snow days

these last two weeks have been the coldest I have had since moving here 6 years ago...yes 6!!!

The cold has been relentless and the snow has caused havoc in a country that should be prepared ,but never are.

when the snow hits though its magical. I love just sitting at my window watching it fall with a cup of tea in my had , and perhaps a biscuit...

after its all settled nothing better than getting all bundled up and going to play. even more magical in the first Christmas week. when you are Christmas mad like me , snow falling in Christmas tree week is hugely exciting. My little girl has been so excited ,what with snow , her letter to father Christmas going up in flames so the fairy's could take it to Santa and the tree and decorations being put up. but more on that later, for now... snow day pictures
manor park gardens



Weber snowman
such a pretty tree

news

* since I last posted a life time ago ( sorry , must try harder) its been Halloween. My little horror dressed as a pretty little witch . we made some beautiful Halloween garlands and hang spiderwebs about. carved a couple of pumpkins and put our sweeties in our bucket. It was so much fun and Lily was totally in love with the whole celebration.

*It was also guy fawkes which is called bonfire night here. I suspect it used to be called Guy fawkes but some pc health and safety crap came along and they changed it. I could be wrong and am just flying off the handle. it wouldn't be the first time .. Look at the pretty fire works at blackheath. record numbers attended this year and it was fabulous
*Our dear friend and lifelong neighbor had her first child here in London. Little Isabella rose was born on 31 October weighing in at 2.3kg. she is a tiny little dolly and I got to hold her for a lovely long time when we visited. her mum and dad are doing a brilliant job
* Lily has been dancing for a tv show called pineapple dance studios. It became a huge hit last year as a reality documentary show about the famous pineapple dance studios in London. Lily's dance teacher pitched an idea to them about her class being filmed and next thing we did a normal hip hop class and a special Christmas dance class. they all had to be little elves and hopefully diddi dancing , Lily's dance class will get major coverage as her teacher and owner of the company is fantastic

* the clocks changed and it got all dark and wintery. the leaves fell and are littering the pavements in orange and the coats came out and are hanging on the coat rack

*Christmas fever entered our house as I start planning Christmas activities and days out. so far we are seeing the ballet of the snowman at sadlers wells on the 23rd December and going to hever castle again to their narnia Christmas and to see father Christmas in his grotto. Lily is so excited again ,and talks about father Christmas every day. When she discovered I was following him on twitter ;) she was amazed! I have been decorating pine cones that were picked up, with tartan ribbon and glitter, and in my new ideal home Christmas magazine they have all these paper decoration and wreaths that I will be trying to make, as well as a gingerbread house.

love to all and hugs to those who need them

xx

sweetcorn chowder

Tonight I am attempting a sweetcorn chowder. I had sweetcorn chowder many years ago at a friend of my parents ( that'll be you aunty Gail) and its a meal I remember. I have always wanted to make it and then I happened upon a recipe for sweetcorn chowder with king prawns. I will let you know how it goes.

I have been cooking very different sort of food lately as I went on a diet of sorts to lose some much needed weight and hence i have adjusted my cooking. I have discovered halloumi cheese. Its absolutely delicious!. I make a roast veg bake with red lentils and then grill chunks of the cheese on top . ok, ok this is what you do. cut sweet potato , butternut , leeks, red pepper , mushrooms , courgette and put them into a ovenproof dish ( omit veggies you think are yuck) dribble over olive oil and season and roast until just tender. then add a cup or two of red lentils and about a cup and a bit of veggie stock. place back in the oven until the lentils are tender. remove from oven and place chunks of halloumi onto the bake and grill for 3 or 4 minutes until they brown a little. its totally delicious.

in other cooking and baking news. make sure you tie up your child's long curly hair when baking as if they put their head near the bowl it may get caught in the electric beaters causing major psychological scarring and a nasty cut. you will feel awful for days. that is all

pacing the panic room

I happened upon an amazing new blog today vis other blogs, as you do.

Pacing the panic room is written by a man and I have loved going through the archives . his documentation of his wife's pregnancy is so beautiful, their home and everything in it is so interesting to me. His photography is so personal and touching.

do have a look

walking with Kings and Queens

A couple of weeks back we went to the beautiful Hever Castle , In Kent ( south east England). Its only about 45 minutes drive from our house and I was so sorry we had not been sooner. Its absolutely beautiful there. It was the childhood home of Anne Boelyn and henry the VIII stayed there when they were courting. Its a beautiful little Tudor castle with the most beautiful grounds. There are 3 mazes. The yew maze, the wooden kids maze and the hilarious water maze that is impossible to get through without getting soaked , which I found out on the first stone I stepped on! This is the moated castle with one of my fancy pants effects
The front of the castle is covered in this stunning virginia creeper which turns deep red in autumn

there s a great kids playground with these tunnel slides. that poor sod under Lily is her choo choo nana who went down 5 times. I went once but it scared the crap out of me
This is the view from the Italian gardens over the lake. the rose garden was also out of this world


well worth a visit if you are ever near Kent.

the home cook

My Mum has always been a cook. She loves cooking and I have so many of my childhood memories of her entangled around cooking. She is not much of a baker but has instilled a love of cooking and baking with fresh ingredients to me. She has taught me the basics like how to make a rou .How to reduce a sauce , but she has also taught me when to cheat when your time is short or you could not be arsed.

I'm a baker. I have always loved to bake. I like tried and tested recipes as well as new unusual ones. I like my recipe books to have character and to have lived in the kitchen. This book below is my Mum's Ina Paarman origional cookbook. she is a South African Home economics teacher who started a cooking school , published a cookbook and is now I assume a Millionairess with ranges of seasning and sauces.

