Walk through the Garden

If there is one iconic place in London that has reflected the changes in the town and the world in general, it's the Covent Garden Market in downtown London. From getting a fantastic cup of coffee to finding a vast assortment of artisan cheeses to sitting with a burek and a good friend for some people watching, this place has a lot to please.

Indoor/Outdoor Market  130 King St London, Ontario

Named after the famous market in London, England, it has been the location of a marketplace since it was recognized as London's Official market in 1846. In 1853, a market building was built and in 1903 it was threatened with demolition but received a renovation instead. In the twenties the market square was a favoured place on Saturday nights with the revellers and party crowds. It was also very popular with the 'buskers' of the time including preachers and charlatans. A few changes over the years saw the market bazaar close, the 1853 building demolished and a new parking structure/ground floor market arose in 1956. In 1999, the present market was built on the same site with a design reminiscent of the 1853 building.

Chris's Country Cuts   Covent Garden Market   London, Ontario

Every year for the last three we have been getting our Christmas pheasants (3) from Chris's Country Cuts at the market. We have always received quality good at a fair price and the service has been friendly and helpful. We ordered our birds and took away some jalapeño pepperette-style sausage and it was quite good. They have a wide array of meat products to offer and the combined experience of the gentlemen who are the cornerstone of the business almost guarantees you leave with the fixings for a great dinner.

Smith Cheese   Covent Garden Market   London, Ontario

My favourite place to get some great cheese and compote is Smith Cheese. Those that read my cheese article will know how much I appreciate good quality artisanal cheeses and this is where I get it in town. Be sure to stop by and pick up some Monforte's Tuscano, my favourite sheep milk cheese and for a lovely alternative to typical Gouda, some Gunn's Hill Gouda made from sheep's milk as well.

There would be an outdoor skating rink if the weather was right

During the winter there is a popular outdoor skating rink for everyone's enjoyment and for a bit more lively entertainment, across the street is the newly named Budweiser Gardens, formerly the Labatt Centre where sports and music are on the menu.

Coming to London for Christmas? Don't forget to come walk through the garden for your gift-giving needs. I'm sure you'll find it an interesting and a great place to shop both locally and globally, if that is your thing.

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A Fresh Attitude

A Fresh Attitude

“We want to teach kids that fish don’t have sticks, chickens don’t have fingers, and buffaloes don’t have wings..” Jason

Those are profound words that speak so much truth and they are the words and feelings of the owners, Jason and George of the Italian House located in London, Ontario.

It is refreshing and heartening that not only do these charming gentlemen make their products using local and fresh ingredients, make most of their foods in-house such as roasted chicken, roasted mushrooms and their sauces, they also care about our children’s eating habits and education towards food.

"...you should compare between fresh and frozen...We worry the kids don't know the difference..." George

George, with two daughters of his own, worries about children not knowing the difference, and how important that difference is, between fresh and frozen food. He comes from a family in Jordan that, like many of us born and raised here in Canada, appreciated and cooked with produce fresh picked from the garden and prepared with the hands of love, his grandmother’s in particular. His father had a large farm that provided for them and he remembers his mother and grandmother preparing food fresh everyday. When he came to Canada 6 years ago he realized that most people live in cities here and no longer grow their own food. He quickly decided that the lessons he learned at the supper table as a child would help him help others learn just how important eating fresh can be.

Jason, a culinary graduate from Fanshawe College, also has a firm belief in eating local and fresh—for taste, health and economic reasons. Supporting local farmers is big with these guys and they use local meats and produce and even go so far as to use Ontario parmesan cheese. They have recently discovered a Hydroponic grower of produce they hope to use over the winter months to keep their fresh and local 'mandate' in action. Jason's work experience in fine dining establishments has served him well in the joint creation of the recipes they use as well as sourcing suppliers. He used to operate a pizza business in Grand Bend at the Pinery Antique Flea Market where he met a lot of great farmers and people who 'got it' and decided to transfer that to London.

"...got attracted by the lure of money...went with a big corporation that paid well and then hated my life for six years..." Jason

He is scathing in his opinion of the BigBusiness pizza restaurant he worked at as they mass produced their product. There, the freezer and microwave were king. I dare say only two good things came out of that experience—his desire to operate his own responsible 'empire' and his meeting George.

