Amedama on the Go Go

The Sportsman

Out by the seaside of Seasalter, Kent is a very special gastropub called The Sportsman where we happened to spend a blissful afternoon this past weekend.

Champany Inn Near Edinburgh

Being a good girl from the midwest, I love steak.  Growing up in Chicago, steak is probably the one thing my mother would never ever have bought at a supermarket.  Red meat was almost never on the menu at our house but when it was, it came from a specialist - a butcher who could offer prime beef that had been aged. 

I consider myself lucky to have grown up in a household that held beef in such respect.  It put me in a good place to appreciate the serious way Europe treats their breeds and the ageing of beef - Simmental, Charolais, Hereford, Chianina, etc.  All with their different aspects and of the ones I've had so far, all delicious.  There is also the not so small matter of beef appreciation in Japan and a temple to the stuff at a restaurant in Tokyo called Shima.

But I'm veering off the subject here.  The point is, I'm endlessly fascinated with steak, especially restaurants that take steak very seriously.  Champany Inn is one of these.

Lake District

The weather has turned truly Autumnal in London which gave me a longing to see the changing of the leaves.  Here in London, we don't get the grand yellows, oranges, and reds of New England or of the breathtaking maples in Japan.  So we decided to hop in the car and drive up to Cumbria to see if the leaves had begun turning there.

As you can see the leaves were trying but not quite there yet.  I found out from the locals that since the weather in the UK had been unseasonably warm up until now, the leaves hadn't turned yet.  Give it another few weeks and the trees should be a riot of colours.  Only, I'm not keen on making the 4-6 hour car journey again anytime soon so that might be the end of my koyo (leaf colour changing) viewing this year.

So we went on a hunt to see what nature looked like just as the season is turning in England.