three little birds

come on over

2011-09-10T09:03:00.001+01:00

Hello friends,

Sorry for my absence this week. It's been a busy one where I've been trying to play the game of being a proper, professional teacher as best as I can. It's been fun & surprisingly tiring. I've wandered around my classroom many times, talking to myself in an attempt to try & stay sane. (is that a contradiction in terms?!)

There have been lists galore flying around - lists of children, lists of parents, lists of things we need & of jobs still to do. My head is full but my heart is happy. I love my school.

In other news, for a very long time, I've wanted to make some changes to my blog, and it has taken me an equally long time to do something about this. Well, I finally have, and while the changes might look small, I am pleased that I have finally made the little changes, and hope that there will be some more to come over the coming months.

One of the major changes is that I have a new blog address! If you follow my blog in google reader, please update the details for my blog, as I will no longer be posting in this little space.

So, please, come on over to my new blog (it will still feel oh so familiar) and let me introduce you to the little changes I have made.

flachswichel

2011-09-05T01:00:00.000+01:00

On Monday morning I woke up, and did what I do every morning, seconds after waking. I thought about breakfast. It's definitely my favourite meal of the day. I think this is because I am always hungry as soon as I open my eyes. I am most definitely not someone who can skip breakfast.

So, on this particular morning, as I lay in bed thinking about what we could eat for breakfast, I realised we had no bread left, and hadn't put a fresh batch in the breadmaker. We didn't have any cereal or nice fruit. Basically, we had nothing. So I got up and baked some flachswickel. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I opened a recipe book and found it.

Last week I received the most exciting delivery of my life in the post - a kenwood chef major. Oh my. I love it. I have dreamed about having a freestanding mixer for quite some time now, but it has taken a long while to part with my money. Amy's wedding cake was the final push I needed, and so I ordered my new baby to arrive in time for wedding cake baking.

Back to the Flachswickel story. Monday morning seemed like the perfect time to try out the dough hook on my kenwood, and so I excitedly threw in the ingredients for flachswickel, and this is what came out:

This German bread is lightly spiced with cinnamon & cardamom, and has a wonderfully light and fluffy texture. We ate it while it was still warm, with butter & honey and a fresh cup of coffee. I love breakfast time.

Recipe :: yields 7 - 8 rolls

ingredients

150g butter

200 ml milk

500g flour (I used strong white bread flour)

7g dried yeast (1 sachet)

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom

2 eggs

pinch of salt

icing sugar to dust

1. Put the butter & milk into a saucepan and heat gently until butter has melted

2. Place all remaining ingredients into mixing bowl & add butter + milk misture. Mix together, then knead for 10 mins by hand, or if using a free standing mixer, knead on a low speed for 3 minutes.

3. Cover and leave to rise for one hour in a warm place.

4. Preheat oven to 170C / gas mark 3. Divide the dough into 21 - 24 pieces and roll into long sausages. (original recipe states 24 - mine made 21 at a stretch.)

5. Take 3 of your dough-sausages, pinch together at the top, then plait.

6. Dust with icing sugar then place on a baking tray and bake for 25 - 30 mins until golden brown.

sunday snapshots

2011-09-04T21:12:00.000+01:00

Hello friends! We are back with internet sooner than we thought, which is fabulous, although it wouldn't have done us any harm to go a little longer than 24 hours without access to the online world.

I hope you didn't get too fed up of my posts about wedding cake, although I'm afraid this post is a little on the food-heavy side too!

If you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see on here other than lots of food, flowers & baking, I am always open to your thoughts & ideas!

morning coffee

the deliciously juicy snack I ate after our 10.5 mile run

granola making & baking

evening reading as the rain falls

the wedding cake :: trasportation

2011-09-02T01:00:00.000+01:00

Once we had completed the decoration of each tier, we then had the challenge of transporting the cake from Bristol to Bath, all in one piece, with plenty of hills and tiny roads set to try us.

We put the biggest tier in the footwell by my feet, which meant some serious leg contortions for me to avoid squishing the cake, the smallest tier sat on my lap and the middle tier? We strapped her in.

See? Perfectly safe and sound.

We took an emergency repair kit with spare strawberries, gold powder, cigarillos, ganache, ribbon & pins. This turned out to be a very good plan, as those big Bath hills caused a bit of bumping with our smallest tier's strawberries. But we weren't worried because we had back-up.

We held our breath as we positioned each tier on the cake stand, and let out a sigh of relief when the last tier was in place. Then all we could think about was whether the ribbon and lace were all aligned...

the wedding cake:: decoration

2011-09-01T01:00:00.000+01:00

Decorating the cake was both the easiest and the most challenging element of the whole process. Amy had shown me a picture of a cake that she liked, which made it very straightforward for me to know what it needed to look like. We decided to hire a cake stand that would allow each of the tiers to sit separately from one another, rather than facing the challenge of balancing each tier using doweling rods to support them.

A friend had recommended a catering supplier called Squires Kitchen where I might be able to source various useful items from, and I ended up ordering the white chocolate cigarillos from them. They were brilliant - very speedy delivery, carefully & beautifully packaged items, and juts altogether efficient.

I did a fair bit of research into making white chocolate ganache, and working out what the best kind of chocolate would be. Another friend (who was the caterer for our wedding) assured me of the quality of callebaut couverture chocolate for making the ganache that would cloak each cake. He knew what he was talking about - I bought 2.5kg of callebaut white chocolate chips for £15, which was enough for the trial cake and each of the 3 tiers, and I still have plenty leftover!

Making the ganache:

To cover all 3 tiers...

1.1kg white chocolate

600ml double cream

approx. 80g butter (at room temperature)

Place cream in a heavy based saucepan and gently heat until on the verge of boiling - as soon as you start to see tiny bubbles emerging around the edges of the pan, remove from the heat. 

Pour cream over the chocolate & butter, agitate the bowl to help the cream migle with the chocolate, then stir gently until the chocolate has completely melted.

I deliberately used a very small amount of butter, as I had found before that a higher ratio made the ganache too thin & runny. While it felt like a slight risk to just put a small amount in & hope for the best, the consistency was perfect.

It was so helpful to have Rebekah on my cake decorating team, as the distribution of ganache can be a messy old process. We put each cake in turn on a wire rack inside a very large roasting tin to catch all of the run off. I ladeled the ganache & Rebekah ensured it covered the sides beautifully with the aid of a pallette knife & a steady hand.

We put the chocolate cigarillos on each tier after cloaking in ganache, while the ganache was still sticky. My caterer friend gave me a useful tip that if the ganache hardens before applying the cigarillos, you can just soften it with a hairdryer!

We saved the excess ganache which came in very handy for sticking each strawberry securely in place on top of each tier.

Rebekah had the great idea of filling the little gaps that were too small for strawberries with blueberries. We loved the splash of colour they added.

Amy had requested the strawberries to be sprinkled with gold glitter. I learned a few lessons about all things edibly gold in a very short space of time. Having purchased five pots of lovely gold glitter, I realised on the night before the wedding that it was not actually edible! Oops! So on the morning of the wedding, we took an early trip to Kitchens and bought a can of gold lustre spray & some gold lustre powder to cover our bases.

Lesson 1: Gold lustre spray on strawberries doesn't work so well because of the natural moisture of the strawberries

Lesson 2: Gold lustre dust will go everywhere & clashes a little with white chocolate, but when carefully applied with a fine brush, it glows!

The final stage of decoration was to add lace & ribbon to the middle of each tier. I loved this twist on the traditional ribbon decor often added to wedding cakes.

the wedding cake :: baking prep

2011-08-31T01:00:00.000+01:00

Tier Dimentions: top tier: 6 inches; middle tier: 10 inches; bottom tier: 12 inches

Amy & Matt's wedding cake was my first ever 3 tier wedding cake. Although I have made cupcakes for weddings on a few occasions, there were different challenges involved in this 3 tier affair.

The first stage involved calculating the volume of each tin to work out amounts of ingredients needed for each tier. Maths has never been a strong point of mine, but I quite enjoy the maths involved in baking, even though there is the great risk that if I mis-calculate, the cake will all go horribly wrong. Thankfully, my checking and double-checking of quantities paid off, and each layer of each tier turned out just fine.

The cake boards for each tier were an inch wider than the diameter of the cake. This extra inch is necessary to allow for the extra width added on to the cake by the ganache & cigarillos.

As obvious as this might sound, if purchasing cake boxes, buy ones that are the same diameter as the cake boards, or an inch larger. Using boxes that are significantly bigger than the cake inside is a dangerous game to play if you're transporting them any distance!

The practicalities of baking 6 layers of cake when you don't have your own professional kitchen is a challenge, as is the timing. I had planned to bake the vanilla layers for each tier on one evening, freeze them once cool, then bake the chocolate layers the day before the wedding. However, I realised that I had greatly under estimated the cooling time of the larger layers, and if I waited until the day before the wedding to bake 3 of the layers & decorate them, all in one evening, I would have been waiting until the middle of the night for them to be cool enough to decorate! So I changed the plan, and baked each layer over the course of the week, so that by Thursday, I only had one 12" layer left to bake.

While freezing might seem like the freshness of the cakes would be compromised, I would place bets on 99% of guests not being able to tell that some of the cake had been frozen. Another benefit of freezing sponge cakes is that it reduces the level of crumbs they create when icing & cutting, which is always useful when trying to create a neat finish.

a little note

2011-08-30T22:43:00.000+01:00

Hello, friends!

We are going to be without internet in our little home over the next week, so I have scheduled in a few posts, filling you in on all of the behind the scenes details of making Amy's wedding cake.

I don't know how many of you are interested in all of the details - recording the process is as much for my own record & reference as it is for your interest. If these posts are not of great interest to you, I apologise, and I'll be back soon with other posts that aren't food related. I am aware that sometimes it might feel a bit like a food blog around here, which doesn't appeal to everyone, but I can't help blogging about my baking adventures, as this is what I spend a significant amount of my time doing!

As you read my scheduled posts, I will be settling in to my brand new job of being a primary school teacher! I am excited about the adventures & learning that will take place as I try my very best at being a real teacher.

wedding of the week

2011-08-30T17:01:00.002+01:00

Did you have de ja vu when you looked at the title to this post? Another wedding of the weekend, only a week after the last wedding?

Well, friends, you read that right. I spent the day on Friday celebrating the wedding of a wonderful friend who I have got to know over the last year, as we have trained together to be teachers.

It is always an honour & privilege to share in a friend's wedding day, and even more so when you are asked to help in some way. I have shared a couple of glimpses into Amy's wedding over the last few months, with a peek at the lace bunting & the trial wedding cake. I finished stitching the 50metres of bunting last week, along with 25 lace cushion covers which were used at the wedding reception, for decorating the hay-bale seating next to the dancefloor.

The making of the wedding cake was the feature of my week last week, and I think it deserves a post to itself, so I'll fill you in on all the details very soon.

The weather forecast for the wedding day was filled with rain, and sadly, on this occasion, they got it right. While you might not wish for rain on your wedding day, it certainly didn't detract from the joy & celebrations.

Soggy guests heading to the cricket pavillion for Pimms

The beautiful Bride, well equipped for the rain in her Hunter wellies

The Groom

The highly tempting treats table, complete with stands made from sections of silver birch trees

a small section of the lace bunting

handmade cupcake favours

beautifully colourful hydrangas for table decorations

Me & Rebekah, who helped me with cake decoration & transportation, with our creation

the back half of the marquee had an amazing dancefloor - the only part of the marquee not to get flooded at all

the lovely Lydia (who sang during the wedding ceremony) getting her groove on

We all went home with happy hearts, having loved every minute of Amy & Matt's wedding.

unusual, unexpected, unconventional, unpredictable

2011-08-29T11:22:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the anniversary of our first year of marriage. Throughout the day, I kept thinking, 'this time last year I was....nervously eating breakfast....on my way to the church.....saying my vows to John....dancing the night away....'

While the memories of our wonderful wedding day were very much with me yesterday, it also just felt like any other day, with all of the unexpected turns that can take place.

