JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Friday, August 31, 2007

World blog day









Today is the 3rd world blog day. Even though I've been blogging long enough to have participated in the previous two, I only came across it today. The idea is that you introduce five new blogs, preferably crossing boundaries.

Here are some of my favourites, all worth a look:

Dean at Mostly Macro takes wonderful photographs of birds, insects and sometimes plants. His blog is a record of the wildlife he sees close to home, often in his own garden or on walks nearby. He is knowledgeable, and has opened my eyes to a world undreamed of - a world in which we can all share, because it's around all of us, if only we have eyes to see.

Venice Daily Photo is another blog I love, although sadly at the moment it's not so frequent. It's part of the daily photo movement of blogs, where people photograph their home town, however small or grand. The Venice photos are intelligent, interesting, quirky, often thought-provoking (the one of a huge liner overpowering the Giudecca canal springs to mind) ... above all, life-enhancing.

Pomiane is another blog I look forward to reading. Its author lives by two-week turns in London and near Pisa. The food is proper food, after the fashion of the French food writer Edouard Pomiane, and recipes are sometimes, but not always, given for the three course menu for "tonight's dinner" which often ends a post. Pomiane inspires you to do things properly - and I like the differences which occur from the change of venue.

Graham Rice is another blogger who moves from place to place. You may know his name as a gardening writer, sweet peas are his thing (I'm summoning up courage to ask for advice about why I have such little luck, but I suspect the answer is more digging). Transatlantic Plantsman describes his gardening life in Northamptonshire and Pennsylvania. He's really knowledgeable about plants, so it's always a joy to read, and there's often a tip about a garden to visit, or a plant to look out for. I also like the fact that he's made the leap from published author to blogger ;-)

I first came across Sue Cooks Wild when I met Sue in London. You should visit it just to see the wonderfully exuberant photograph on the masthead. It's great - full of life, some adventurous cooking (game and fish are recurrent interests), a bit of travel. Sue's sense of fun comes shining off the screen.

9 comments:

Ed Bruske said...

Thanks for the link to Pomaine, Joanna. Pomaine suits my sensibilities just right

Figs, Bay, Wine said...

I didn't know about blog day until today! I can't wait to check out all your links, Joanna! Happy blog day.

Pierre said...

Many thanks Joanna, your comment is very nice... I'll try to post more and to be more active on the blog these times ;)

Joanna said...

So glad that you like the look of Pomiane, Ed, it really is one of those - like yours - that I look forward to, that stretches the mind and makes me ask questions of myself.

Pierre - I really don't mean to make you feel guilty just because I love looking at your photographs ... but, of course, I'd love to see more of them! You always appear to be saying something worth hearing, rather than just making pretty pictures of Venice ...

Yes, Amanda, I don't know how we nearly missed blog day - but one of the things I like about the blogosphere is the serendipity.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Well I'm sorry I missed this year. I'll but it on my calendar now!
I like ALL of these! Thanks for the links.

Jane said...

Joanna - I came across you via your comment on Amy Stewart's site. I grow cut flowers in Scotland.

My advice re sweet peas would be to sow them in September in root trainers - keep under cover in winter transplanting into 2L rose pots when the roots show through and then put them into the garden in March. We have sweetpeas outside in Scotland May to September.
I look forward to checking out your suggestions
J

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Thank you - I finally checked out Sue's blog. I meant to do it earlier when you met up in London and mentioned her before. Thanks for the other recommendations I'll check those out too.

Pomiane said...

Many thanks for the puff! I'm not sure about inspiring people to 'do things properly' though - I keep looking over my shoulder to see who it is you're talking about....

Joanna said...

Well, Pomiane, yours is a household where three courses are a frequent occurence at dinner; you don't have any truck with convenience food; you use good recipes, no telly spinoffs for you, etc etc. But I know what you mean about looking over your shoulder when someone has highlighted one aspect of your modus vivendi.

Joanna