The Cwtch

"his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes"

2010-08-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

... I'm going to be a married lady!

Weekend

2010-05-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Working (a bit)
Morning cups of tea in bed (luxury)
Driving around the countryside looking for nice places to live (more on this later)
Dinner: a pieminster Heidi Pie (yum yum yum) and vegetables washed down with a glass or two of vino in front of the tv watching people build a house in the wilds of the brecon beacons followed by a film ... (this was Saturday night - this is what turning 30 / almost turning 30 does to you!).
Mooching around
Sunday lunch at the local lovely pub
cwtching up and trying to keep warm, it was so cold in London this weekend, brrr...
A long journey home ... I left the big smoke at 4.30 I arrived home at 9.00. I have made good inroads into my new book though. nice.

Cast your vote....

2010-05-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

At the moment it seems it's too close to call. Tomorrow the UK will have the opportunity to decide which party / parties will lead our country forward for the next five years. Tomorrow in one way or another history will be made: David Cameron would be the youngest prime minister since the 19th century, Nick Clegg would score the first ever win for the Liberal Democrats, Gordon Brown's fightback from the political graveyard would be epic and a hung parliament would mean a new sort of politics for Britain. The most important thing is to exercise your right to choose that future by going out tomorrow and casting your vote....

Bank Holiday Weekend!

2010-05-05T04:59:00.001-07:00

Bank holiday weekends can be both marvelous and a tad frustrating. It is a fabulous feeling to have a whole extra day off work; on Saturday the weekend stretches ahead and that feeling of having a 'free' day of holiday is fantabulous. The only problem is that everyone else has the day off too, which is only right and proper of course, but in my part of the world invariably everybody plans to do the same thing, and the traffic along the coast roads is always chokka.

This bank holiday was different, I spent it on ... shhh.... a cruise with my parents, sister, Nana who is 90 and Great Uncle who is 92 (you'd never believe it if you saw them). It lasted four days and stopped at Zeebrugge in Belgium, Rotterdam in Holland and Le Havre in France. Now I have to admit I was dubious. Whilst I absolutely can't wait for our flotilla holiday in June, sailing the seas on a big tanker of a moving hotel has never really appealed but I decided to go in with an open mind.

Negatives:

lack of relaxation, it's a really busy holiday and you are constantly moving from one thing to the next (most of those things involve food!). This was my day: get up, have breakfast, go ashore and explore, come back to boat, have lunch, go ashore again/watch film/use gym, have afternoon tea, get ready for dinner, have dinner, watch show etc, go for a drink, bed. Exhaustifying.
There's a theatre on board ship which puts on nightly entertainment, on one of the nights there was a comedian who was really very funny but on the other nights we had the Cunard singers and dancers who were honestly absolutely dreadful and that's being nice! I now know where the negative description of 'cruise-ship cabaret' comes from.
The thought of the environmental impact of these great big boats.

Positives

The fact that it was perfect for my Nana and Great Uncle, they had a brilliant time and really enjoyed themselves. The fun and laughter over dinner every evening was wonderful.
Visiting Belgium with my family. I grew up there and it was really lovely to be back on home turf! In the morning I went to Bruges with my sister and parents which was lovely and then after lunch K and I went to Blankenberge and wandered in the sunshine before triumphantly finding a supermarket in which we could buy our favourite childhood foods which we can't get in the UK. Yum!
Visiting Honfleur which is so pretty, wandering around the art galleries and sipping cafe-au-lait.

On the formal evening with everyone dressed in black tie hearing my great uncle say how proud his mother would be if she could see him and my Nana on board looking so smart.

Hello Spring

2010-04-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hello lovely spring, hello sunshine, hello smiley people, hello blue skies

Goodbye coat, goodbye black tights, goodbye boots, farewell grey winter...

I just had my first alfresco lunch of the year, here in my local town's physic garden:

I feasted on vegetable soup and big juicy green olives, with the warmth of the sun on my face ... oh the loveliness!

Hello blog...

2010-04-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog, it has been many a moon since my last post. I'm not too sure what happened, a little blog break turned into a great big blog break (6 months!). I've been so busy with work and rushing here there and everywhere that something had to give and that something turned out to be you. :o(

Nice things which have happened since last posting:

I have a new cakemobile, it's beautiful and I love it
N turned 30!! I surprised him by taking him to Paris on the Eurostar for the day!
Many a weekend has been spent looking at houses / areas for our new abode
We have booked a weeks flotilla holiday with Sunsail for June, sailing a boat with Mr and Mrs M around the Ionion. N is the only one amongst us who knows how to sail!! Eeek! I am designating myself ships cook. Is it too ambitious to think I can bake cake on board?!
Planning parties! This summer I turn 30, my father 60 and my Nana 90 yay! I love a celebration
Spring is here, the sun is shining and all is lovely!

Wonderful Marvelous Skype!

2009-09-22T04:33:00.000-07:00

Last night was a little chilsome so wrapped in my new scarf (a lovely belated birthday gift from oldest friend S) and warming mug of tea in hand I was flicking through some papers waiting for N to call from Singapore. At about midnight my laptop started to trill and then instantaneously up popped N in full real time video glory. Shirted and suited and ready for work (it was about 7 in the morning there) he looked lovely. We couldn't unfortunately hear each other due to some inexplicable microphonal problem but we could see each other as we instant messaged! How amazing that he should be here:

and I should be in a little village near here, nearly 7,000 miles away:

and yet we can see and talk to each other (almost!) as if we were together. It surely must be some kind of tricksy magic...

(Yesterday I had an email from his company confirming that they have booked my flights to Singapore - so excited! )

Oh my goodness!

2009-09-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

On Friday afternoon I finished work early, gathered together some afternoon tea paraphanalia, cupcakes, mini cupcakes and cookies, jumped in my car and headed accross the bridge and accross the border to England. I was heading to Dr D's house to meet her lovely new little boy and catch up with her, Mr D and Dr G (who was heading up from London for the same purpose).

It was the worst possible journey with horrible horrible roadworks. A journey which would normally take just over 45 minutes took 2 hours and with my eye on the clock the time frame for afternoon tea was slowly passing. Slightly frazzled and a little on the stressed side I pulled into my friends village and pulled up outside her lovely mint green cottage. Dr G opened the door looking absolutely amazing and blooming (she's expecting a little girl in November) and with slightly hushed voices we gabbled our way to the lounge where Dr D was sitting on the sofa with baby F and oh my goodness! What a beautiful little boy! He's three weeks old and as gorgeous as can be! An absolute little beauty! I can honestly say I have never seen a lovelier baby! Serious matchmaking plans are already underway for baby F and Dr G's soon to be arriving little girl! A really lovely evening of baby chatter and cake nibbling ensued. On the drive home I realised that next week it will be 10 years since we three met as we unpacked our unopened text books, pulled new bedding out of its packaging and set up our first home away from home at university. We were the first people we met as our 19 year old selves ventured forth onto the corridor of our hall of residence to make friends and look at us now all grown up!

The Friday Picture(s)

2009-09-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Berenice Abbott, pictured above, (b.1898 d. 1991) was an American avante garde photographer who focussed much of her work on photographing the changing landscape of New York. Abbott left Ohio University for the city in 1918 sharing an apartment with philosophers and writers in Greenwich Village. She pursued writing, jounalism, and the theatre before deciding to study culpture in Paris and Berlin. She became interested in photography when she was hired by Man Ray to be a dark room assitant in his Paris studio. Man Ray soon spotted her talent, alowing her to use his studio and his gallery to promote her own photography career. In 1929 Abbott visited New York and at once saw the photographic potential of the city.