As Christians, John & I want to place God at the centre of our marriage, and are keenly aware of how valuable prayer is - in giving thanks to God for so many blessings in our lives, for asking for His help in loving one another well, for seeking His will for our lives - and so many more reasons than these. In light of this, we had asked some friends to pray for us during our wedding ceremony. The lovely Ros was one of our friends who prayed, and she shared with us how God had given her four words for us to expect in our marriage: unusual, unexpected, unconventional, unpredictable.

These four words resonated with me throughout the day yesterday. We hadn't made any particular plans for the day (we're going away to a beautiful hotel in Gloucester tonight), and so the general plan was to just enjoy the day and go for a big long run (we're training for the Bristol half marathon). At church, a friend told us that he was going to a Monster Trucks event that afternoon, which he'd got a great deal for. We shared similar stories of great deals, discovered through Groupon, then went home to get ready for our run.

I had a few cupcakes to frost for an order that I was due to deliver later in the afternoon, and mid-frosting, I received a phone call from our Monster-Truck friend, saying he had two spare tickets, and would we like to go. This was the last thing that I imagined us spending our anniversary doing, but I loved the unexpected-ness of this opportunity and the unconventionailty of this as a way of celebrating our marriage. So, we whipped up the fastest lunch ever, grabbed our raincoats & sunglasses - because the weather was being highly unpredictable, and set off for an afternoon of watching stuntmen flying through the air. And we loved it.

This motorbike dude was my favourite - more of him in a minute. But first - a walking fireball

This guy carried a burning carpet on his back as far as he could, just for fun.

Chris the motorbike dude was incredible. I kept laughing and blowing raspberries in exclamation at each of his stunts - I think I've spent too much time with baby Rachel this weekend, who is a pro at blowing raspberries.

Although we hadn't planned on doing very much on the day of anniversary, as we had a lovely hotel to look forward to the day after, in my head, I had a romantic view of how the day would go. The reality was that it ended up being a busy day, and the only plan we'd had (running) got shunted to the end of the day. By the time we got home from running, I was feeling thoroughly despondent about all kinds of things about the day that had not gone to plan. I realised that despite not making any 'plans', I still had an idea in my head of how things would be, and my expectations had not been lived up to.

I realised that in the same way that the unexpected, unpredictable, unconventional & unusual things in our marriage can be a great blessing, they also have the propensity to feel far from a blessing & more like a struggle. As I washed up the mountain of dirty dishes, I lamented the unpredictable-ness of our day. Then I felt God quietly remind me that actually, it was ny attitude & expectations that were making me feel grumpy about the day, not the events themselves. I had the opportunity to turn my thinking around and celebrate the unpredictable-ness of it all, and enjoy the rest of the evening with my brilliant husband, rather than go to bed feeling miserable.

While it is fine to have plans and expectations, I am learning that it is alright if things don't go the way I expect them to. My hope is that I will learn to welcome and expect the unusual, unexpected, unconventional and unpredictable in our marriage, so that I might see the true blessings in these things.

My anniversary paper rose

2011-08-28T00:26:00.002+01:00

As I write this, it is two minutes past midnight.

This time last year, I remember exactly where I was. I was sat in the lounge of the flat that was to become the first home I would share with my soon-to-be husband, with two of my bridesmaids. (The other two had done the sensible thing and gone to bed already.) One of my bridesmaids was giving me a wonderful manicure, while we reminisced on how we had dreamed about this day since childhood.

It was the night before my wedding & I was having a heart to heart with two of my oldest friends about the wonderful man I was about to marry. I knew that I should be sleeping, but this was the only time I would have in my life where we would be having this conversation, and I couldn't pass it up for a few minutes of extra sleep.

In just a few hours time, I would be marrying the man who had become my best friend. I could hardly believe it, yet I knew with great clarity that this was exactly what I wanted to be doing, and I didn't want to forget one second of the anticipation and action.

We had rehearsed the wedding ceremony earlier in the day, and in just a few short hours, we would be doing it all for real. I was well & truly excited about the day that I would become Mrs. King.

wedding of the weekend

2011-08-24T21:03:00.001+01:00

This post is a little slow in coming as I have had a busy start to the week. On Monday I spent nearly 6 hours sorting out my very own classroom! What an exciting and scary prospect. In just a couple of weeks time I am going to have a class full of tiny little wonderful people to teach. I then spent the evening baking the first few layers of a wedding cake. Yesterday was spent childminding, then more baking in the evening, so I am sure you can see that finding time to blog in-between has been a little tricky!

At the weekend we travelled across the country to Kent for a wedding in the very beautiful Canterbury Cathedral. (Apologies in advance - the photo quality is not brilliant - I was using my little point & shoot camera on this occasion.) It was lovely to have a wedding (of one of John's old university friends) happening so close to my parent's home, so we had the bonus of spending a little bit of time with them over the weekend.

The wedding was quite a small affair, and when thinking about how to describe the wedding, the phrase, musically & lyrically rich comes to mind. The hymns and music during the wedding ceremony & champagne reception were sung by the King's College Choir from Cambridge University. Do you ever have moments of hearing music so wonderful that it causes you to wonder at just how glorious the singing in heaven must be? I had one of those moments listening to the choir.

The wedding ceremony was held in the crypt of the Cathedral, and while that might sound a little morbid, it really wasn't. It was beautiful.

The bridesmaids' dresses were a beautiful shade of blue that I am going to call midnight because it feels right.

There was a bit of a spotty trousers theme going on at this wedding, and it just so happened that these two spotted ladies stood next to each other - perfect for an inconspicious photo! I ended up seated next to Miss Spotty legs-with-the-wedges at the reception, who goes by the name Archie, because she was born in New Zealand & her middle name is Aotearoa, which means land of the long white cloud. So poetic.

A small selection of the hundreds of different family shields on display on the ceilings of the Cathedral Cloisters.

The beautiful Cake + beautiful walls

Personalised Love Hearts! I ate about 3 packets of these, and don't tell anyone, but I totally saw the choristers sneaking some into their pockets...

The Bride & Groom left the Cathedral in a shiny Land Rover Defender - travelling in great country style. They had the brilliant idea of having a two-hour break in the afternoon to catch their breath & arrive at the evening reception feeling refreshed. We took the opportunity to go & visit my wonderful Nanny, who has just moved into a care home nearby, before driving to the reception in a beautiful little Kentish village. I'm sorry to say that I totally failed to get a photo of the Bride & Groom!

I adored the character of this barn where the evening reception was held, with its brilliant leaning walls & low, low entry ways - even I had to duck as I walked through, and I'm only 5'5" tall!

Happy Happy Hollyhocks

I fell in love with this garden & its trickling stream and strong hammock - who wouldn't want to while away hours lazing in that hammock?

'Glass up or down, or on the ground for the picture?' Hannah wonders - too late - John's taken the photo.

Hello, Mr. King!

Hello, sun flare!

Hello, pretty, pretty cottage

The barn where the reception was held, with a slight dolls' house feel to it, with its miniature proportions that somehow felt huge.

I got laughed at quite a lot by one of the other guests on our table for taking this photo - he didn't see the value in it - but I loved the bubbly strawberry so I ignored his teasing & took the photo anyway.

Three seriously delicious desserts, baked by the lady of the cottage - I had to fight hard to get to eat my brownie - two boys kept trying to steal it from my plate having eaten their own!

We had such a lovely day, celebrating the marriage of Megan & Jethro.

Scotland: the beautiful bookshop

2011-08-17T15:19:00.001+01:00

When I was growing up, I could never quite understand my Dad's fascination with second hand book shops. To me, they were incredibly disorganised, higgledy-piggledy affairs, and I didn't know why you'd want to go into a bookshop where things weren't clearly labelled, and where you didn't know what you were looking for. Second hand book shops were, in my eyes, a delay to getting home, or wherever else we might be headed, because it was as though there was an invisible magnet that drew my Dad into any secondhand bookshop in the near vacinity.

In my teen years, a second hand book shop opened up quite close to my home, and we would always pass it on the route to and from town. I remember the man who ran it, who had a giant beard - the kind that covered his mouth so it looked like he didn't have lips. I remember a friendliness between my parents & him, and cannot recall if that was because they knew him, or because they were such familiar faces in the bookshop that there was always an exchange of pleasantries whenever we were in there. I remember looking at this man with a new-found respect when I realized that somehow, on his old computer found amidst endless piles of books on his desk, he had some system of organisation to the books that appeared to me, to be completely orderless. To think that in his head, he probably knew 80% of the titles in his care seemed quite marvellous.

Thankfully, as I have grown & changed, so too has my appreciation for second hand book shops.

On our return journey home from Scotland, we had a couple of hours in Inverness before we needed to head to the airport. Tim & Becky (who also seem to have access to the same invisible bookshop-magnet that my Father has) had spotted a great big second-hand bookshop when they had arrived in Inverness at the start of the holiday, and so that's exactly where we resolved to spend the next couple of hours. It turned out that we were a little too keen, and the shop didn't open until 10am, so we pottered down the road to a little cafe & consumed coffee, cake & smoothies until the bookshop opened.

Leakey's Bookstore is no ordinary bookshop. Thousands of books reside here, in this old, beautiful church and we did our very best to soak up as much as we could. We left our luggage next to the comfy sofas upstairs so we could freely browse. And browse we did.

We crawled along on our hands and knees, inbetween bookshelves filled with row upon row of beautiful books. We breathed in the old familiar smell of books that have lived for more than the sum of our years, and revelled in the history set before us. Oh what fun we had.

{Becky & Tim browsing the extensive collection of books printed by The Folio Society}

Sadly, I was only able to buy one book as I was greatly restricted by luggage space, having only taken hand luggage on the plane. Becky,on the other hand, filled her arms with books until she was sure she could not fit in any more.

{John & a wood burner + plenty of wood for the cold Scottish Winters}

If you ever find yourself with a few hours to kill in Inverness, this bookshop is a must (you'll find it on Church Street).

Scotland: the flora

2011-08-17T14:34:00.001+01:00

It seemed that everywhere we went in Scotland, we saw Rose Bay Willow Herb. I don't remember ever seeing these flowers before, and was glad to have my in-laws there to find out the name of the pretty pink plants I kept seeing. I loved their shape, their colour, their great height - basically everything about them. These photos don't really do justice to their beauty.

There's something wonderfully endearing about these black, furry seed pods & the way you can see the shape of the seed through the pod.

Quite simply, beauty-full.

Scotland: the skies

2011-08-17T08:58:00.000+01:00

For those of you who regularly visit my blog, or know me in real life, you'll have probably noticed by now that I love the ever-changing skies. The sky is probably one of the things in nature that I photograph the most. Scotland was no exception, so please induldge my love for the clouds & all of their colours for a few moments...

'Clouds always tell a true story, but one that is difficult to read...And clouds are going to go on telling their stories, endelessly and forever.' - Richard Hamblyn

Scotland: the games

2011-08-16T12:37:00.006+01:00

Life on the boat was pretty simple, really. One person drove (mostly Gerald, designated skipper, although we all had little turns here and there), one person kept the skipper company, and the rest of us stayed inside the boat where it was warm & dry, until we were needed at a lock.

We entertained ourselves with games & reading. Simple, brilliant fun.

Have I told you about bananagrams before? It is one of my favourite games. It's a bit like Scrabble, except it's much faster - each person starts off with 11, 15 or 21 tiles (depending on numbers of players), and you have to make intersecting words with the tiles until you've used them all up. At which point, you shout, 'Peel!' and everyone picks up another tile. Keep going until all the letters are used up. I love it.

See my little elf slippers? I am so glad I took these for extra warmth & coziness

Becky introduced me to Skip-Bo, which is an American card game. Very simple, based on luck as well as a bit of skill. The boys weren't too bothered by this, so most of the time Becky & I would play together.

We played a lot of Scrabble & Uno too, but sadly, there's no photographic evidence.

And lastly, the most fun game to watch was when the boys decided it was a good idea to go for a swim in Loch Oich. We'd chatted to a local lady at Drumnadrochit who said she wouldn't recommend swimming as the water is so cold, but if we really wanted to, Loch Oich was the warmest place (in the mildest sense of the word) to swim, with the water being about 5 degrees!

