Picnic and Opera Holland Park
This has been pretty much the perfect weekend.
It actually started earlier in the week when I started curing the salmon. Then Thursday we made the marshmallows. Friday I worked from home in order to get to the butcher first thing and get the trotters and pork bones in the stock pot. Friday night was the big push, assembling and cooking the pork pies. Watching Notting Hill for the first time as they cooked.
Saturday morning we got up early and went to the farmers market for the rest of our supplies: broad beans, radish, dill, redcurrants and fresh Scandinavian-style rye bread. Then home to finish the prep and pack the picnic basket before dressing for the evening.
Me in my linen suit and a pink shirt (not the only one there I might add!), her in a flowery green dress, we walked through Holland Park with our wicker basket before meeting my friends and sitting down at our table, draped in white, on the terrace overlooking the Dutch Garden. We unpacked our picnic: gravadlax with dill sauce, pork pie and piccalilli, radishes butter and fleur de sel, quail eggs and celery salt, bread, butter, broad bean dip and a bottle of chilled Vouvray. The homemade marshmallows, red currants and sparkling malvasia saved for the interval.
After our leisurely wine, food and catchup overlooking the people enjoying the Dutch Garden, we took our seats in the third row of the outdoor tented stage area, just feet from the horn section and violins. OHPs production of La Cenerentola was excellent. Every bit as hammed up and funny as the reviews said, and perfect for my friends who are new to opera. Rossini doesn't shy away from duets and trios and big chorus numbers. Plus, no one dies. ;)
Today, a relaxed morning lounging in our underwear on my sofa, with the stereo turned up, just listening to great music together and enjoying a nice coffee, with no obligations for the rest of the day to see the weekend out.
It actually started earlier in the week when I started curing the salmon. Then Thursday we made the marshmallows. Friday I worked from home in order to get to the butcher first thing and get the trotters and pork bones in the stock pot. Friday night was the big push, assembling and cooking the pork pies. Watching Notting Hill for the first time as they cooked.
Saturday morning we got up early and went to the farmers market for the rest of our supplies: broad beans, radish, dill, redcurrants and fresh Scandinavian-style rye bread. Then home to finish the prep and pack the picnic basket before dressing for the evening.
Me in my linen suit and a pink shirt (not the only one there I might add!), her in a flowery green dress, we walked through Holland Park with our wicker basket before meeting my friends and sitting down at our table, draped in white, on the terrace overlooking the Dutch Garden. We unpacked our picnic: gravadlax with dill sauce, pork pie and piccalilli, radishes butter and fleur de sel, quail eggs and celery salt, bread, butter, broad bean dip and a bottle of chilled Vouvray. The homemade marshmallows, red currants and sparkling malvasia saved for the interval.
After our leisurely wine, food and catchup overlooking the people enjoying the Dutch Garden, we took our seats in the third row of the outdoor tented stage area, just feet from the horn section and violins. OHPs production of La Cenerentola was excellent. Every bit as hammed up and funny as the reviews said, and perfect for my friends who are new to opera. Rossini doesn't shy away from duets and trios and big chorus numbers. Plus, no one dies. ;)
Today, a relaxed morning lounging in our underwear on my sofa, with the stereo turned up, just listening to great music together and enjoying a nice coffee, with no obligations for the rest of the day to see the weekend out.