Slow design. Slow life.
This doesn’t mean we’re lazy – far from it. It just means that we’ve stood back, taken stock and slowed down the pace of things. We’ve (largely) stopped the 9-5 working day and we spend more time living. It hasn’t been easy making such big changes – coming from a city that never stops to a rural village has taken some getting used to, but we’re getting there. Our whole lifestyle is becoming much more balanced.
Our lifestyle now much more takes into account what we buy, what we eat, how we cook, how we relax. How we’ve largely weaned ourselves away from convenience and are now taking a much considered approach to how we live our lives. We still work full time from home and we’re planning our second renovation project in Istria, but we do take time out to chase the butterflies…
Slowing down has had such a positive impact, that we want to share what inspires us and what has enabled a shift in our lifestyle.
What we’ve done isn’t rocket science. It’s probably only what you would do too. Read on and see if a slow life is something you could begin to live…
Latest Blogs…
spicy salmon curry
I had to share this recipe as it's the easiest - and easily most delicious - curry, we've made in a long time. And, we are trying to extend our curry repertoire as we currently don't have Indian or Nepalese or Thai restaurants on our doorstep. so this has been a find...
homemade hummus : a recipe
I've dabbled in the past with making homemade hummus, but it's never become a habit. Hummus is so widely available that it just seemed a bit of a faff, and I could ever get a consistent recipe that I was happy with. When we lived in West Didsbury this was fine, as we...
our friend, the mosaicist…
Many years ago, when we had a website called Didsbury Life, promoting independent businesses in Didsbury and West Didsbury, we had a beautiful office, right on Burton Road. We designed the logo for this business and commissioned our very talented friend, Amanda, to...
christmas : 2022
Well, that's almost a Christmas wrap. We've spent the last few days hunkered down, with the wood-burners on, lights twinkling, candles flickering and eating all manner of luxurious food at the most inappropriate times of the day. Chocolates for breakfast, with a tot...
pre christmas dinners…
Now that we don't have a supermarket on our doorstep, I like to plan ahead. Not that it means we are ever really without anything, or able to buy milk, for example, if we run out. The nearest supermarket is only about 10 kms away, and in the time it used to take us to...
spiced up red thai chicken soup…
The base recipe for this soup is exactly the same as the one I posted last year, but this time I did a couple of things differently. I decided not to whizz the soup this time, keeping the vegetables a bit more chunky - this made the final broth a little less creamy in...
winter chicken casserole
As the temperatures have started to plummet - the fires have been lit just recently for the first time this year, so this chilliness, even in December, has caught us on the hop - and so our thoughts are turning very much to food that is winter warming. And just...
kozlović winery : momjan : istria
Kozlović winery is one of the best-known wineries in Istria. The family has been producing wines since 1904, and today, the winery is run by its fourth generation. We are lucky that it's about twenty minutes from our house and so we can visit at less busy times -...
san servolo pizzeria : buje : istria
San Servolo is a well renowned independent craft brewery in Buje, in northern Istria, producing excellent beers and pale ales. I'm not a beer fan, but have been known to have a bottle or two of the gorgeous red beer, so that's a recommendation in itself. As well as...
irregular crockery
Our renovated kitchen is small, but with everything we need, and is painted in a soft grey to maximise the feeling of space. Worktops are kept largely clear of clutter, again to ensure that we don't feel hemmed in. We carefully worked on the design of the room, to...
autumn in the garden : istria
Although it seems like no time since the long, heady days of summer, we're well into October now and only a week away from the clocks going back an hour. Usually, we've had the wood-burner lit by now, and our logs delivered. But not this year. Since early April, we've...
british corner shop…
We're not short of places to buy food here. Istria is stuffed to the gills with supermarkets - Lidl, Spar. Kaufland, Konzum, Studenac, Eurospin, Tomy, Plodine, Butiga Ultra. They come in all shapes and sizes from the small convenience store (think Tesco Express) to...
jamie oliver squash laksa soup
As summer has passed, so too have overly summery dinners. Gone are the cool, green salads and light dishes and in come the more hearty recipes. Eating outdoors isn't really an option any longer - although we still have sunshine, there's a chill in the air and it all...
