Echoes of a Dream

Some half term fun

Yuk, what a way to end half term. It is literally bucketing outside plus of course it's cold and grey too. But never mind we've all had a great week and seem to be happily occupied at the moment. Amber is upstairs doing her homework - having left it till now of course:

The boys spent the morning making London out of lego:

that's canary wharf on the left and Big Ben on the right I believe:

then they got bored and decided to decorate my 'to do' list for today. Why do boys get so much pleasure out of the word poo!

and now they've decamped to the (overcrowded) shed to do some woodwork. Tom meanwhile, is trying to finish the porch by putting up some skirting board and I've just baked some soda bread for lunch (recipe coming up if you want to make some yourself):

All is quiet for a while. What bliss. And the house is clean too which helps with the blissful feeling. Gosh you should have seen how dirty this place was when we got back from London. Months of no proper dusting and building work going on had made the place look worse than a pigsty. OK at first glance it was fine but if you got anything off a shelf it left a lovely dust print behind. The floor was all gritty when you walked without slippers and reaching for a bottle of wine meant you had to bring it out with some cobwebs sticking to your hand. Gruesome.

So, on Friday morning I donned my scruffy clothes, stuck my i-pod in Amber's dock and went for it. Everything came off the shelves, they were wiped down and then I washed everything before it went back. I must admit I toyed with the idea of just giving things a quick wipe but even I, the Queen of slap-dash knew that those darned things really needed a good wash. Oh well the music kept me going. After a quick hoover and mop of the floor the place was sparkling - and I was a happy bunny. The sitting room got a similar treatment as did the bathroom the next day. Tom went around with the hoover and the place is clean enough to invite some friends over now. So come and visit folks. 

Yesterday also saw us making our annual batch of autumn chutney:

This is the one chutney that everyone in the family really loves and we get through it so quickly. The recipe is here if you want to try it. This year it's come out a bit gooey because the pears were a bit on the ripe side but it still tastes nice:

As I said we've had such a great week. It was so nice being at my sister's. We didn't do much - the children played, we went to her local library which being in greater London is fantastic compared with our country town one (I got about a dozen craft and interiors books), we sat and chatted, ate too much as usual. We did manage to get into London on the Wednesday with great plans but you try getting out of the house with six children who went to bed too late the night before.

By the time we got into London it was 11 o'clock. First off it was a quick visit to Tom's office which we'd never seen before. Then my lot clamoured for Japanese and we went to the Japan Centre on Picadilly which does the best, reasonably priced food I know of. By the time we'd stuffed out faces on Miso Ramen it was 1. So then we split up and I took the two girls to Oxford Street and then down to the Bead Shop in Covent Garden (quick stop at Cath Kidston of course) and by half three I was cream crackered I'm afraid. I managed to get to Patisserie Valerie on Old Compton Street for a coffee but home was beckoning after that. I didn't have the energy to go to the V&A sad to say.

I can't believe that I used to live, work and play in this city. Now I can't manage five hours. Mind you it was blooming busy being half term. Oh well. Maybe we'll try and get back there before the exhibition ends in January.

Well, I'm off to have some lunch - here's the recipe for Soda Bread if you want to make some:

• 8 oz wholemeal strong flour (I sometimes use spelt)
• 2oz strong white flour
• 2oz medium oatmeal
• 1/2 tsp each of bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and sugar
• 1oz butter
• 1 small egg
• 1 carton of buttermilk - this is the one I use

Mix all the dry ingredients together and rub in the butter. Add the egg and about half a pint of buttermilk. Mix and then bring together the sticky mass and put it on a baking tray in a round. Score the top into quarters and bake at Gas mark 6, 200C, 400F for thirty minutes. It's scrummy with cheese and chutney and with jam too.

House update

I know I keep saying this (or maybe I just say it in my head) but where the heck is time going? It was just the other day that the children went back to school and now six weeks have passed and it's half term already. Before I know it will be Christmas and then another year will start. At the risk of sounding like an old fogey I do think that time goes faster when you're older.

