A little while ago, my friend Rebecca shared her method for getting Iced Coffee perfected at home and reminded me—yes! forehead smack!—cold brew. It’s been ages!
Simply combine your coffee grounds and water in a French Press, and leave overnight. You can leave it on the counter or in the fridge, but don’t plunge the press until the following morning.
And here’s an extra step you can take to really get it right: use your first batch to fill an ice tray! Then use coffee cubes rather than ice cubes–which makes the drink last without becoming watered down. A 1/2-cup of grounds with 2 cups of water should be about right.
Since the last rain, our succulents and cacti have been putting on quite a show. It came as a bit of a surprise. I had no idea that “hen and chicks,” for example, already so-flower like with their rosette of leaves produced such bright pink stalks of flowers.
Not to be left out, a carpet of sedum blooming in yellow.
The cacti’s blooms are far more short lived. We get to see them primarily in Aron’s parents’ yard—they have an incredible collection.
But even our very tiny purple cactus seems to be crying out “look at me!”
They’re making up for all of our unhappy (failing) houseplants.
P.S. We’re just back from Paris! Looking forward to sharing some favorite photos soon, as well as to wrapping up our Bali Travelogue.
We looked into various guided bike rides and treks in advance of our trip, but ultimately decided to wing it once we arrived—not being one hundred percent sure of how easy or difficult each day with Hudson may be. In general, we tended to try and be more carefree about when and where he napped than we would be at home and that worked out really well. He might fall asleep a bit later, or sleep for a shorter time, but he got to be pretty good at napping on the go.
One day, following a description of the Campuhan Ridge walk we found in our Rough Guide, we asked Nyoman to drop us at the Ibah hotel near Campuhan bridge and then pick us up where the path rejoined the road. A man was waiting near the top, beside the hotel, looking for guide-work. At first we were going to decline, it sounded easy enough, but he convinced us that the trail could be a bit tricky and we got a good feeling about his character. We negotiated a rate (still hoping we weren’t being mislead) and started down an incredibly steep path toward the Agung river.
I was so glad that Aron felt comfortable carrying Hudson on his back for the walk, and even he admitted that it was incredibly nerve-wracking at times. Ultimately, we were so glad we had a guide, even if just because there was someone else to occasionally lend me a hand when Aron needed both of his. He was also so kind as to take our bag for the descent.