This is her original cookbook bought by my mum when she used to go to Ina's classes. Ina has signed it for her. I always wanted to go to those classes when I was little. Its a battered, stained book full of the history of meals cooked and cakes baked. I love those stains.
I recently got the hummingbird bakery cookbook . Its a divine little bakery in notting hill selling very famous cupcakes to all the stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Me. their most famous being their Red Velvet cupcakes , made famous in New york.
I made this banana cake which was just lovely and so easy and i got my first little stain on the page. I was so pleased....

1. I miss wrapping up school books. I was reading a blog ( Hi Lee) and she wanted to wrap her journal and a wave of nostalgia washed over me as I remember going out with my mum to buy wrapping paper or brown paper and plastic to wrap my books. My favorite year was a year I got light blue paper with tiny hot air balloons all over it, Good times

2. Playschool has begun again and Lily is doing 3 mornings a week in preparation for her starting reception on 4 January. Its so soon I feel ill.

3. We went to watch Charlie and Lola's my best bestest play at the Greenwich theatre and it was delightfully wonderfully great. It was a mix of 2 D puppets with 3D sets and 4 puppet masters if you like. We all enjoyed it so much and one of us even had a strawberry ice cream in the theatre...

4. Strictly come dancing 2010 launched here on Saturday. Regular readers ( whom I apologise to for my absence ) will know my love of the strictly show. I do nothing on Saturday evenings. Kristian does all of Lily's bedtime routine and I get a glass of wine and watch my show. geez I'm old. Also it signals the beginning of the Christmas countdown for me as the show runs till Christmas week

5. Speaking of Christmas I saw Mince pies and panetone in sainsburys the other day. A little early in my humble opinion. Not that I'de say no if someone offered me one with a cuppa.

6.Lily is into jokes in a big way. admittedly some are not funny in a traditional way but to a mother they are hilarious. Her favorite one was told to her by Aunty Ronnie and I'm working on her doing it on video for me and I will post it.

7. This morning I told Lily a little bird had told me something so she looks at me and then at the window and asks " was that window open last night?) No I say. " How did the bird get in then ? It took me a while to twig and I have made a mental note to remember children are very literal

8. I got a stunning new cath Kidson bag with my birthday voucher. Its so beautiful I want to sleep next to it every night.

9. Love is all around at the moment. I have been witness or heard about so many love matches in the last month through people I know. 1 on twitter, and 1 on facebook. Many have met on these sites. It seems traditionally chance meetings and dating are out of the window now. Personally , although i love that Chance meeting thing how realistic is it these days that you may meet someone like that ?

10. I have started healthy eating and walking and am feeling better about myself already. I think I may be in for a long haul when i stood on the scale but I think in a few months I will see some improvements

change

I've never been one for change. I hate it. My body lashes out against it, yet I'm faced with it constantly. I have begun to think its my lifes lesson. Every time I think I can control something or follow a path it all goes horribly wrong and I'm left regrouping.

I have finally come to accept that I must allow life to flow in the way it wants to because if I try and change the flow we have a flood. I also have accepted that I made all the decisions that led me to the point I am at now and without those decisions I would have no beautiful daughter and lovely husband.

That said I have these bad days when I miss my life In south Africa so much. The worst times are around special occasions like Birthdays or Christmas. This week Caroline at Rhymes and reasons had a little girl that turned 3. I sat at home yesterday while everyone wished her and was together. Last week Lily turned 4 and My parents , my brother and my close friends missed it. It takes me a good few days after said events to lift myself up and continue as normal.

In my heart I know the time will come in the next couple of years when i will be back in Cape Town as that's where I want to be and all this will be a distant memory but for now I will be sad for a couple of days and then get on with my life here trying to do and see as much as possible.

You see I'm learning.

celebration

pin the tail game with our 2 boy friends
Amelie , Lily and Andrew eating party food
the party table
the dolls house
inside the dolls house eeekk
princess cake
biscuit decorating
dangling biscuit eating game
blowing out the candles

its been a week of celebration round our house. my darling little Lily turned a whole 4 years old. She is getting to be such a big girl with all these musings on life , funny observations and all round cuteness. I had arranged a very small party for her with a few of her little friends from around here. She of course asked for a pink , princess sort party and I obliged in a haze of pinkness. To think when she was a baby I did not want to dress her in much pink, she was probably screaming out for pink babygrows., in fact...now I understand what those 4 months of constant crying were.

I made a princess cake with her princess barbie in the middle. Its been my first foray into cake decorating and I think it went quite well bar trying to get the legs to bend enough for her to fit into the "dress". nearly crippled the poor girl.

after the party a few friends arrived to wish Lily along with choo choo nana with more presents.

We had got Lily a beautiful dollshouse and nana Fi and grandad got her some rooms. BEST PRESENT EVER. a make called Le toy van. their stuff is divine.

Monday saw our second anniversary come round and I can barely believe its been 2 years since that special day in our lives. We celebrated by exchanging some cotton gifts. Pyjamas for him and a hand printed biscuit tea towel for me ( its lovely) and then went to watch Inception at the cinema.

So 4 years and 2 years ago two life changing events occurred in my life and I do so enjoy celebrating them every year.

sad face

Its odd but I can't bring myself to remember and write about our time in cape town as now that I'm back it takes me about a month to get out of my doldrums. We loved every minute of our time. Everyone is so special. This becomes so apparent when I return here and I'm more or less alone again. Ive settled back into my wake up , breakfast , lily goes to school , lily is picked up , have lunch and find something to do in the afternoon routine.

I have so many people close to me in Cape Town that it will always feel like home and here will always feel like somewhere I'm trying to leave. Awful that I cant think in another way but I'm afraid that's the way it is. therefore before I have you all switching my moaning off I will leave you with some photos of our time in Cape Town and a promise to post something lovely in the next few days