Our week in the sun

Having just suffered through the wettest summer in 100 years, and two months with no heating or hot water, this week in Sardinia was pure luxury.  It was gorgeously sunny, hovering around 30 degrees and the water was magically warm.

Li Cossi Beach

We went to Sardinia last summer and fell in love, so when we decided to escape London for some later summer sun the choice was easy.  We even decided on the same area, the Costa Paradiso, which is home to one of the most spectacular beaches in Europe- Li Cossi.  

In Santa Theresa

We spent a week exploring the beaches along the northern coast of Sardinia, and popping back to a few of our favourite haunts from last summer.  We enjoyed the delicious gelatos, the pizzas and the outstanding local pastas.

After a storm on the Costa Paradiso

The kumara

This week the baby gets a dose of New Zealand culture as it's now as big as a kumara, or sweet potato to our English friends.  It's nice to teach it it's first Maori word.  A bit scary that it will spend it's first few years on this side of the world and that it might not learn words like kumara. This is another vegetable that we don't buy often but should seeing as they're so healthy. Traditionally we just don't eat a lot of heavy meals in the evening so that is something that I am trying to force myself to do... eat more carbs.  

The belly is starting to swell more now and on this dress I don't need the belt any more.  Which meant that I had to finally get around to telling people at work.  I put off telling them for ages, I guess because that finally makes it real!

We had to hurry and take this photo last thing in the evening, hence the darker shot as tomorrow we leave for Sardinia and I'm not convinced they'll have kumara in Sardinia!

This dress is about 8 years old, from Zara.  I don't want to call it vintage, although I'm not sure how old something has to be to constitute the title of 'vintage'.  To me it's just old!

The turnip

Now this week was a challenge, a turnip.  There were plenty of turnips to be found at Brixton market but none of them were big enough.  This is too early in the season for a good sized turnip.  So we had to resort to buying a medium sized turnip from Waitrose and pretending it was a bit bigger.  

We have to admit that we'd never bought or cooked a turnip before.  As pretty as they are we just hadn't come across a recipe that called for turnip.  So we consulted the internet and decided on a turnip gratin... and discovered that we don't really like turnip.  It's pretty bitter isn't it?

Dress from Whistles, ring from Monica Vinader.

The avocado

Wow, that felt like another big jump and to be honest, it's starting to show in the belly.  These trousers only just do up.  An avocado was a nice treat, we made a delicious salad with fresh salmon.  

The orange

And so it grows to the size of an orange.  I'm still saying it because it still doesn't feel quite real to me. I guess once I start feeling it moving around and I get too big for all my clothes then it will all feel real.  The orange taught me something this week... we never buy oranges!  I guess we're just not orange people.  I did make a nice cold juicy treat from the fridge later in the week but in the summer I'd much rather indulge in a stone fruit of some kind.

Dress by Trelise Cooper

The lemon

An easy fruit for us to find this week... a lemon.  And a nice versatile one to use at that!  This week we've finally been telling people our news.  Carlos wanted to tell everyone straight away but I was pretty keen to enjoy the secret for as long as we could, and probably because I don't like being fussed over and I knew a lot of fussing was coming our way this being the first grand child.  But it was lovely being able to delight our parents with the news.

This photo was taken before heading down to Woking for a friend's BBQ.  Now it was lovely and peaceful in Woking and I was a bit jealous of all the space they had, but I just can't imagine giving up our lifestyle in order to enjoy that peace and space.  I love being able to cycle up into Shoreditch for a coffee, or walk down into Brixton to sample the latest food craze, and I love being able to cycle to work in just over half an hour.  Nope, living in the countryside is just not for us.

Dress and bracelet from Aime

The nectarine

Seems like a big jump from a lime to a nectarine, can it really have grown that much in a week?  Nothing much is changing just yet.  Now that I'm over the nausea and tiredness, things are going pretty well- I can still fit all of my clothes although there is a little tightness around the waistband!  We're enjoying getting around and discovering the area.  So far we've really enjoyed trying out places in Brixton Village and have ventured over to the cafe at the South London Gallery for brunch- Carlos highly recommends the Spanglish.  The restrictions on eggs during pregnancy mean I've been keeping to scrambled eggs.

Trousers by Topshop and top by Monsoon.