Everywhere I go I see a throng of folks reading the Harry Potter books. I even had an english professor a couple years back ask us to call her Minerva after the Hogwart’s Headmistress. All her philosophies revolved around HP. Yes, people have gone mad. I can’t seem to get away from all this Harry Potter love.

In light of this phenomenon, I am going to tell you about my favorite books that involve a young boy attending a school of wizardry. The language is not as frilly as the Harry Potter series and the words carry a lot more underneath the surface. They are for children and adults alike. Lastly, these books were written more than thirty years ago. Yep. Wizard schools aren’t that new of a concept.

The books are the Earthsea cycles written by Ursula K. Le Guin (my favorite author). There are six books in all which revolve mainly around a wizard named Sparrowhawk or a young priestess named Arha. Of course these names aren’t their true names, they are use-names. I’ll let the books reveal their true names, if you ever decide to read them.

It’s been so long since my last post and I didn’t even write that I was leaving for a whole week to Portland (again!). But I’m back now.

Joe attended OSCON (which he didn’t really enjoy, the talks were, unfortunately, just too basic for him) while I got to run around the city for a week on my own. This time around was much nicer, the hotel was right in the city center instead of near the convention, so I was able to explore Portland a bit more than our last trip. I went back to Saint Cupcake and also discovered another cupcake joint called Cupcake Jones. Both are very good. I also found a brewery named The Old Lompoc (the name of my hometown). Needless to say, I had to eat there. They have very good food and good stout.

There was a special Rembrandt exhibit (featuring Rembrandt as well as other Dutch artists from that time period) at the art museum that I went to. Beautiful! But I spent most of my time in Powells and sitting in parks reading. I read a lot! I managed to read all of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as well as getting exactly half way through Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant and This Organic Life. Just as Renee fortold, I am now eager to try my hand at making my own cheese, expanding my garden and finding more local food sources.

I quite enjoyed our trip to Portland and would go again and again in a heartbeat. I’ve never had a chance to live in a city, and honestly, I don’t think I have the energy to do so, but a week here and there is perfect.

I harvested so much basil from my garden that I just had to make pesto. Last season I made pesto with a food processor and it turned out fine. It wasn’t the most amazing thing I’d ever had. I was about to make it that way again this year, until I found the more traditional method Heidi had written about. It involves hand chopping all of the ingredients. It sounds time consuming and not worth the extra effort…it’s all going to taste the same anyways right?

I thought that, but I was still curious. I have this habit of imagination left over from childhood that I never got rid of and hand chopping various herbs takes me back to making “potions” as a child. Whatever ingredients you can find -mash, chop, or grind with a stone you picked up off the ground and voila! You can make any magical potion you need. Same goes with buying cream that comes in the little glass milk jugs. It’s fun to feel like I have a milkman. I’m weird.

Anyways, I ended up making the best tasting, best textured pesto I’ve ever had. Erin even seconded it’s tasteworthiness. The chopping didn’t take very long and I wouldn’t have much noticed if it did. The process was enjoyable. I felt as if I had much more control over the end result.

I used the yummy pesto in our steak sandwiches which consisted of whole wheat rolls, fried flat iron steak (on a cast iron pan over the bbq), green bell peppers, lettuce, Crème fraîche, and lastly, the pesto. I’m anxious to try a vegetarian version of this. Zucchini comes to mind, Anna has been making delicious looking meals with them. I’ve been thinking next time someone hands me a free bag of zucchini (I know that will happen this summer) I think I’ll bread some slices and fry them up as a meat substitute…or maybe fried eggplant? I’m expecting around 8 from my garden in a couple more weeks. Yum.

I didn’t get to eat at many good restaurants in England, but we did manage to find a very traditonal tea place in Shrewsbury to have breakfast. I had scrambled eggs on toast with tea and Joe had scones and toast. The eggs were rich and creamy and the toast was quality wheat bread. It was perfect.

So now that I am home I have been on an English food kick. I made scrambled eggs on toast, but they didn’t measure up to what I had experienced in Shrewsbury. While my scrambled eggs are very good, they weren’t curd-like enough. They weren’t milky enough. I’m not really sure how to make them the way that they were.