Anyway, back to half term. We're off to London for four days to stay with my sister. The only thing we have planned is a trip to the V&A because Amber is very keen to see this exhibition. Other than that I just plan to let the children play and I'll be chilling out with my sis.

Before I go you ought to see how the garden and house have changed. I know some of you will have seen this pic before but here's our house when we bought it all covered in cement with plastic windows:

and here it is this morning. Hopefully those steps will be covered and the wall plastered by the time we get back on Thursday night:

Gone are those disgusting concrete steps. I used to do all my dyeing on the left there:

It's just nice and flat and gravelled now:

The shed/garage before. It was attached to the old stable and had a ghastly oil tank in front of it:

and now. We had it seperated, put in new windows, rendered it and put the new oil tank between both buildings:

There is still masses to do but funds have run out for a while (until Tom gets some lucrative freelance). So perhaps next spring we can have the new garden wall covered in stone, some planting - lots of planting, a shed for storage and a greenhouse. The stable is going to have a makeover after we get back from London so I'll keep you updated with pics. I'm very excited about that because I might use it as a studio:

That window is going to be relpaced by double doors and there will be two conservation lights in the roof. The inside is just stone walls at the moment but there is a fireplace and a brick floor. I don't think it can have been a stable originally but I am sure it's been here for about 200 years - fancy that. The builders took up the brick floor and dug and dug down to the foundations and it seems that at sometime or other the floor was raised by about two feet. They found these bits of china under the bricks:

I wish they could talk to me and tell me who used them. They aren't that old ofcourse but still .......

Just to go back to my idea of using this place as a studio - does anyone have a studio/workroom that is not in their house? Tell me, does it work when you have young(ish) children? Will I ever go out there and use it. It will be warm as we're going to put a woodburning stove in it but that's not the problem. I'm just wondering if I will leave the children in the house and actually go in there? Or maybe I'll use it in the day and the temptation of sewing or making of an evening will be taken away. The reason I want to use it, apart from it being such a nice building is that I want to get the piano back into my sewing room cos it just takes up too much space in the sitting room. I also want to put the telly in here and all the videos. At the moment the former is lugged from room to room if we want to watch a film (we have no aerial to watch TV) and the videos are in a cupboard in the attic.

Plenty to think about then for the next few days. I need to know by the time the workmen start as they'll need to sort out electrics, water and whatnot.

Well, I have to throw some things in a few bags and get going. Happy half term to you all ................

Aren't I a lucky girl

Oh my gosh, I must be on the up because instead of going into a panic when Tom announced that he was invited to the rugby in Paris last weekend I actually took it in my stride and we had a really great weekend. I didn't go into my 'but I've had them on my own for three days this week already' but decided that we'd just have fun hanging around together.

So after dropping Amber off at a friend's at twenty past eight in the morning (she was off shopping to Oxford) the boys and I descended on the local farmer's market. The deal was that if they did that I'd take them out for breakfast somewhere. So after heaving around pounds of apples, potatoes, pork and other veg we went and found the nicest of cafes in a neighbouring village. We ordered steaming mugs of hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows to go with our brekkie and sat and chatted about the rugby (or rather they talked and I listened). They chatted with a man with a gorgeous Geordie accent who told me as we were leaving that my boys were ' very charming and so well brought up'. My, that put a spring in my step. Next stop two charity shops where we found some more needles for the bear project and this gorgeous wood turned bowl with the little beads inside:

Then it was back to our local town and a visit to the little craft market there - and a trip to the sweet shop before finally rolling back in at 1o'clock. We felt as if we'd been out all day and I have to admit I did have a little snooze on the sofa a bit later. Amber and friends returned exhausted but very happy at 7 o'clock. I'm glad to say that they did manage to look around a couple of the colleges in between shopping. It seems that each set of parents had said the same thing that morning "you must go and look at the colleges while you're there" or some such and they had listened to us!

