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 …

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 …

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 …

It was once suggested to me that I was a “through time” person.  What this means is that I tend to focus on what is ahead.  I’m a planner, somewhat of a dreamer (but not in the staring out of a window in a daze sort of a way), someone who is listening to you (no honestly) but sometimes I have been known to be also thinking about my reply and likely to interrupt (yes that is awful of me and I’m trying to change). In contrast an “in time” person is someone who is totally involved in the here and now.  This person is unaware of time passing, they are fully invested in the conversation or activity they are in and they’ll worry about the next thing when it comes and slaps them across the face. Like a wise young four year old son continually warns me, “I’ve got good news and I have got bad news for you Mummy”.  The good news is that being a “through time” person I have a large capacity …

In honour of the sixth series of The Great British Bake Off being aired back home at the moment, I have bought Series 1-5 on iTunes and am rather over-indulging on the highs and lows of this very wonderful BBC series. During one of my GBBO marathon sessions (don’t tell Gareth I think I watched an entire series in under 48 hours!) it dawned on me that life is very much like the baking of a signature bake.  Bear with me here, I know after the above confession you will be assuming my mind is now addled by the obsessive pursuit of the “perfect bake” and the highly sought after ” original combination of flavours”, but I honestly think there is something to be learnt from the experiences of our harangued amateur bakers. For any of you who don’t know what a ‘signature bake’ is (and frankly I’m saddened by your ignorance) this is the bake that each contestant in the GBBO is required to do at the beginning of each themed week.  So if it were “Cake Week” then all the …

I love coming home to this. Because I like to run.  I love being out in the open air, feeling physically strong and mentally free, having time to myself, seeing the world at my pace.  And all of that feels even better when I am wearing Sweaty Betty clothing. Since my first purchase from Sweaty Betty, this brand became a Lovemark for me.  They have my lifelong commitment.  I literally don’t wear any other brand of sportswear.  I can tell you all the reasons why, but this is not a sponsored blog. Oh go on then, it’s because they make sportswear pretty and feminine, their stuff always fits well, it’s 97% perfect quality and their customer service on the 3% that isn’t, makes up for it perfectly.  Put a different way, ‘they had me at hello’. The book, ‘Lovemarks – the future beyond brands’ by Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, goes into lots of depth on the subject and I’ll be honest I’ve only skim read it, but from what I gather his essential point is that …

I have a dream. And I think now is the right time to share it.  To make it official.  To put it out there. I’m quite sure it’s been there since I was born.  Because so many of our dreams are.  They just can take half a lifetime to be known.  Like it’s crazy to think that I was born with the eggs in my uterus that would one day be Minnie and Jackson but it’s true, I was born to have those two people. And I think I’m made to bake.  I have the Winney gene in me so I like sweetness.  My mother is a gifted ‘foody’ so I was raised on good puddings.  Ever since I had a kitchen I have baked. Once I have my Kitchen Aid I will begin my training for the Great British Bake Off and maybe one day I too will drop a soggy pie on the floor of that marquee. This dream though.  This is a big one.  It will change my world and I hope, somehow, it …

This will be our fourth Winter in New Zealand now.  In many ways it’s hard to believe we have been here that long but at the same time, England feels like a distant memory. I am homesick. I think it’s a number of things that have triggered it off.  Facebook posts of friends over there at the moment.  The delayed Christmassy feeling I get in June.  Jackson having another birthday with no grandparents or cousins being there. I think most of all it’s just, about time. We’re very happy here.  Christchurch is a great place to bring up a family, we have a lovely home, good jobs, we’re in a vibrant church, we’ve made some awesome friends.  My homesickness isn’t about being unhappy here.  Anyone who lives away from where they grew up will know this feeling, it’s not that you want to go back as such, you just miss all the good things you had there that you don’t have here, like for me… I miss being able to get a meal deal at …

We hit our NZ three year anniversary at the end of March and whilst the day passed with little recognition, it was in fact a significant milestone.  When we first had the crazy idea of moving our wee family over to the other side of the world to be part of Christchurch’s rebuild we said the adventure would be for three years. We’re still here. Because how long does it take for a city to recover?  The Oxford English Dictionary states that to recover means, “to return to a normal state of health, mind or strength.”  When you travel to other cities, you realise what is currently “the norm” for Christchurch is far away from normal anywhere else. Gareth came here to work as part of SCIRT (Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team) which is essentially the horizontal and underground rebuild that makes the vertical, buildings going up rebuild possible.  SCIRT has recently passed its halfway point, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrg8SnvSn0M and look out for Gareth, but that’s not even halfway to the city being rebuilt.  I think the general consensus is it …

It’s that time again when the blog is clearly serving one of its main purposes – letting the family back home see our children, and this time, as an extra treat for Gran and Grandpa Cowles we have the other jewels in their crowns – cousins Eleanor and Amalie. This Christmas we had the best of all sides of the world.  We had lovely hot, sunny days in beautiful locations and we got to share it with family.  Gareth’s sister and gorgeous family stared the long haul journey in the face and said we’ll ‘ave ya, which we are most impressed with. So here they are, brother and sister. Fast forward 30 years (give or take) and you get this brother and sister.  Shockingly similar no? Anyways we were joined by this lot.  Who flew in by helicopter….just kidding. Thankfully everyone got along well from the start.   We were all particularly relieved that these two became chums! Off down South we went and had some sweet memories made in Arthurs Point.  Wisely we mum’s …