Us sensible ladies didn't need to think twice about not going for the swim, but when we moored and were greeted by three lovely Scottish children running off the pontoon & leaping in, the boys had to follow suit. It was so very funny to watch & hear their reactions to the temperature of the water sapping their body heat away from them!

Gerald approaching the cold waters of Loch Oich

John's face as he realizes just how cold it really is

Gerald, by far the most hardy of the bunch, swimming off into the distance. Meanwhile...

Ready, steady.....

JUMP!!!!!

SPLASH!!!!

Tim's face as he let out a roar (quite literally) from the shock

I loved that while you could visibly see the shock & impact of the cold on John & Tim, who swiftly got out and declared how utterly freezing Loch Oich was, Gerald glided through the waters, emerged on shore & pronounced how nice & refreshing it was. The Scottish children we met continued their running & jumping off the pontoon game long after our boys had left the water, and when we revisited Loch Oich on the return journey, they were still there, still jumping in, again & again, making many happy childhood memories.

the blue shack

2011-08-16T09:00:00.000+01:00

One of the regular activities which took place on our holiday was running. Five of the group are in training of the Bristol Half Marathon, and being on holiday didn't mean a break from running.

When we had moored at Loch Oich, Tim, John & I went for a run on a track alongside the Loch. After darting here & there, jumping over the tree roots that were sprawled across the path, we came across a little blue shack. We wondered aloud whether anyone lived there, although it looked pretty shabby & like it had been a long time since it had been loved. Tim poked his head round the door & spotted a sleeping bag with some empty beer cans, and the smell of wood smoke greeted him, before he withdrew to tell us what he had seen.

When you were a child, did you ever see old, derelict & deserted buildings & wonder what it would be like to venture inside? I remember that feeling of avid curiousity - was there anyone living in there, and if so, would they eat me alive or shout at me for trespassing?

The feeling of nervous excitement & caution coursed through our veins as we toyed with the idea of venturing inside, wondering who or what we might find. Our intrigue overruled caution and we ventured in. Although there wasn't anybody in there, I still felt the need to creep around on tiptoes, holding my breath as I went, as though the emptiness of this little house commanded an unspoken reverence for its history.

Here's what we found...

paper thin floors

I wonder when this little oven was last used

I loved the fabric of this blanket, despite the dirt

a teeny tiny bedroom that I could only just stand up in

One of the curious things about this little shack is that there was a kitchen, bedrooms, living rooms, but no bathroom. We pondered why this might be, then as we emerged back into the sunlight outdoors, I heard the sound of a rushing waterfall behind me and looked at the Loch in front of me. This shack was surrounded by water. Who needs a shower when you have a waterfall?

The Great Glen

2011-08-15T20:56:00.000+01:00

We're back from a week spent in the Highlands of Scotland, travelling on a boat along the Caledonian Canal.

Our week was buffered with glorious sunshine & filled in with buckets & buckets of rain.

As you can imagine, being somewhere as beautiful as Scotland meant that a lot of photos were snapped. So as not to overwhelm you, I'll be sharing some of my favourite images over the next few days.

The Loch's & the Locks

Loch Ness

Loch Ness at dusk

Loch Oich

A very wet Sara at Fort Augustus

Me & Gerald, soaking up the Scottish rain

my favourite person pulling our boat through the lock on a very rainy day
{the butcher in the background made the most delicious pies - we went there twice & loved the Scotch & Bridie pies}

some of us didn't have adequate footwear for the slippery stones, so when it rained, we went barefoot

Becky ensuring we stay alive in the lock

Tim manning the ropes & the sun gleaming on our lovely cruiser, the Taransay III

off we go

2011-08-06T09:39:00.001+01:00

It's time for another Summer holiday!

This time we're going to Scotland where the forecast is rain, rain, rain.

We'll be cruising through locks & loch's on a lovely boat, admiring the beauty of Scotland.

Bye for now, it's time to fly!

simple creations

2011-08-05T16:14:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I found out that my oldest friend, who I have known since I was three, is having a baby. So I sent her a little parcel of baby-related goodies, and made a mini card.

{when I sat down to make the card, the phrase ooh baby, baby came to mind from the song Push it by Salt 'n' Pepa, and I couldn't work out then, or now, if it's inappropriate & weird, but hey, I went with it anyway. Maybe if this was a singing card it would make it inappropriate....}

I don't know why I decided to make a smaller-than-normal sized card - maybe because babies are so small - but anyway, I needed an envelope for it. So I re-used an idea that I'd had for our wedding last year, where I made envelopes for the children out of an old children's book that I rescued from the bin at the school where I used to work.

So simple, but I like them. (Sorry if they cause offense to anyone who has a problem with me cutting up books, but I promise I don't make a habit out of this unless they're old & ripped & falling apart...)

gluten free cookies.

2011-08-02T22:44:00.001+01:00

Last week I had an order for a selection of cookies & cupcakes including a batch of gluten free cookies. I have never attempted to make anything that's gluten free before. Although once, about 4 years ago, I attempted to make a batch of cakes for a family who had just about every intolerance you can imagine. They did not work. They looked nothing like cakes - they weren't even solid - and were inedible. (Wonderfully & miraculously, this whole family were prayed for and God healed them from all of their intolerances and ever since they have been enjoying plenty of regular cake.)

I considered this previous baking disaster for people with intolerances as slightly unusual in that I had to use so many substitute ingredients that they weren't really cakes in the normal sense. I was more hopeful that these gluten free onese would be more straightforward, but needed to be informed, so I set about doing some research. I came across the gluten free goddess who has a great wealth of recipes, and ended up basing my cookies on one of her recommendations, found here. (If you are interested in making these, I substituted both the tapioca flour & brown rice flour for gluten-free flour made by Doves Farm, which you can get in most supermarkets.)

On the whole, this recipe was very similar to regular cookies, the only substitutions were gluten free flour & xanthan gum. I found some recipes which used all kinds of things from tapioca flour to sorghum flour & quinoa, so 'gluten free flour' sounded pretty normal by comparison.

They turned out beautifully.

sugar.

2011-08-01T21:42:00.000+01:00

There are some days when dessert feels like a necessity. Like my body is telling me that it really, truly, needs a little sweet kick after a savoury dinner. Tonight was one of those nights. As I ate my last mouthful of enchilada, I dreamed about my favourite chocolate ice cream that I wanted to eat, if only we had one left in the freezer. I shared these sentiments with John. He proffered a scone as an alternative to chocolate. I'm sorry, but this just didn't cut it. We had no butter, or jam, so the scone would have been plain boring. I wanted chocolate.

I opened the freezer, just in case we happened to have a chocolate ice cream that I had forgotten about, and gasped with excitement when I saw the familiar box lying there. That box offered hope, that my sugar cravings might be satisfied. But it was short lived. Someone had left the empty box in the freezer. Who leaves empty boxes in freezers? Especially ice cream boxes! That's only going to lead to disappointment.

So I moped a little and John offered a hug and again suggested that I might like the scone instead, after all, we did have a dribble of double cream in the fridge. But a scone with cream & no jam is like a cake without icing, or a cheese & pickle sandwich with no cheese. It just doesn't work. Then. Then, I remembered my wonderful friend Hannah. Oh what a brilliant lady she is. Last week we enjoyed John Lewis' version of scones (very delicious & huge), which came with a tiny pot of jam. I had half a pot left & Hannah suggested that I should pop the teeny tiny jar in my handbag. Why let good jam go to waste? Of course, I saw the wisdom in Hannah's suggestion & did just that.

When this realization dawned on me that I had both cream and jam at my disposal, the whole situation was turned around. The dessert situation was remedied and my sugar craving was satiated. Sort of.

{I still want chocolate.}

learning as we grow

2011-08-01T21:22:00.000+01:00

One of the things that I will remember about this first home that John & I have shared is our little patio. While neither of us are particularly green fingered, we both dream of one day having a home that has a garden.

Although there is very little room for growth & life on our patio, we have tried to make the most of it by lifting up some of the flagstones & putting down a grow bed that my parents kindly gave us for Christmas.

(Transporting the compost home from the garden shop was another story altogether. We went for a run, popped into the shop, purchased 50kg of compost, then lugged them home on our shoulders. I don't ever want to do that again. Ever.)

So anyhow, back to our grow box. Some time in May, we planted rows of seeds with smiles on our faces, excited at the prospect of produce which would hopefully spring forth & feed us over the Summer months.

While we know little about gardening, we do know that tomato plants like to take up a lot of room. What we should have done was plant the tomatoes in their own little space to give the rest of our seedlings a chance of survival. But we didn't.

We have been so excited to watch our tiny garden grow, and have diligently watered it (although there have been many weeks when the rain has done the work for us) and done little else. A few weeks ago, my good friend Ros came round for coffee & cake. She looked at our tomato plants & said, 'you've done a good job at picking those out'. I had no idea what she was talking about, so she gave me a lesson in how to help tomato plants grow up tall & strong, and be more fruitful.

Due to our ignorant negligence, our tomato plants had not once been picked out, and as a result, had great strong branches growing in every direction, thus weighing down the main stem & creating a bit of a struggle for themselves. So, for the last few evenings, while watering the little garden, I have started picking out the off-shoots (is that even a term?) in the hope that they will bear greater fruit when their load has been reduced.

Over the last year I have been given two orchids as gifts. The first one as a house warming present from the family I childmind for, and the second by John when he came back from China at Easter. When John presented me with this beautiful flowering orchid, my first thought was, 'oh no, another one for me to kill off!' I find there is something rather daunting about being entrusted with a flower as delicate as an orchid. I didn't know how to care for them, and when the flowers fell from my first orchid, I thought they may well be the last.

Along the way, I have asked a couple of much more seasoned gardeners for advice on caring for orchids. I have learned that they love to have their leaves kept wet, and that they like to sit in water every now & then. So, for the last few months, I have diligently sprayed my flowerless orchids in the hope that they might live. To my great delight, both orchids have buds that look almost ready to burst into bloom. It's amazing what a little water and patience can do.

wedding cake

2011-07-29T10:06:00.004+01:00

On the first day of my PGCE last September, I had got up early, packed my bag with a fresh pad of paper & pens and my sat nav, and set off for Bath Spa with plenty of time to spare. Or so I thought. It was my first day and I was late. I hurried into the lecture theatre thinking, 'I am an adult now - I should know how to be on time for things! what a great way to start the course...'

I was fifteen minutes late and knew that this meanut walking into a lecture theatre full of people I had never met before. I took a deep breath, walked in & hoped that I'd find a seat somewhere that wasn't right at the front. I found a seat in the middle of the 300 other fresh faced students, ready to begin our teacher training, and soon discovered that the girl sat next to me with the leopard print pumps & pretty tattoo on her foot was called Amy, and she would become a good friend over the next year.

I remember a lot of our first conversations in getting to know each other being about weddings. I had just got married & Amy was hoping to get engaged during the year, so was excited to hear about our wedding & how long (or perhaps short is a better adjective) John & I were engaged for. Fast forward to March this year, and Amy came into uni with a great big diamond on her ring finger, announcing her engagement.

In four weeks time, Amy & Matt will be getting married, and I have the pleasure of making their wedding cake. So, this week I made a trial cake for them. Here are a few glimpses...

Bottom layer: Rich, incredibly moist chocolate cake (secret ingredient: lots of water)
Top layer: Vanilla sponge
Sandwiched together with dark chocolate ganache (recipe used in last post)
Cake cloaked in white chocolate ganache
Decorated with white chocolate cigarollos
Topped with British strawberries dipped in milk chocolate

peanut butter truffle cookies

2011-07-27T17:16:00.002+01:00

Towards the end of my course, as the Summer holidays could be seen on the horizon, I started dreaming about how I would spend my hours & hours of time over the holidays. If you are a regular visitor here, you will have picked up by now that I love to bake. In my dreaming, I thought of all the things I could bake, & came up with little (ad)venture that would enable me to bake lots & keep some resemblance of a waistline:

The simple concept of this was that people I know on facebook (who live nearby) can order sweet treats - a simple way to satisfy my need to bake & people's desire to eat cake, and earn a little money in the process.