On Sunday Rohan and I had a lovely long walk after dropping Raj off at a party and we even took in a photographic exhibition. I was pretty exhausted at the end of the weekend though but not as much as Tom who got back at 4 and went to bed at 8. Seems like there was a lot of celebrating on Saturday night and not much sleep was got. Still, it seems like everyone had a nice weekend though.

One of the things that still manages to astound me and touch me about blogging is the kindness of strangers. People who read my blog, start email chats, become friends and then send things like this in the post:

This is the most generous of gifts from a lovely lady called Rada. A few weeks ago she said she was going to send me something little in the post. So imagine my surprise when a huge box arrived choc full of goodies for me and the children. I wish you could see the rug and the coasters they are so beautiful - the rug being the subtlest of greens:

I'm going to wait till the building work is done and put it on the kitchen floor where I can see it everyday - or maybe it should go in my sewing room - hmmm. I can't wait for the children to get back from school and see all the gifts for them. Thank you so much Rada I'm really very very touched and it certainly made my day today.

You know now is a good time to show you a couple of things I swapped for some months ago which I haven't had a chance to post . There is a gorgeous owl picture that Karin made for Raj. He saw a similar one on her blog as he glanced over my shoulder one day and she offered to make him one:

Thanks Karin he loves it and it hangs over his bed. Then there is an amazing bag from Vanessa which at first glance looks like a purse:

then you unzip it and fold it out:

and voila:

a handy little bag in a handy little pouch. Great for popping in your handbag.

Did I ever show you the school bus key ring that Wylie sent me. I've loved the American school bus ever since I first saw them on Arthur (the children's programme):

and the pumpkin and pumpkin child that Sarah sent:

My I am a lucky woman at the moment and it certainly lifts the spirits as the rain comes down and the garden is a quagmire, the building work continues and you wake up and the Aga has gone off for some reason ............

Happy Birthday dear Amber

Oh my, was this really fourteen years ago (give or take a few days)? Look at my little bonny first born. How did she grow so quickly. Only yesterday she was 21 months old and we were in Dorset:

Then she was three and had a baby brother to play with:

and five before we knew it. She knew that she was a princess though:

almost seven and another baby brother:

and then pretty soon she was nine and had moved to the countryside where we are today:

And today she's 14 and I'm wondering where those years went and why they went so quickly.

We had a lovely breakfast this morning with Tom who had taken the day off as he is away in Paris this weekend. Take a look at some of Amber's lovely presents.

This is from Raj (with a little help from Daddy) - it's a CD case made from old floorboards and finished off with walnut oil:

a padded pinboard made by Rohan (with a little help from Mummy):

here's a close-up because I just love the fabric and the pins we used:

matching doorstop made by moi:

and while I was at it a pencil roll too:

the inside of which:

Ofcourse, she's got lots of other bits and bobs too - her main present being an i-pod dock with speakers. I also got her some books on behalf of my parents - Cold Comfort Farm and Love In A Cold Climate and some Friends videos to add to her collection. I think you could safely say that she's got a bit of everything really. So it just leaves me to say Happy Birthday to my dear daughter. I know we have our little ups and downs Amby but I do love you so very much.

Sorry for the hasty post but Tom and I spent a lovely, but rather long morning going around salvage yards leaving me with about an hour to make the birthday cake (which is in the oven at the moment). So I'd better dash .....................

PS there is a tutorial on how to make the pinboard on my sidebar.

A bit of this and that

Firstly I really do want to thank ALL of you wonderful people that left comments and sent e-mails about my last post. I know I'm not the only one that feels out of kilter at the moment and that you all agree that being a Mum is hard. Juggling all those things, trying to maintain some sort of sanity, getting time to yourself and with your partner is hard. I'm sure we could each write an essay on the subject - something like 'Being a stay-at-home Mum can lead to losing self confidence - Discuss'. The very mention of that word discuss propells me straight back to the classroom but don't worry I'm not going to write an essay. I don't think I ever could these days.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of thinking as you know and I've decided that I'm not going to stop blogging because I do love it. I think that I'm just going to slow down a bit at the moment because it's not a major thing in my life right now. I still have builders around - can you believe it's been eleven weeks! They have achieved quite a lot:

but there is still a lot more to do. (Tom called one to express his concern over the length of time everything was taking and it seems that the job has been going on for that long but all told they've only really done five weeks of work due to the weather etc). The porch is looking nice from the outside though but the inside will be revealing itself slowly over the coming week - I hope. This is what it looks like at the moment:

and the garden in case you were wondering:

and the other side:

