A sunny morning walk

A friend recently suggested that we try doing long-distance walks together. And by “long-distance walks” I don’t mean long walks; I mean that we’re both taking walks but at a distance from one another. We live in different countries, but we both enjoy taking walks and want to do it more often. (And of course it’s always easier to be active with a friend to motivate you!)

So we decided to encourage each other by having a phone call while we walk. To make it a little more interesting, we also decided to listen to an audiobook together while we do it. That way, we’re enjoying a book and we can chat about it as we go.

So several morning a week I’ve been hopping on the phone, cuing up my audiobook, and walking around town. I have been doing it rain or shine, but I’ll admit that it’s more enjoyable when the sun is out. ☀️

Homemade ravioli

Today I decided to try my hand at making homemade pasta. We don’t have a pasta machine or other special tools, and it was my first attempt, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

I used Ottolenghi’s lemon and goat’s cheese ravioli recipe, but I’m not a huge fan of tarragon so I made a sage brown butter sauce instead. Ottolenghi also assumes you have a pasta machine, so this recipe is light on (read: says nothing about) details like how thin the pasta should be, how large a sheet you should have, or even how many ravioli to expect. So … as you can imagine, or perhaps see in the photos, the result wasn’t perfect. The pasta ended up a bit on the thick side, especially on the edges (which I’d also make smaller next time). But all in all, tasty and a decent first try!

A brand new craft project

I just started a new embroidery project:

I’m super excited about the black fabric! And I’m finding that embroidery kits are the most relaxing craft for lockdown, because they require basically zero decision-making. The pattern, all the supplies, the stitches … it’s all there for me, ready to go.

And if you remember my previous posts about embroidery and are wondering what happened to that project, I actually finished! I’m fairly pleased with the result, given it was my first embroidery attempt:

Living room dance parties

I have been hearing about Ryan Heffington’s Instagram Live dance classes since the lockdown began in the US, but today was the first day I tried one. Lots of fun! I always enjoy living room dance parties — this was a fun way to do it alone (self isolating! no self consciousness!) but also with thousands of other people.