Author: thethingsnotsaid

The Language of Baking

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My relationship with baking has developed into a great love over the course of my life. I have always been known as one with a sweet tooth.  My father’s family have a sweet tooth and I am my father’s daughter in so many ways.  You could say I was born to make cakes. My favourite grandparent was my father’s mother, my Grandma.  Jean Winney was beautiful, elegant, talented, intelligent and spirited.  I loved hearing her talk about when she would exercise race horses on the moors when she was a young woman, or how much she enjoyed being a dentists assistant during the war.  I imagine that if Grandma had been born in a later generation she would have probably been quite an independent, adventurous woman, but we shall never know… One thing is for sure, she could bake. And I’m fairly certain my first baking lesson will have been from Grandma – I can still remember placing wings on freshly iced fairy cakes at my Grandma’s house and the fuss we would all make at Christmas …

One week in.

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I’m a week in on ‘Make-A-Change March’ and whilst I do want to have a month off and not put lots of pressure on myself to get through a to-do list, I thought I would just have a quick check-in on the things I said I would be aiming for this month. Well there’s still quite a bit to be done…ahem…. For me, the early starts is the key challenge that I absolutely want to master by the end of the month, because I am convinced that if I could start every week day at 6am (I mean seriously that’s possible isn’t it??) I would easily achieve a lot of the other things on that list. And yet, I find it so hard to lift my head off the pillow the other side of 7am. Why?  Because I rarely get to sleep before 11pm. So for the rest of the week (and let’s face it, the rest of my life would be the ultimate aim!) I am going to do all that I can to …

The Sweet Thief

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Over the last month we have had several episodes of sweet stealing by Jackson.  He literally can sniff them out and it doesn’t matter how high they are hidden, he manages to get to them.  This boy can’t put on his velcro fastening trainers but he can get a chair, climb onto the kitchen counter and get sweets from the highest shelf in the cupboard.  I need to hide chocolate in the bottom of his shoes clearly. To be honest I find it pretty amusing and somewhat impressive.  I know, I should be mortified by him consuming a whole pack of Haribo Sours before breakfast.  And I am, but I also love his cheek. In a way he’s helping us all to be more healthy, because we’ve basically been forced to not have any sweets in the house.  If they’re not available then they can’t tempt a four year old to a life of crime or be used as an emotional prop by two shattered parents on a Friday night.  Everyone’s a winner. It reminded me of …

Happy Mother’s Day

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Dear Mum As it’s Mother’s Day in the UK today I thought I would write you a letter and thank you for all the things you have done for me over the years. First of all, and most importantly, thanks for giving me safe passage into the world.  Given that you are five foot one, I was nine and a half pounds and two weeks late in the hottest summer ever this was no small task. Thank you for teaching me that the world does not revolve around me and that I must always be aware of the people around me and try, as much as my imperfect self is able, to be kind and thoughtful, putting others needs first. Thank you for always being so generous.  You never spoilt me as a child but there were so many riches in my life; a beautifully decorated room of my own, Marks and Spencer snowball cakes on Fridays, your attention every day I came in from school, a home in a village that had a river 15 minutes …

Lemon Meringue Pie

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This is coming a day late because I wanted to do a blog on food and I made this for friends who were coming over for dinner.  By the time they left it was too late for blogging so I am doing two today, this is the one I owe for Saturday. I’m experimenting a lot with ‘free-from’ baking at the moment.  I’ve been dairy free for a while now and I have so many friends who are gluten free (it seems pretty prolific over here but perhaps it’s become fashionable in the UK since we left?).  Whenever we talk about going out for treats or even just a nice coffee in a local cafe our biggest complaint is that there’s nothing interesting for those of us who have sensitive tummies.  You might see a gluten free brownie or friand but there’s almost never anything for a dairy free girl like myself.  I love a challenge and I love baking so I’m really enjoying trying to create cakes and bakes that are super tasty and …