Using a large format camera Abbott set out to document the ever changing landscape of New York, capturing the interaction between the diversity of the cities inhabitants, the stage upon which they existed and their daily activites upon that stage. She aimed to empower people by forcing them to realise that their environment was a product of their collective behaviour (and of course vice versa).

"Let us first say what photography is not. A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques and sheer print quality. It is or should be a significant document, a penetrating statement, which can be described in a very simple term - selectivity" (Berenice Abbott)

Blogging Black Hole

2009-09-08T07:56:00.001-07:00

I have been shamefully reticent in my blogging duties these last months and I appologise wholeheartedly. I've been so busy during the crazy wedding season I have neglected not only this blog but also (and shamefully) friends, N, and the great world of fun. Hooray then that we have reached (almost) mid September as things quieten down a little now until November / December when the winter wedding season starts in earnest!

Exciting things which have happened since I was last posting:

my business has been crazily busy which is fantastic and it has recieved some wonderful national press coverage.
N is being sent to Singpore for two months with work
His company are paying for me to fly out and visit him (yay!)
My good friends Dr D and Mr D have had a beautiful, gorgeous, scrumptious little boy!
N and I have started looking at areas to buy an abode in (v. daunting)
This blog has reached it's first birthday!
I have become obsessed with Lost (I know I'm a little behind the times!)

Happy Blog Birthday!!!

2009-08-28T04:18:00.000-07:00

The Cwtch is one year old today!! Thank you for reading and following my random mumblings!

California - Day Three, part two

2009-07-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

After a few horrible attempts of taking a photo of ourselves (why do we try to take these when they never ever work?) in front of the golden gate bridge we were back in the car and really setting off on our adventure.

Fueled by Starbucks we drove out of SF and headed south to Monterey. The drive was amazing, you don't have to go any distance outside of San Francisco and you hit beautiful farm land, with roadside vendors of fresh fruit and vegetables and then in no time at all we hit the sea. Ah lovely. At this point we stopped for a breath of chilly blustery fresh sea air and I took the wheel. I drove us along the coast road almost as far as Monterey where we had scheduled to stop for lunch but let N take over before we entered the town. Me try and park the Vanilla Beast? no way jose.

Monterey was the site of holiday stress number 1. After looking around for somewhere to eat we finally found a fairly inexpensive looking nice cafe - we stood at the counter and ordered our food and then we went to pay. N reached for his wallet and started rooting around in it. He started to look very stressed and declared that all his holiday cash had gone missing from the wallet. So he checked his rucksack. Had it fallen out in there? No. I checked his rucksack. Well where was it? It must be in the car. Off N treks back to the car park. He's gone for ages. The food comes. He comes back looking really stressed it's not in the car. We eat halfheartedly. He doesn't talk. I feel sick. Where could it be? The last time he had his wallet out he had taken money out to pay the toll on the bridge. The money must have fallen out in the car. We go back to the car. There's no money. We look in a nearby dustbin as we'd discarded our Starbucks rubbish on arrival. Not there. N looks more and more stressed. He takes his wallet out. He says 'I just can't understand it, I mean I put all of my notes in this compartment'. There's a pause. He turns away for a moment. He turns back. He opens his arms and smiles. Oh no I say. Oh yes he says, look it was here all along. I scowl. He says 'give us a cwtch'. I can't speak.

At this point we say 'solloks' (ever seen Noel Coward's Private Lives?) decided to move on and take the 17 mile drive from Monterey to Carmel. You have to pay to drive on this private road and it was an interesting little route - you get to see Pebble Beach golf course (N was interested in this) and some big houses perched above the water but knowing now how amazing the coastline gets further south I probably wouldn't do it again. This road does take you to Carmel where Clint Eastwood was mayor back in the 1980's. It's a funny little place but more on Carmel later. We didn't have too long to linger as the day was getting shorter, mist was rolling in from the sea and we had to drive a fair way down the coast road to get to Treebones and our yurt....

California - Day Three, part one

2009-06-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

Another early start. We packed our bags and left the hotel in the fresh clear sunny morning and walked a block to the car hire place, trundling our cases behind us. This was the bit N was looking forward to, getting the car and heading out onto the open road.

We had booked a car in advance, which we thought was a reasonable size but was still within our budget (which wasn't much). From the pictures on the website this car looked way bigger than either of our little cars at home so we were pretty happy with our choice. Talking to the man at the desk you would think that we had ordered a mini to transport seven people. He looked at us, then at our luggage (two cases and two handluggage) and shook his head. You'll never fit it in the trunk he said. Hmmm we were a little bit suspicious. You need to upgrade to a bigger car he said - the suspicion grew. We'll be fine we said. No you wont he said. Stand off. How much is the bigger car N said. $5 a day he said. Okay I have to admit this changed things a little. This didn't seem like a lot of money as we were only hiring the car for a week and shared between two it would only come to $20. Plus this was the bit N was really looking forward to and surely it would be more pleasureable in a better car? So we upgraded (suckers!)

While N was sorting out the paperwork I nipped accross to Starbucks and picked up a couple of coffees, orange juices and bran muffins and made my way to the car lot. I almost dropped my bag of goodies when I saw the beast we had been assigned. Our car was officially gargantuan. I have never seen a car so big. Enough room for our luggage? You could have happily fitted all of Imelda Marcos's shoes in the trunk. It was twice as wide as anything I'd ever driven before. And we had to drive this thing out of the car lot and through the streets of SF. And this is us, used to the smallest cars imaginable. Oh. my. god.

Strapped into the car with what seemed like a mile separating us we started to laugh with nervous hysteria. Luckily N was driving first off and we plunged into the city's quiet streets thankful that we had made an early start. This thing was so wide that the car literally took up the whole lane and every time a similarly wide-loaded car passed by I winced imagining the wing mirors flying off. Soon N got the feel for it and we decided to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. Across the other side we found a little park and a bench where we had our picnic breakfast looking across to the city. This was it. After breakfast we would get back into the vanilla beast, drive back across the bridge and set off on our adventure...

California - day two

2009-06-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

Plagued by crazy jet lag, we woke up on Easter Sunday at about 5.30 in the morning totally and utterly wide awake. My lovely sister had given me an Easter gift bag to pack in my case - we opened it up to find: two little tubes of Cadburys mini eggs (yum), a cd of The Beach Boys to play in the rental car and a card version of Monopoly! What a lovely sister I have. Feasting on a pre breakfast of two mini eggs each we dug out the guide book and planned our day.

Forty five minutes later we deemed it just about okay to get up and out. Our fist stop was to be Dottie's True Blue Cafe as it had been recommended as a top breakfast eatery and it was only a few blocks over from the hotel. It was pretty quiet on the streets but as we neared Dottie's it was clear that we were entering a bit of a dodgy neighbourhood and I have to say, although quite travel hardy we did both start to feel a little threatened by some of the people, a couple of whom started to follow us... eek. We found Dotties but blimey! there was already a queue outside. This was our one and only day in SF and we didn't want to spend it in a queue however lovely the food so we decided to forgo breakfast and get walking. We walked for about an hour and it was lovely - up hills and down hills passing by beautiful colourful buildings as we meandered our way down to the sea front.

We hit Washington Square to find a beautiful green space filled with people doing their morning Tai Chi exercise. We stopped and observed them for a little while envying their amazing composure and aura of calm and the bells of St Peter and Paul church started to chime for the morning Easter Service.

Not lingering too long we climbed Telegraph Hill to the top of Coit Tower and beautiful views of San Francisco.

Our next stop was pier 33 where we grabbed a bite to eat before lining up for the boat to Alcatraz. In the queue amazingly we bumped into one of N's friends from London! We all sat on the boat together catching up as we crossed the sparkling sea to Alcatraz.