This week I had an order for some cookies which combined sweet & savoury, 'like peanut butter & chocolate' read the request. I knew the perfect recipe that combines these two ingredients & makes something beautiful. I had only baked this recipe once before for our Barn holiday a couple of years ago. I can't even remember why I thought I might like these cookies as I've tried Reece's Peanut Butter Cups before & not liked them. But, for whatever reason, I baked these glorious cookies for our holiday & loved them. To my delight, they kind of got forgotten about by the friends were on holiday with, as there was an abundance of delicious cake, so I may or may not have eaten the entire batch myself...Anyway, I am so glad I decided to bake them on that occasion, otherwise I might have been daunted by combining two ingredients that I love separately but not so much together, for someone else.

Peanut Butter Truffle Cookies

ingredients {yields approx 12}

125g / 40z dark chocolate

150ml double cream

125g / 4oz unsalted butter

125 / 4oz caster sugar

125g / 4oz crunchy peanut butter

4tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp milk (semi skimmed is fine)

225g / 8oz plain flour

1/2 tsp bi-carbonate of soda

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C / Gas mark 4 / 350F

2. Grease 2 baking trays & set aside

3. Make the ganache: Chop up the dark chocolate into small pieces & place in a heatproof bowl.

4. Put the cream in a saucepan & gently heat until it's very near boiling point. As soon as bubbles start to form, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Give the bowl a little jiggle to help combine the choc & cream, then use a hand whisk to help the chocolate pieces melt completely. Set to one side.

5. Make the dough: Cream together the butter & sugar until fluffy.

6. Add the peanut butter, then golden syrup & milk

7. Sift the flour and bi-carb into the peanut-buttery mixture and stir until combined.

Side note: If you have time, I'd recommend chilling the dough at this stage for 15mins or so to reduce the stickiness, but this is not essential.

8. Take a big chunk (roughly 2 tbsp's worth) of dough and flatten on greased tray.

9. Place half a teaspoon of ganache on one side of the cookie and gently spread across that half.

10. Fold the cookie in half so the ganache is sealed inside.

11. Repeat until you've used your mixture & then bake for 10 - 15mins until lightly golden.

Leave to cool for a few mins on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack.

Alterations: I made the ganache the night before baking to allow time for it to cool & set slightly. This made the process of filling the cookies with ganache less messy. I'd recommend going easy on the ganache as things turn very messy if you overfill the cookies.

Spain.

2011-07-25T15:28:00.003+01:00

Hello friends!

John & I have just returned from a wonderful week's holiday in Southern Spain with four friends. Oh the fun we had. We stayed in an apartment at a golf resort, and the focus of our time was to enjoy the sunshine (30 - 37C most of the time), rest, read, eat & enjoy each other's company, which we did extremely well at.

{from left to right: Tim&Becky, Jenny&Jack, John&Hannah}

{oh, blue, blue skies, I do adore you!}

{colourful entryway to a hotel}

{Murcia}

{making friends with the locals in Cartagena}

a few highlights...

water droplets sitting on eyelashes as we played in the pool

no thought about time, guided only by our tummies telling us it was time for food

boggle + bananagrams

uno + scrabble

reading, reading, reading

sun + swimming + sea

eating al fresco every mealtime

coffee + ice cream

laughing until tears rolled

singing songs from the 90's

(B*witched, UB40, Spice Girls, Britney Spears, D:Ream, M People - I could write a whole post on all of the memories I have linked with these songs, that came flooding back to me as we cruised the roads of Southern Spain, singing along to these old tunes.)

Oh, how I love holidays. Only two weeks until the next one!

2011-07-14T21:13:00.000+01:00

Since finishing my PGCE I have filled my days with plenty of sewing, baking and visiting friends, but for the last couple of days, I have got a little restless. Now, I know that I really shouldn't complain about having time off work, because most of us would jump at the chance of having the lengthy holidays that teachers are blessed with. But that's just how I woke up feeling this morning. The house has been especially quiet over the last week and a half, because John is in China, so this only serves to heighten my need to see people.

So it was a great delight when my good friend Ros phoned yesterday morning & asked 'what are you doing right now?'

As it happened, right at that moment, I was hopping back down the stairs to pick up my laundry basket & its contents which had overturned in my hurry to get back up the stairs to my ringing phone. At that moment in time, Ros & her eldest son were in their car, loaded up with bikes and ready to come and collect me to join them on their bike ride adventure, should I so wish.

Ros knows me well enough to know that with lots of time on my hands & without John, I would be bored, and in all likelihood, available for a 3 hour bike ride, which I was most certainly was. It was the perfect solution to my restlessness.

Friends + Fresh air + Fields + Bikes = A Beautiful Combination

A very blue, shimmery gorilla - part of the Wow! Gorillas public art event happening in Bristol this Summer to celebrate 175 years of Bristol zoo. All over the city there are 60 gorillas, each decorated by different artists in their own unique way.

Ros didn't want to leave any details out from this picture to give you a full view of our resting place - the Bristol channel in the background sans water - the tide was out - and my bike & baggage in the foreground, proff that we did indeed cycle the 7 miles to get to Pill.

I went home feeling invigorated & ready for an afternoon of housework & childminding. I thank God for wonderful friends & exercise.

chocolate chip shortbread

2011-07-13T22:19:00.002+01:00

Do you ever find a baking idea comes into your head & stays there until you bake it out? I do. All the time. In fact, cake & what I will bake next is high up on the most frequent thoughts in my head.

This week, chocolate chip shortbread has been at the top of my baking agenda. Costco make seriosuly delicious, seriously huge chocolate chip shortbread squares, and ever since tasting them, I have wanted to bake them.

Shortbread is one of those things that is so simple, but if you skimp on using real butter, it's nowhere near as tasty. In fact, butter is one of those pure, brilliant ingredients that transforms baking. Sure, it's more expensive than margerine, or a baking alternative, but it's better. Miss joythebaker converted me to butter years ago, and I have not turned back since.

Anyhoo, back to this shortbread. It's so simple with so few ingredients that I was sure I had everything in my cupboard. Sadly, I was all out of plain flour, but I was determined to make this shortbread happen today, so off I went to buy some.

I have fond memories of baking shortbread with my Mother, the crumbly mixture creeping up my nails, and being amazed at how deftly my mum would rub the butter into the flour & sugar. As a child, rubbing in was a funny old concept to me. I remember numerous occasions where I was convinced that if you just squished the cubes of butter between your fingers & the flour, it'd all work out ok.

Cold, clean hands & speed are of the essence, so as to keep the shortbread light & without any extra oil from lots of hand contact.

Now that I am all grown up & own a food processor, shortbread is even quicker to make, with the bonus that you don't get any mixture in your nails, and there is no chance of ending up with buttery lumps. This took 8 minutes to put together - seriously quick, right?

Chocolate Chip Shortbread adapted from original recipe here

ingredients

110g / 4oz plain (all purpose) flour

55g / 2oz cornflour

55g / 2oz caster sugar

110g cold unsalted butter, diced

dash of vanilla extract

165g / 5oz chocolate chips or chunks (I used a mixture of milk & dark chocolate)

method

1. preheat oven to gas mark 4 / 160C

2. grease an 8" square brownie tin or 9" round tart tin

3. sift the flour & cornflour into a food processor or large bowl

4. add sugar & combine

5. add butter, cut into chunks and rub in, or blitz, depending on chosen method

6. add a dash of vanilla extract (roughly 1/4 tsp)

7. add chocolate chunks and blitz or stir to evenly distribute

8. pour mixture into prepared tin & press down

9. bake for 20 - 35mins, until ever so slightly golden around the edges. cooking time will vary depending on your oven, but the joy of shortbread is that it won't sink like a cake if you open the door, so trust your instinct & remove when you think it's ready.

10.score lines to divide shortbread into the size pieces you'd like & leave to cool.

beach bag

2011-07-13T21:07:00.000+01:00

Last year for our wedding I purchased a whole lot of fabric. Mostly for bunting, and some for our table plan. I ended up with a lot of this candy stripe material left over, and I finally decided what to do with it: make a beach bag!

Perfect for our holiday we're taking in just two days time! I found the tutorial here & here. It was very quick and straightforward to follow, which is just the kind of tutorial I like.

{perfectly sized for beach towels, books & suncream - just in need of an iron!}

{strong, sturdy handles}

{inner pocket, perfectly sized for a phone, keys & lip balm}

I cannot wait to hit the beaches of Southern Spain with my new bag in tow.

oranges & lemons

2011-07-11T14:19:00.001+01:00

A little lesson I learned last week was that you can make orange, lemon & cola syrups by simply reducing fizzy drinks in these flavours until all you are left with is a sweet smelling sugary syrup. This is a useful trick if you have fizzy drinks to use up, and recipes that require sugar syrup. I had both of the above, so I set about making Lemonade Cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery's new book. They sounded like the perfect treat for a Summer's Day, so I made some with high hopes that some Summer sun might come our way.

Now, I have to say, 99% of the time, I love Hummingbird's recipes. But on this occasion, things felt wrong from the start of making these cupcakes. The quantities were unusual for a cupcake batter and the method was more like the muffin-making method, where the focus is on gently combining wet & dry ingredients, rather than on making light & airy cakes. Yet in my mind, these cakes should have been as light as air & perfectly lemony. Unfortunately, they were not. They were pretty heavy & definitely lacking in an airy quality. Their one redeeming feature was the use of popping candy / space dust on the icing to give them a pop-fizz quality. The only problem was that I could only find colour changing space dust, and I put it on the cakes well before they were eaten. By the time they were served, they had blue splodges all over them and had lost their pop.

All in all, this recipe was a bit of a disaster! But hey, I've learned a few things in the process, like trusting my baking instinct & adapting recipes sometimes. (That is not to say that the Hummingbird Bakery don't know what they were doing, because they clearly do!) And that my baking has no effect whatsoever on the weather - it poured with rain the whole time these babies were baking!

race for life

2011-07-09T17:03:00.001+01:00

Our bodies are amazing, aren't they? The way they keep us alive & well is amazing. From a young age, we learn to listen to what our bodies are telling us about what we need; when we are thirsty, hungry, tired, weary, happy, sad, hurt, unwell, and every single other physical & emotional need.

Today, my body was telling me it was tired, after having a very early start to the day. So I had an afternoon nap. I awoke after half an hour to my alarm, telling me it was time to go and run the Bristol Race for Life. My body did not feel like doing it. My post-nap drowsiness & headache made the sofa seem like a much more favourable option than running 5k. After all, I had only signed up to the Race for Life at the last minute, and hadn't done any fundraising, other than my own contribution, so it wouldn't really matter if I decided to stay home.

I am so glad I didn't listen to my body on this occasion, and mentally overcame my physical weariness. Running with 3000 women to raise money to fight cancer is a far more powerful experience than running on the tredmill in the gym for a bit, then going home. I didn't know whereabouts on the Downs the race was starting from, but I knew I didn't need to worry. I just needed to look for the sea of 3000 ladies dressed in pink, who would most definitely stand out.

One of the items you get in a Race for Life Pack is a sign that says, 'I race for life for' then leaves a big blank space for you to write who you're running for. You cannot help but be moved by the number of names & messages you see that speak of family & friends whose bodies have been riddled with cancer; people who have fought & won their battles, and those whose bodies could fight no longer.

At the starting line I was stood behind two teenage girls. One had written on her back 'I race for life for all of the teenagers who are fighting cancer. I fought & won 5 years ago.' Next to her, the girl's sign read, 'I'm running for my sister. She's here with me today.' A lump rose in my throat, and tears welled in my eyes as I watched these two sisters interact with each other, thinking of their thankfulness that they still had time with each other, because this time, cancer had not won.

