipped from my shoulders.

I approached the dinner table with the gusto of a hungry heifer hurtling her way to the trough - but then I stopped. Something was awry. These were not normal meatballs. They smelt different. They were pale. And when I finally worked up the courage to sever a small morsel away with my fork and eat it, they tasted nothing like the succulent beef I had expected. 

I was confused. Disorientated. I almost felt betrayed. But I kept eating, and soon I began to enjoy this alien alimentary affair. Really enjoy it. Before I knew it, my plate was as clean as it is in the above picture, and I was asking for seconds.

This was my first introduction to turkey mince, and I've been a fan ever since. It's a great source of protein and is lower in fat, cholesterol and calories than beef mince. Plus it tastes delicious! I use it in burgers, chillis, stir frys, meatballs and, most recently, I experimented with a turkey lasange.

Let me put modesty aside for a minute. IT WAS UNREAL.

I wasn't thinking ahead as I was cooking, so I'm afraid this Insta-hun pic is the only photo I have. I think it captures the tastiness pretty well though :D
It's a really simple recipe, so no excuses - get going!

Tur-rific Turkey Lasange

Ingredients

 - 450g turkey mince

 - 1 onion, finely chopped

 - 2-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (depending on how much of a garlic fiend you are)

 - 1 courgette, diced

 - 1 pepper, diced

 - 1 can of chopped tomatoes

 - 1 tbsp tomato purée

 - 1 bay leaf

 - A handful of fresh basil, chopped

 - A sprinkle of each of cumin seeds, paprika, chilli flakes

 - 200g feta cheese

 - 1 egg

 - 50-100ml of milk

 - 150g spinach, washed

 - grated cheese of your choice for topping
 - wholewheat/gluten-free pe-cooked lasange sheets

 - oil for frying

 - salt and pepper

Method

1. Place 1 tbsp oil in pan and fry your onion and garlic over a medium heat for about 5-7 minutes until the onions have softened. Add a sprinkle of cumin seeds - around half a tsp.

2. Add your turkey mince and fry until it is fully cooked. Make sure there are no sneaky pink bits - break it up as necessary. Once cooked through, remove this mix from the pan and set aside.

3. Fry your courgette and pepper until softened. You made need to add a little more oil.

4. Add the turkey, onion and garlic mix back into the pan and stir everything together. Pour in your can of chopped tomatoes and 1 tbsp tomate purée. Then fill the empty tomato can one-third of the way with water and add this into your pan. Add in your bay leaf, basil, some paprika (I do it by sight, so I'd guess around 1 tsp) and a quarter tsp chilli flakes and season with salt and pepper. Mix this all together and bring to a simmer. Leave it simmering for around 10-15 minutes until reduced.

5. Meanwhile, make your white sauce. Break up the feta into a medium size bowl and soften with a fork. Crack in the egg and mix it in with the fork. Then add enough milk to bring it together like a sauce - you want it quite thick, not runny. 

6. Put the spinach in a frying pan over a high heat and stir until wilted down. Add this into your feta mix and stir together.

7. Time to assemble! I used a square dish that was roughly 10" x 10", and only used two pasta layers to make it lighter. First place a layer of meat in and spread it out well. Top with your lasanga sheets, making sure all the meat is covered and none of the sheets overlap. You may need to break a couple of sheets to do this. Next, spoon in enough of the feta-spinach sauce to cover all of the lasange sheets, making sure all the pasta is coated. 
Repeat - meat, then lasange sheets, then feta-spinach sauce. Top with your grated cheese and some black pepper. 

8. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees (160 degrees fan) for 35-45 mins, until the top is golden-brown. If you feel it's cooking too quickly on the top, cover it with a layer of tin foil so it doesn't burn. 

So there you go - proof that there are other ways to eat turkey than a dried-up roast on Christmas Day. Enjoy ;)

r'n'b vibes

Nothing quite like the R'n'B of the 90s..

All my fellow '92 babies out there, this song is the same age as us!

it ain't gonna spank itself

I'm not usually the type of person to get riled up on social media about controversial topics or current affairs. I'm not the irate animal activist on your timeline angrily admonishing people for wearing fur coats. You won't see me sharing the latest article on the abortion debate and prefacing it with my views on the issue, or voicing my outrage at this week's Dáil debacle on Twitter. I don't have any problem with people who do like to do this, and it's not that I don't have opinions on these matters - I'm pretty passionate about the destruction of the coral reefs, if you get me going. I just don't generally feel the need to express these opinions on a public forum. 

But here I am now, on a dreary Tuesday morning, about to do that very thing. Forgive me.

Last week, my friend and I were wandering around Grafton St, celebrating finishing an exam by looking at things we can't afford to buy (the number one item on the wish-list is now a €50 Eeyore teddy in the Disney Store, followed by a Tom Ford handbag. #priorities). We ended up in BT2 at one stage, where, to my surprise, I found myself absolutely incensed by a t-shirt. 

nice, Religion, nice.