What can I say about Alcatraz? It was fascinatingly beautiful and yet dark and ugly. The escape stories were fascinating and yet chilling. The audio tour was highly evocative and really gave you a sense of what it must have been like. We listened rapt to the escape stories and at certain points were almost gunning for the fleeing prisoners (but then remembered that these were some of the most dangerous criminals of their day!) This is the outside of Alcatraz - look how pretty it is:

The beautiful view of SF from The Rock:

Back on the mainland, and feeling a mite peckish we took a taxi over to the other side of SF to Louis Diner at Point Lobos. An unassuming little diner, this place was a gem. Perched overlooking the Pacific with windows all around it has spectacular views and delicious toasted sandwiches. yum. We took a postprandial stroll down towards the huge Ocean Beach, nestled our toes in California Sand and indulged in a little bit of people watching. Next we walked the length of Golden Gate Park where loads of people had gathered for Easter Barbeques and teas.

We also espied bison and visited the Japanese tea garden before walking out of the other end of the park, along the Panhandle to Alamo Square. Sitting on the hill in Alamo Square, drink in hand, surrounded by beautiful wooden 'gingerbread' houses we admitted defeat. Our feet and jet-lagged bodies would take us no further. Ah the relief of finding a taxi! Ah the relief of sitting down! Ah the relief of a lovely shower! And then we were in a taxi again and on our way down to the waterfront to Green's restaurant - a bit of a sacrifice for N as it is a vegetarian place. But oh my goodness absolutely delicious food. And what a view we had from our table!

A very lucky girl!

2009-06-08T02:33:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was my birthday! The big 29, heralding the last year of my twenties! It has been the most lovely week. I had the day off work on Wednesday and my sister took me to a spa where we had lunch and facials and I fell asleep on a lounger next to the pool (old age - see - afternoon naps already!!). The spa is right on the waterfront in Cardiff so we finished off our day of indulgence with a bag of hot salty, vinegary chips overlooking the bay - delish and then headed to the theatre.

On Friday I took a train to the big smoke and N and I spent the evening eating dinner on our laps whilst watching a French film called Paris which I adored. I can definitely recommend it. Directed by Cedric Klapisch, it tells the stories of a series of individuals- an aging university professor, street market vendors, a bourgeois boulangerie proprietor, a fashionista, social workers and poor immigrants whose lives all weave together in Paris. The lynch pin which connects these disparate individuals together is Pierre, a moulin rouge dancer with a life threatening heart condition who is waiting in his fifth floor apartment for a heart transplant. Unable to venture forth from the building and beset by melancholy he entertains himself by observing the lives of the individuals below him from his balcony. It really is a thought provoking, excellent film with a fantastic cast.

On Saturday N had planned a day of treats and which began with a bus to Notting Hill and a stroll through the streets to Westbourne Park. Along the way we marveled at the beautiful building which houses Beach Blanket Babylon and its fab decor and we popped into Melt to feast our eyes and our noses with the scrumptious sights and smells of their beautiful chocolate. Yumm. Passing along and nosying into a few galleries we came to our destination: The Ledbury, where N had booked us in for lunch. We had a vegetarian tasting menu which was absolutely delish - we were there for 3.5 hours just eating tasty morsels of deliciousness. It was heaven not a mushroom risotto dish in sight! My favourite was the miso glazed aubergine - I could have ordered a whole plateful. Each course was served with a different wine, oh the loveliness of it! Only just able to walk we stumbled out of the restaurant and took a postprandial walk along Portabello Road back to Notting Hill where we jumped on a tube and headed for Embankment and Festival Hall. N had booked us to see Kodo - a group of Japanese Taiko drummers. They were phenomenal: such strength and the music had such power it was absolutely awe inspiring with 14 drummers on the stage at one time. We rounded the evening off with a sneaky drink at the Buddha Bar and then we were ready to head home and sleep off the day's excess!

So this is it. The last year of my twenties! I'm on a mission to make it a particularly good year!

My other blog - updated

2009-05-25T17:36:00.001-07:00

By profession I am a chef de patisserie, and more specifically, a cake / cookie maker and provider of afternoon teas. I have, up until now, had another blog for my business called Posies and Pearls. Sadly I've been having a few technical problems which has meant that I couldn't upload any new photographs (rubbish). The only remedy I could find was to start a new blog. It's taken me a little bit of time to get it sorted but now my new 'other' blog can be found here.

California - day one

2009-05-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

We boarded our flight at Heathrow early on the Saturday morning - a little bit excited but knowing that the flight would be a long one. We sat ourselves down, buckled in and made ourselves comfortable in our little square of space: stuffed books, newspapers, packets of mints and bottles of water into the seat-back pocket in preparation for the journey. As soon as we had lift off I nipped off to the loos to change into ugly comfy clothes and big fluffy socks. nice. We were flying Virgin and I was really excited to see that you could pick from about 40 different films to watch. I'd missed out on watching quite a few of the big films during the year but couldn't quite bring myself to watch them on a screen no bigger than my hand and so I watched:

Marley and Me
Fashion (a Bollywood film)
Vicky Christina Barcelona and (dare I admit it)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (or some such bizarrely titled teen movie)

Four films, dinner, afternoon tea and a choc-ice later and we were coming into land in San Francisco! Finally! I'd been feeling a little weary but the excitement of landing chased it all away. Super quickly we were through immigration, had collected our luggage and were in a taxi on the way to Union Square.

Our hotel was just a little door on a busy street. We made our way up to our room which was lovely - compact but lovely. We had opted for a street facing room so we could hear the trolley cars ding-dinging on their way down the street. It was about half past two in the afternoon SF time and we'd been on the go for 15 hours so we decided to have a little rest before heading out to explore the city. Unfortunately a Hare Krishna devotee chose that particular moment to begin a half hour drumming sesh just below our window. My tired brain began to throb in time with the drums. Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom. We attempted to turn it into amusement by making up raps to the beat, which made us giggle. N's raps were posh style and mine were yanked out of the 80's - lines tended to begin with 'Yo!' (to give you a flavour) It soon became clear that rest was not in the offing. So a quick freshen up and we were out on the sunny streets of SF and heading down the street to the end of the cable car line. Passing the Hare Krishna man I couldn't stop myself from bestowing a scowl upon him...

We had to wait in a queue to get onto the cable car, so we shared a salty pretzel dotted with yellow mustard and observed what was going on around us. This talented man was tap dancing:

These people were protesting:

and this beautiful working tram trundled past us:

Then the trolley appeared...

We clambered on and enjoyed the ride down to the waterfront (that's Alcatraz in the distance):

When we got to the waterfront, a little blustered and hair a little bouffed, we had a wander and found a fantastical sourdough bakery, meandered around stalls selling clam chowder in bread bowls and breathed in the reviving salty sea air.

We didn't have too long to wander as we had plans to meet N's brothers: M and W, and W's lovely lady; L for dinner at 6.30. They had flown to the US before us and had been exploring Yosemite. That night was their last night in SF and our first so over a scrumptious dinner they gave us lots of top tips for what to see and do in the city. Beginning to feel a little weary, but not wanting to bring an end to the evening we persevered and we went to this fab beatnik bar called Vesuvio in North Beach. We lasted until about midnight when looking over at N I realised he was pretty much asleep with his eyes open. It had been a long old day and bed felt so good that night!

Last weekend / This weekend

2009-05-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

Many apologies for the lack of blog posts! Everything has been crazy since I got back from holiday and I just haven't been able to get near to the great world of blog. I promise promise promise to do better next week! Starting with holiday pics which are now finally sorted (plus I have managed to thieve a few good 'uns from N).