courgette fritters
Like a lot of our garden, now that autumn - and the rains - have finally arrived after a very long, hot summer, our vegetables seem to be growing at quite a pace. From seeds, we've got a bit of a bumper crop of courgettes, so having done a few soups, we decided to try...
gorgeous glassware…
For such a long time, I've been trying to find glasses like the one on the right of the photo, above. We seem to smash our "every day" wine glasses on a regular basis in our house and never seem to have an even number, so the quest was on to find something that was a...
italian potato and ham pie
I say this is an Italian Potato and Ham Pie, because I found the recipe on an Italian website - and I used mozzarella and parmesan cheese - but apart from that, I don't think there's anything specifically Italian about it. What it is about, is a recipe that is so...
courgette & tomato soup
Making a soup is definitely not difficult, especially a veggie one. I've made variations on this recipe before, usually making it up as I go along - because how difficult can a soup made of courgettes and tomatoes be? But I decided this time, I wanted something a...
a change of direction…
If the last couple of weeks have taught us anything, it's that you need to be adaptable and always be prepared to change your direction. There's absolutely no point in just ploughing on, when literally everything is telling you to stop and rethink. We've had a summer...
volta gin & wine bar : oprtalj : istria
Anyone who's been to stay with us, will know that, as beautiful as Oprtalj is, it could be described as a "sleepy" little town. We have a restaurant, a gorgeous loggia, numerous festivals throughout the year, a mini-market, a post office, a cash point, a...
picking ourselves up…
It's fair to say that the last two and a bit weeks have been one big roller-coaster of emotions. We are selling our renovated stone house in Istria, to enable us to finance the renovation of another building, not too far away. With hindsight - which is obviously a...
medica agroturizam : medici : istria
Not too far from our house, but a little off the beaten track, along a country road, through beautiful scenery, to the end of the village of Medici, is the last of the closest restaurants to us, which we're ashamed to say we only investigated recently. We've always...
please do your homework…
If there's one thing we do in this whole process of attempting to sell our renovated home in Istria, it's provide information - LOTS OF IT - so that anyone who is potentially interested in it, can make an informed decision about whether it's right for them, very early...
a vision : from beautiful home to boutique hotel…
Our renovated house, in beautiful northern Istria, is for sale. We have thought since Day One, that it would sell to people like us. People who wanted to either live in it it full time, or use it as a holiday home, for themselves, family and friends. We think this...
growing our own…
2022 is going to be Grow Our Own year. We've tinkered around the edges of growing vegetables and herbs before, but it's always been pretty half-hearted as far too much else has been going on in and around the garden. We've had minor success with lettuce and tomatoes...
the easiest irish soda-bread…
Like everyone else in lock-down, we tried our hands at bread-making. Not the arduous kind of bread where you have to proove it for days. More the kind that you knock up in a bread maker. We did have success although we did still find even using the machine to be a...
filo tart…
Winter is the season of comfort food. When the nights draw in very early and it's dark and cold, we tend to cook comfort food. Hearty stews, thick soups, pasta dishes often loaded with a sauce, Sunday roasts. The kind of food that is often followed by a snooze on the...
spanakopita
No visits to Greece is ever complete, without numerous visits to local bakeries for the delicious spanakopita, those gorgeous filo parcels, packed full of spinach and feta and pine nuts. Back home from idyllic Greek islands, I’d never contemplated trying to replicate...
joujou botanicals…
When we first moved here, unless I could get candles at IKEA in Trieste, I used to wait until our trips back to the UK to raid the shelves of TK Maxx and HomeSense and fill up the boot of car with coloured jars of scented lusciousness. We had too many other things to...
what kind of person would love our house for sale?