1440 Jalna Blvd, London, ON

They are both working long hours--at least 90 hours each--and it is paying off. The neighbourhood knows they are there and the community is coming in. It took a little while at the start, mainly due to the inferior restaurants that occupied the spot before them. They recounted a story of watching people leave the variety store next to them with those mass produced, plastic wrapped sandwiches and the "79 cent hot dogs; nice, hot and freshly frozen" as George puts it. They couldn't stand it one day and George went out and started handing out free pizza slices. One taste and now they come to them. Various businesses and employees in the area come in all the time now, with no regrets. 

While it is not easy beginning your own business, they have been lucky with the support of their families and friends. George's wife promotes them whenever and however she can: writing and posting ads, word-of-mouth advertising and Jason's girlfriend comes in to help out 16 hours a week--just so he can spend time with her. Quality time with families in situations like this is hard to come by and both understand the importance of quality time--especially George with his two children. What little time they have, he tries to make it a good time together. 

Edit: Jason would like me to add a bit more to credit his lady, Jenny lee, with inspiring him to work as hard as he does and to thank her for the long hours she works in the present (and helped in the past at Grand Bend), to make his dreams come true. She is a hard worker herself putting in 60+ hours a week between three jobs. 

Through various friends they have access to some Italian grandmothers for ideas that Jason tweaks to make it their own. They have plans to introduce a Bolognese sauce for their calzones and quite possibly some fresh pasta. With their homemade tomato sauce, the Alfredo,(made with real butter and cream, Jason hastens to add) and the soon-to-come Bolognese,  fresh pasta is sure to be a big hit. George has a plan for Donairs and has a secret blend of spices he wants to use...as a cook myself, I knew better than to ask what that secret is!  They would also like to expand into internationally influenced pizzas as London has a vast multi-cultural makeup that they would like to showcase. So stay tuned for some international fusion pizza! I know I'll be the first in line.

These are not guys to rest on their laurels. They both have goals in mind for the future and one is to open another restaurant in North London. They realize that to keep their products local and fresh they have to match their growth with the farmers' ability to supply them. They would like success but not at the cost of compromise. Sadly, we have all seen companies go out of business for numerous reasons: wrong locations, unable to compete with bigger companies for business and expanding too quickly. Jason and George both seem to understand those pitfalls and are working hard to avoid them.

Now, I have personally tried a few items on the menu board like their big seller, the Chicken Alfredo pizza, which is sinfully delicious, their regular pizza with my favourite toppings: roasted cremini mushrooms, roasted red pepper and smoked bacon strips and their caesar salad. Given time I am sure I will make my way through the whole menu but the next item I will go for is their Muffaletta sandwich or maybe their second big seller, the Meatball. That particular gem is also their personal favourite with it's homemade foccacia bread and handmade meatballs, made of course with Ontario meat. In our house, we have adopted the 'Wednesday night is pizza night' theme and all because of the Italian House. Pizza is all the food groups represented in a delicious package--just have to make sure I share it with the other pizza lovers in this house. Sigh, it's a hard life.

The Italian House Pizzeria

Website: www.theitalianhousepizzeria.com

Location: 1440 Jalna Blvd, London Ontario

Phone: 226-663-2797

"We make it fresh in house from local farmers and suppliers"

"Brothers" George and Jason, proprietors 

Got a party coming up? Want to serve your guests GOOD food? Check out the Italian House for your catering options. Support a local business and please your taste buds at the same time. It's a win-win situation.

Present Promotion: Free soda with sandwich purchase. Feeling hungry yet?

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Cool Cuisine

available at amazon

Review: 

Cool Cuisine: Taking the bite out of Global Warming

                  By Laura Stec with Dr. Eugene Cordero

Who are they?
Laura Stec is a San Fransisco Bay area Chef and environmental advocate. She gives lectures with EcoSpeakers.com and owns her own chef/catering business.

Dr. Eugene Cordero is an associate professor in the Department of Meteorology at San Jose State University in California. He teaches courses in climate change and his research interests centre around understanding the processes behind long-term climate change. 

First Impressions:

Amongst the half-baked concepts, the deliberate audacious spouting of half-truths and the willing denials of BigBusiness, it is heartening to find a book marrying the ideas of a local-vore lifestyle and the science behind reducing our carbon footprint and to have it delivered in a non-histrionic way that neither absolves nor occludes.

