Category Archives: children

christmas: making and baking

Posted on by
4

baking plansTime to dust off a favourite cookery book – Linda Collister’s Christmas Treats to Make and Give. The girls are still in full baking mode (both Martha and Bea have been to GB Bake-off themed birthday parties in the last fortnight, and their cousin is threatening Matilda with something similar along the lines of Come Dine With Me), so I thought it would be a good idea to channel their enthusiasm and get them to bake some Christmas presents.

For my part, I am planning to make a few treats from Diana Henry’s excellent Salt Sugar Smoke. I have already raided Ikea’s kitchen department and have a large stash of jars at the ready, along with some really lovely labels (also from the Swedish giant). Just need to brave the high street in search of the ingredients…

i do like to be beside the seaside …

Posted on by
23

                    Nothing like a few days by the sea to blow away the cobwebs.

Charmouth is easily one of my favourite beaches. Though, having said that, I’ve only ever visited in the winter months when, despite the steady stream of fossil-hunters and dog walkers, it’s probably much quieter than it is during the summer holidays.

The weather forecast for the weekend was terrible and the clouds looked pretty forbidding at times, but the rain held off and we managed to spend both Friday and Saturday by the sea – three hardy souls actually swam. Naked. Not me, though.

Lyme Regis for wave-hopping and crashing about on the shingle…

               … and Charmouth for fossils and chips – but not together.

Our lunch on the beach at Charmouth was one of the best picnics I’ve ever had: loads of buttered slices of bread from home which were then stuffed with chips from the cafe.

Incidentally, the cafe, which is run from an unpromising-looking large, green Portakabin-shipping container type affair, produces the best tea imaginable: hot and strong and served in large china mugs which they let you take with you while you search for ammonites and trilobites. Delicious hot chocolate too, according to the children.

And then back to base, where fortunately there was a large boot room  …

This is just the tip of the weekend’s footwear iceberg, which comprised walking boots, trainers, slippers, daps*, clogs, crocs etc. I could go on, but it’s enough to say that there were seventeen of us in all (toddlers to forty-somethings) and the weather was uncertain.

I am now dealing with a different sort of iceberg – a damp, muddy, gritty heap of clothes.

* Daps – Bristolian / West country term for plimsolls.

creepy

Posted on by
14

The rain came down but that didn’t put anyone off. Although only nine houses hosted happenings, the street was so full of children in fancy dress it looked like the set of ET.

As you can see, I managed to make Martha’s cape. I kept putting it off, the material felt so slippery and horrible I didn’t want to touch it, and beyond Martha’s drawing, I didn’t have a pattern to work from – cape construction is not really my thing. But at 5 o’clock this evening I had to face my demons and get on with it. Amazingly it took about five minutes – incredible what you can do when you are against the clock and beyond caring. The drape of the fabric is very forgiving, completely concealing my shoddy pleating. Martha, who had given up all hope of wearing a cape, was suitably impressed.

We are all off to Dorset tomorrow to recover.

planning

Posted on by
5

I know that Halloween is not to everyone’s taste, but in Montpelier it is celebrated with great enthusiasm (previous years’ fun here and here), though this year’s bash may be a rather low-key affair as it falls in the middle of half term and lots of families are away.

But of course none of this has dampened the girls’ excitement. In fact discussions have been underway for some time now: the picture above, which I thought was just another one of Martha’s endless drawings – she produces a lot – is actually a costume design. A design she is expecting me to follow when I make her costume. From scratch. Today. Eh?

When I complained that I’d had no warning, there was a loud chorus of “but mum you said you’d make me a dead bride/zombie red riding hood/creey doll costume” which, when I glowered at them across the breakfast table, quickly became a slightly sheepish, “well you didn’t say you wouldn’t!” So we are all off to Fabric Land in an hour or so, in search of red fleece, white netting, and whatever else I think I might be able to magic into something spooky with my limited sewing skills. We’ll tackle the pumpkin tonight.

busted!

Posted on by
13

Someone keeps stealing my camera. Each time I download my photographs I discover images that are entirely new to me. Of course, the girls deny all knowledge.