The messages & names that people had lovingly written on their backs gave a glimpse into the pain & suffering they have shared in, in a way that you wouldn't otherwise have. When we pass people on the street, I wonder how often we think about the painful events in their lives that they are carrying. To run alongside women who are wearing their hearts on their sleeves, along with their joy, sorrow and determination, is a marvelous thing indeed.

Thankyou, Vicki, for insipiring me to run the Race for Life.

bibs.

2011-07-08T11:49:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking for a little while about making some baby bibs, & wondering what to back them with. While shopping the other day I found a little pile of bargain items in the baby section of TKMaxx, one of which was a soft jersey-knit pillowcase. It was perfect, and brilliantly cheap, so home it came.

Today, the pillowcase became the backing for some dribble bibs, made from remnants of the fabric I used to make this dress.

They were wonderfully simple to make & I've probably got enough fabric left from the pillowcase to make another twelve or so, which is an exciting prospect! Hmm, what does that say about me - that I am excited about making tiny bibs for babies to dribble on?!

summer sewing

2011-07-05T14:35:00.003+01:00

Remember these fabrics?

{fabric from Moda range by designer Sandy Gervais}

I was so excited when I bought them that I cut them up straight away to make bunting. The neat pile of triangles then sat next to my sewing machine for far too long before being stitched together. Yesterday, I finally got round to it.

On my last trip to Poppy Patchwork, I picked up a few more fat quarters, one of which I turned into this dress (although I had to go & get a little bit more fabric as one quarter wasn't quite enough).

{Fabric by designer Riley Blake: 'Lovebird'}

This dress isn't for any baby in particular, I made it purely for the fun of it. I quite like having a little stock of homemade items at the ready - it means I have longer to enjoy the prettiness before giving them away!

The Wedding of Andrew & Bryony

2011-07-04T14:21:00.000+01:00

This weekend we were London-bound again for another celebration. This time, a wedding. Have I mentioned before how I love weddings? Well, let me say it again. I love weddings. From the entrance of the Bride, to the rejoicing before God in the hymns & prayers, and the wonderful attention to detail in decorating the reception venue.

Here's a glimpse into the wedding of our friends Andrew ('Barkers') and Bryony...

The music played for the entrance of the Bride was simply beautiful.

How brilliant is this unconvential wedding transport? The 'driver' was also one of the best men, who had done a speedy costume change after the ceremony, along with a puncture repair, before cycling off with the Bride & Groom to the reception.

There was a very summery feel to this wedding, with varying shades of yellow flowers everywhere you looked, and a few bumble bees popping up here and there. The ones on the cake suffered slightly with the heat, but the glass bumble bee nestled in the bride's bouquet did just fine. Can you spot it?

The lovely Tim & Becky - our fellow guests & hosts for the weekend - who graciously put up with my glass breaking antics (which resulted in a sliced wrist. Thankfully, my arteries are still in tact!)

My hair was a sea of twists & twirls.

There was the slightly terrifying moment, where the photographer jokingly told the groomsmen to throw the bride in the air. And they did. I am so glad she ended up back in their arms & not on the floor!

Handpainted teapots, personalised coasters & fabric bound bread adorned each table.

And the groom well & truly got his groove on. Such fun times, I was only sad that I had to miss another friend's wedding that was happening on the very same day.

yesterday.

2011-07-01T09:03:00.006+01:00

layers of lace

2011-06-29T09:55:00.001+01:00

My latest bunting project is a fun, quick and very pretty one. A friend from my PGCE course is getting married in August, and decided on lace bunting. On Monday, she came round, along with two of our other friends, armed with vast amounts of lace from her mother in law to be's airing cupboard, ready for a date with our scissors.

Here's how it's looking....

Oh, I love weddings & making pretty things for them!

'F' is for florentines

2011-06-27T18:08:00.000+01:00

One of the very first times I spent with John involved florentines.

It was a beautifully sunny April afternoon, which we had spent with a group of people on the Bristol Downs. I think I had been running that morning, and had an insufficient lunch, so I was rather peckish.

All five of us popped into a little cafe beside the Downs to stave off hunger and quench our thirst. I was far more intereted in the cake than anyone else was, but I didn't mind, I needed food & that was my main objective. The trouble was, there were too many types of cake to choose from. I settled with my default option of chocolate cake. The thought did cross my mind that maybe I should offer to share my cake, but I am ashamed to admit that I kept it all for myself. I was still super hungry after my cake, and wondered out loud whether I should have a second cake. John jumped in & suggested we could share, and we both agreed that the florentine looked seriously appetising. It was huge, and delicious, and my first ever taste of florentine. I tried to use my sugar-skills to work out the ingredients list, and determined to try & make some.

Fast forward two years to last weekend, and I find myself eating florentines with John again. This time, made by our lovely friend Becky. I had forgotten how delicious they are. How could I have let two whole years go by before trying to make them myself? Well, on Saturday, I decided it was high time to remedy the situation.

I had found a recipe by accident when looking for my cranberry & white chocolate recipe, & was delighted to see that condensed milk was required - a firm favourite baking ingredient in my kitchen. I went out and bought an orange the size of a newborn baby's head, ready to make candied peel, along with the other ingredients I requitred.

Then, I discovered that it takes about five whole hours to make candied peel, so I scrapped that idea and bought it instead.

My overall verdict was that they had a different flavour to Becky's, and I put a little too much mixture in each one, so they didn't end up flat & skinny looking, but tasty all the same.

Florentines: makes approx. 30

Ingredients

200g / ml condensed milk

50g unsalted butter

50g brown sugar

4tbsp plain flour

{300g dried mixed fruit. I used the following combination:}

65g candied peel

65g desiccated coconut

70g dried cranberries

30g chopped unsalted pistachios

70g sultanas

I doubled the original quantities to use up my condensed milk, so you could very easily halve the ingredients for a smaller batch.

1. Preheat oven to 180C / Gas mark 4. Grease the bases of a muffin tray or 2 if you have them.

2. Melt the butter & sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat.

3. Stir in the condensed milk & heat until bubbles start to form.

4. Remove from heat, sieve in the flour & whisk by hand to get rid of lumps.

5. Stir in your chosen selection of dried fruit.

6. Place a teaspoon of mixture into each hole of muffin tray, or onto baking parchment if you don't have a muffin tray.

7. Bake for about 12 mins until they go golden around the edges. Remove from oven & leave to cool in trays.

8. Melt 100g of dark chocolate and spread over the bottom of each florentine. When the chocolate is almost set, pull a fork over the chocolate for decorative effect.

9. Keep them to yourself to enjoy, or share with friends!

making me smile this week

2011-06-26T17:56:00.000+01:00

One of the great joys in working with children is the way they express sentiments. Children can be the most encouraging & thoughtful characters. I am well aware that children are most definitely not always positive, cheerful and encouraging, but today, that's what I'm focusing on. On my last day of school placement last week, the class presented me with this beautiful card, complete with individual self-portraits inside.

One of the quieter girls in the class presented me with a card that had this lovely message inside:

When John read this, he laughed out loud & procalimed that she can't have met many teachers in her time. I know that I am far from being the best teacher in the world, but I love that this was her way of expressing her affection.

One of the teachers who I had the pleasure of working alongside on my last placement gave me this book:

I hope that I will thrive as well as survive.

Sunday has brought us sunshine, so I took a little stroll, and brought home some pretty wildflowers to put in my latest charity shop treat.

And last but not least on my list of things that have made me smile: drinking tall glasses of chilled water & eating mini milk ice lollies - a favourite from my childhood. I love finding joy in the little things in life.

Goodbye, Bath Spa

2011-06-24T15:24:00.001+01:00

Today marked the official end of my PGCE. I have now passed the tests, written the essays and ticked all of the profile characteristics which allow me to become a Primary School Teacher.

Whenever major seasons in life come to an end, it always takes a little while for it to settle in. I have not yet got my head around that I will not be going back to the beautiful Bath Spa University, or that for the next couple of months, my time is completely my own. Relaxing feels like a funny thing to do because for the last 10 months, there has always been more work to do.

On my last trip to university today, I relished all of the sights and sounds of summer in the Bath countryside. I have loved going to a university that is in the middle of working farmland, has stables (though sadly, no horses) and a mini castle with a beautiful courtyard, full of bees buzzing around.

beautiful Bath stone

if I was a bee, I would definitely be visiting these pretties

quirky

there's something about spherical flora that I adore

soft focus

I have already started dreaming in my sleep of the things I will do with my summer holidays, like finding fabric at bargain prices and sewing up a storm, and bake bake baking. I'll be sharing my summer adventures in this little space, so hopefully you'll come along for the ride.

on clouds, family and flowers

2011-06-22T17:29:00.000+01:00

This is the last week of my PGCE course, which is very exciting, but also means that I have not managed to blog about the weekend before now.

So here's a quick overview of the weekend events...

We set off for Surrey, hoping to leave a wet Bristol behind and find some sunshine. We found a few rays by the time we got there, having driving under heavy black & grey skies for hours. I didn't mind though, because I got to watch the ever changing skies the whole time (apart from during my nap), which is one of my favourite things to do.

It was exciting to be arriving, knowing that my Granny had no idea we were coming to celebrate her 90th birthday with her. Surprises are so much fun when you're in on the secret.

My Granny is priceless - when my Mum & Dad arrived she said to my Dad 'what are you doing here? I only saw you two weeks ago!'

I could not get over these sugar crafted flowers that were on top of her cake. They were just perfect - attention had been paid to every single delicate detail of the colour, shape and form of the irises.

Irises for Iris

As I took this photo, my Granny was talking to a friend about the WI and how old white sheets make the perfect table cloths for cake stalls at Women's Institute Summer fairs. They reminisced on how it used to take a whole day to do one's laundry & chuckled at the way things have changed. I love hearing about what life used to be like in the years before I lived, told straight from the mouths of those who lived in those times.

After we had chatted & celebrated & eaten vast amounts of wonderful food (there were enough varieties of cake to open up a bakery), John & I headed to London to spend the night at his parents in East Dulwich.

I always love visiting the shops in East Dulwich - there are so many pretty things to pour over. I found two dresses in a charity shop for £12 and these beautiful incense sticks.

I bought these from a gift shop called Ed, and while I was happily browsing their beautiful selection of gifts, I witnessed a theft! A girl walked out of the shop, setting the alarms off, and two of the staff ran after her. They returned ten minutes later, and hadn't managed to catch her. That must be so disheartening when people decide to steal something that helps to provide your livelihood.

I also came home with these beautiful flowers grown with love in my mother's garden, and a bay tree from John's parents.

If you've made it to the end of this photo fest, well done, and thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings!

my father

2011-06-20T18:48:00.000+01:00

This weekend we celebrated my Granny's 90th birthday. When as many family members had gathered together in one room as possible, my Dad made a little speech, thanking everyone for coming, and sharing heartfelt feelings towards his mother, and the blessing she is to so many people.

As my Dad spoke, I watched him with pride filling my heart, and wondered at how these feelings come full circle. As a child, I hoped to make him proud, and treasured his comments towards me that expressed his love and pride. Now, as an adult, I know that I am able to feel proud of him, because of all that he has taught me.

I remember coming to the realisation that my Dad went to work faithfully every day without complaint, so that he could provide for our big family, and thinking with awe that there must be days where he didn't feel like going to work, but he did anyway, because he cared for us. He has taught me a lot about loyalty, faithfulness and steadfastness, for which I am truly grateful.

Because of my Dad, I felt secure in going travelling to the other side of the world by myself at the tender age of 19, because he trusted me & wanted me to go on adventures. When other parents asked if my parents were worried about me, I knew that I could honestly say that they knew that whatever might happen, I would learn lifelong lessons on my adventures, and they did not want me to be hindered by any fears of their own. I can only imagine that this is one of the hardest things about parenting, knowing your own weaknesses & not wanting to impart them on to your own children. I am so thankful that my parents encouraged me to be independent, even when that meant learning the hard way.

Because of my Dad, I am able to laugh at myself & my shortcomings. Because of my Dad, everytime I hear Fleetwood Mac, REM or Genesis, I think of his record collection that I used to spend hours looking through & playing.

