– With Dr Susan Merrell
Summer in Provence means lavender – fields and fields of breathtaking swathes of mauve flowers waving in the summer breeze to the seasonal music of Provence – cicadas (or ‘cigales’ as they’re known in France.) Lavender flowers bloom in Provence during high summer – bursting into life anytime between June and August depending on weather […]
It was a few years back that I was there … So what was I doing at a health retreat? No alcohol, no caffeine, no fatty foods for five whole days – sounds like hell doesn’t it? It was anything but. By way of explanation: I married a modern-day, male version of Typhoid Mary – […]
Ever seen a white-flowering Jacaranda tree? There’s one in Sydney’s Botanic Gardens (Location C). It’s at the end of a line of colour that starts with a blazing red Illawarra Flame Tree, followed by a huge Jacaranda of the purple-flowering variety and in its lee a spreading Michelia with creamy white blossoms as large as […]
Gin and tonic is widely considered to be the most popular cocktail globally – casually abbreviated to G & T, it’s ever so chic and beloved of both genders, but especially the ladies. It’s the Spanish though, who have first taken the consumption of gin and tonic to another level – followed closely by the […]
The eighteenth century epicurean and food writer, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin called them ‘diamonds of the kitchen’ and given that nowadays their cost can exceed $2500 per kilo, it’s an apt description. Truffles are edible, mushroom-like tubers that grow on the roots of trees – notably the Oak, Birch, hazelnut, pine and poplar tree – they […]