Laura Stec’s writing style is clear, friendly and to the point. Her pragmatic viewpoint of our impact on our planet is neither that of an alarmist nor is it oppressive. She lays out quite earnestly the ways our food system works or doesn’t work depending on your point of view. She doesn’t leave you hanging as to HOW you can make changes in your foodstyle but offers tips and suggestions in incorporating new ideas seamlessly into your life. While I am not 100% in agreement with her suggestions, I do agree with most information you will find in this book.

Throughout the book are tidbits and articles from Dr. Cordero that gives the facts behind the concepts of the various ways we are impacting the earth. These help to illustrate concretely the damage we are doing to ourselves--through our bodies and the planet those bodies live upon.

There are many issues surrounding the carbon footprints of the goods we buy, manufacture and sell. This book attempts to organize and present the topics concisely, calmly and practically. The book is divided into three parts:

• Background
• Solutions 
• Culinary How-to 

Let’s take a look at the first part of the first part. Here she illustrates the concepts behind a global warming diet and the impact upon our environment as well as outlines a partial list of what we can do to promote a ‘cool cuisine’.

Global Warming Diet…What is it?

“…it’s a machine cuisine we are eating today and it takes about 500 gallons(1,890L) of oil per person each year to produce it….we emit similar amounts of carbon dioxide eating as we do by driving…U.S. gov’t research shows our chemical fertilizer and herbicide-based food system contributes close to 20% of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions.”   Page 5

What makes up the global warming diet?

• A lot of beef. It takes a lot of fossil fuels to produce a calorie of beef protein—more than ten times what it takes to produce a calorie of grain protein. 

• Importing our food and drink in copious amounts.

• Overuse of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. The US uses 22 billion pounds of fertilizer to grow the grain to feed livestock.

• Processed, frozen and prepared foods “makes up three-quarters of global food sales by price(not by quantity) and typically requires more energy to make than what we get back when we eat it.”

• Drinking bottled water. “ it takes approximately 17 million barrels of oil just to make the plastic for the 29+ billion plastic water bottles used in the United States each year.”

• High fructose corn syrup which not only comprises over 15% of an average American’s daily caloric intake, it is also the product of corn—corn which is usually a mono-cropped product and is taking valuable fertile land for vegetable growing in order to produce unhealthy sugar, useless ethanol and feed for ‘caged’ animals.

• Food waste. “nearly half of all the food harvested in the US goes to waste each year. Our food system generates 3,774 calories per person per day but we consume only approximately 2,100 calories; the rest is wasted by overeating or by just throwing it away.”

From the University of California, Davis, 2007

Largest Global-Warming Diet Contributors

• Livestock
• Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers 
• Greenhouses 
• Air freight
• Food Waste
• Consumer travel to and from store

Every day we are showing how little we value the very foods that sustain us, keep us moving and healthy and that actually taste good. We overspend on junk food, fast food and foods that are not ‘real’. Nothing compares to the taste of fruits and vegetables ripened on the vine yet we constantly purchase force-ripened or dyed foods in the mistaken belief we are ‘eating healthy’. Unfortunately with lower income families and individuals it is more often than not cheaper to buy junk foods and processed foods than to buy healthier choices. From the calories per dollar standpoint it is better to buy a 1200 calorie bag of chips than 250 calorie bag of carrots for the same amount of money. Is it any wonder we have an obesity problem in North America?

What can we do?

She does give some ideas on how to lower your carbon footprint in regards to shopping and eating. This is where my agreement with her diverges. I firmly believe we can all make changes in our foodstyle but not all of us can approach the Stage Three of her cool cuisine ideas. Most of us can handle the first two stages but to be realistic, the level of commitment each of us can give will vary immensely.

Sometimes strident goals can be a deterrent to those who want to lower their footprint but have no desire to eliminate meat from their diets—I am one of them. I am an unabashed omnivore. I think if we just followed half of her lists we would all be in a better place both in regards to the environment as well as to our health.

 I also wish she would be more emphatic as to the sources of beef she recommends we decrease ie most of the cattle-grazing and soy growing land in the six million acres of cleared Amazon rainforest are destined for the fast food, steakhouse and BigGrocery establishments, not home cooks and ‘normal’ meat eaters.