Our house for sale is beautiful. It is a fully renovated three bedroom stone house over three floors, located in a stunning part of northern Istria, very close to the borders with Slovenia and Italy. It's about 35 minutes from the Adriatic coast, an hour from Pula...
restoran no 4 : sibenik : dalmatia
Šibenik is an absolutely delightful city, on the dalmatian coast of Croatia. We're up in northern Istria, so it is quite far away from us - just over 400kms - but as the drive is largely along the E65, the Adriatic Highway, it's a pleasure to do. The road literally...
a holiday home in istria…
Are you the kind of person who goes on holiday and imagines living there? The kind of person, who, when they return home, often to the inevitable damp and drizzly weather that we generally experienced back in Manchester, dreams of having a holiday home? Somewhere...
spicy thai chicken soup…
I've not made Thai Chicken Soup before. I think I just assumed because of its flavoursome quality and spiciness that it would be a real faff. Plus, we don't tend to eat a lot of meat at home, so chucking in the chicken element, just complicated things. Well, we've now...
red lentil dahl…
It's not a difficult dish to make, but there are many, many recipes out there for dahl. I think however, we've found the perfect recipe, because of the balance of flavours and texture. I found it on this website, but the author of the recipes/blogs goes into so much...
pistachio pesto…
OK, if you have a nut allergy, DO NOT - and I repeat *DO NOT* - try out this recipe. If you don't, and you are a fan of the pistachio nut, DO try it out. Because not only is it stupendously delicious, it is beyond easy to make, takes very little time, very little...
at last…online grocery delivery!
We're very used to getting in the car and driving to the supermarket. We're not lazy - it's just we've had no alternative. We live in a small village and although it has four very renowned restaurants, it has no shop, Once we'd arrived here, four and a half years ago...
how to view our house for sale…
So, you want to move abroad. Istria could be the place and we’ve whetted your appetite, with our property for sale website. What now? We could be wrong, but we’re assuming that you don’t live here already and that, like we did, you will want to view the house and the...
spicy spanish sausage stew…
I like nothing better than a one pot dish, into which I can just chuck everything and leave it to get on with cooking itself. Recipes like this one, also have the advantage of being easy on the washing up, as the stew is just turned out into big bowls. Perfect! What...
april in istria…
We've realised that there is little point in trying to predict the weather in April in Istria. This our fourth April here and previously, we've had fierce Bura winds coming down from Slovenia. Torrential rain. Soaring temperatures. And this year, just to be different,...
ca’n llimona : soller : mallorca
This restaurant is probably known, and frequented by, all of our friends who’ve ever been to Sóller, but just in case you, like us, didn’t know about it, here’s the low-down on Ca’n Llimona. Tucked away down a side street called Carrer de la Victoria, just off the...
the first sign of spring…
Without realising, until very recently that it's actually become an annual tradition, there's a default meal we always make when the first warm days and lighter evenings arrive. It goes back to when we lived in West Didsbury, in Manchester and those first few days of...
easter : 2021
It really only seems a couple of weeks ago that it was Christmas, and yet here we are, having just had Easter weekend. Sometimes we feel that we don't seem to do much with our time, but with a quarter of the year already gone and the fruits of our labours beginning to...
hotel adriatic : rovinj : istria
The Adriatic Hotel is located right on the picturesque harbour of Rovinj, a Venetian town on the south western coast of the Istrian peninsula. It is in the pedestrianised old town, full of pastel coloured Venetian buildings fringing the sea. Cobbled streets, full of...
spring wreath…
The Spring Equinox weekend definitely seemed the right time to dismantle the dead and decaying winter wreath I'd made, way back in November. The vines and ivy were cut back from our green wall in the garden and I had salvaged some of the cuttings which were still a...
house for sale in istria…
We bought our Istrian stone house in 2016 and made the full time move out here, from Manchester, in March 2017. We bought it because we saw the potential of the house. It had benefited from some recent renovation works, including a new red slate roof, and overall was...
hail the hasselbacks…
I can eat a potato in any guise. They form a staple of our culinary output : creamy mashed potatoes with coconut milk cheesy mashed potatoes, usually on top of a shepherd's pie or a fish pie home made chips in the oven - always thinly sliced, cooked in olive oil and...
simple supper : no fuss…
Sometimes, all you want, is the simplest meal, which doesn't take forever, uses just one roasting tin and packs an absolute punch in terms of flavours. And this is just what this meal provides. Wildly tasty, and if you like your cheese on the strong-side, this...
brussels sprouts risotto…
Yes, you read that right. A risotto with brussels sprouts. A rich, blue cheesy, creamy risotto packed with those little green globes of gorgeousness. You might guess that I love a sprout - and if you're also a fan, I promise you too will love this. However, if sprouts...
