Sell one and buy a small Spring flower arrangement with a primrose, miniature narcissi and one lone hyacinth bulb. Actually, there’s not a big market for second hand bread, so probably freeze the second loaf instead and use it later on for a decent round of sardines on toast one Saturday teatime. Sardines on toast always makes me feel nostalgic for The Lion The Witch … Continue reading If you have two loaves of bread…
There’s a week still left in February, but today is Pancake Tuesday. I no longer need to race home desperately wondering how on Earth I am going to mix, toss and serve enough pancakes to keep the kids happy, because it turns out that my Daughter is a much better pancake maker than I ever was. Sarah, you are an absolute star, because I know … Continue reading Late February Sunshine has me hoping: Spring is Coming!
I’m glad to be in February. For one of the shortest months, it seems to always have an extraordinary amount crammed into it. It doesn’t help that both my parents and two of my own children managed to fit their birthdays into the month! But it’s the month when I look around and think hopeful thoughts. We’ve been through the worst of the winter (and … Continue reading Blessed Imbolc: Merry Candlemas: Happy Groundhog Day!
When I was a little girl, there was a TV series on in the afternoons called Farmhouse Kitchen. It ran from 1970 to 1990, and was on at 2.30 in the afternoon, so watching it probably meant I was off sick from school. I think, as long as we weren’t vomiting and really nauseous, it was a way to keep us quiet. I used to … Continue reading Book Friday: Home Cooked by Kate Humble (Recipes from the Farm)
Today is Blue Monday, and news programmes, papers and places all over the internet are proclaiming it the lowest Monday of the year. Christmas is over, the bills ahve come in, the weather is blue and we are too. Well, not this year. I’ve done well at keeping active, meeting friends who keep me boosted and enjoying life, including finding the gem of a 1930s … Continue reading Blue Monday? Depends on the Shade
This year so far has been a weird mix of bright sunshine and dark rain clouds, physically and metaphorically. I either feel light and airy, or weighed down by stresses so heavy I don’t know how to get out from under them. I know sometimes the weather has the guiding hand in my emotions, but at other times the warmth is there regardless of the … Continue reading A Winter Wellness List
It’s a hard fact of life that sometimes time is the slipperiest of creatures and whole lengths of it escape through your fingers, meaning that what you thought was a week free from interruptions and full of space to write is actually a week of minor irritations, major preparations and a lot more little bits of work than you needed. I will catch up with … Continue reading Cosying Up for Christmas
Have you now or have you ever had a real Christmas tree? When I was young, we never had a real tree. Our Christmas tree, for most of my formative years, was a plastic tinsel-boughed thin and twiggy tree. The strips of plastic drifted slowly off year after year until it really rather resembled Charlie Brown’s tree, but without the advantage of being recyclable. For … Continue reading Oh, Christmas Tree: Christmas Hygge through Christmas Hiraeth
How to Hygge the British Way 