“Maybe it’s not about having a beautiful day, but about finding beautiful moments.
Anna White
--Mended
I've been feeling all kinds of bloated and cold ever since I arrived in CQ. I'm a tropics girl, so cold weather has never been my thing. My husband is always surprised at how cold my hands are even if I spend all my time indoors. It's a good thing I found this really nifty twist to my usual teabag routine that involves adding ginger and lemon after reading Christina Greve's awesome Lemon and Ginger Shots post. A lot of people drink honey and lemon with their tea but I wasn't a fan, probably because lemons are so expensive back home! They are cheaper here though, so I buy lemons almost every week now. This lemon and ginger concoction is so easy to whip up and I store it in this resealable jar to keep it fresh for longer. I didn't follow any set recipe for this batch, I just piled on ingredient after ingredient into the jar, poured boiling water in, and it smelled heavenly. For a more detailed recipe, look here.
“Holding hands, for example, is a way to remember how it feels to say nothing together.”
Being in an LDR for most of our relationship, getting together and living in the same house took some getting used to. One of the upsides is that we still have not yet gotten used to the wonderfulness of it all. I guess this is one of the advantages of distance, it makes the moments of togetherness that much more special. We especially enjoy the times spent discovering new things, such as this small Japanese dessert cafe in one of the malls here in the city, right after a big dinner of piping hot ramen and dumplings from the restaurant just across the floor. It was an unplanned night of everything Japanese, from the low, low tables and the tatami mats, down to the sweet jasmine tea that I tried for the first time. I guess I am learning to cherish these moments with intention, and the fact that these photos capture moments to help us remember when the time comes that we can no longer do so.
“There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk.”
Guy Gavriel Kay
--Tigana
I would like to think that the husband and I made a great start of the year health-wise by taking a long walk through Jinshan Park a few days after Christmas. This is a large park on a hill just 5 minutes from where we live and I just learned that it is fairly new (it opened in 2014, and I thought that it had been there for way longer). It has winding pathways, lots of flowers, mini-forests and picnic grounds that overlook this side of the city. It was also a lot of fun, rounding each bend and discovering one beautiful spot after another. The park's winding, flower-laced pathways reminded me of the quote above. There is no wrong turn, indeed, especially if you are loving every step. :D