Last weekend, N came to Wales and we went up into the mountains for a long walk. It wasn't a set route, we just parked up at a pretty looking spot and headed for the peaks. We walked for about 2.5 hours - along the way we bumped into a fair few sheep and three army men who were doing a spot of weekend training but that was it, apart from that we were on our own in the fresh sunny air walking away, lovely.

Being a girl of the country I keep a pair of wellies in the boot of my car so I was well prepared, N on the other hand had only brought a sturdy pair of shoes with him. At one point we hit some marsh land and there was I splashing my way ahead completely oblivious until I turned around and spotted N behind me looking a little disgruntled. So I trekked back to him... he'd walked straight through the marshyness - his feet and the bottom of his jeans were soaked through :o( poor N! In fairness he didn't complain once and we carried on walking away. I think he was saved by the little burger kiosk parked in a layby near the car. We purchased steaming hot polystyrene cups of nescafe coffee and a pack of home made welsh cakes and headed for the car. With the engine running and the heat on full blast (and directed solely at the feet) he soon dried out with a welsh cake to cheer him up! Last weekend was also the best boy (my cousin's son)'s seventh birthday so there was bbq to celebrate straight after our mammoth walk. I can't believe he's seven already!

This weekend (shock of shocks) I'm off to London again. N is helping out with a party his parents are organising on Saturday so I have a fine day of shopping and exploring planned. This will be followed up by meeting S the chef for a drink and a lot of gossiping after she finishes her shift at Claridges at around 4.30. Afterwards I'm off to meet another S - oldest friend S for cocktails and dinner - I missed her birthday while we were in California so this is a belated do! I am looking forward to hearing all about her new Australian fella!...

And the winner is....

2009-04-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

Cee Cee! Who got a fabulous 7 out of 8 right. I am sending you a big slice of imaginary cake! The answers were:

The Jolly Postman - Janet and Alan Ahlberg
The Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
Mrs Tiggywinkle - Beatrix Potter
My Naughty Little Sister -Dorothy Edwards
Topsy and Tim - Jean and Gareth Adamson
Babar - Jean de Brunhoff
The Famous Five - Enid Blyton
Heidi - Johanna Spyri

I love them all.

Friday Fun...(nostalgia)

2009-04-24T03:37:00.001-07:00

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of that bastion of fantastic children's literature ... The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle ... here is the little fella:

You've got to love the way he munched through a red apple, two green pears, three purple plums, four red strawberries, five whole oranges on days 1-5 of his existence and then on day six: chocolate cake, ice-cream, pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, lollipop, cherry pie, a sausage, a cupcake and a whole watermelon. Come to think of it, the very hungry caterpillar's diet is a little like mine over the last couple of weeks: his days 1-5 were my ever so virtuous preparation for holiday eating and day six, well day six was like the holiday itself. (I should take note then that on day seven the caterpillar eats only a leaf before becoming a beautiful butterfly! Hmph salad for lunch then!)

Some of my favourite characters from my favourite children's books include:

A. B. C.
D. E. F.

G. H.

Ten points and a big slice of imaginary cake for anyone who can guess which books they are all from.... (I was always read D as an example of me!!)

I'm Back!!

2009-04-24T02:46:00.000-07:00

Yes we touched down into Heathrow from sunny LA on Wednesday evening. Three hours later I arrived back in Wales feeling a little dazed and sleepy. Thank you to the nice man who carried my case down the steep platform steps in Cardiff - it weighed an absolute tonne and I'd never have managed it. The holiday was fabulous!! Truly lovely! San Francisco was a whirlwind of fun, Big Sur freezing but stunning, Paso Robles beautiful with its rolling hills and vineyards and the Wedding in Orange County was just glorious! Now I have unpacked and sorted out my washing (yawn!) I am going to turn my attention to my photos (I took so many I had to buy a new memory card!) and get ready to share...

The Friday Picture (s)

2009-04-03T04:48:00.000-07:00

This week I am featuring some beautiful beautiful photographs by Shelby Nycole Clark. You really have to feast your eyes on her stunning blog! The photographs are sumptuously gorgeous. Amazing mood is created through use of light and colour, pulling you into the photographs. I truly love her style. Gorgeous.

I am v. excited as I found out last week that I am to be the lucky recipient of two of Shelby's beautiful photographs which she was giving away to mark a year of blogging. I can't wait to receive them. But don't be too jealous - you can purchase some of these lovely lovely photographs at Shelby's etsy shop.

Weekend with my ladies

2009-04-03T00:49:00.000-07:00

I am so looking forward to this weekend. I am trolling my way to the big smoke tonight - N is going to pick me up from the station then tomorrow morning after a spot of breakfast I am going to make my way across London to spend the day/night with two of my favourite ladies: Dr G and Dr D. These two ladies were my close friends from the first day at university when we met on the corridor of our hall of residence. We lived together in a flat, along with three men friends - Mike, Mike and Michael (confusing eh?) in our second year and in our third and final year we stayed together in the flat, although we replaced one of the Mikes (as he had graduated) with my N ... but that's another story.

Although we have gone on to do very different things in very different parts of the country the three of us try to get together as often as possible and once a year ditch our menfolk (who incidentally are close too) for a girls only get together. This weekend is going to be even more exciting as Dr D is expecting a baby in August (the first of my friends to be expecting)! So no glass of wine but instead cake, baby scan pictures and general baby excitement. Yay! I feel a spot of knitting coming on. How delish are these:

*Elijah the Elephant: Ysolda*Fruit rattles: Bla Bla*

Spring has sprung

2009-04-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hooray! No coats needed today thank you very much! I am feeling all sunshiney and spring-like and inspired to pack away my black clothes and splash out on a little bit of colour. Here are some lovely things I have my eye on:

*Freya Dress by Bellaju *Debo by Toast* Sequin Mule by Toast*

Two weeks and counting...

2009-03-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

Everything is booked! Now I can start to get really excited. Here's where we are staying on our whistlestop tour of the good state of California:

San Francisco - budget boutique:

Big Sur - yurtin':

Paso Robles, working farm b&b:

Santa Barbara - cheap trendy motel:

An interlude in a villa N's parents have hired for the wedding.

Then (so excited)...

Santa Monica - one night of luxury (permissable due to the bargainous nature of the motel)

*Union Square Hotel * Treebones*Orchard Hill Farm*Presidio Motel*Viceroy*

Cannot wait. What's amazing is how different all the places we are staying in are. The road we are travelling, US 101, follows the route the Spanish explorer Juan Gaspar de Portola followed in 1769, which later became El Camino Real, the King's Highway. The road served as the main north/south road in California until the 1920's. It follows the coast for much of the distance with apparently amazing views. We will be covering about 480 miles of 101 in total from laid-back SF to pumped LA. I may even get to drive if I can wrestle N away from the wheel!

Daffs

2009-03-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

We've had beautiful glorious spring sunshine over the last couple of weeks here in Wales. Daffodils line the roadsides and bring a cheery warm smile to my face, every time I head out of the village. I love a daffodil, bright, happy and altogether sunshiney in the otherwise flowerless early spring countryside. They mark the end of the gloom in bright riotous yellow. Love them. They are also really cheap to buy which is always good so I have a little bunch on my designing desk which I refill every couple of days. Nice.

They do come in all sorts of hues and shapes though - check out these little beauties:

*Pink Trumpet Daffodil * Frilly Daffodil* White Daffodil*

Rages and Lunches

2009-03-16T04:37:00.001-07:00

The sun is shining and today for the first day I can ditch my coat! Yay! I love spring. Other good news is that N is home from his mammoth work trip to Canada. He brought me back some lovely perfume ... mmm. What a lovely man!