tasty tapas in malaga…
“Traditional” tapas restaurants and bars are abundant in Malaga and we’ve yet to experience one other than very good. Value is always exceptional with most providing complimentary tasters if you’re just having a pit-stop, rather than a full-on tapas session. There is...
salmon & potato bake…
We're doing a whole lot more cooking at home these days - as everyone is - but we're dreaming of the time we can occasionally escape the kitchen from time to time, again. Until then though, we're trying to vary what we eat and try out new dishes. Sometimes we do fall...
winter walks…
It's absolutely freezing in Istria at the moment. That's right, freezing. Not the wall to wall sunshine & heat we'd naively thought we'd be experiencing, all year round 😉 But, we're also just a little bit stir crazy, having not really left our village (apart from...
christmas : 2020
Well, it's definitely been a funny old year. Since returning from our Christmas road trip, back to the UK, in January, we have been nowhere. Coronavirus quickly put paid to our usual kind of year. No eating out. No mini breaks. No visitors to us, meaning that we've...
walnut pesto…
There are certain foodstuffs that we buy, that I know should be so easy to make ourselves, but for some reason, never get around to it. Either, there's something we don't have from the ingredients list, Or, I just assume it won't be as easy as I think it might. Pesto...
smoked tuna with pasta…
Almost with the flick of a switch, summer seemed to end yesterday, and autumn arrived. The temperature dropped and grey skies replaced the bright blue sky we seem to have had for weeks and weeks. Although we're still hopefully weeks away from having to light the...
oprtalj – step into the past…
Our nearest town, Oprtalj, isn't really a town. At least not in the sense of what we'd regard as a town back in the UK. Oprtalj is not much bigger than Burton Road in West Didsbury, but with a couple of restaurants, a wine bar, a school, a food shop, an interiors...
waste not want not panzanella
Waste not, want not. We're trying very, very hard to live a much more sustainable lifestyle and to really take note of what we buy. In the past, we might have popped into Manchester and come bag with bags of *stuff* that we just didn't need. We don't do this now....
cauli cheese – with a twist…
I'm a big fan of easy-peasy dishes, which include as few pots and pans as possible. And, as little time spent in the kitchen, as possible. Summer here has been very hot and currently we don't have the luxury of air con, so our summer cooking has involved many BBQs and...
damson gin time…
For the first year since we've been here, the damson trees around the garden, are absolutely laden with fruit. Maybe they have been in previous years, too, and possibly we've been too busy with summer visitors and renovation work, to notice, but we've definitely...
greek style tuna stew…
I have absolutely no idea if this dish has any Greek roots but it just reminds me of those oh-so-wholesome stewy-fish dishes that you often find in Greek tavernas. The ones located right next to the sea, with a bamboo awning, covering you from the hot sun as the water...
country life…
Although I grew in the semi-rural North East of England, it's been a long time since I've lived in a house and looked out of the windows and seen fields. The move to Manchester in 1985 lasted until we left in 2017. Thirty two years of city living - and suddenly in...
smoked salmon & leek pasta…
We've been getting very good at using nearly everything we buy food-wise, and reducing our waste massively, and raiding the back of the cupboards for forgotten tins and packets. Most of the meals we've been making recently have been proper lockdown larder efforts,...
looking back on lockdown…
Like the rest of the world, we've been living the Covid-19 lockdown, here in Istria, since March 17th. This was the day the country offically started staying at home, although we were feeling the effects before this date. Being so close to northern Italy, we were...
spaghetti with anchovies & onions…
This is another perfect lockdown larder recipe. If you love anchovies, you'll definitely have a tin or a jar or two of these in your cupboard, and everything else is pretty standard stuff standard stuff which most people will have in. It's a Nigella Lawson recipe,...
stinky baked cheese…
There's nothing more mouth-watering than a strong baked cheese, served with warm crusty bread. It always seems a very decadent way to eat, but in reality, it's not - it's just hot cheese. What makes it decadent is what you do with it, and the kind of cheese you use. I...
ipša wine bar : oprtalj : istria
Ipša, in their own words, is ...a family estate which has been producing extra virgin olive oil and wine for many years...situated in Ipši, a small hamlet surrounded by olive groves in the vicinity of Oprtalj, a picturesque medieval village in north western Istria......
