Seven Times Around The Sun

Jacks birthday started with sleep over friends, and presents at breakfast, and progressed to the Pancake Breakfast with even more friends at Tapeley in aid of Two Rivers.

Jack and friends choosing their fillings.

Sun streaming through the barn windows.

The dedicated kitchen staff.

And this, oh this, this is my first ever cuddle with this long anticipated and much thought about little chap. My friends third child, and first boy, little Ocean.

Details of his amazing birth on the Birthwise blog.

A Small Christmas

Ok ok, so Christmas was soooo last year, but I've been busy.
This was the Small Schools Christmas dinner. Planned by me, prepared for largely by me, and eventually orchestrated and catered for by many others as my cold turned to asthma attack during our 'peeling party' the evening before.
I was wrapped up, picked up, plonked on a bench, looked after, fed and eventually driven home again so I didn't miss out.

The room was filled with students and parents both past and present, teachers, governors and love. It was a great meal.

Fred's Snack

So, I'm still a little crook, having had an unpleasant bout of assorted 'itis's'. Up and about but slow and rattling with the drug cocktail the Doctor has medicined me with. The children have been largely unsupervised since Tuesday, and have trashed the place. I have also got about a weeks worth of laundry and housework to catch up on, and school starting back tomorrow.

And when I say I'm still a little slow I really mean sloooow.

So when Freddie left me changing beds up stairs to go and put some fruit in his snack bowl I didn't think to check what he was after.

This is what I found when I came back down.

"Fred, are you trying to eat a pumpkin?"



"No",

"What's it doing in your snack bowl then?"

"erm, resting".

Lily's 6th Birthday

Lily turned 6, so we were in the woods just like last year.

Only this time they were all a bit bigger. This big one at times almost indiscernible from the adults, and last years babies up and everywhere. The slightly advanced years of the older little ones was really noticeable, as they were all just that little bit more independent. Disappearing off in groups and running their own games with little input or awareness from the adults.

We all bought food and Frankie cooked pasta on the chimenea. What a brilliant outside stove that thing is.

Sneji brought salads and a really yum bean, garlic and mushroom salad that reminded me of France.

I made a coconut, blueberry and cacao torte and widely publicised that fact that it was not only raw but also good for you. Despite this, the men still ate a huge portion of it. I would have been pleased that it had been so well received, had it not meant there was considerably less for us, and nothing in the way of leftovers.

Lily's birthday present began life like this,

and ended up like this. Again, no working camera and reliance on my phone for photos really takes it's toll! especially on a dusky May evening in the woods.

Lily looked perfect in trousers and skirt and crocs and mud and leaf litter. I always think a girl misses out if she doesn't end her birthday party with leaf litter in her hair. Beats a tiara any day.

And just before bed we went to the end of the woods and released a purple sky lantern. We all made a wish for Lily as it floated up into the evening sky. Well, we all tried to make a wish, but it took so long to light, and kept coming down causing Simon and Fin to dash about the neighbouring field after it, that by the time it was truly air born we were mostly doubled over with laughter. I laughed so much I cried.

Happy 6th time around the sun Lily. x

Truffles for Mothers Day

If I'm totally honest, I'm a bit of a food tart.

If it's fiddly, or difficult, or lets face it, tarty, it appeals.



I love truffles so much. They are not only fiddly to make and tarty to decorate, they also taste amazing.

The tray above were made for my Mum, and they are honey and almond, dark cherry, crystallised ginger, and chai. And they are all milk free.

These were for my Granny and were made with real cream instead of the soya cream I used in my Mums. Granny got white chocolate cherry, dark ginger, salted caramel, mint, chocolate orange, and honey and almond.

I also made a chili and lime version but it wouldn't harden enough in time to be turned into a truffle. A shame really as this was definitely my favourite flavour, but on the plus side I do have a whole cup full of it in the fridge so hey-ho!

I used a basic recipe and then played with it to achieve the different flavours and textures, but here is the basic theme;

Dark Chocolate Truffles

100g dark chocolate

100ml double cream

25g unsalted butter,

1 tbsp of either honey, maple syrup or golden syrup

Melt everything together in either a double boiler of a heat proof bowl over a pan of hot water. Do this using low heat and have patience or bad things will happen.