I went up to the big smoke early on Saturday morning and had a bit of a to do with a hoity-toity lady in the shoe department in House of Fraser, Westfield. Last weekend I bought some lovely shiny shoes but after one wear the heel broke off - I was not a happy lady. So I took them back to the shop to complain and the manager refused to give me a refund but would send them to the cobblers for mending. Oooh I had the rage - I have bought a brand new pair of shoes one of which was clearly faulty and they won't replace it or allow me to return the shoes! They clearly wont be the same after being cobbled and it means I have no shoes for a week while they are sent off. Not good enough. If it was an item of clothing that was broken you would be allowed to return it, why not shoes?

So I was a little rageful. I'm going to try to return them in Cardiff on Thursday where hopefully I will have a bit more luck! I cheered myself up by buying a new pair of sunglasses

... scrumptious!

Sunday was spent in sunny Hertfordshire with N's parents and brothers for a lovely Sunday lunch at The Glasshouse in The Grove hotel, which is not far from his parents house. Yum yum I tried everything and I can confirm that everything was delicious! The Grove is a really lovely place full to the brim with amazing flowers and bronze statues, outside they have these cute topiary hearts:

The Friday Picture(s)

2009-03-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

*Margaret Bourke-White positioning her camera atop the Chrysler Building taken by her assistant Oscar Graubner*

Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) was an American photographer and photo-journalist. She was an amazing talent with a remarkable career. In 1927, aged 23 she opened a commercial photography studio, two years later she was hired as as associate editor of Fortune magazine and a year later she became the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union and was hired by Life magazine. In the 1930's she travelled extensively through Europe to record the impact of Nazism and Communism. When World War Two broke out in 1939 she became the first female war correspondent and the first woman to be permitted to work in combat zones in that conflict. She repeatedly came under fire, was torpedoed in the Mediterranean and left stranded in the arctic - no surprise then that she earned the title Maggie The Indestructible! She photographed Stalin, Gandhi (famously only hours before he was assassinated) and was one of the first people to photograph Buchenwald. Of this last experience she is quoted as saying "Using a camera was almost a relief. It interposed a slight barrier between myself and the horror in front of me." . Here are just a few of her many remarkable photographs:

*New York 1939*

*Nuremberg 1945*

*Mahatma Gandhi 1946*

Four weeks tomorrow...

2009-03-13T03:55:00.000-07:00

Four weeks tomorrow I am going to be getting on a plane with N to fly to California. I am so so excited!! N's uncle and family live in Orange County and N's cousin is getting married so we are going on a little adventure. We have two days in San Francisco and then we pick up a hire car and drive down the coast stopping off in the Big Sur for two nights to stay in this...

... it's a yurt! Which is essentially a big round tent! Just look at the view! It may be a bit chilly in April but it comes with a gas stove inside for keeping toasty warm. It's part of an eco-resort where there is no mobile phone reception and there's a central shower block for washing. Want to see what they look like on the inside? Okay...

*Photos by Treebones*

It's enormous! So much fun!! I can't wait. Our next stop is Paso Robles further down the coast and slightly inland. Paso Robles is serious wine county and we are staying at a farm/b&b - we are going to visit a vineyard or two and also Hurst Castle at San Simeon. After this we plan to make a stop in Santa Barbara for a night (accommodation to be decided). Then we are making our way to the villa N's parents are renting for the week near Laguna Beach to meet up with his parents, grandmother and brothers (the brothers are doing their own separate travels in the week leading up to the wedding). The wedding festivities last a whole weekend and then we have one last night and two days to ourselves to check out LA, I think we are going to stay near Santa Monica as this seems to be quite close to the centre without being in the city.

I'm so so excited I can't tell you! We need to crack on and get our last two accommodations booked asap though...

My little blogging holiday...

2009-03-05T04:35:00.001-08:00

I have had a little blogging holiday. Lots has happened:

St Davids Day on March 1st (St David or Dewi Sant in welsh, is the patron saint of Wales -more on this later). I was working in the morning but made up for it in the afternoon by spending an incredibly sunny afternoon at the beach with my sister, mum and nana. We ate synthetic 99's - got to love that swirly Mr Whippy ice cream that gives you a headache almost the minute it passes your lips and the little stumpy chocolate flake standing proud like a chimney. Mind you they've gone up in price they are now £1.80 each - what ever happened to 99p? My nana, who is one year off being 90 loves and I mean loves ice-cream and will eat it at any opportunity. If you suggest having some she gets a glint in her eye and makes this little excited 'ooooh' noise which is neither yes nor no but it's almost like she is imagining the pleasure of consuming the delectable frozen custard then and there. She is a true connoisseur and knows all of the makes - her favourites are welsh ice creams made by Italian immigrant families like Joe's . After our beach sojourn we returned home for a cup of tea and ... a welsh cake of course.
N has gone on a work trip to Canada for two and a half weeks - I know it's work and it was -23 when he arrived there, but he gets to do some fun things: flying by sea plane, skiing black-runs with ski-rangers, visiting oil refineries and the building sites of super dooper luxury apartment blocks ... who said the world of insurance was dull?!
I have been to the theatre twice. First to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which was a lot of fun and then last night I went to see Billy Liar which was very funny but also incredibly depressing.
work work work, I have had so many consultations in the past couple of weeks it's been chokka but it's been lovely to meet with lots of excited couples planning their weddings.
It was my sister's birthday yesterday ... happy birthday for yesterday K!

He did it!

2009-02-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

We woke at 5.00, bleary eyed (and not a little traumatised after watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the day before) we washed and dressed, ensured we had everything we needed and left the flat to emerge into the dark quiet streets of Brook Green. I love London early in the morning when the streets are quiet and nobody seems to be around. Shivering a little in the chilly calm morning air we made our way to the tube station but eeek it was closed! By bus it would take too long to get to Victoria and we would miss the train and the race! Suddenly very awake we made our way to the nearest hotel and thank goodness more or less straight away a taxi came along, orange light blazing in the darkness. Panic over we made our way to Clapham (the next stop after Victoria) and even managed to pick up our friends on the way. Perfect.

On the train we all started to flag so energy bars, bananas and water were hastily cosumed by the men and Mrs M and I dreamed of pain au chocolat's and mocha coffees at Brighton Station. I know, a complete chocolate overload but we'd done ever so well getting up so early! At Brighton, coffees and pastries in hand we found the hill down to the sea front. Yes a hill, not a little hill, a big one. This hill was part of the half marathon route and had definitely not been bargained for by the men whose training had consisted of running along the Thames and through central London completly on the flat.... hmmm.

Down on the sea front it was a hub of activity, admirable sporty people pinned numbers to their chests, tied nifty timing devices to their trainers and started warming up. Mrs M and I drank our mochas and ate our pastries...!

*Picture by me*

After some serious limbering up our men joined the throng behind the start line and Mrs M and I made our way along the course to our first cheering post. NB: it is very difficult to spot individuals at these things and it can make you go a bit cross eyed.

Brighton is quite a good route for supporters in that you can link up with the runners at several places as they loop round and round. At 8 miles we saw them again, first up was Mr F who was almost running with the elite athletes and then after a while Mr M appeared and then N! Yay they had made it more than half way. After successfully spotting the three of them we decided we deserved a cup of tea for all our hard work. Tea consumed we meandered around the lovely shopping lanes of Brighton until we spotted a jubilant looking runner with a silver cape and a participants goody bag. Ooops! We couldn't tell the men we'd missed their big finish because we'd been tea drinking and window shopping! As fast as our little legs would carry us we hurried to the finish. We'd missed Mr F by about 20 minutes as he'd come in in a fantastic 1 hour 40. But as Mr M and N passed the finish line we were there to cheer them along as if we'd been there all along - what good supportive ladies! They both completed the half marathon in just over 2 hours which I think is fantastic!

