Tag

Summer

Browsing

Kong-guksu (์ฝฉ๊ตญ์ˆ˜) is a must-have for me on a scorching day… so Park House decided to serve the dish the other day! This noodles in a cold soup made of ground beans is one of the Korean seasonal dishes. Soybeans are the typical choice to make the liquid part (kong-mul, ์ฝฉ๋ฌผ), but you might also see it in a dark colour form if black beans (seoritae, ์„œ๋ฆฌํƒœ) are used. I didn’t use to like kong-guksu when I was a child and personally it had always felt like the older generation’s favourite. Maybe I’ve finally entered that generation as I love it so much now… Yum! Type of beans to make kong-guksu When I first made kong-guksu in the UK last year, I had soybeans and mung beans kicking around in the cupboard as I had been in a frenzy of homegrown soybeans and making Korean mungbean fritters called bindaetteok (๋นˆ๋Œ€๋–ก),…

What a blast our break to Alderney was! Even if arranging transportation had almost convinced us to shelve our Alderney trip, once we were there, it was extraordinary. The island, with a population of just 2100, is full of things to do, from wildlife watching to visiting WWII sites. As we had an extra day on the island due to the ferry breaking down, we covered quite a lot. So based on our 5 days on Alderney, here are a few things to do in Alderney that we suggest you try! Hedgehog Tours The single biggest attraction for us to visit Alderney was to see blonde hedgehogs. They’re the same European hedgehogs the UK has but are leucistic (blonde), rather than brown-coloured! These are also different from being albinos. In Alderney, apparently about 60% of hedgehogs are said to be these blondies. This is the only place in the world…

At the beginning of 2020, I decided to try a bullet journal to better organise the year. Having used it for a year, although I won’t use it for 2021, I wanted to share an accomplishment related to my highlights of 2020 and bullet journaling: designing my own bullet journal cover. Design Your Bullet Journal Monthly Cover with Wildlife You Watch My highlights in 2020 were all about nature and wildlife; designing each month’s cover on the bullet journal with wildlife sightings and natural experiences was the best way to record them. Every month, I noted new species I encountered in person or any interesting episode or experience about wildlife in the UK. Among them, the most memorable one became a topic for next month’s cover design. My families and friends loved this idea and with their support, I’m going to continue to do so for 2021 as well. :)…

Living in the UK has made me really interested in nature and wildlife! Especially, spending time in the Welsh countryside from spring to early summer this year gave me plenty of encounters with various wildlife, which helped me memorise some species of birds such as blue tit, yellow wagtail, robin and more. Most of those encounters with birds happened in front of the house or in the garden, except, this one incident. The ‘accidental meeting’ a couple of months ago occurred inside the house… A story about a European robin pooing on the toilet (cover) in the house. It was around 8 a.m. (BST) on the 2nd of June. Having let Josh’s family dog out for his morning business somewhere at the edge of the garden, we kept the french door open for some fresh air. A bold European robin gatecrashed our breakfast when we all were in the kitchen…

2 weekends ago, I went wild blackberry picking for the first time ever. I heard that normally the peak season for blackberries in the UK is between mid-July and September; but I wasn’t sure how good they would be this year, due to the lack of rain and hot weather. We ventured out with 3 containers, 15~20 minutes away from home, where Josh’s grandmother had seen a lot of wild blackberries. Indeed, we saw many in various conditions on a hill slope where few people would choose to walk. Alongside the wild blackberries was plenty of evidence of rabbits and foxes. They must’ve been very happy seeing all these foods and tucking in! I asked Josh which ones I should take, to which he advised me to pick ones that were not mushy, but instead fairly firm and a rich black. He also added that I should avoid ones that…

On a summery day, Josh and I wanted to do something special on his birthday, after months of staying home. Over the past months, whenever we walked or drove with a view of the River Wye, he often said ‘it would be nice to go canoeing on the Wye while we were in Wales’. And his birthday was the perfect day to make it happen! Although we could go virtually sightseeing in Wales, it couldn’t beat real activities in the great Welsh outdoors. Since the Welsh government gradually lifted the lockdown, some outdoor facilities started to reopen. In Symonds Yat, a popular viewpoint of the River Wye, there are many canoe hire companies for the visitors. We decided, if the weather was good, to hire a canoe from one of those companies. The company we went with for a canoe hire was Canoe the Wye. At the time of our…