She then goes on to cover topics like how much healthy soil means to our foods, mono-cropping, and fair trade coffee and chocolate. At the end of each chapter along with some recipes, there is a page entitled Book 'n' Cook Club Ideas. I like this as she details the differing things that can be done either alone or together in a group of like-minded individuals such as videos to watch, books to read and recipes to try.

Water, water everywhere, is there a drop to drink?
Chapter 4 illustrates just what is behind our bottled water consumption and how it impacts our environment and tackles the issue of bottled vs tap in terms of taste, energy consumption and reusing your plastic bottles. I like that she conducted an experiment looking into the bacteria question of refilling a bottle without the benefit of washing it first, which is something that would occur if we were to do this at work or outside on a walk/jog/run. She hired a San Francisco microbiology lab to run the test where four PET bottles in different states of short-term use were tested for bacteria count and she included her own stainless steel bottle that hadn't been 'washed' in a year and a half. Personally, ewww.

Here are the results of the test:

Sample	Standard Bacteria Plate Count
Never used; water poured out (plastic)	1
Used once; not refilled (plastic)	58
Used once; refilled, used again (plastic)	3
Refilled for  2 ½ weeks (plastic)	4
Refilled for  1 ½ years (metal; never washed)	340,000

anomaly: assumed to be contaminated before test but still safe

While the results show that in all cases it was perfectly safe to drink out of, it is still recommended to wash your bottles with warm soapy water. And what about that large number for the metal bottle that was never washed? According to the microbiologist you could consume the same amount of bacteria eating a raw vegetable or salad, unwashed. In other words, it won't kill you.

However, it must be understood that even "newly purchased bottled water can have high levels of bacteria."  The NRDC (National Resources Defence Council) commissioned tests for over 1,000 water bottles from 103 different bottled waters and they found that most bottled water is a good quality, many were found (around 1/4) to contain over-the-limit amounts of arsenic or certain cancer causing synthetic compounds. "...about one in five of the bottled waters tested contained at least one sample with more bacteria than recommended in industry guidelines."

Making a difference

In the next section, Solutions, she illustrates 7 different companies or individuals who are making a difference-what she calls Innovative Risk-takers-and how we benefit from their endeavours.

In the final section, Culinary How-to, she demonstrates how easily we can, and do in some cases, incorporate better eating, purchasing and cooking habits into our lives. In speaking about her catering experiences of people leaving food behind that has nothing to do with the food's taste or proportions, she asked herself "Are they feeding off of more than just the food; maybe the people, the excitement and the energy adds to their feeling of 'fullness?" Which in turn led her to begin to wonder about satisfaction and what exactly it means to us. She then makes a statement that deserves some thought by every consumer:

 "If satisfaction were only about quantity, surely we would have had our fill by now. What if quality plays a more important role than we think? If satisfaction also involves quality, we would need to learn how to feed our bodies, minds, and souls. Our stomachs can be filled with food, but family, friends and feelings feed our heads and our hearts. Food is just the vehicle that brings us together so we can feed the other parts of ourselves with conversation and connection ...When cooking together and sharing food, our meals are prepared with hands of loving grace rather than with the hands of indifference..."

A good point that goes beyond merely wanting to lower your carbon footprint to learning about different foods and growing practices as well as getting to know your local farmers and food producers. It's food for the soul as well as the body.

So, do I like this book because it coincides with my own viewpoints that I have stated before? Of course. I would hardly advocate a book that was the antithesis of my philosophy. However, I strongly believe that this book could sway even those who have given next to no thought on the subject as well as the hardened proponent of machined foods, if they gave it a chance.

I had originally planned to prepare some of the recipes found in the book but I realized that I simply don't have the time to do so at the moment. It is something I will save for a later date.

My recommendations for local-vores

In keeping with the theme, let me tell you about this great new pizzeria here in town, The Italian House Pizzeria. Not only do they take great pride in their food, they also make it fresh in house using local farmers and suppliers. And it shows believe me. Our pizza had roasted cremini mushrooms, roasted red pepper strips and the best smoked bacon strips I have had in a long time-certainly not your run of the mill pizza. Finally, a place that knows what quality ingredients and community involvement means. I highly recommend it. You can find them here on Facebook and here on their website.

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Why should you care?