N was raising money for a school in Rwanda which his mother is heavily involved in supporting. They need a dormitary for the children to sleep in and N raised enough money to pay for half of the building work which is just amazing! Well done lovely!

Run Run As Fast As You Can

2009-02-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

This weekend N is running his first half marathon down on the Brighton sea-front with some friends. He has been training in the snow and the rain and it is a massive achievement as although he is sporty and rowed in the first 8 at uni he's not a natural runner. Go for it lovely you will be fabulous!

The Friday Picture

2009-02-19T09:29:00.000-08:00

... Well a series of pictures really. By the inspired Walker Evans. In the late 1930s, photographer Walker Evans and writer James Agee collaborated on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a portrait of rural sharecroppers in the Deep South. While working on the book, they collaborated on a lesser known project: Many Are Called, a three-year study of travellers on the New York subway. Evans used a hidden camera, photographing unsuspecting passengers traveling around the city. These images invite us to ask questions about these strangers, their lives and personalities. Walker presents a cross-section of people who are unposed and anonymous, as a result, the images have a wonderful sense of directness. These images really speak to me as I love people watching. When I was travelling to work on the tube every day, I always used to observe and wonder. I think there is something about being in such close proximity with such a diverse group of strangers accompanied by the unwritten rule of non-interaction that makes you feel it is perfectly fine to be nosy and eavesdrop / stare in a way you would never do outside the confines of a metal cylinder!

Evans catches his subjects in typical subway behavior, deep in daydreams, or asleep or gazing off into space. I like the middle couple who stare back at him, suggesting that even without a visible camera he was intently observing his subjects but also was being observed back. As we are put in the position of photographer it feels like they are observing us too.

My Favourite...

2009-02-18T02:26:00.000-08:00

*Tea Photo by me*

Drink: tea / champagne - mmmmm I love both equally but due to financial constraint tea normally wins through!
Biscuit: specaloo - this is a throw back to my childhood - speculoo's are the main biscuit eaten in Belgium, at Christmas they make giant ones in the shape of Sint Nicolaas. I like the little thin ones you get with coffee.
Chocolate: chocolate mint truffles from M&S, yum yum yum - especially when eaten straight from the fridge (I know I know you aren't supposed to but then you aren't supposed to do a lot of things...) Move aside Charbonnel & Walker at £1.43 per little truffle (I have to say, beautiful packaging but awful chocolate).
Place: Ogmore Beach / St Donats Castle
Time: dusk
Entertainment: the theatre, there is absolutely nothing like watching a brilliant play, show or ballet (especially the Northern Ballet whom I love love love)
Holiday: exploring, I'm much more of an explorer than a relaxer. I don't mean up the Amazon or anything but I like to be able to wander and discover.

Go Wales!!

2009-02-16T02:47:00.000-08:00

After a morning of togetherness, Saturday tea-time was spent watching England and Wales face off against each other in the rugby! Clearly I was supporting Wales and N England (although he was born and brought up in Bermuda, his family is English and they now live back in England).

A lot of emotion rides behind these games, historically there has been a lot of tension between the two countries, with Wales being annexed by England, the demise of the Welsh language and a great deal of mistreatment of the Welsh people by the English. As I say, this is all absolutely in the past, and with devolution, our own Senedd, and a resurgence of the Welsh language, a lot of the old tensions have subsided. Even so there's no team the Welsh like to beat more than the English! Especially in our national sport - rugby!

The one opportunity for this is the Six Nations Championship, which sees England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and France all competing for the trophy. The Welsh team started the match as the favourites, and had the added bonus of playing on home turf in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. After a few rousing Welsh songs and the national anthems the match began. It soon emerged that things were not going to be as clear cut as everyone thought. England put in a good fight and at half time there was a feeling that it could go either way, but in the end Wales pulled through and were victorious! Go Wales!

The Weekend

2009-02-15T17:12:00.000-08:00

N arrived in Wales late on Friday night, just as I was finishing work. He was weary from a long day at work and then a three hour drive. I was tired from standing working in my studio. Suffice it to say our energy levels were not at their highest.

N and I do not have an excellent track history of Valentines day. We normally avoid doing anything on the day itself as restaurants are always so expensive and I hate the idea of sitting in a restaurant full of couples, all trying desperately to achieve the perfect 'romantic' evening. I'm not sure romance works like that. So apart from one year, many moons ago, when I was working for the BBC and N surprised me by picking me up from the bus stop, we have never done the valentines thing. Last year for example, we went to the pictures and saw 'There Will Be Blood' - which admittedly may have been taking the anti-valentines stance a little far!

To compensate for last year, this year we made a plan, and booked a restaurant for lunch. But not just any restaurant. This restaurant is on my favourite stretch of coastline between my favourite two beaches Ogmore and Dunraven. I had heard such good things about it and its talented chef. We arrived at the restaurant a little early and so continued down the lane, along the beach road which plummets down to the sea.

I love this stretch of road, you do feel like you are clinging on to the land, floating above blue-grey expanse. At the bottom you park up your car and have three options: climb up the cliff for a gorgeous top-of-the-world ramble, continue up the white path to the ruins of Dunraven castle where we picnic in the summer, or clamber down over the pebbles to the beach. Short on time we decided on option three. I love a good clamber. Slipping and sliding over pebbles and shingles, picking your way carefully, gingerly, altering your course until you reach the sea.

Feeling invigorated and having worked up a bit of an appetite we made our way back to La Plie. What can I say about this place? Other than that it was amazing. It is run by an extremely young chef whose menu is adventurous and fantastically brave. Every single flavour combination just worked, every morsel we tasted was delicious. And what excellent value for money! Our three course lunch (which also included extra little appetisers) worked out at £20.00 each. I am so used to being palmed off with mediocre vegetarian options - oh how many mushroom risotto's I have consumed in my lifetime! But I started with squash three ways - a little cup of soup, a squash mousse and roasted squash seeds - yum yum yum. My main was a winter plate which was delicious and pudding, well I can hardly write about it without my mouth starting to water (and as a chef de patisserie I am super critical). I had a warm chocolate fondant (cooked to absolute perfection) with white chocolate ice cream and orange marmalade. Scrumdillyumptious! We were there for nearly three hours! What a lovely way to while away a lazy afternoon! I feel so passionately that there is such amazing talent out there, in every profession and that it should be supported and nurtured. Talking to the owner and chef, you could just tell how much he puts into the place and how much he gives of himself. I couldn't recommend it enough.

After lunch we made our way to Ogmore to walk off our dinner. It had turned into a gray hazy afternoon and the long beach just looked eerie and spectacular with little black silhouettes in the distance of walkers and their dogs. Gorgeous. This is it on a sunnier day:

Arriving home, a little cold but full of lovely delicious food. I walked into the house to find twelve beautiful red roses waiting for me. It was so lovely and an absolute first, as I have mentioned we have never really done the Valentines thing. They are downstairs in the kitchen now, resplendent in their velvety glory.

The Friday Picture

2009-02-13T06:23:00.001-08:00

Well as tomorrow is Valentines day I thought it appropriate for the Friday Picture to be a bit romance related. Earlier this week I stumbled accross this amazing artist, Robert Ryan through Liberty, London. His work is fantastic - you can check it out here and buy it here. I love the black and white silhouettes in this Valentines Screen Print:

The text reads:

When I see you from across a crowded room my heart skips a beat when I get nearer to the place where I think you might be my heart starts to thump - will you be there? Will you be there? Will you be there? And then as if by a miracle, the clouds part and the sun pours out from behind a curtain of grey and suddenly you are there... my throat goes dry, my legs turn to jelly and even now as I write this my hands begin to tremble at merely the memory. I think you have a nice smile. I think you look kind. I don't want to be alone with my thoughts. Would you? Could you? Be my Valentine?