souks : medina : marrakech : morocco
We made a bit of an unexpected purchase when we visited Morocco and to be honest, we were on pins when we returned home. The purchase was being sent to us, as it wasn't going to be easy to bring it back ourselves, and after the euphoria had worn off - it was something...
lockdown larder : oaty apple & cinnamon crumble…
I am not a baker. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I can cook. I can follow a recipe, sometimes go a bit off-piste, and I'm definitely OK with one-pot stews and soups and casseroles. But, baking. As in cakes that go in the oven - I prefer to leave these to these...
seriously the best lentil shepherd’s pie…
...so claimed the author of the recipe on the website. And as we were craving a Shepherd's Pie - we don't eat minced meat and had no Quorn mince left - we decided to test out this rather bold claim and give this vegan option a whirl. It was easy to make, if a bit more...
the honey house : ljubljana : slovenia
The lovely story of The Honey House in Ljubljana... A respectful attitude towards nature allows us to maintain the harmony of life. We are proud to offer you a piece of nature that has been prepared with the utmost care, immersed in tradition and knowledge, which has...
there’s always a way…
Renovating a property can be very expensive. Even though things out here are often less expensive than back in the UK, we don’t have a bottomless money pit and so sometimes, rather than splashing the cash, we look for alternatives. And, currently, spray paint is...
lockdown larder : coconut and lentil dahl…
We're currently in proper lockdown here in Istria. As of last week, a permit has to be applied for if you want to travel to a different municipality. Borders are closed so we can't - and at the moment, definitely don't want to - hop across to Italy to stock up on our...
very little stir risotto…
With our lovely new kitchen, we are trying to be more organised, have food in, take advantage of our new cooking facilities and eat more at home. We love risotto and have been meaning to try out the Three Cheese Baked Risotto spotted in a Donna Hay cookery book –...
first impressions…
A simple bar of soap, but packaged so exquisitely, that I *had* to buy not one, but three bars. The design is simple and quite retro, with a brown paper wrapper, reinforcing the idea that you are purchasing something good. Something that could have been made on an...
conscious gift wrapping
When we travel back to England for Christmas, we don't fly. Flying is a real hassle, even when it's the short two & a half hour flight we do from Pula to Manchester. Plus, we're becoming more & more aware of the impact of flying - but, we have to get back some...
we might be on the move…
Sometimes things take a turn of events that you just didn’t anticipate. And this has happened to us. We’ve spent the best part of the last two and a half years renovating our stone house in Istria, from top to bottom and have almost, almost completed it. We’re on the...
stari podrum restaurant : momjan : istria
Restaurant choices in Istria are huge. Even the tiniest hamlet will usually boast a konoba, serving food of an excellent quality. If you love pasta, gnocchi, stews and truffles, then Istria is definitely for you, as these do form the staples of many restaurant menus....
spaghetti al limone – a taste of summer…
Spaghetti dishes are often our go-to meals, especially if we’re a bit short on time. Current favourite is just flash frying, in olive oil, chilli flakes and garlic and mixing through spaghetti, and sprinkling with parmesan. Done in less than 10 minutes. But recently,...
plastic not fantastic
Italian supermarkets are generally very, very good. Produce is usually always very fresh, and locally grown – great for the carbon footprint – and often loose, so you can avoid the plastic overload. Fish, meats and cheese are often sold in the same way – loose,...
tv or not tv? update 3
When I last blogged about the saga of our TV journey, it was early January and Mauro, from T-Com had been out and had given us a glimmer of hope that we could, one day, have fixed line internet. Meaning we could one day, at some point in the future, have TV like we...
tv or not tv? update 2
When I ordered the SkyBox – the one that I thought would solve all of our TV issues – I hadn’t realised where it would be coming from. But early on Christmas Eve morning, I knew exactly where it had come from, as we’d brought it all the way back to England with us...
tv or not tv? update 1
So, nine days after ordering, and paying for it, the Sky digi box and viewing card arrived. The UPS driver went away with a bottle of wine and we oohed and aahed over the delivery. A very exciting delivery and a very exciting day… Everything was connected, the card...
working from home…
We think every day how lucky we are to be able to live where we live, and continue to run our website design business. Not only does it provide us with an income, it keeps us creative and in contact with our clients. But, we have had the dilemma of where to actually...