Because of my Dad, I went to university to study a degree in Early Childhood Studies, not knowing what jobs might be available to me at the end of it, but trusting in his wisdom that it would be a truly valuable experience for me.

Because of my Dad, I felt calm and secure on my wedding day, knowing that I had his full blessing & support in marrying John. I loved that I had his arm to hold on to as I walked down the aisle

Thank you Dad, for being our provider, our role model, our teacher, our Father. Thank you for your faithfulness to our family, and most of all, thank you for entrusting us to our Heavenly Father.

a little note

2011-06-17T19:58:00.002+01:00

Hello friends,

Blog posts this week have been a little sparse, haven't they? It's just been a week full of school & evenings filled with friends, with little time for any photo documenting & blogging in between. Here's a little list of a few of the things that I have appreciated this week..

John's delicious cooking

children excited by my teaching - wonderful feeling

laughter with friends

Forest school fun

this new-to-me fabric website, thanks to Helen of Simply H Designs

Adele's latest single - I love her voice

the scent of the sea & sight of children rafting

the prospect of the summer holidays starting in less than a week

the memory of swimming & sailing in the Caribbean on our honeymoon

Happy Weekend everyone! We are off to spend time with family for a special celebration which I'll tell you about next week.

I'll leave you with a photo of the glorious Caribbean sunshine, as the British skies are a far cry from being a beautiful blue at the moment.

sunny saturdays...

2011-06-13T09:00:00.000+01:00

...are the best.

We took full advantage of the glorious sunshine on Saturday and went to Portishead for an afternoon by the pool. There's a lovely little lido right next to the sea for those who aren't brave enough to swim in the ocean & prefer somewhere other than pebbles for sunbathing on.

It felt like it was the summer holidays, lounging around, reading in the sunshine. Going for a swim, drying off under the hot sun. The holidays aren't here just yet, but it was nice to pretend.

I loved how the clouds were clustering yesterday. I don't think I will ever become bored of watching the clouds.

See? Beautiful cloud clusters. Gathered together all in a row.

We ventured up a set of steps outside the lido as we were leaving to go home, just out of curiousity. The vista that met us included this set of wind turbines. I love how these great big energy creating structures bring a smile to John. Can you guess what John's doing in this photo? Well, as I am not patient enough to wait to see if any of you can guess, I'll just tell you. He was calculating the RPM of the turbines. The average turbine turns 14 revolutions in a minute, which is exactly what this trio of turbines were doing. I love how I would probably never have known this fact if I had not met & married a wind turbine engineer. (Does anyone else ever want to say 'turnbine' instead of turbine? Every time I type, it comes out as turnbine. Curious.)

2011-06-09T16:57:00.032+01:00

When I heard the news that a friend of mine was expecting a baby girl, I decided that I would attempt to make something a little more adventurous than a taggy blanket, which was becoming my go-to baby present for any new baby arrival that I knew of.

I decided to attempt a dress. This was my biggest sewing challenge to date, and has become my biggest sewing accomplishment. If someone had sat me down and showed me how to sew a dress, or anything else that requires more than just sewing in straight lines, I would have probably attempted this a long time ago. When it comes to following patterns, I struggle a little. I had to read, and re-read each instruction goodness knows how many times before getting clear in my head what I needed to do at each stage of the process.

I know that it is not perfect, but I don't think it's really possible to make something completely perfect, and I am ok with that. I decided to cut out a couple of mini bird shapes from some scraps of matching fabric and attached them to a baby grow for a little extra something.

I will most definitely be making more baby dresses in the future, and who knows, I might even attempt something in adult size...one day. At the moment, that still feels rather ambitious!

an evening without John

2011-06-06T19:51:00.062+01:00

Earlier this evening I was at the gym, pounding my feet to the beats and wondering what I should blog about.

I thought you've probably had enough of me talking about baking & food, because that seems to be all I have done lately. Sewing? well, there's been a fair bit of that lately, and there's definitely more to come, so I wanted to avoid overload there. Running? Maybe. But the composition of the post about running didn't flow in my mind.

I returned home and resigned myself to the prospect of no blog post today. Then, my friends, the moment presented itself. But before I share the full story, let me bring you flowers, because the story is not a pretty one, and I like to share pretty pictures.

One big floppy rose deserves another:

I know these are definitely not my best ever photos, but really, I didn't want to start with a photo of what's to come.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, I had just returned home from the gym and was cooking dinner as John was out for the evening. I thought I would do him proud and cook a proper meal, rather than settling for a bowlful of freshly baked granola. So I cooked up a simple yet tasty pasta dish with pepper, spinach, gorgonzola, chorizo, creme fraiche...that kind of thing. I decided to multitask and make carrot & coriander soup for lunch tomorrow and this is where things started to go wrong. The soup caused a distration from the main task in hand.

Then two friends started talking to me on facebook. Distraction number 2 = danger ahead. As I munched away at my food, still talking on facebook, I thought to myself, 'this chorizo tastes ever so slightly odd. Must be my imagination' and carried on eating. I was one mouthful away from finishing when my nose alerted me to a very distinctive and disturbing smell. 'what on earth is that? kind of smells like plastic but my saucepans are metal so that can't be....'

I turned around to see smoke billowing from the hobs. 'Wow, that soup's really going for it!' I thought to myself. Isn't it funny the things we think, even when we know something is not right?

The smoke was billowing from my empty pasta pan which still had the plastic colander on top. Oh dear. Oh very dear. The following equation went through my mind at this point:

Empty plan + heat = burnt pan.
Empty pan + heat + plastic = melted plastic & toxic fumes!

Another funny thing - I am nothing of a mathematician or scientist, yet sometimes I think in equations. Fair enough, not particularly scientific ones, but equations none the less.

Next thought, as I covered my airways with my t-shirt with one hand, turned the hob off with another, and wondered how to break away from my facebook conversations without being rude - 'So this is what happens when John goes out for the evening and leaves me to cook! What a great story this will make!'

I dashed outside with the colander and ruined pan, airways still covered, now desperately needing fresh air. What to do next? Ring John, because he will know what to do in his calm, brilliant way.

Next, run back inside & retrieve essential items from the kitchen - laptop & water seemed essential at the time. I think I had gone into survival mode because water - and plenty of it- seemed highly necessary and important. (Nevermind the fact that I only migrated from one end of the flat to the other, with a bathroom + plentiful supply of water right next door - I needed my big bottle of H2O.)

See?

Once I had opened all of the windows in the flat, I felt it was safe to grab my camera & record the little incident.

Impressive, no?

Lessons learned:
1) stick to granola
2) I am unsure of the spelling of colander, and that troubles me
3) melted plastic really stinks
4) don't try to do too many things at once
5) the chorizo was fine - I was tasting the smell of melting plastic

the perfect summer cupcake

2011-06-04T09:05:00.050+01:00

As I was pondering what to bake yesterday, I was having trouble settling on a recipe. Cookies? No, it didn't feel like a cookie day. Chocolate cupcakes? No it didn't feel like a chocolate kind of day. Something lemony? No, I have already used lots of lemons this week, time for a change.

Then, I received a text from a friend, requesting the recipe for a white chocolate & cream cheese frosting that I have. This was just the inspiration I needed.

These cupcakes have summer written all over them. The light vanilla sponge, topped with chilled white chocolate & cream cheese frosting which has a perfectly smooth texture, finished off with a fresh strawberry. Oh yum.

The Summer Cupcake

ingredients makes 15

115g unsalted butter, room temperature

115g caster sugar

115g self raising flour

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

frosting ingredients

175g white chocolate

175g cream cheese (I highly recommend Philadelphia)

6 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

6 tbsp creme fraiche

1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas mark 4.

2) Cream the butter & sugar until soft & fluffy

3) Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined

4) Stir in the vanilla extract

5) Sift in the flour & combine

6) Fill cupcake cases with a heaped dessertspoon of mixture / enough to fill 2/3 of case.

7) Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 mins until lightly golden on top

for the frosting

1) Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until just melted

2) In a separate bowl, beat together the remaining ingredients. It will look lumpy at first, just continue beating for a little longer.

3) Stir in the melted chocolate with a spatula

4) Spoon onto the cooled cakes, top with a strawberry, then place in fridge to set for 1 hour.

(The frosting is runny when freshly made which means that it covers the surface of the cupcake perfectly and you don't get spreading marks. In my impatience, I chilled the frosting for about 20 mins while the cupcakes cooled - it was still a lovely consistency, but didn't slide onto the cakes in quite the same way.)

sun + strawberries

2011-06-03T15:44:00.050+01:00

Are you wondering how to fill your home with the wonderful scent of a British Summer?

Well, wonder no more my friends, I have just the thing!

Last week, I stumbled upon this lovely little glass pot. I saw the strawberries on the front & strawberry compote is what came to mind.

Well, I couldn't resist this pot & the summery sound of strawberry compote which it seemed to be singing to me.

So home I came with the little glass pot & all week long I have dreamt of filling it with a delicious strawberry treat.

As I write this, my kitchen is filled with the mouth watering scent of strawberries simmering gently with fresh orange zest & juice, and a dash of champagne. I can hardly contain my excitement!

I love that this recipe requires a meagre 50ml of champagne. Who has champagne lying around their house? We do!! To be honest, you wanted to make this and don't have any champagne, it would probably be fine without.

Strawberry Compote
100g strawberries
1 tsp caster sugar
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
zest & juice of half an orange
50ml champagne

chop up the strawberries and place in a gently heated frying pan with the orange juice & zest, vanilla & sugar.
Warm through then add the champage & simmer until liquid has reduced & a thick sauce has formed.

{I doubled this quantity and it made about 80ml of compote.}

Enjoy with pancakes, or yoghurt, or ice cream, or anything else that takes your fancy!

2011-06-01T21:00:00.003+01:00

glorious evening glow. enough said.

stitch & sew

2011-05-31T12:01:00.064+01:00

On Saturday morning as I was thinking about the week ahead and what I would do with my time off over the school half term holidays, my thoughts turned to sewing.

I am the kind of person who tends to have multiple sewing projects on the go, not because I start one thing and get bored of it but, because I start one thing then think of other things I want to do, so start another. Even though I have a few projects in the pipeline at the moment, I find I am often thinking of what fabrics i could invest in. While I was pondering sewing & fabrics on Saturday, I thought to myself, 'It'd be lovely if there was a fabric shop slightly closer to home...' Half an hour later, we walked into Westbury on Trym to buy some local produce, and, lo & behold, there was a brand new fabric shop just down the hill from our house!

I managed to restrain myself while we bought fresh local raspberries & super cheap tomato plants, among other things, then popped in to Poppy Patchwork. I couldn't have been happier - they have such a beautiful collection of fabrics. Recently I came across Moda Bake Shop and their range of fabrics & wished that they were available in England as well as the U.S. Well, Poppy Patchwork just so happens to stock some of the Moda Bake Shop collections! (for those of you who have no interest in sewing, I'm sorry, please just indulge my excitement)

I tried to exercise restraint and just bought three fat quarters in these lovely colours.

I was keen to use these fabrics straight away, but in an attempt to try & combat my tendency to start yet more new projects before finishing old ones, I set about finishing up these two:

yep, it's yet another taggie blanket.

finished, but far from perfect. this is the scrappy nap pillow project from Anna Maria Horner's book, Handmade Beginnings.

While it was fun using up lots of scraps, this took a long time to make, and a lot of un-stitching was required in the process, and it ended up lumpy in the middle. I might try and amend this, but it'll do for now.

I'll be back later this week to show you what I did with my new fabrics.

weekend round up part two: out of my kitchen

2011-05-30T16:04:00.035+01:00

After my cupcake baking adventures of last weekend, I had a fair few eggs leftover. So meringues became the order of the ~~day~~ weekend.

With the egg whites I baked chocolate pavlova to take to Sarah's Birthday BBQ (recipe found here). I topped the pavlova with a great number of raspberries, bought at a brilliant price from a local produce market.

With the yokes, I made a double batch of lemon curd from this recipe.

