One of the most delicious things I have ever eaten is easily obtainable in Northern Ireland. Not only is it easily obtainable, it is cheap. When I first had this delicious thing (in Canada) I got home and got online, knowing that I would not be able to find it in any regular or even specialty shops. On amazon.com I found a decent amount of it for about $8-10 after shipping. Not bad for the most delicious thing ever, but still alot for a crazy frugal person like myself. Halloumi Cheese. It is really really good. It is a cheese that has a very high melting point...meaning where regular cheeses would be a gooey, albeit, delicious glob, halloumi cheese would be standing firm. You can grill it, you can pan fry it, bake it..I just saw what I thought was a great idea...cutting it into cubes and threading it onto skewers for shishkabobs. I will definitely be doing that. The best part is that here, both in the regular grocery stores and in the specialty stores/markets it can be had for cheap. I got three times the amount that amazon.com was selling for a little less than the same price.
So I've been figuring out the best ways to use this fantastic thing...roughly two pounds of this fantastic thing. The other night I decided to pan fry it in a little butter and compliment its saltiness with some malt vinegar marinated mushrooms and onions. My wife made bread sticks. It was a glorious meal.
Sunday was National Trails Day. That means that most parks and hiking areas were free (if they normally have a fee) and that many of them had events going on. Being in Northern Ireland on our own, my wife and I don't interact with people as much as we did back in the States. She, being here for a grad program, is definitely interacting more than I, but still, not as much as we once did. So we searched out a guided hike. We figured this would make it more likely that we would actually be around people...people that enjoy the stuff that we enjoy...the woods. We had a great time learning about both the natural and historical aspects of the area we were in. Also, it was green and misty...something I was yet to get from Northern Ireland but had been waiting for...
This is part of a sculpture outside of my wife's school's library. I'm sure I will get a shot of the whole sculpture at some point in time, but on Monday night lights were illuminating it from below, giving the face an eerie appearance...
I spent some time in the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday. I have a hard time not being fascinated by anything that is displaying Phi, also known as the Golden Ratio, so when I came upon this rose, I had to get a shot. My wife hates most floral pictures, but even she was able to see past the cliche macro flower shot and into the beauty of such a commonplace but still fascinating element of the natural world.
Then, as it got darker, on my way out, I noticed the silhouette of this bell hanging from a pole. It was, at one point in time, rang before the closing of the park...this was true of most parks around here.
I was walking down the street yesterday with my camera in hand, not expecting to use it, but then I saw a beautiful bike. I knew it wouldn't be too long before I would get a shot of a bike, but sadly this one wasn't as good as I would have hoped. I didn't have much time to take the picture, someone looked at me suspiciously, so I took a photo and left. The bike was awesome, a red frame and yellow wheels...I wish I had more time...I could have gotten a much better picture.
I also walked past a building that had a wonderful light shade of purple on the outside (aided by the dark purple sky at that point in the evening, no doubt) and a wonderfully complimentary green spilling out of one of the windows.