                 

             

 

As Canadians we are extremely lucky to live in such an agriculturally prosperous country with ample space in which to stretch our mental and physical wings, breathe in clean air, grow our own food and maintain a healthy and active outdoor lifestyle. Unfortunately, a lot of us dwell in overcrowded, overstimulated and overweight cities where space, time and motivation to be healthy and stay healthy are limited. We are riding in cars or buses, taking elevators, sitting at desks at work and the couch or computer chair at home. We eat at BigFood dispensaries, shop in warehouse sized grocery stores and make choices there based upon convenience and expense.

You are what you eat

Statistics coming out of government sources are definitely discouraging in terms of health vs longevity; we're living longer but we are living sicker. It seems counter intuitive to have ninety to a hundred years of life if half that time is spent ill. Quality of life is a phrase often bandied about but rarely when concerning the food we eat and how it is grown in the factory conditions of industrial farming. Our foodstuffs garnered at the grocery store are uniform, glossy specimens of visual "health" but are sadly lacking in nutrition and flavour. I believe the common consensus is that todays fruits and vegetables have about half the nutrients of unaltered heirloom specimens from the past.  Exotic foods imported from far away paradise are irradiated and more often than not underripe-I don't know which is worse!

People- groups, government, individuals- have come to the realization that something has to be done beyond the availability of "farm markets" on Saturdays and Sundays in some larger towns. They are all well and good if you can find one but certainly not a standard amongst all communities. Concerned individuals and health conscious restaurants have taken to shopping at these markets but there are pitfalls that will catch the unwary. I have seem some inferior product on display at some markets. Organic or home grown foods will not have the same uniform shape or glossy condition as grocery stores but they should still look and feel fresh, ripe and in good condition. To confuse matters more, plenty of markets carry foods that are out-of-season purchases from the same suppliers as the grocery stores. Are you getting full-nutrient foods if they are force grown under chemical conditions out of season? Why are they for sale at these markets?

                                           

Picking and Choosing

                Southern Ontario Seasonal Guide

• Rhubarb             May 10
• Strawberries       June 10
• Peas                   June 15
• Beans                 July 10
• Raspberries        July 10
• Cucumbers         July 10
• Pickling Cukes    July 10
• Zucchini             July 10
• Corn                   July 25
• Tomatoes           August 10
• Peppers, 

      sweet and hot  August 10

• Eggplant            August 10
• Squash               August 25
• Cabbage            August 25
• Gourds, Indian   September 1
• Corn, Pumpkins September 1

Knowing which vegetables are in season will go a long way to helping you avoid foods that are available in markets but are not necessarily forming a good nutrient value to dollar expense ratio. For example, buying cauliflower in May regardless of location will not result in a purchase that is home grown on the farm and freshly harvested but greenhouse grown and harvested a few days ago. It may be "on special" but in terms of nutrient value it will be less than ideal. Getting to know your community is essential for building trust when you are handing over your hard earned money for their goods so the character of the market sellers is vital knowledge to have.

So, there you are wanting to be a part of Slow Food and feed your family healthier foods, shopping responsibly at farm markets, bringing your cloth bag, and expanding your culinary skills and I am telling you you're doing it wrong. Not true. Your intentions are perfect; execution is where the flaws are apparent.  You are told to eat healthier but are not told how to accomplish this feat in todays Good Food vs Industrial Food environment. 

Well, you could grow your own food, provided you have adequate space, light, ease of maintenance (important!) and dedication (goes with ease of maintenance). Adequate growing space can be anything from a balcony/patio with pots for a one or two person household to an acre of raised beds for a suburbanite family of four. We could lump time, ease of maintenance and dedication into one as each can influence the others and it can vary immensely from a simple watering to an afternoon spent weeding, cultivating and watering and an evening spent pampering your aching back and wimpering. Depending on your circumstances,  growing your own food can be rewarding and challenging, demanding and profitable. Profitable? Yes, in terms of money saved on daily groceries as well as gift giving of preserved or "canned" goods. Nothing beats a hostess basket or mother-in-law gift of preserved goodies (especially when it's last minute because you forgot!)

