Sunday 31 October 2010

10 things

I've been busy and distracted these past two weeks.  Birthdays and school holidays have added a pleasing measure of disruption to our regular routines.  The children go back to school tomorrow and while I shall welcome the familiarity of usual service being resumed, I shall also miss their company so much.  I don't think I'm never ready for the holidays to end.

C and O at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, last week.

Here's what's on my mind, as our family birthday season finishes and we head back towards the familiar, steady comforts of the darker, colder, damper half of the year.
  • I need a new word for 'babysitting'. I looked after my friend's two delightful girls, aged 7 and 11, the other night and I may have offended them by referring to 'babysitting'. They're not babies!  I need a new word.
  • As soon as I've tracked down some red food colouring paste, I'm going to make me some red velvet cupcakes.  I ate an awesome one at this cafe a few weeks ago, and then Miss Moss Stitch made some last week which were simply delicious.  I need to have a go myself.
  • It is always good to end the weekend with a pan full of stock on the stove.
  • The garden is very wet and carpeted with layers of orange leaves from the cherry tree.  I am in denial.
  • The children are obsessed with Scrabble right now.  They've been staying up late to play each night over half term. C managed to put 'fezes' on a triple word score and we may be talking about that particular move for some time. I wondered how he knew the word 'fez' but he reminded me about the very famous recent fez scene.
  • I haven't been near my sewing machine in nearly two weeks.  I miss it.
  • I'm rather belatedly reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and loving it so much.  If you are also late to the party, read it now.  So good.
  • This is my absolute favourite bread recipe at the moment.  I use creme fraiche as the sour cream, and it works perfectly every time.  I am not normally a fan of white bread, but I really love this one.  Trust the strange instructions for kneading - they are improbable but do work, I promise.
  • I have introduced C and O to the delights of the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. They love it.  I fully expect words like 'vex' to appear on the Scrabble board very soon.
  • I have put these three little wooden carved animals, which I bought in Switzerland in the summer, in their own alpine meadow on the mantelpiece.  They are pleasing me enormously.

8 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your blog tonight its nice to know your children enjoy scrabble ,and fez and vex ,are good words to add to the vocabulary ,what about swoon too lol ,your bread sounds very nice ,...love Jan xx

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  2. One of mine wanted to watch Downton - he spied Professor McGonagall - but I'm thinking there is way too much nookie for a 10 year old. Pride and Prejudice might be safer!

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  3. I made red velvet cupcakes last year, and blogged about my crisis with the egg. They were worth it though - delicious!

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  4. I am pleased that Scrabble is such a success! we had a delicious rye and raisin bread on Saturday - very moist and so moreish.

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  5. I loved Brooklyn. Looking forward to trying the bread--strange kneading instructions and all! K x

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  6. Brooklyn is SUCH a great book, I loved it-glad you are enjoying it too.
    The bread is defo a winner in this household now too-so easy once you get your head around the fact that there are no misprints in the method!!
    No inspiration on new word I'm afraid, it's been such a long time since I did baysitting (thankfully!)x

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  7. Mmm. I have red colouring for the same purpose. We ate red velvet cupcakes on our wedding trip to NY, so they always seem like a celebratory thing to me.

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  8. That version of Pride and Prejudice is great, the best I think. It's wonderful that your children can go from Dr Who to Jane Austen, good way to go through life I think.

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