Sleep babies sleep

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There is something really lovely about your children getting to the age of five.  Actually there are lots of things like; they finally wipe their own bum, they go to school so a professional has to tell them backchat isn’t becoming, you can drop them off at a birthday party and go get a coffee somewhere civilised and once in a while, they use a fork. The something I am thinking of is that you start to remember what it was like when you were their age.  And it kind of reminds you to not panic as a parent. For the last month or so our children have stopped going to sleep the right side of 8pm.  The routine was (and would still be if we had any say in the matter at all) was bath at 6.30pm, PJ’s, clean teeth, have a little play and then to respective bedrooms for stories.  Lights out about 7.45pm and sleep would soon fall upon our sweet angels. The hot weather and light nights have royally screwed us …

Brooklyn

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When I saw the trailer to this film I wanted to see it straight away.  It’s about an Irish girl emigrating to New York in the 1950’s.  She falls in love with an Italian boy, but then has to return to Ireland when there is a family tragedy.  Whilst there she meets an Irish boy and there you have the drama – a life changing choice to be made.  Which boy?  Which country? The film is based on a book by Colm Toibin.  After what happened to A Time Traveller’s Wife and One Day when they were turned into films, I wanted to read the book before I saw the film.  Whilst I thought the film of A Time Traveller’s Wife was a great adaption, it just couldn’t come close to the depth and beauty of Henry and Clare’s story.  Anne Hathaway absolutely ruined One Day for me.  If I had seen the film first, I don’t think I would have bothered with the book.  My policy is always read the book first. I read …

Wouldn’t it be luvverly

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Wouldn’t it be great if family life was like this all the time?  Like the photos we take, and especially the ones we share.  Where the sun is shining and the children are smiling. This photo was not taken today.  There is no way on earth this could have been taken today. Today, the neighbour brought round my children after they had snuck out the living room window and visited her, without telling me they were leaving the building! Today, my children got out almost all the cutlery we own and chopped up carrot and tomatoes and added water, a whole pot of cinnamon and fennel seeds to make soup for dinner.  And then spilt it all over the floor I’d hoovered and mopped one hour before. Today, my children decided to climb into the garden shed we’ve had locked up for two years now with some poisonous mold problem, to have a play. Today, my four and six year old children didn’t go to sleep until 9.15pm. Today, I told my children off so …

Make-A-Change March

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Well hello there! Yes it has been a while hasn’t it.  Five months in fact, since I wrote something here.  For many reasons I just wasn’t in the right place for blogging so I just didn’t.  Nothing dramatic or sinister, simply that life did not afford me the pleasure of sitting in my office, at my desk, with space to be creative.  I’m hopeful that this is all about to change. On Friday I finished a job.  I may well unpack how I felt about the job in a future blog, but for now let’s just say, it was challenging.  And not in a good way. I’ve given myself a month off.  Because when you work freelance you can do that.  And frankly I need it.  My family need me to have it. I need to pause.  I need to have days slow down to a pace where there is room for thought and reflection.  Our house needs to be put back in order.  My body needs to be given health and vitality again.  My …

400 emotions in one day.

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The kiwis use the phrase, “Four seasons in one day”, a lot.  And with good reason.  We’ve lived over here three and a half years now and I still haven’t mastered the art of selecting my outfit so I can be comfortable in a cool and overcast start to the day, a steamy hot midday, a bitter “Southerly” sweeping in and finishing off with some hail.  Bigger bag maybe…? Anyways this blog is not about weather, although as I am English I could probably write a blog purely on weather.  Another time perhaps. This blog is about how many emotions a mother experiences in one day. I could put parent here if we want to be PC but frankly I think the number of fathers who are swayed by their children’s emotions, as much as the mother of their children is, will be in single figures. We have our own emotions, yes we most certainly do.  And I’ll admit it, they are stronger and darker at certain times of the month.  I would like to …