Esprit de Corps

You probably spend a lot of time perusing labels in the grocery aisle, trying to remember the good and the bad, proportions, daily intake, whether or not you need more fibre and on and on and on. Can you really see your self hunting down organically grown, pasture raised, mumbled over by a hedge witch perfect foods? That seems to be the only advice coming from fresh food fanatics of which I am not one. I am more pragmatic than that. I say, shop seasonally at trusted farm gate stand or community farm markets where you know the eggs you buy are not from battery or enclosed lay-ers but lay-ers that eat bugs under the sun;the meat is pastured raised on nutritious grasses and not grain fed in a feedlot;the vegetables you buy are in season, locally grown, and with as little of chemical use as possible ideally certified organic. If you get to know the owners you can quiz them on their growing practices politely and more than likely you will get the truth. It helps if you are also a customer.

Pragmatism Rules!

Sometimes compromises must be made in the name of a healthy diet; compromises between fresh and not so fresh(canned), butcher shop or supermarket meat counter. Sometime the recipe you are dying to try is made up of all exotic ingredients. Sometimes making your own bread or churning your own butter is not going to be a feasible option. There are going to be numerous times you have to choose supermarket over farm market and that is just life. The point is to be aware of the opportunities to make better choices and exercise those options as often as you can.

There are pantry staples that can be home canned, for the most part easily but relying on store bought, Ontario/Canada grown and processed goods are a fine substitute. Off season, frozen vegetables can have the same level of nutrients as fresh so are a wonderful option for a veggie dish that is quick and easy. You may not be able to visit a butcher shop that supplies pasture fed meats but choosing as close to it as possible such as no hormones, antibiotics and limited confinement of the animals is a good choice. Check with your butcher if you do go to one, for Heritage breeds and inquire about their aging process and the availablility of ordering pastured animals. Purchasing Heritage breeds ensures the continuation of the breed ::supply and demand. 

Do you often go for Sunday drives in the country, drive back roads on the way to the beach or to visit the Grandparents? Why not stop off at a farm stand to pick up in season veg or farm fresh, farmyard-raised eggs? In the winter months, shopping for eggs and veg at the grocery store is a needful thing not a shameful thing. In the summer months, the availablility of farm stands negates this necessity. I know that sounds preachy but really, a fact is a fact.

Canning Like a Grandma

Canning or preserving can stretch a food budget more than elastic on a pair of track pants after Thanksgiving dinner. Canning acidic foods is cheap, easy and consists of many re-usable components that makes it a cheap investment as well. Canning non-acidic foods requires more expensive equipment and more knowledge but expands the variety of foods available to you over the winter and early spring months.

You may feel some trepidation about canning, either water or pressure canning, but it is not as difficult as you may believe. There is such a delicious incentive as well; think crunchy pickles made in one afternoon, from buying to cleaning to wiping the jars and applying the labels; think spicy, aromatic tomato sauce bubbling on the stove in February that only took a couple of days to put up the August before. A little bit of effort goes a long way to improving your food budget and culinary masterpieces during the winter months.

                                                              and it does make for a pretty pantry...

An alternative to pressure canning your non-acidic dishes is freezing which is an easy and inexpensive way of capturing summer sunniness to enjoy in the darkness later on. Grean beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, tomatoes and tomato sauce, fresh soups etc are just some of the delicious food ideas that you can utilize in your freezing-to-preserve adventures.

The Bottom Line

So what does all this mean? How are you supposed to incorporate healthy, inexpensive foods into your diet instead of relying upon processed and packaged foods? Does this mean you have to give up you Kraft Dinner? Hell no! Don't even think it! But how about adding some in season green and red vegetable and some locally sourced meat sizzling alongside? Sound do-able?

I am of the opinion that to be a responsible shopper you have to include whether or not your food is locally sourced, humanely grown and financially feasible to purchase as well as what the calories and nutrients may be. I don't think it is necessary to be a vegan, or a hair shirt wearing hermit, or an environmentalist, animal rights fanatic and tree hugger to be a responsible shopper. There is a middle ground where most people would be comfortable living in and I firmly believe in it. I also enjoy giving this knowledge away so that more people support their local food growers and really become aware of the lifespan and quality of life of both themselves and the food they eat. I strongly encourage people to take drives in the surrounding countryside where they live and find those farm stands. Only by voting with our wallets will availablility and price become more comfortable for everyone. Humans crave habit and routine and if you accept these ideas into your routine, your good habits, you will find they incorporate themselves seamlessly and are easy to live with.

                                                         

text: Chelle Elle

all photographs found on Google Images

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