Little stars

Starrier in large.

Ruling out vines and blossom today made for slim pickings. But I was surprised to see some non-blossom related blooms, and I have always loved these starry osteospermums. The pink and purple ones are showy, but the white ones are pure loveliness. Another one in extras.

It was a brief walk as the weather wasn't that great, and indeed it started raining ten minutes after I got back. Meanwhile S had been out for a local walk with his hiking club. What should have been a 14-km walk was "too easy" and following a couple of on-the-fly detours turned into 22 km, with the last 4 km along a road. He is very fit with gym and running, but has done little walking recently so he was knackered when he got back.

I made a soup with the Jerusalem artichokes I bought yesterday. It's delicious -- I love the taste of these, but in the past they were always small and knobbly and a real pain to peel, with lots of waste. Now some genius has developed a smooth oval one, so much easier.  Here's the recipe -- I didn't have to parboil mine as they were so easy to peel, and I cut down on the cream so as not to dilute the flavour. Even S approved, probably because of the bacon.