I must admit I have never sent an anonomous valentines card, ever. Have you?

Happy Valentines day for tomorrow!

Ooh La La!

2009-02-09T03:36:00.000-08:00

Lovely valentines things:

These cufflinks by Lucy Quartermaine are fab! You could give them to your fella and then borrow them every now and then yourself! I know that's not entirely the idea of giving but they are scrumptious!

Can't think of the right way to pop the question? These votives from Sage Inspired By Life could start the ball rolling!

Or the loveliest valentines thing of all - just give a plain old cwtch...

*Roman Holiday*

This Weekend....

2009-02-06T02:25:00.000-08:00

This weekend is jam packed with:

Travelling up to London early today to go to N's cousin's 21st dinner (please work trains)
A Saturday lunch in a pub with an odd name with a big gaggle of girls from university days. I can't wait! We all studied English Lit together - one is now works for the Foreign Office (clearly some kind of spy), one is a journalist for the Telegraph, another is a University Lecturer compiling a book for publication on smell in literature, one is a drama teacher - and the others have equally exciting jobs and then there is me - cake maker ... hmmm!
Early Saturday evening drinks with N's work colleague who has just returned from getting married in New Zealand. I haven't met any of his current fellow workers yet so I will have to be on my best behaviour (blimey!). Afterwards we are meeting some friends, as one of them has a lovely new fella she would like us to meet - I think we are going dancing which will be fun as I can't remember the last time I went dancing! (Clear sign of impending old age)
Sunday N's parents are coming to the flat for lunch (NB I need to think of something for pudding) and then I am tootling off back to Wales. and back to my normally quiet existence!

Tea, Haircuts and Speculoo biscuits

2009-02-05T16:48:00.001-08:00

I need to change my profile picture as I have been to the hairdressers today. I went in thinking I'd have the same old highlights and a trim, looking forward to the tea, chat, magazines and speculoo biscuits (oh how I love those little individually wrapped caramel biscuits)

and have come out with ... short hair - eek! I really like it! The last time I had shortish hair was 7 years ago - did it take 7 years for it to grow back long again I am wondering? That's a long time - it makes me 35 before I can have long locks again ...

An exciting parcel

2009-02-04T02:12:00.000-08:00

Sitting in my little office in my local town on Monday I was a little surprised when my intercom buzzer went unexpectedly. I didn't have any consultations booked and was indulging in a little design time. Who could it be? As the intercom speaker is broken downstairs I had to wait for my visitor to find me. I could hear the slow footsteps on the stairs and then there he was - the postman, garbed as usual in a white shirt, jumper and a pair of shorts - it's January and snow is falling ... shorts?!!! He explained he couldn't deliver to my house that morning as the lane was trapped by a tractor (hazard of living in the country) so he thought he'd pop along to my office instead (bonus of living in the country - postmen know where to find you if you aren't at home!). Look what he brought all the way from Paris........!

My favourite tea jam (x2), a beautiful caddy of amazingly fragrant tea called Thé de lune (what a name!) a caddy spoon shaped like a lotus leaf and a recipe book for cooking with tea. I cannot wait to try the tea infused Crème Brûlée!!! mmmmmmmmmmmm! I'm so excited!

Yesterday morning ...

2009-02-04T02:11:00.000-08:00

I woke to softly falling snow ...

*A house in the village*

Slipping and a-Sliding

2009-01-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, on my way back from London, I slipped on the water drenched platform of Paddington Station. In fairness I was rushing - when they announce the platform number the trains are going to leave on, all hell normally lets loose as people make a mad dash to grab a seat. There's no avoiding it really as the trains get so busy that if you don't join in you may have to stand for a long part of the journey which is no fun at all. Anyway I went flying. I managed to save my flask of tea but in doing so fell bang onto my knees. My right knee is now all horrible swollen and bruised (no gym for me this week). As I fell (slightly in slow motion) I didn't quite realise what I had done and it took me a split second to catch on, by this time a lovely (and v trendy looking) man had stopped his mad dash for a seat to help me up. It must have been a bit of an impressive slide and fall as I'd left one of my shoes behind me a little way back on the platform. This man helped me up and asked if I was alright, that's it, just that little simple thing but I felt such an overwhelming surge of gratitude to him for that little simple thing. Thank you nameless stranger for your little act of kindness which took the edge of trauma off my fall. I hope you found a seat on the train...

So here I am with a gammy leg, meanwhile back in London, N has caught some horrible temperatury-sore-throaty-cold type thing and is feeling awful. What a couple!

oooh!

2009-01-26T17:19:00.000-08:00

Look how pretty! These are little (well not so little) sugar cubes, all you need to make them is white granulated sugar, a little liquid food dye, a little bit of water and a mini heart cookie cutter. I may have made mine a bit big but I have a sweet tooth!

A Poem

2009-01-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

*Brassai - Kissing In The Cafe*

While we were in Bibury N read me a poem from one of the books in our cottage. It is by John Betjeman and it is called In A Bath Teashop. I love it.

In A Bath Teashop

"Let us not speak, for the love we bear one another -

Let us hold hands and look."

She such a very ordinary little woman;

He such a thumping crook;

But both for a moment, little lower than the angels

In the teashop's ingle-nook.

Beautiful Bibury

2009-01-19T13:18:00.001-08:00

*The gate to our cottage*

Back at the beginning of January N and I celebrated our 7 year get-together-versary by going away for a weekend. Every year this weekend is our Christmas gift to each other. This year we decided to go to Bibury in the Cotswolds (mostly due to a fabulous offer at the hotel which meant that we had a suite, complete with outside hot tub, champagne, chocolates, strawberries, an orchid, dinner and breakfast! N.B going away for a weekend in January is a really good idea - everywhere has brilliant offers).

We arrived in Bibury on a cold clear afternoon after visiting the amazing candle-lit Wild Duck Inn in Ewen for a slap up pub lunch. N had driven to Wales the night before and many a fun car game was played on the journey across the border including my favourite: sing song x in the style of person y. We arrived at the hotel, full of warm delicious food, and were a little taken aback when we were directed back out of the hotel and along the street to our very own little cottage with an apple tree overhanging our hot tub! Inside my excitement continued to rise as we were shown into the lounge where the aforementioned bottle of champagne, chocolates and strawberries awaited us! Upstairs was the bedroom and huge bathroom complete with a rubber duck for the bath!!!

*The hot tub*

We had a pre-dinner dip in the hot tub and then went back inside to get ready for dinner, sipping away at the old champagne. Later that evening as we walked to the restaurant, soft snow flakes started to fall all around us and the next morning we awoke to a picture postcard snowy Cotswolds village:

*The bridge to the hotel*

*The hotel*

*Arlington Row Alms Houses*

It was so cold that on the way to breakfast we noticed that the hotel's fountain had completely frozen over:

Bibury is a beautiful little village and driving through the Cotswolds the following day we got to talking about holidaying and how our favourite trips of 2008 had actually taken place in the UK. There are so many lovely spots in our country and so many that I haven't seen. So after our trip to California in April we are going to make a concerted effort to pack up our camping gear and explore the UK!

Knittin'

2009-01-19T06:24:00.000-08:00

Pre Christmas I got my knitting sticks out and made a few Christmas gifts - this hot water bottle cover was my favourite because it loooks a bit like a jumper. The pattern was from a book but I knitted and added a flower corsage (sewing a diamante button at the centre for a bit of sparkle) to stop it from being too plain. I took it to the wire a bit and was still knitting at midnight on Christmas Eve to finish it for the next day! Note to self: creative projects always take longer than you think they will - start earlier next time!