It only seemed right to make some mini lemon merigues to fill with the lemon curd to create beautiful little bitesized treats,

I will most definitely be making these little ones again. They are the perfect combination of chewy but not too soft, with the gentle flavour of the vanilla & zest in the meringue complimenting the slightly tart lemon curd. Yum.

weekend round up part one: the birthday post

2011-05-30T15:48:00.035+01:00

This weekend has seen a lot of baking & creating, which suits me just fine. To help my little brother celebrate his birthday, I baked him some chocolate chip cookies using this recipe from Joy the Baker. I had been thinking about these cookies all day on Friday, fantasizing about filling my kitchen with the aromas of brown sugar baking, then tasting the cookies, fresh from the oven, to see if I had got the sweet-salty ratio just so.

So, it only seemed right that these were the cookies that I baked for Ben. As he lives in Cambridge, I had to rely on the Royal Mail to deliver them safely. Sadly, they didn't arrive as quickly as I'd hoped, so as I write this he is still waiting for them.

For Ben's birthday card, I used a print that I made at university a few months ago. I was quite fond of it but not really sure what to do with it, so I'm glad I found a use for it before it found its way to the bin.

Saturday saw the second birthday of the weekend, with celebrations for my friend Sarah's 26th birthday. In true British style, we had a BBQ despite it feeling more like Autumn than Summer. The little Aster that I bought for Sarah stood firm in spite of the winds blowing through the garden.

To round off the celebrations at Sarah's, we played Balderdash. It's the kind of game that makes you cry with laughter & eats up time in an amazing way. It was bedtime before we knew it, and we'd been playing for 3 hours. Happy days.

beauty in the breakdown

2011-05-26T17:58:00.021+01:00

On Tuesday I arrived home from school to see an enormous white rose flower head lying on our patio. Our neighbour has a rose bush along her fence that's adjacent to our garden, and the gusty winds had been too much for this rose.

So I scooped it up and popped it in a mug of water to enjoy a bit more of its beauty. Understandably, the rose has quickly wilted, being away from its roots. Yet every time I've looked at it, I've admired its beauty, and the line beauty in the breakdown from a song by Frou Frou has come to mind.

And this little rose came home with us from the wedding last weekend, and is sitting pretty in our lounge.

I like flowers, even when they're wilting.

a little bit more of Edale

2011-05-25T21:03:00.046+01:00

The village where we spent last weekend for the wedding celebrations was beautiful, so although nearly a week has passed since then, I'm going to share a few more photos.

The picturesque little church where the wedding took place

We stayed in a lovely Bed & Breakfast called the Ramblers Inn, which I would highly recommend if you ever find yourself in the area. They have everything you need (including a pay phone, which served me well in a village that has no phone signal whatsoever, and I needed to get into the village hall), and they serve delicious food.

On Sunday, we went for a little stroll with John's parents & sister, with the black & grey sky threatening to break forth with rains. John & I were ill equipped for this weather, only having flip flops & party shoes between us. John would stand by the notion that flip flops are the best kind of footwear, especially if it's raining & muddy, because you can just go home and wash your feet. Thankfully, John's parents were overly equipped & had extra raincoats, which were greatfully received.

We met lots of sheep & lambs on our walk, one of which we thought had been born the day before.

a lovely snugling-with-mama moment

this poor little lamb wanted some milk but its Mama just wanted to walk away. Milk on the move looked rather tricky

all the little lambs seemed to follow this ewe. Surely they're not all hers?!

And last but not least, a lovely pop of colour on a grey, dreary day. Beautiful intricacy.

The Marriage of Mary & Matt

2011-05-23T21:42:00.054+01:00

The weekend saw us driving up to the stunningly beautiful Peak District. There aren't really enough words to describe the beauty of this place in the North of England. It's the kind of place where you want to take in as much of the beauty as you can, with the help of a camera, so as not to forget the 360 degree vistas. So that's what I did with my little point and shoot.

See those shadows of clouds rolling over the hills? It was amazing to watch theslightly turbulent weather rolling in over the Peaks.

There were rolling hills a-plenty to make our tummies flip-flop inside us. A countryside rollercoaster. Wonderful.

The special occasion that took us to Edale was the wedding of a long-standing friend of John's, sister of his best man, Tim.

I had the honour of baking 200 cupcakes for the occasion. Thankfully, they behaved themselves on the long drive up, and ended up looking like this:

I'd been a little worried that the colours of the frosting didn't quite match up with the bride's description, but thankfully, they matched the bridesmaid's bouquet's beautifully.

Here's the cake the bride made (along with her own wedding dress, four bridesmaid's dresses, and just about every other detail that featured in their day).

Sadly I didn't manage to get a good photo of the bride & groom together, so just the bride will have to suffice.

And here we are! {looking a little tired, nonetheless!}

{that's my bunting in the background from our wedding}

We had a lovely time celebrating the wedding of friends, alongside lots of friends & family. Of course, the evening had to end with plenty of dancing,

which John took very seriously.

The End.

2011-05-19T07:14:00.054+01:00

Hello Friends.

The sun is shining today which makes me feel happy & warm, but I'm still stiicking with wearing tights because I'm not quite bold enough to go bare-legged yet. I might just regret it today.

This week I am gearing up to a serious baking session: 180 cupcakes for a wedding on Saturday in the Peak District. This is probably the furthest distance my little cakes have ever travelled, which is quite exciting, and also a little bit scary.

So, my mind is in a state of perpetual list making. Last night my husband gently suggested to me that I might like to make an actual list, after all, 'the faintest of inks is better than the best memory' (a very fitting quote from the episode of MadMen we had just watched). I couldn't agree more with this quote. Yet there's that slightly foolhardy part of me that likes the challenge (or is stress a better word?) of trying to keep parallel lists going in my head, so I haven't committed them to paper just yet.

Does anyone else find that when they are very busy with lots of different things to do, amidst the whirl of mentally made lists, are a selection of songs going about your head?

Or is that just me? At the moment, the songs featuring in my internal play list are a slightly odd mix:

Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man & Awake my Soul

A Fine Frenzy - What I wouldn't do {discovered on this beautiful website which causes my heart ache with the beauty, and makes me want to give up teaching to become a wedding photographer}

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons {we were listening to it at school yesterday}

An old hymn, which I have temporarily forgotten

and of course, Miss j lo, again, telling me to 'get up on the floor'

Right, it's time to fly. I've got a date with a class of 29 children & a granddad.

Ciao x

banoffee whoopie pies

2011-05-16T21:33:00.029+01:00

I am so glad that I have the Hummingbird Bakery's new book, for so many reasons.

1) It's beautiful to browse through
2) There is so much baking inspiration within the pretty pages
3) It has brought whoopie pies into my life.
4) It has given me a solution to what to do with my bananas that go black so I am no longer stuck on banana loaf as my go-to recipe with my over ripe bananas

banoffee whoopie pies

made to be shared with friends, because friends are worth celebrating for their friendship alone

saturday suppertime

2011-05-14T22:23:00.034+01:00

This is what my saturday evening looks like today.

I rarely have supper, but today our meals have gone completely out of whack, due to a very late breakfast, followed by an evening at the cinema without having dinner. Needless to say, come the end of the film, I was a little peckish and John was feeling it was time for some food.

J: Fancy a quick Macdonald's on the way home?

H: No. It's 10pm! Far too late for dinner.

J: I quite fancy Chinese.

H: Bleugh.

J: How about some fried chicken?

H: {silent. Amazed at John's wonderful persistence in encouraging me to eat a full blown mean at bedtime.}

J: You're not even going to dignify that with a response, are you?!

H: It's bedtime! but I am a little hungry.

So, we settled on a breakfast muffin & hot chocolate for me {I could eat breakfast three times a day, very happily}, and an Indian curry for John.

Two happy King's.

Goodnight!

p.s I know the photo looks suspiciously like hot chocolate & chocolate chips, and that's because it is. The chocolate chips were left over from my afternoon snack, perfectly presented in an egg cup.

whoopie pies & other things

2011-05-09T19:49:00.042+01:00

Today I feel like writing my post in the form of the list. I think this is because of two things.

1) At school, the children were writing salad recipe instructions, in list form.

2) Ben's comment on my last post. I liked that little list. Thanks, Ben.

So, here's another little list:

1) I am eating a rather odd dinner as I type this post. I have never eaten dinner while blogging, and I have never eaten this particular dinner. It's called Chicken Chermoulla, a Moroccan dish, except I've made it with quorn instead of chicken.

2) John's out playing football, and I don't think he'll like this dinner. Sorry John.

3) I am half watching an old episode of One Born Every Minute. One of my old school friends is a midwife at St Anne's hospital where it's filmed, which I think is pretty cool.

4) I have a ramekin filled with green cream cheese frosting sat on the side in my kitchen. Do you want to see it? Ok, just let me fetch my camera...

It doesn't look too appetising, does it?!

5) I have this song and this song going through my head right now. I don't think I've ever noticed thinking of two songs at the same time, let alone a beautiful piano piece, and j lo, at the same time.

6) I had a dream last night that a swarm of bees landed on my head. One of my new colleagues is entirely responsible for this - she tells me a new story every day about the bees she has rescued. I know more about bees from a few days with this lady than I've known in my whole life.

7) I had intended for this post to be about chocolate chip whoopie pies that I made a few weeks ago for a family from church who had just had a baby. They looked like this:

Yum? Here's another photo, just to whet your appetite a little more.

8) Doesn't sunshine make everything look better?

The end.

baking & babies

2011-05-09T07:22:00.031+01:00

This weekend has been a lovely one. Saturday was spent baking for a special occasion, and retrieving my car from Clevedon that I had to abandon on Friday night, having dropped my keys down the drain.

Sadly I failed to take any photos of the cakes, so here are a couple of a very similar cake that I baked the other week.

I baked a carrot cake & a chocolate cake on Saturday, both triple layered, both Hummingbird Bakery recipes, and according to the guests, both delicious. (I received a marriage proposal - not from my husband - and a request for a cake delivery to the Lake District, which is a long way from here!)

The special occasion was the Dedication of Baby Rachel at church, where Rachel's wonderful parents shared with the church their desire to raise Rachel to know Jesus and His love for her, and invited us to walk with them & stand beside them in this.

There were six other babies being dedicated too, which made for a wonderful number of families and children filling our church yesterday.

The day ended with sunshine & rain, all at once, which in my opinion is a beautiful sight to behold, but one that's quite hard to capture on camera.

our wedding quilt

2011-05-03T09:00:00.000+01:00

My first memory of meeting Sara, my mother-in-law, was watching her carefully hand stitch together the pieces of a quilt, as she sat chatting to us on the sofa. Her familiarity and dexterity with the tiny needle & fine thread was evident; here was a woman who had thirty years experience of quilting by hand. When Sara's children left for university, she would make them a quilt. When friends, family and colleagues have babies, she'll make a quilt. When her children get married, she makes them a quilt.

One of the first things John's Mum said to us when we got engaged on March 7th last year was, I'll need at least a year to make you a quilt. We gave her 6 months, so she gave us an I.O.U on our wedding day.

This weekend, we popped in to see John's parents for a night before visiting my parents. When we arrived, Sara told us there was a present awaiting us upstairs. So we bounded up the stairs, two by two, and this is what we found:

A beautiful sea of blues & yellows, symbolic of the sea & sand on our honeymoon in Barbados, and King Size, none the less.

Look at how tiny those stitches are - I am pretty sure I could complete about four handstitched squares before my eyes started to go square.

The quilt spent its first night on our bed, and looked very at home there. I look forward to a long life ahead of us with this beautiful creation by our side.

Sara, sending you a thousand thank yous for the thousands of stitches & hours you put into creating this.

the benevolence of trees

2011-05-01T22:29:00.056+01:00

Recently, I read a woman describe trees as benevolent. I wish I could remember exactly where I read this. Even though it was probably in the last week, my memory has already become hazy. She described the way trees grow together. The way they work with their fellow trees to create canopies. If one is lacking, its neighbour will help him out so together they provide more than the sum of their parts.

As John and I drove along the Thornden Wood Road to Canterbury this weekend, winding along the narrow woodland roads, the benevolence of trees came to mind.