So what with builders, the time of year AND time of the month which seems to be affecting me more of late (must be my age) I'm not surprised I've been feeling as I have. You've all been marvelously supportive though and I really do appreciate it. It was great reading all your comments and suggestions and many I have taken on board. I also got a lovely cross stitched card from Simone and a gorgeous package from Val, and lovely parcels from Sarah and Wylie too - you're all such nice friends.

So, what have we been up to in the last week? Well, Friday was Michaelmas and celebrated at school with assembly and kite flying on the common. As luck would have it Tom was in London so the morning saw me shopping for food for the weekend, madly looking for a kite and packing a picnic. Not a great way to start the weekend. Luckily, I had found a recipe for Moroccan Baked Potato Skins on Marie's blog so I made those instead of sandwiches but I left the cake on the kitchen table! By the way Sarah has written a really interesting piece about this festival so do go and have a look - it's here and here is a pic of the nature table at the moment (finally got around to doing it):

On Sunday morning I went into rant mode for some reason after discovering that my children didn't know the hymn 'To Plough the Fields and Scatter'. I asked them if they had sung it on Friday (it is harvest time as well as Michaelmas). Never heard of it they said. What? You don't know this beautiful hymn? So I printed it off the computer as I can only ever remember the first verse of most hymns and sang it to them over breakfast and then at lunch and finally, to shut me up I suppose Rohan joined in as he'd memorised the words by then. What a bore I am. Do you think my children are very confused? On the one hand I've been brought up in a VERY traditional Indian way and then I love hymns and carols. I have no family tradition of singing them and of course we didn't go to church either (my parents are Sikhs if you remember) but I always loved singing hymns in assembly. Rohan said he could imagine me singing earnestly with two black, shiny plaits dangling on either side of my head. Yep, that was me. There was a piece in the Telegraph about hymns coincidentally. I can't find the actual article that I read but a search led me to this, this, this and this. Do you like singing hymns? Do you have a favourite? I have many but I think 'When A Knight Won His Spurs' has to be up there for me. Oh my gosh I just googled the title and it led me to this YouTube video and goose pimples when I listened to it.

OK, now that you're in a nice relaxed, contemplative mood let me shatter it by showing you my latest purchase and showing you some different YouTube clips. I bought an i-pod off eBay:

and last night I sewed up this little case for it (hardly taxing) - it's made from (Dylon) dyed blanket:

and then quite a few hours choosing music to put on it. I had such fun. I copied some stuff off Cd's we already had and then I downloaded a bit more off i-tunes. Just to make sure I really wanted to pay 79 pence for any song I checked it out on YouTube first. So I looked up things like Happy Hour by the Housemartins, Something About You by Level 42, Buffalo Stance by Neneh Cherry, They Don't Know About Love by Tracey Ullman - do click on that link - great song and great video, Heart of Gold by Neal Young and so many more that I didn't buy (yet). Like Squeeze, Belinda Carlisle, Haircut 100 (remember them?), Tears for Fears, Bananarama, Kirsty MaColl, Simple Minds, the Mammas and Pappas - the list goes on. Can't you tell that I was in my teens in the late 70's/early 80's?

Well, the ipod was a great purchase as it made me walk yesterday morning and I downloaded a couple of podcasts to listen to on this morning's walk too. So at least it'll get me taking exercise. By the way if you have any podcasts that you recommend I'd love to hear about them?

So now you can see what a zany woman I am - singing hymns one minute, having a crisis another and listening to Neneh Cherry the next minute. As one lady said in my comments ' so glad to see you're normal just like the rest of us' - did you ever think I wasn't?