When all is melted and blended nicely together, add your chosen flavouring such as chopped cherries, crystallised ginger, orange essence etc, and leave in the fridge overnight to set.

Once set, scoop out tea spoon size blobs and form into rough ball shapes with your fingers. Then cover as you wish. A simple way is to roll them in caster sugar, or drinking chocolate. Cocoa powder works well if you want that really bitter chocolate bite. Or you can roll them in nuts or sprinkles.

To chocolate coat them you need to melt just chocolate as described above, and then drop the truffles quickly into the melted chocolate before removing them onto some grease-proof paper to set.

Once made, they will keep in the fridge for about 10 days..... as if they would ever make it that far!

Bored of Supper

Once upon a time, when Simon still worked as a self employed dry-liner carpenter and finished at 4ish on a Friday, and we lived in our old rented house that required less attention, we used to have a feast for supper on Fridays. I would take great delight in cooking something lovely and making pudding, and we would all sit down and welcome the weekend.

That feels like a long time ago, and recently I have got sick of having to provide economical and filling suppers, served at different times for early eaters and late workers, and covering everyones dietary needs and preferences.

Faced with supper yesterday, and realising that I had almost run out of normal ingredients and had no way of getting any more, I decided to attempt a Friday feast. I knew Simon was coming home early (for him) and would probably make it back by 6 so I knew we were in with a chance of all eating together.

So I baked!

During the afternoon I made;

Bread rolls,

oaty biscuits,

supper onion pie (gluten free),

sweet potato, red onion and stilton tart,

sticky ribs,

rice, carrots and broccoli,

lemon polenta cake (gluten free) 

and chocolate swamp pudding (gluten free).

It was definitely the right thing to do.

The First Harvest

Our first harvest! From our tiny little yard. Unless you count the small amounts of basil that we have been having, but I don't.

There would have been several that ripened earlier but Fred kept picking them as soon as they started to fatten up. We would have had strawberries by now as well, but Fred kept biting them in half as soon as they started to swell.

Treasures fron the Lane

Again, my camera's failing to convey how beautiful this patch of abandoned land is. The ox eye daisy's in huge high drifts, the vibrant pink of a wild rose, and some beautiful tall purple flowers clinging to the pile of rubble.

Jack loves it in here and picks straggly bunches of daisy's for me.

And we've found treasure in the hedges, oh yes!

Much treasure.

You do have to look very carefully though.

Though tiny, these sun warmed wild strawberries taste so strawberrish that their size is irrelevant.

Obviously you can't pick hedgerow fruit without eating the vast majority of it then and there,

but there was so much that we were able to collect this pot full. This doesn't look much, but it was enough for us all to have them rolled up in pancakes after supper.

An Afternoon Tea

I can't convey through these pictures just how beautiful the hall looked, and felt. The colours and the light, the cakes and the flowers, and all the lovely, excited, busy people.

 We had wanted a 40's 'vintage' feel, and I think we really captured that.

Frankie and I had been concerned at one point that we wouldn't have many cakes, but they just kept flooding in!

We had also been concerned that we might not have a huge amount of help, but again we were overwhelmed by the support and involvement we received.

I particularly loved the sight of Cath, pictured on the far left of the photo above, busily serving tea's and cakes with her lovely round baby belly and general glow of pregnancy wellness.

We set up my screen with photographs and information from Bluebells, as well as setting up a play area, complete with tee pee, in the middle of the hall.

And the customers? the discerning tea drinkers? well, they were all the friends and families and parents from the Bluebell group. I don't think we hooked in anyone not associated with the group! What a clientele they were! The atmosphere was fantastic, with families meeting for the first time, and husbands meeting their children's friends, and faces being put to names. It really did have the atmosphere of a 40's village hall tea.

And the little Bluebells community, well they raised £122.19 for Compassion in World Farming!

An amazing achievement from an amazing group of families.

In Preparation

The best kind of preparations are the kind that involve a sortie to the riverbank.

To collect armfuls of wild flowers. Don't they look beautiful. Seems a shame to move them really!

Oh and baking, lots and lots and lots of baking. Several cakes and 86 scones! Yes, I did count them!