the saga of the internet…
Initially, it seems that *everything* in Croatia is complicated and fraught with much dramarama. Getting utility bills put into your name, buying a car, finding where to buy paint and white goods and furniture, getting car & house insurance, knowing how to hop...
pizza sunday
When we lived back in Didsbury, we often used to eat out on a Sunday – and no Sunday lunch was ever really the same, such is the variety of restaurant types in the locality. Here in Istria, we have a lot of excellent restaurants near the house, but the closest are of...
agroturizam nežić : zrenj : istria
Having lived in West Didsbury for a very long time, we certainly appreciate good restaurants. And now, having moved to Istria, and initially being a little concerned that we would have to forgo culinary delights, we are super impressed with what we’re finding on our...
snow arrives in istria…
Today has been a beautiful day, weather-wise. Yesterday, we had brilliant blue skies and sunshine all day, but man, was it cold! And, last night, when we returned home from a local restaurant, the inky-black sky was littered with sparkling stars, like we haven’t seen...
getting green fingers…
I’ve never really been green-fingered. I’m very impatient when growing anything from seed, as I want results right NOW. When I want a riot of colour in my garden, I want it immediately, but I know it takes longer for seeds to germinate and bulbs to push themselves up...
bear with me…
So, this morning we set off on what we thought would be a quick trip. A trip into our nearest town (20 mins away) to finally increase the amount of electricity we have at the house. But first, let me take you back a few weeks. When we did this trip for the first time…...
settling in, kind of…
In a few days time, we go on holiday. Our holiday this year will be a bit different, as we’re flying back into Manchester to visit family and friends. Returning to the city that has been our home for so many years, has made us reflect a little bit on the last five...
the confusion that comes with buying a car…
I think my blogs about things which cause us confusion, will go on for some years to come. Because, at the moment, just about everything is causing us to be be confused. We are muddling through, with the help of new found friends, the internet & just generally...
causes for confusion
Our last cause for confusion centred around the Croatian banking system, which admittedly is getting a little less confusing as we just keep returning to the bank. We’re sure that one day all will slot into place and we’ll be glad of the multiple bank accounts we seem...
lost in translation
You know when things go really smoothly and you get lulled into a false sense of security, that this is how it will always be? Well, that happened to us very recently… We had arranged with the people we’d bought the house from, that while everything else they had left...
the big unpack begins
After two days of drowning in boxes and bubblewrap, we finally carved out a tiny corner of normality in the living room – unpacking and putting together our sofa was a joy, as was having some cosy candlelight. This may look very lovely (above), but careful...
finally moving in
So, three months after we signed all of the legal documents for The House in the solictors’ office in Rijeka, we found ourselves, on 1st March 2017, heading from our stop-over in Zagreb, to the village of Zrenj in Istria. A very good friend of ours had helped us to...
the move : how we did it…
Fast forward a couple of months from the last blog, and Monday 5th December, saw us sitting in a solicitors’ office in Riejka, with the sellers, signing paperwork & taking possession of the keys to the house… Just five months after seeing it online for the very...
getting the keys
So, on Monday 5th December 2016, *this* happened. Meaning, it’s now all very real, indeed…
flights booked
So, flights booked. We hope there’s no turning back now. Come the beginning of December, we hope the deal has been sealed. We hope that as well as those UK National Insurance numbers – which you *always* remember – we’ll also have Croatian ID, and the ownership of a...
getting the oibs
December is going to herald in some big changes! We fly out on 1st December to Bergamo in Northern Italy and pick up a car, which we’ll drive down to Istria. On Dec 2nd we apply for our Croatian Osobni Identifikacijski Broj numbers – ID numbers, similar to our NI...
finding the house
So, we’d arrived in Istria and hired a car, with the intention of finding the house we’d spotted online. Armed with a map and sat-nav we set off, climbing higher and higher up into the Istrian hills. Although it was July, it was quite cool and a overcast, but we could...
the first viewing
Our second trip to The House, this time to view internally, was much less problematic direction-wise, as we were already becoming used to the Istrian roads. What had seemed like a very long journey and an isolated location the previous day, all of a sudden seemed a...