The Gallery - Sunshine

The sun shines and out go the toys, bundles of them, ferried to the perfect picnic spot, not far from the back door. There's always lots of enthusiastic to-ing and fro-ing; gathering every possible plate, cup and random thing that might come in handy.

Once it's all laid out, she's back in wanting more suncream on - still can't believe she asks. SO different from the boys: I have to chase them round the garden with the bottle, pinning them down as they squirm and twist so it ends up in their hair.

Cream on, she's out, then in again looking for picnic food this time, because Bella and Stella are VERY hungry, and they only eat biscuits.

Fussy Bella and Stella. 

Though they do seem partial to a spot of mashed up daisy and grass tea....

I can see her from the kitchen window - busy, happy, in a sunny world of her own.

The Gallery theme this week is Sunshine :)

Day 184 - Banana with lemon drizzle cake

I found these sad boys at the bottom of my (very large) bag.

I'd put them in days ago, when we were charging round in the midst of birthday parties, then piled more stuff on top, as you do, and completely forgot about them. So they were a bit squashy and unappealing....and perfect for CAKE!

Now I've a great banana bread recipe I got from a magazine. All my scrappy cuttings end up in a rather lovely, carefully organised box; but not carefully organised enough for me to find the blinking banana bread recipe.

So I turned to to the ever reliable Mary Berry, and found Banana with lemon drizzle cake in her cookbook, One Step Ahead.  Sounded perfect and I just happened to have a rather sad looking lemon....

Honestly it's a little gem. A delicious, easy little gem.

For a start all the ingredients go in one bowl - 175g caster sugar, 3 eggs, 300g self-raising flour, 2 level teaspoons baking powder, 2 mashed up bananas (I used all three - didn't seem right to leave one out) grated zest of half a lemon, 2 tablespoons of milk and 175g softened butter.

The butter was so soft I mixed it all with a wooden spoon and then just poured it into a lined 8 inch cake tin.

So quick.

Pop it into the oven for 45 minutes at 180 degrees C/gas 5 until light golden brown and test with a skewer. While the cake's cooling a bit, mix 100g sugar and the juice of one lemon and spread it all over the top.

It's had a big thumbs up from the kids, even my Banana Avoider. 

It smells of bananas and tastes of bananas, yet he's the first to ask for more.

Anything goes when it looks like cake.

The Gallery - Morning

It doesn't seem to matter how tired he is or how tightly I tuck him in - by morning my 7 year old often ends up hanging out of bed like this. 

He's my restless sleeper and my night owl. And he has a habit of quietly rearranging his room after lights out - so I'm never quite sure what I'm going to find when I check on him. My little darling is going through a stage of setting traps, after watching Home Alone (again). This usually involves his paperweight collection, books piled up by the door and loads of string wrapped around the handle....

I wouldn't have a chance of taking a photo of the other two sleeping in the morning unless I set my alarm. They are my larks. Always up bright and early, no matter what time they go to bed. These two take after their dad, who is cheerful and coherent from the minute he wakes up. 

I am not. 

I am not cheerful 

and I do NOT want to have a conversation about whether we should put lawn feed on the grass, as soon as I open my eyes.

But he's not here at the moment and I'm on autopilot with the kids in the morning until I get them on the school bus.

By the time I'm ready for a chat, everyone's gone....

This week's Gallery theme is Morning.

Day 170 - Pushing my luck?

My husband found this in the garage when he got back from his last 6 month tour of Afghanistan...

"SURPRISE!" I said. And he was.

You see my husband had never shown the slightest flicker of interest in owning a camper. But I'd managed to convince myself that he just didn't know he wanted one. And as he stood there, struggling for words, I knew it was going to be ok: the cards were stacked in my favour - I had just looked after the children for 6 months; he was hardly going to turn round and say, 'take it back'.

Anyway I couldn't, because I'd bought it on ebay.

All things considered, he took the news pretty well.

Looking back on it, it was a bit mad - but coming up to the end of a tour, you experience such an overwhelming mixture of relief, tiredness and elation: it's a giddy combination.....

So an absolutely perfect time to do something rash.

And in my head I had this lovely romantic picture of family camping trips, based I'm sure on childhood memories. We always had a camper. I'd learnt to drive in an orange and white VW.

I did check out the old VW's first, but they were very expensive, even in poor condition. When I saw our Toyota camper-to-be, she had a VW look without the price tag, AND she slept five. So I packed the kids into the car and we headed off to Mold in Cheshire to take a look.

It was a lot further away than I thought.

She did look lovely though, but as her owner ran through the essentials, I felt a wave of panic, because it suddenly struck me just how little I knew about campers (or anything with an engine) and I wasn't sure what to ask or what to look for.

Obviously this sensible moment of doubt had vanished by the time we got home, so based on some rather sketchy advice from my mum's partner ('She's a steal! Toyota's go forever!') I placed my bid, waited nervously, and won.

I did some tinkering before my husband saw her. New curtains - the first and only ones I've ever made, and I recovered the tatty old seats with A LOT of help from a friend.

We have been lucky with Betty, as she came to be called. It could have been a disaster. If I was ever to do anything like this again, I'd take someone with me who knew what they were talking about.

She is over thirty years old and needs to be handled with care. Flat, straight roads are fine - sometimes we reach heady speeds of around 50mph - but Betty hates hills.

Unfortunately we live at the top of a very steep one. She usually screeches up it in second gear with everyone shouting and willing her on (and praying there isn't anything coming the other way)

So it probably won't come as much of a surprise to hear we don't stray far in Betty. Having said that, we live right on the south Wales border, and there's no shortage of beautiful places to explore.

My husband has learnt to love her. I think. And we both like the way the pace of life seems to slow down as we trundle along. Sometimes you need to go slow to appreciate what you've got.

We have had a good laugh about the Betty-buying-episode over the last two years.

And now, here we are again.

Except this time he's gone away for TWELVE months....and I've got a few ideas....

Day 169 - One for sorrow, two for joy...

...three for a girl,  

my little girl in this case...

My little magpie

loves sparkly, twinkly things,

keeps them in a secret place,

beads and coins and rings.

My little magpie,

always very quick:

sees a penny, picks it up,

doesn't miss a trick.

My little magpie,

sharp and bold and clever:

knows just when I need a smile,

shines bright as any treasure.

   

Linking up with Suzanne's Oldies but Goodies

Day 166 - Birthday list

"What would you like for your fifth birthday sweetheart?"

"I'd like some sparkly shoes."

"Sparkly shoes?"

"Yes, glittery, sparkly ones....and I really, REALLY want a fluffy toy puppy that moves."

"But you've got that fluffy Zhu Zhu pet puppy thing that moves..."

"NO mummy, I want a fluffy toy puppy that moves, with LEGS and a LEAD and a CARROT."

A pup-it?

I 'm linking up with 'Out of the mouths of babes' at Yummy Mummy? Really?