Discovering the world: inventing skis

Where to take a tourist in London?

My sister is here for a two-week visit, which I know will feel all too short.

And where do you think we took her on her first day in London?


To the closest farm.

Oxford and bookbinding

A bit more than a week ago I accompanied my mum to Oxford. Like any dutiful tourist I attempted to take photos of the beautiful buildings, only to realise yet again that I much more prefer to photograph small things – like leaves, cobble stones, flowers. And there were plenty of beautiful multi-coloured leaves around. What? Autumn? In my own little la-la universe it is still middle of July.

Yet the other day I wrote a list of… well, I can’t describe them in any other way, but New Year resolutions. Is one more likely to accomplish the desired goals if they are set at the beginning of October instead of January?

I’ve been to Oxford twice before so for me the highlight of our visit was “An Artful Craft: Fine and Historic Bookbindings from the Broxbourne Library and other collections” exhibition at Bodleian Library. The mastery and the variety of skills that went into creating the books on display were astonishing. I’m sure I was forgetting to breath and had a slightly mad glint in my eyes. I only wish another crafter, who just started learning about bookbinding and already created some gorgeous notebooks, could also see the exhibition. And she just started her own blog, so if you have few seconds head over to Lemony Leaves and welcome her to blogosphere.

Russian honey cake

I'm not sure why I decided it will be fun to try to bake a proper cake for the first time in my life with a help of a toddler.

I ended up feeling rather stressed, the kitchen was covered in flour, but the 15 Layer Russian Honey Cake turned out OK (even though ours has only 8 layers).

A Russian food blogger calls a very similar cake "younger simpler brother of the traditional honey cake", but after reading her traditional recipe (in Russian) I doubt I'll find enough courage to try making it. Yet, it is my favourite cake, so maybe...