a breather

Sitting here this morning, drinking tea and taking a moment for myself after a whirlwind few days. Family visiting from Canada, a trip to Pembrokeshire to show them the sights, home again and school, a jaunt to Liverpool and a big family dinner last night means my feet haven't touched the ground lately. Lots of cooking, dishes, laundry, drinking, eating, talking, laughing and all round fun and entertainment.

And the cherry on the cake? The big kid got the part of the Artful Dodger in her drama group's summer show. Her first audition and her first big part.

a mighty girl

I found this site via a Guardian story and then the Pinkstinks campaign. I am so behind this. As the mother of two girls, I shrink from the profileration of pink for girls and blue for boys. I have always encouraged my girls to wear anything other than pink (although there was a period for both of them when no amount of cajoling could dissuade them from wearing pink princess dresses every day). I am horrified to see some of their friends donning makeup at 11 years old, or wearing heels at 7. It scares me and it saddens me. I get angry with people who tease them about having "boyfriends". Why shouldn't they have friends who are boys? Why do boy-girl relationships have to be sexualised from such an early age. It gets my goat.

So this site, which touts itself as "The world's largest collection of books and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls" is a godsend. There are recommendations according to genre or age groups, even different languages. There's history, biography, fiction, fairytales, fantasy, sports, science - the list is endless. With links and reviews, it looks like a fantastic resource for parents who don't want their girls to grow up pretty in pink.

music

Have heard these guys around a bit lately and read this about them from some guy called Bitter Old Punk:

"Last June or July, one of their videos gets picked up by the music blog Aquarium Drunkard. It gets the attention of one of the blog's readers, Pat Hood of Drive-By Truckers, who tracks down lead singer/guitarist Brittany Howard (who is working for the post office in Athens, Alabama at the time). He invites the band to open a few shows for DBT. By October, they're headlining a CMJ showcase show. By December, they've all quit their day jobs, have professional representation, and are shopping their demo to labels. By April, they've played sold-out shows in the UK and US, their album hits #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the UK charts."

I finally saw them play on Jools Holland the other night. They played two songs on their set, their current single (do people release singles anymore?) Hold On, and this one.



I just love how she loses it towards the end. Gave me chills.

return

Ooh, there's been a bit of an ominous silence on this blog of late. For no other reason than, well, I've been busy. Easter holidays, family visiting - takes a girl away from the internet. We took a trip to Pembrokeshire on the west Wales coast over Easter. After quite an epic journey that took us through the mountains of Snowdonia and out to the coast with our first view of the sea in far too long, we meandered along to the city of St Davids (the smallest city in Britain and named after the patron saint of Wales, of course). Fortunately the weather gods smiled on us for a few days so we packed in coastal walks, rock pool fishing, horse riding, plenty of pub lunches and even a little bit of lamb loving. This is Titch who was found in a hedge and since has been nursed back to health.

[Photo by the big kid]



The scenery was just stunning and being back by the sea? Bliss.

[Edited to add: I've only just noticed the soaring seabird smack dab at the top of the shot. Lovely.]

spring

A weekend in London with good friends was lovely (made even better by all that sweet baby love). Clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine and everywhere you look, trees bursting into bud. The days are longer and the promise of summer is in the air at last.

buttermilk scones

I have a thing for buttermilk. It just sounds so quaint and wholesome somehow, makes me think of buxom dairy maids and Fresian cows, dappled sunlight and green fields. Only you can find it in the dairy aisle at Sainsbury's.

It's a great ingredient to tenderise chicken strips and make pancakes light and fluffy. This recipe for buttermilk scones tempted me since I have a pot of clotted cream left over from a recent dinner party (what's clotted cream made for really, if not for scones!) The weights did sound a bit daunting (half a kilo of plain flour?!) but as it turns out, the recipe only makes about 14-16 thick fluffy scones and they're very good to freeze and then reheat gently at 150C.

The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen.

500g plain flour
2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
2 tsps cream of tartar
2 tsps caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
25g soft vegetable shortening
300ml buttermilk
1 egg, beaten, for an egg wash (optional)

Preheat the oven to 220C. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper. Put the flour, bicarb, cream of tartar and sugar in a large bowl. Chop the butter and shortening into cubes and rub into the flour. Pour in the buttermilk and work everything together to form a dough. Roll out on a floured work service to about 4cm thick and then cut out with a 6cm floured cutter. (One tip is to whack the cutter cleanly through the dough, rather than wiggle it through as this will make your scones come out a funny shape.) Arrange on the sheet fairly close together and brush the tops with the egg wash. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool.

up the garden path

I've realised, now I've got my 3/4 of an acre garden, that I'm no gardener. I feel slightly shameful, admitting that in these here parts but there you go. I like a nice garden as much as the next woman, but it's the relentlessness of the weeds, the shabby state that the garden reverts to given half a chance and the unreliability of the sun that deters me.

Let's hope it's more accurate to say that I am a fair weather gardener and when the sun comes out, I will be inspired to pull up all those weeds (so many, so many), and turn the compost, and prepare the veggie beds. And plant some flowers, including these hollyhocks and foxgloves that I picked up the other day.

To my credit, I have trimmed the lavender (my favourite - I could have an entire garden of lavender), hacked at the budleia (far too late I'm told) and planted some lettuce. The herbs from last year have survived my neglect, and help is on its way in the form of a keen, gardening mother-in-law.