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