The self-portraits, however, tell a different story. As do the endless shots of Sylvanians. Time to get Matilda a camera, I think. But where to start? Can anyone recommend a basic digital camera for a thirteen-year-old?

bea’s brownies

Posted on by
13

I like to think that she’s been inspired by me, but I suspect that Bea’s sudden passion for baking is really due to her obsession with The Great British Bake Off. Over the past two weeks she has made two loaves of bread, cheese rolls and now these brownies.

Bea used the recipe from Paul Hollywood’s book How To Bake, and it requires marginally less butter and chocolate, and crucially, I think, fewer eggs, than Nigella’s brownie recipe which, despite repeated attempts, I’ve never made successfully (the squidge v cake balance is all out of whack – too wet and not cakey enough for my liking).

Bea doesn’t like walnuts so she used pecans instead and we had no cranberries so she made do without. I hovered in the background whilst she worked, biting my tongue. I was quite surprised by how controlling I am when it comes to other people using the kitchen. Matilda is also obsessed with The Great British Bake Off so I can see that I am going to have to learn to ease up a bit and just let them go for it.

the language of flowers

Posted on by
7

Yesterday, along with the usual cries of “Where’s my games kit, who stole my lunch bag, I’ve only got one shoe”, Matilda threw in a request for a bunch of flowers. Her friend Issy had phoned in tears because their cat had been hit by a car. Poor Issy, she was distraught. I’m not sure whether or not the flowers helped, but it was nice that Matilda chose to express her sympathy this way rather than sending a text full of emoticons.

Though of course it’s entirely possible that she sent one of those as well :(

eek!

Posted on by
12

It’s Bea’s eleventh birthday on Tuesday and so we threw a little party on Saturday.

Matilda and Martha usually have very clear ideas about what they want to do for their birthdays, who they want to invite and what they want in the way of presents.

Bea is only ever clear about one thing – the cake.

This year she wanted a zombie.

Hidden beneath the thick layer of green icing is my go-to birthday cake – Nigella’s buttermilk birthday cake which I have written about many times (prettier version here).
I make one cake, slice it in two and then layer it back together again with Nutella into which I whip lots of double cream. If you are tempted to try this, be warned: the Nutella always resists the addition at first, and then sort of gives up and goes soft and glossy and completely delicious.

going solo

Posted on by
9

The girls returned to school yesterday and I found myself alone for the first time in six weeks. I wandered down the road to buy a newspaper, delighting in the fact that there was no one at my elbow begging for sweets.

Elbow room and head space – that’s what I’ve missed. It’s been a lovely summer break, but it’s nice to be alone again for part of the day. A treat to walk around the neighbourhood and take in the changes that have occurred over the summer, such as these houses on Picton Street, which were spruced up in August.

Yesterday, I was struck by the lovely graffiti-like play of sunlight on the walls. In fact at first I really thought it was graffiti, a sort of weird washed out version of the Olympics logo!

Although Montpelier is fairly scuzzy in places – mindless tags adorn walls and bins, and we seem to have far more than our fair share or dog shit – the neighbourhood is also full of real beauty. In particular its wonderful mix of architecture: Georgian townhouses and cottages, Victorian villas and terraces, and even one or two interesting 20th and 21st-century additions. Of course there are plenty of duds in the mix as well, whole rows of dull, mean-looking 80s Toy Town nothingness. But the mix is the thing. For me the scuzz points up the beauty so, dog shit aside, I’m happy to put up with all the tagging, and even a bit of litter, because, when taken as a whole, Montpelier has immense charm and character.

And it’s lovely to resume my term time routine – a daily (nosy) stroll around the streets, admiring other people’s window boxes and gardens, their front doors and curtains.

boing!

Posted on by
4

Is it art? No, I don’t think so. Is it fun? YES, absolutely!

Jeremy Deller’s Sacrilege, popped up on College Green at the weekend and, despite the rather ho hum title (surely a Turner prize-winner could have come up with something a little more… well, sacrilegious?) it was fabulous – impossible not to grin like a fool the minute you set foot on the inflatable ‘field’ surrounding the standing stones. At one point a group of morris men tried to do their stuff whilst being buffeted from all sides by fellow bouncers.