My Secret About May 13th, Picnic By The Sea & Fresh Basil From Flower Festival

I've got two birthdays. I've never died and come back to life, not that I know of. But I've got my original birth date as May 1st, and May 13th on every official paper there is. Back when mom was pregnant to me, it was difficult obtaining maternity leave. Agreeing to her doctor's suggestion, I was registered 12 days later. That's my story which makes me feel funny every year. I don't intend to change it at all. It's my secret...

Picnic By The Sea

Yesterday I enjoyed such a nice day out with mom. I actually forced her to go out which she thanked me for later. I was envisioning having a small picnic by the seaside. So I made pasta with sausages and indulged them in yogurt & spice sauce. Just enough for two plastic containers. Pack. In another, some washed arugula and cherry tomatos. Pack. Ready to leave? Nope. Pocket size radio, some water and mint candy, all set.

Since we don't have as much as green I'd like here in city... I go to the sea then. Nature bits, the blocks of apartments couldn't eat up yet! Ha! :D

Fuzzy green tea mochi looking rocks during walk

A couple minutes later we're on our way to the seaside. Basically, walking to the coastline which is arranged as green areas to enjoy, walk, come with pets and exercise outdoors with installed equipments.

We walked up to a shady area and sat on the grass. There were few men trying to catch fish. One of them had this fishing rod with a jingle hooked on it. It kept distracting me. When they left, I captured a photo of my view from where I sat:

De-clutter your mind...

Feeling very hungry by now, we quickly finished eating our pasta. Since it was chilled, garlic let its pungent aroma merge well by then. Yummy!

Flower Festival

After contemplating the blue sea, green grass and sunny weather our flesh and bones enjoyed, it was time we'd start walking back home. Following the coastline, we came across a crowd of people and flowers in all colors. Right, it's time for flower festival in my province again!

Mom as she's examining flowers

Such vibrant colors... such liveliness... Reminding me there is beauty to appreciate. A lot of visual feeding!

Close up on floral feast

If you wanted to get them, they were dirt cheap too. For comparison, one of those flower pots above come for 0.50 to 1 in mine - which makes like 30 to 65 cents in US money. CENTS.

Basil smell is calming to me...

As much as I enjoyed the flowers though, I just laid my eyes on cactus and basil pots. Cactus dudes I love for being self sufficient which I associate with myself. Basil I appreciate for the mesmerizing smell - and I wanna eat it! Actually we mostly keep this herb for a little green and great odor in the house. All my childhood we did. But now, I'm so motivated to pick few leaves for pesto sauce :blush:

Plus, mom told me that it'd encourage my plant to grow better.

When I look it up online, I come across somewhat different basil plants with bigger leaves... From memories I know this plant I have will never grow that big leaves, only grow in volume with same leaf size.

Question here; does this look like the usual basil you use for cooking? Also, all basil use ideas welcome. If you cooked food with basil, would you link to me below to get familiar also? Next post I'll have a meal that uses my new metal steamer I previously mentioned and use some basil too! Though, steaming and basil don't have to come together.

P.S: Lastly... talk about lucky! As I was typing down this post, amazing pastry smell slowly surrounded me. To my surprise, mom secretly baked my favorite - I mentioned before... It's a twist to the Turkish pogaca by laying out the dough flat on the baking tray. You could see the original version by clicking this sentence for -> Midnight Craving For Pastry: "Turkish Pogaca" by me.

So comforting... This one has cheese, all melted inside

Oh by the way, if you're not yet familiar with the little black seeds sprinkled over the pastry... I suggest you visit this informative post by clicking this sentence for -> "Special Ingredients: Nigella" by LouAnn at Oyster Food & Culture

I'm off to enjoy this all time favorite pastry with some green tea now, and possibly go for a walk on the coastline again because all this talk made me miss it. Flower festival's still going on, and I planned to buy another pot of basil to gift.

How are you doing?