Now, I'm not an easily offended person, and I've never viewed myself as a fervent feminist. Certainly I never expected an inanimate object to be the heel that spurred me into blogging indignantly about gender bias and women's rights - and, to be honest, as an isolated event, seeing this t shirt probably would have inspired merely a look of disgust and a passing comment to my friend. But one week before this, whilst attending the One Young World summit, I had listened to a group of amazing women discussing gender equality, and after hearing them speak, even the most spank-inclined man would have to drop his poised palm in shame.

The One Young World summit, which took place this year in Dublin from the 15th-19th of October, celebrates talented young people who are dedicated to making positive change in the world. Over the five days, there were speeches, debates and panel discussions from these young people and also from world leaders such as Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson and Bob Geldof. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend for one day as a student observer (and any Trinity students out there reading this, you had the opportunity too - all you had to do was read that weekly SU email you're so quick to delete ;) ). 

The Convention Centre Dublin, where the Summit took place.

There were superb sessions taking place on the day that I attended. Kofi Annan spoke on Peace and Conflict. Micheal Moller, acting head of the UN in Geneva, spoke about the UN's ability to rise to the challenges of today. Six young delegates gave moving speeches about violations of human rights in their countries, which ranged from forced military conscription in Eritrea to homophobia in England. The session that I enjoyed the most, however, was the panel discussion on 'Bridging the Gender Gap'. There were six women on the panel; Sabine Chalmers from AB InBev, Beth Comstock from General Electric, Youtube sensation Michelle Phan, Meghan Markle who you may know as Rachel from Suits, film director Maya Sanbar and co-founder of One Young World, Kate Robertson. 

These women have achieved so much for gender equality, on both a small-scale and a global level; from small steps like Meghan Markle refusing to repeatedly appear on screen in Suits wearing nothing but a towel, to Beth Comstock's involvement in setting up a call centre in India that hires only women. I didn't come away from that discussion feeling enraged on behalf of my gender, or convinced that men are the devils holding us back in life. Instead, I felt inspired and empowered, and thoroughly in awe of those six women. They gave me a view of gender equality that I had not considered before; the positives, the advances that have been made and that are continuously being made around the world. When I saw this t-shirt, I immediately thought back to them and how aggravated they would be if they saw it. 

Maya Sanbar, seen holding the microphone in the above picture, recounted a conversation she had had with Reese Witherspoon about some of the actress's latest projects. Reese, who we all know as the sterotypical blonde-haired ditzy heroine, was telling Sanbar how glad she was that she was finally getting the opportunity to play roles that were more challenging and interesting - but the only reason that she is getting this opportunity is because she made a name for herself by playing the Elle Woods and Melanie Smooters of Hollywood demand. Sanbar criticised the way that women are very often forced to fit themselves into the mould just to be in a position to break out of it - and it is things like this Religion t-shirt that help to shape this mould and this stereotype. Yes, I know it's just a t shirt, it's a bit of a laugh, there's no need to take it seriously - but when we are surrounded on all sides by these derogatory thoughts and images, in advertising, in music videos, even on our clothing, unbeknownst to us it creates a societal norm and a belief that this is acceptable. How many of you ladies out there have walked across a nightclub and had your bum slapped by a drunken male who has gotten it into his head that he has the right to take that liberty? He might not have been wearing the t-shirt, but chances are he had the slogan tattooed unapologetically across his face.

I'm not yet at the level of vehement opinionist that I will sit here and rant about how women like Nicki Minaj are setting the female sex back 40 years - although to be fair, the lyrics and the video for her song Anaconda are offensive to pretty much everything and everyone in the world. Bar maybe Drake - and I know I'm not saying anything new in this post that hasn't been said before. But that t-shirt did ignite some new feelings in me - mainly because it tarnishes the efforts of these women above and insults the positive mindframe that their stories gave me. And those women above are proof of the benefits that come from turning these feelings into action, however big or small.

So it ain't gonna spank itself, no - but who said I was asking?  

where the sky begins..

Inspired by tonight's amazing moon, I dug up this photo I took last summer on a scuba dive expedition in Mexico. Our camp was in a national biosphere reserve (Sian Ka'an, near Tulum), so from the moment the sun rose in the morning over the Caribbean sea, to the time the burnt orange moon made its appearance in the evening, we were surrounded by stunning nature - both under the sea and above :)

"to roam the roads of lands remote.."

"..to travel is to live".

I was asked before by a friend what it is about travelling that I love so much. A simple question to answer, I thought, given that travelling is a passion of mine, and I prepared to launch into a euphoric eulogy that would aptly convey this to her –

- but then I stopped. The word that had lined up along my tongue lingered there, lacklustre. Everything was so horribly cliché; yes, I love discovering new places, and yes, I believe travel opens your eyes and your mind and – yaawn. Who hasn’t heard that before?