Today I tried my hand at baking scones and this time I think I was right on. I was just so sad that no one was home to enjoy the pure zen-like experience of the first bite. I laughed at myself because I banged my hand on the table. I had to stop myself from moaning. Seriously. I had always laughed at Daisy Martinez of Daisy Cooks! because of the ridiculous display she makes after the first bite of the meal, but I think I understand now. It can’t be avoided.

I made lemon cream scones from Beth Hensperger’s book, The Bread Bible. I substituted half of the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour and made sure to use very high quality cream. The scones were topped with crème fraîche and lemon curd and I can’t stress this enough, use those two toppings! It’s so perfect that way!

My computer is mysteriously shutting itself down at random. I had written an account of our recent trip to England last night, it was just about finished. I am slightly annoyed at losing the post, because it took me a while to write, but to tell you the truth, it wasn’t very good. So in that sense, I’m not sorry to see it go.

The trip itself was both good and bad. I was expecting the weather to be less than wonderful, but it didn’t really hit me until we had to wander around trying to find our hotel in the rain. I breathed a sigh of relief as we stood in front of the hotel clerk, ready to check in. Only then did the rain begin to really beat down in a manner that is just mind boggling to a California native. It’s July people, the middle of summer and it’s cold, grey and pouring. I couldn’t wrap my brain around it.

We also couldn’t manage to get used to the streets running in the opposite direction. I was completely thankful for the big white painted letters on the crosswalks telling the pedestrian to look right or look left, because I swear I looked the wrong way every time.

Our first night we thought the British were completely mad. Our toilet in the first hotel we stayed in would not flush! It would gurgle for a bit and then give up. We tried holding the lever for a while. We tried pushing the lever down quickly…nothing. Joe reasoned that “well, we are in Europe and they tend to conserve more than we do. Maybe it’s just a hyper low-flow toilet”. But we both couldn’t manage to believe that.

Our shower also had about 30 seconds worth of heated water and had only one glass door when it should of had two. Again, we reasoned that we Americans are just used to wasting hot water and proceeded to make record time with the hair washing.

Luckily, it turned out that we weren’t crazy and the Brits weren’t mad (well, not that much…but who isn’t a little bonkers?). We finally figured out that the toilet lever took a very precise amount of pressure to flush correctly. It took skill.

And the shower problem came down to the fact that we failed to read their information on water temp. and didn’t turn up the water heater.

The half glass door in the shower, on the other hand, was meant to be that way. I guess it was just an attempt to be modern and cool, but really it just left me cold and the bathroom floor wet.

One thing that was very strange was that I had a very hard time talking like an American there. I’d keep popping out words with a slight British accent. I had to really pay attention to the way I spoke, so I wouldn’t embarrass myself with a half American/ half battered British accent. It wouldn’t take living there long at all for me to develop an accent. Funny how that works, and even funnier that Joe has no idea why I had such a hard time with that. I don’t really know either.

We didn’t really get to do much of anything. Most of our time was swallowed up at the airport, train station, finding a hotel, finding food or sleeping (never did get over that time difference). The LUGRadio conference was a blast though. It was a mass of geeks and nerds from all over the world. We even made friends with a few wonderful people.

All in all, the trip had many crappy aspects, no denying that, but of course it had some good moments and those will be the ones that I’ll remember most.

We’ll be staying the night in San Francisco tonight and flying to Manchester in the morning. On Friday I went with Cher to Knitique (fantastic place btw!) and picked out a knitted baby blanket pattern to work on for the long flight over. If all goes well (it’s a super easy pattern, so I’m sure it will) it will be gifted to S & J who are expecting a little girl.

Oh and look what I bought this week! Look! Look!

It’s the new Electra Amsterdam Classic (in the men’s style). Joe almost had a heart attack when he saw the price, but it looks so darn classy, I couldn’t help myself. It’s waiting on hold at the bike shop and will be picked up when we return from England. I wish there was some way I could bring it with me. It is begging to taken for a spin through the english countryside, wearing a billowy skirt and a cardigan or something.

Anyways, I just wanted to give the heads up that there will probably be a week long blogging break for me. I may post a few photos on my Flickr account, depending on what sort of internet access I have while there. See you all in a week!