These trees were curving and arching together in perfect unity, creating a shady canopy with their lush green leaves. In their growing together, they were doing each other good, doing what was needed to meet and greet one another in the middle of the road.

There is something truly magnificent about trees, and their ability to create a natural archway, offering a covering to you as you drive beneath their shady canopy.

These trees & their colours mesmerised me; I loved the contrast between the bright sunshine breaking through the gaps in the leaves, and the shadows created by the overlapping leaves, and most of all, their benevolence.

The Royal Wedding Weekend

2011-04-29T10:19:00.001+01:00

It is a truly wonderful feeling to know that we have four days of weekend before work starts again, and it's all thanks to William & Kate deciding to get married on a Bank Holiday Weekend. We just so happen to be in London today, but won't be making a trip to Westminster Abbey to join the hunderds of thousands of people to see the newly married royals in person, so TV will suffice.
Apparently there have been 390 applications for road closures in London, so people can have street parties to celebrate the Royal Wedding. I love the idea of street parties - that everyone from the street comes out into the road to celebrate together, sharing food & drink & frivolities.

This afternoon, we'll be heading South East to stay with my parents for the weekend. There's always something wonderful about going home, relaxing, and dining on my Mum's delicious home cooked food.

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend, Friends!

Ilfracombe

2011-04-27T21:19:00.001+01:00

While we were in Devon, we spent a day in Ilfracombe. The sun made everything glow gloriously. After climbing the first hill we found, we were greeted by this lady and some bold seagulls who kept us company while we ate lunch.

See? Such approachable critters. They love to help out if you're struggling to finish any food, and call their friends to let them know that food's on it's way.

John ~~likes~~ dislikes this photo because he says it looks like he's conquered something.

We did plenty of walking in our trusty flip flops along the South West Coastal Path, followed by a round of mini golf. I surprised myself at how closely matched John & I were, except for the time when it took me 10 hits to put the ball in the hole. John was somewhat confused by my unconventional swing; I used the club like a hockey stick because that's what felt right, and it worked for me.

John gets on a level with his challenger. I like to think he was having a little chat with the ball in this photo, telling it where to go. Let's just call him the ball whisperer.

King of his castle. Now, he really does look as though he's conquered this castle.

We ended the day in the only fitting way we could think of - with fish & chips. Except I had chicken nuggets, but fish and chips has a better ring to it.

sewing interlude

2011-04-25T09:00:00.001+01:00

I whipped up another taggie blanket this weekend. These have become my favourite thing to make for new babies that arrive at church, of which there is a plentiful supply. For those of you who kindly stop by here regularly, sorry this is nothing new, but I wanted to write a little post for posterity, so I can keep track of things I have made.

I like making these so much that I've started making spares, just for fun. There'll be one with more feminine colours coming later this week. Happy Monday!

Docton Mill

2011-04-23T19:59:00.000+01:00

On our first day in Devon, we paid a visit to Docton Mill. The clever sat nav failed to find the main entrance, so we followed our noses and found the back door to the kitchen. Once we had been ushered around to the garden gate by the friendly staff, we took the map of the garden and started exploring. This place was deceptively large, considering our humble entry throught the back gate. It felt a little like we were discovering the Secret Garden that lies behind the gate. It was quite simply, beautiful.

The first owners of the mill had nine children and they all shared one bedroom. (This was in the 18th Century, I think.) In the cold Winter, the dairy cow would share the living area with the family to keep warm. What an incredible scene to imagine!

I've just realised that I didn't actually take a photo of the mill - I was too enthralled by the flowers.

See what I mean? It just got better.

Then there were the streams and mini-waterfalls with little bridges to play pooh sticks on.

The path that led to the orchard was lined with the most velvety tulips I have ever seen.

And a green grassy orchard that was just beckoning me to walk across barefoot with a little skip in my step.

Once we had finished our tour of the gardens we indulged in traditional Devonshire Cream Tea. The scones were fresh from the oven, still warm and a little crumbly. We had the biggest tub of clotted cream and we ate it all. De-licious.

2011-04-22T17:31:00.000+01:00

Well, dear friends, there is much to fill you in on. The last week has been a fun-filled sun-filled one and I'd like to share some highlights with you. There will be a few recipes, a little bit of sewing, a couple of mini-adventures and a whole lot of sun & sea.

To start off with, let me tell you about Clevedon. I am going to be spending the next 2 months commuting there for my final school placement. Last Friday, Hannah and I took a trip there to enjoy the delights it has to offer. Hannah introduced me to Tiffins, her favourite Clevedon coffee shop, where they give every customer a miniature tiffin slice with their drink – how brilliant is that?

And tea served in round glasses? I love them.

Clevedon is by the sea. The scent of salty sea air reminded me of home. When I moved to Bristol, one of the things I missed the most was being by the sea.

There were some seriously hardy swimmers who had ventured into the waters. Hannah and I watched in awe as the 60-something-year olds emerged from the water. Even on a summer’s day, the sea here is barely warm. We hoped that we might be like them when we’re older.

Apparently, they even swim in the sea on Boxing Day in the middle of Winter. Rachel was pretty impressed too, as she only has experience of swimming in her mummy’s tummy so far, and the sea is a much bigger pool to play in than the womb. What an exciting prospect for her - see how excited she is!

Check back later to hear about our restful adventures in Devon. Oh what fun we had.

not-so-vegan chocolate cookies

2011-04-16T22:49:00.001+01:00

Here's how those late night cookies turned out early this morning. Considering my rather ad- hoc approach to them, altering all kinds of ingredients, they turned out pretty well.

There's something very satisfying about adapting a recipe & finding that your ideas worked. If John had been here, I think he'd have been proud of how much I mixed things up & didn't do proper weighing. But, had he been here instead of China, I probably wouldn't have been having this late night baking adventure.

The not-so-vegan chocolate cookie

Ingredients
2.5 cups / 650g plain flour
1/2 cup / 125g cocoa
1/2 cup / 125ml applesauce
1/4 cup / 60ml sunflower oil
1 cup / 250g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp bi-carbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg

1) In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cocoa, bi-carb and salt
2) In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, egg, apple sauce, oil & vanilla extract
3) Combine the wet & dry ingredients together, mixing well
4) Stir in your chocolate chips of choice
5) Wrap the dough in cling film or baking paper, and chill in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight
6) When you're ready, preheat the oven to 170C/ gas mark 4-5 & grease 3 baking trays
7) Take large balls of dough, roll them in granulated sugar, pop them on the tray & flatten slightly. They don't really spread so you don't need to leave too much space.
8) Bake for 8 - 10 mins. When they're done, the tops will be cracked and the centre still slightly soft.
9) Enjoy!

{If you'd like to see the original recipe, it's over here at joy the baker's blog.}

late night baking

2011-04-16T00:13:00.000+01:00

I'd like to invite you to take a little trip down memory lane with me. Care to join?
Great! Let's go.

Remember earlier this week I told you about the fabulous new recipe book that arrived as a surprise on my doorstep? Remember that I wondered aloud who I might distribute cakes to that would flow forth from my kitchen as a result of this book? Well, one friend of mine happened to leave a comment on that post stating that we would be having Saturday morning breakfast buns together. As I write, it is 11.52pm on Friday evening, which means that breakfast buns need to be ready by tomorrow morning.

I like to keep to my word, and sometimes that means embarking on late night baking adventures. Tonight is one of those nights. I know that for some of you, this is not late at all, but for me, it is way past my bedtime. Having spent the afternoon and evening with my dear friends, The Poulson's (the parents of beautiful baby Rachel - remember her?) and subsequently staying out way past supermarket closing time, I was limited to the ingredients in my kitchen. One very crucial ingredient in my baking is butter. The proper golden type. I normally have a plentiful supply on hand, but I used up my last 80g earlier today making lemon curd (another recipe for another day). So, I was searching through Cake Days in the hope that I might find a recipe that didn't need butter. I never thought I'd say this, but Cake Days has let me down.

As I was calculating how early I would need to rise to go to the supermarket for butter supplies to bake some breakfast treats tomorrow morning, all before 9.30, the solution popped into my head. Joy's vegan chocolate cookies. Vegan = no butter + no eggs (I only had 1 egg left). Perfecto. Not quite breakfast buns, I know, but I think that chocolate cookies can be a permissable accompaniment to breakfast every now and then.

Scrolling through the ingredients list I saw apple sauce on the list. Remember this post on apple sauce? Well, it just so happened that I had one jar left at the back of my freezer. Hallelujah.

Then I spotted flax seed. The only time I have had any of this in my possession is after running the Bristol half marathon - it was one of the goodies in their gift bags. I never knew what to do with it, so I am ashamed to say that it eventually ended up in the bin. I had no idea what I could use as a substitute, but figured I'd work it out as I went along. Speed is of the essence in late night baking sessions, so there was no time to stop and think. My solution? Egg! I'm definitely not a vegan, so why on earth couldn't I use my solitary egg to add moisture to these cookies? I cracked the egg into the fray and hoped for the best.

Fifteen minutes later and the dough was ready to be chilled. Now, it's time for me to go to bed. I've got an early morning date with some non-vegan cookie dough.

on running

2011-04-13T21:44:00.000+01:00

For the last six weeks I have been going to the gym. I haven't been a member of a gym for the last decade (wow, that makes me feel old), but having reached a complete lull in my running, and lacking in motivation to get out the door and do some exercise, I thought the gym might be helpful.

In many ways, the gym has been very helpful. To be able to see the distance I am travelling, to have a program to stick to, and push myself beyond it when I feel able, to feel the burn in places that haven't felt it for a long while - all of these elements have been helpful for me.

When you have a considerable break from running, there is always that feeling of dread in going back to it. You know it won't be easy at first. You know you will feel like you are dragging your body kicking and screaming, and the only thing that's keeping you going is that tiny piece of will power that has got you out the door in the first place. I have found going back to running on a treadmill, rather than outdoors, has been good for me. Rather than worrying about how long I'm running for, the end has always been in sight, because I've only been doing 15 minute stints. In having this short length of time as my window, the running feels contained, like it's not going to get away from me. I feel like this has freed me up to push myself in different ways - to build up speed and keep it sustained. I have been disciplined with it, and set myself little challenges each time I run, to go that little bit further and a little bit faster. And it has worked.

Yesterday, I ran outside for the first time in a few months. While I knew I'd have a more sustained and harder workout at the gym, I also felt like I needed to fill my lungs with fresh air and to be surrounded by green trees as I ran, rather than walls. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could run forever. It didn't feel like I needed to stop and lie down after 3 minutes, and I wanted to keep going. I didn't know how long I'd run for, or where I'd go, and that didn't bother me in the slightest. It felt like the good old days, and I loved it.

Note to self: I've just looked back at the posts I've written on running, and in nearly every single one, I mention the mental battles I faced. Even at my running peak, I would find it hard, and this is helpful to know. It also makes me think that I did not write enough about the good running times, because I know there have been plenty.

hummingbird love

2011-04-11T20:08:00.000+01:00

I got home today to find a package from Amazon on my doorstep. I was pretty sure I hadn't bought anything, but didn't completely trust my memory.

So, I got the most wonderful surprise when I opened the parcel to find this beauty inside. My mother in law knows the way to my heart.

I have The Hummingbird Bakery's last recipe book and I love it. Everything I have baked from it is delicious. I cannot wait to delve into the new delights in this book.

And the images & design - simply perfect. Hummingbird formations in arrays of colour scattered through out the book.

See what I mean? And I haven't even begun on the recipes. Oh, this is going to be an exciting addition to my life. I spent a solid 20 minutes thumming through the book with eyes wide open and wondered who I can distribute all of the cakes to that are now going to spring forth from my oven in light of this book.

The chapters are great celebrations of annual events & seasons, and there's even a chapter entitled Rainy Day Treats. I think there is a cake to suite pretty much any occasion you could think of in here. And when I say occasion, I mean from the smallest to the greatest. I see a Spring weekend as the perfect occasion to celebrate the simple things in life - particularly friends & sunshine.

Here's to baking for celebrations of the little joys in life.