I found myself struggling. I couldn't satisfactorily put into words why, for me, there is no happier feeling than watching the sun sink over a novel horizon. Why I spend a ridiculous amount of time (all of those afternoons sitting idly in the corner during OPD clinic..) planning where I'll spend my next three summers, what European city I want to visit next, where I want to live for a year when I graduate. Why the first word I associate with “lonely” is “planet”.  

It’s an individual thing, discovering a love for travelling, but at the end of the day, many of our reasons for enjoying it overlap – and that’s why these clichés develop. If I was to answer her now, having mulled it over in the interim, I might tell her that for me, it’s the ineffable feeling of freedom. Or I might borrow those simple yet succinct words which resonate with me so strongly – to travel is to live.

I used to think I'd done a lot of travelling - or a fair bit, at least, given my age. I thought I'd seen plenty of this pleasurable planet of ours. Well on my way to becoming a woman of the world; globe-trotting glory within my grasp - and then my boyfriend gave me a present of a Scratch Map. For those of you not familiar with the concept, a Scratch Map is a map of the world with the countries covered in gold foil, and with the aid of a coin, you scratch off the countries that you've visited.

I expected mine to be a kaleidoscope of my global conquerings..

Hmm. Not quite. Not counting countries I’ve stopped over in, and only counting states in Canada and the US (I felt it was cheating to do otherwise), there is an immense amount of gold left. If only I’d been to Russia..

So though I'm not quite the jet-setter I thought I was, I'm not Boeing to let this get me down. ;) I’m hoping to do a weekly travel post here (although let’s be honest, if it’s fortnightly I’ll be doing well) on some of my favourite places that I’ve been – and hopefully, over the next while, I might get to scratch off somewhere new and tell you guys about it!

I looked at my Scratch Map earlier and thought how this was a rare occasion where the more gold that I have, the worse that I’m doing. Not a great attitude, though, is it. Pessimism was never my cup of tea. 

So I’m going to take a different perspective; the more gold that I have, the more that still awaits me. :) 

one thing about music...

Timeless and magical. Stevie Nicks is a goddess <3

scrumptious scones

Scones. The most delectable dumplings of dense, buttery goodness in the world. The champion of the baked goods. Forget about your chocolate chip cookies; mutterings about muffins won't move me in any way. I am a seasoned scone aficionado. A scon-naisseur, if you will ;)

For me, there is nothing quite like a warm, crumbly scone, lathered in melting butter and homemade raspberry jam (and a wedge of cream, if I’m feeling a bit deserving). When I was younger, I would only eat plain scones – much to my father’s chagrin, as I frequently coerced my mother into leaving the raisins out of her signature fruit scones. Now, however, I prefer a flavoured scone – I relish the raisins. I melt over mixed berries. And, most recently, I praise the pear and vanilla.

I discovered this gem of a combination in Keogh’s Café on Trinity St, which boasts an impressive scone menu, with mouth-watering flavours such as blackberry and apple, cranberry and orange, apple and walnut and many more. I’ve sampled scones all across Dublin, and Keogh’s is one of my favourite places to get my fix. I usually go for the pear and vanilla variety; the juicy chunks of pear are complimented beautifully by the sweetness vanilla, without becoming too sugary-sweet – divine.

I came home after travelling for the summer with an ache in my heart - and my stomach - for a good Irish scone, in particular a pear and vanilla from Keogh’s. As I was spending the first week back at home in Westmeath, this option was not available to me, and so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I’ve baked scones before, but only plain or fruit ones, and not always with the best results. So it was risky, I know. Baking something for the first time with so much of my personal satisfaction riding on the results. But I decided to go for it. 

As Drake would say, you scone-ly live once.

And the results, I have to say, were pretty damn satisfying.

Mmmm-mm. Rise my pretties, rise.

Ingredients

130g unsalted butter, diced

500g plain flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

70g caster sugar

2 large pears, peeled, cored and diced

1 large egg, beaten

225ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract
optional: a handful of flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.
3. Rub the butter into the flour and baking powder using your fingertips, unless the mix resembles dry breadcrumbs. Try to “be light with your hands”, as my mother would say, and handle the mix as little as possible.
4. Add in the pear. If the pears are really juicy, you will need to reduce the amount of milk.
5. Add in the egg, milk and vanilla, and bring everything together. I use my hand for this! Retain a little bit of the egg to brush on top of the scones.
6. Scatter some flour onto a work surface and put the mix out onto this. If your mix is a bit wet, sprinkle some extra flour on the top, before rolling the mixture out to a 4-5cm thickness. Cut out using a scone cutter. Brush the tops with the left-over egg and scatter some flaked almonds on, if it takes your fancy! 
7. Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden-brown on top. 
8. None of this "allow to cool" business. Tuck in straight away, while still warm. Ooh baybeh.

chasing a hummingbird

snapped this buzzer two years ago on Coronado Island in San Diego, having spent two hours the previous day trying to get a shot of one in Balboa Park - they are speedy lil things! i think it may be a female Anna's hummingbird (based on some fiiine Google searching), but if anyone wishes to correct me, please do!