Near my work is a lovely little park adjacent to a street food market. I usually have my lunch there when it’s not raining and am a sucker for the market’s mushrooms stall (held by Sporeboys) whose people make wonderul portobello, tomatoes and haloumi burgers. God, Halumi is the best food I have discovered this year.

The park is home to wonderful lavender plants and a wild garden, and I couldn’t resist but to pick some branches the other day - is it illegal? Point is, I decided it was time to either learn how to make an orange and lavender cake, or get creative with it. I mixed some buds ( two teaspoons) with soft brown sugar in a glass jar, and topped it with half a vanilla pod. I am expecting a very fragrant sugar in a couple of weeks - I already tried it after a couple of days and was pleasantly surprised.

I think I will use it in spicy teas or on fresh baguette with butter. I am not sure about a potential use in cakes, but who knows?

In other news, X-files movie = D-day minus 2. To say I am ridiculously hopeful and excited is an understatement but to be fair, even if the movie turns out to be painfully bad, I am certain I will be one defend it. Which brings me to something even more embarrassing: I had a great woman over for dinner last night, who also happens to be quite the feminist. I am not sure how this conversation started, but we realised that we both had something for Charmed (gasp) and Grey’s fucking anatomy (double gasp). Oh boy, did it make me feel better to know a hardcore feminist, like me, was totally down with retarded TV shows, as well as the good ones*.

*Mark and I finished season 4 of The Wire and while Six Feet Under is still my all time favourite, damn, all the TV scenesters were right. This show is amazing.