Why I haven't been blogging of late...

2009-01-19T06:15:00.000-08:00

Aside from working a bit hard:

I have been curled up reading lots of lovely books with mugs of tea and welsh cakes and teisen lap
I have been going to the gym a lot (truly unheard of for me). I am now doing a pilates class, a body conditioning class and one gym sesh a week! Just as well really given all the tea and cake I am consuming. I have learnt that I can't skip or breathe.
I've caught up with friends, been on a lovely weekend away with N and have been planning our trip to California in April.

But now I am back, refreshed, renewed and ready to rejoin the great world of blog.

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009

2009-01-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

In 2008 ...

I discovered some amazing new places: St Lucia and St Kitts in the Caribbean, Mykonos and Simi in Greece, the lovely Turkish coastline, The Trossachs in Scotland and Ely in Cambridgeshire

Little Venice, Mykonos by me

N and I bought a tent and went on our first camping adventures: first at a friends hoe-down party on her farm in the Cotswolds, second in the garden of a friend's holiday cottage in Norfolk. In true N style our tent has a lighting system and we took a blow up double mattress, sheets, duvet and pillows!!! Okay so it wasn't proper camping but now we have eased ourselves in gently we're going to properly rough it in 2009

I attended 4 weddings: I danced a ceilidh in stunning Stirling, Scotland, had a fabulous time at the wonderful wedding of one of my university flatmates in a castle by the sea in beautiful Dorset, watched my man be the best man at our friends nuptials in Ely, Cambridgeshire, and attended my cousin's wedding in beautiful Wales. Whew!

Brilliantly my business has hit the ground running. It has been somewhat of a gamble, In order to finance establishing iced I have had to leave London and N to return home to Wales. I have had to work two jobs and have often found myself stopping work at 2.30 in the morning to go to bed for a few hours before having to get up and start the next job. But this year has been amazing. Hard work but amazing. I have made so many wedding and celebration cakes, and despite the current financial crisis, orders are coming in. Although I may have a few more dark circles under my eyes, I am loving absolutely every minute of achieving my dream.

I have learnt how to: knit, ride a quad bike ... and of course, write a blog - this blog. I have loved writing it. Thank you for reading my rambling mumblings and thank you so much for your comments.

I am so looking forward to this year. I have no resolutions but I am going to do my best to make the year count in every way. As I write N is on his way to Wales as we are heading to the Cotswolds for our 'gettingtogetherversary' / Christmas present weekend away. I can't wait!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a truly fabulous 2009!!!

Today

2008-12-30T18:23:00.000-08:00

Biting wind stinging S's and my eyes and making our cheeks rosy; clambering over slippery rocks in sturdy shoes, navigating our way around rock pools and finally jumping down onto the soft sand. Pushing stray strands of hair back from my face to make it easy to chatter as we walked. Holding my gloved hands underneath my arms to stop them from going numb whilst staring in awe at the still sea-fishermen patiently braving the elements to catch their prize. Hurrying up the estuary path all too soon to meander up the cliff and find my car again. Jumping in the car, turning the heat right up and feeling our feet and hands slowly coming back to life. Stopping at The Pelican In Her Piety pub for a warming cup of coffee, sitting in the dark flagstoned room with one of my oldest friends for a good long while talking about our favourite beach, men, books and friends we have lost touch with ...

Wonderful Things This Christmas

2008-12-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

N arriving on the 23rd to spend Christmas with me and my crazy Welsh family
Christmas Eve at my aunt's house: my cousin has a little boy - aka the best boy who is six. His father was working Christmas Eve so he arrived at the party a little late. When he did arrive, he knocked at the lounge window in an enormous blow up Father Christmas suit!
Watching my Nana,who is nearly 90, beat everyone on the yo-yo we had in one of the crackers.
Waking up on Christmas morning with N
Giving my Christmas gifts
Having twelve to lunch on Christmas day, some on folding chairs, all cwtched in together.
All of us sitting in my parents cinema room after lunch with bags of popcorn, watching sing-a-long Mama Mia.
Chuckling at listening to my father compete with the best boy as to who could sing 'The Winner Takes It All' the loudest. Believe it or not the six year old beat his god-father!
Going to the ballet on boxing day to see Snow White. We took the best boy. Watching his face as the seven dwarfs started to dance.

Christmas can be a mixed bag for people for a lot of reasons. Whilst it is a time to celebrate our love for family and friends it can also be a time which reminds us of those we miss the most and can highlight family grievances and tensions. I hope your Christmas was truly wonderful. If for whatever reason this festive season was less than happy I wish you all the happiness and love for 2009.

The weekend starts...

2008-12-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

tomorrow! Hooray! I am super excited! Tomorrow afternoon I shall finish work early then hop on a bus then on a train and make my way to London. If my train is on time I should get to our (it's N's really but I think of it as mine too!) flat just after 7.00. I will have just enough time to spruce myself up, put on some winter pimms and lay out some nibbles before my lovely friends arrive. My lovely Californian friend, I, who was my cheffing partner at Le Cordon Bleu is visiting London with her talented architect boyfriend so it is a fabulous excuse for an LCB get together. Also coming is S who is now a chef at Claridges and Mrs and Mrs M. Mrs M and I had a lot of fun making chocolate sculptures back in the day, she now runs courses teaching children how to cook amongst many other things. What a talented bunch! I havent seen I or Mrs M for over a year so it is going to be wonderful! Friday I have off work which is great! I am meeting one of my university flat mates, Dr G for a spot of much needed christmas shopping and a coffee and then in the evening I am at a festive dinner party. We have no plans for the rest of the weekend, apart from visiting N's parents at some point. I need to do some serious knitting on the train though if I am going to get all of my presents finished on time. I am making hot water bottle covers and tea cosies and hats ... photos to follow....

Sunday afternoon recomended viewing: for a bit of old fashioned seasonal romance try Meet Me At St Louis - a classic.

Have wonderful weekends all!

Lovely things....

2008-12-17T09:07:00.001-08:00

Lovely silvery white wintery things:

*Brissi Treat and Biscotti tins *Astier de Vilate - petit vase fleurs* Limoges tea pot* Tea light holders Red Direct*

A bit twp

2008-12-11T18:49:00.000-08:00

Okay so this time it's me that's been a bit twp. About a month ago I was contacted by a national magazine (You & Your Wedding) and was asked if I would like iced to be featured in the next issue. Yes please said I. Okay said they. I eagerly anticipated the January/February issue which of course comes out in December. As soon as I knew it was out I purchased a copy. But humph leafing through the pages it soon became evident that they hadn't featured me after all. I was a little bit miffed / disappointed - my first feature in a national magazine is big news for me. Anyway this morning I had a lovely letter from a lovely client who said she had seen me in this magazine! Of course I came home and leafed through it and lo and behold on page 4 of the planning guide there is a fabulous picture of one of my cakes in a section entitled 'Hot For 2009'. Me ... Hot For 2009!!! Hooray! My other blog Posies and Pearls even gets a mention! How twp though - first time round I must have completely passed it by! Thank you lovely client for having eyes where I had none!!

No Snow

2008-12-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

Hmm well there was no snow - boo! But there was ice. The icy frosting looked so pretty on the front lawn and across the fields, like a sparkling shimmering dusting of magic, even the honey coloured pebbles that lead to my studio were merrily glistening in the morning light as I carefully picked my way over them to get to work. The skies were blue and clear it was lovely. Later in the afternoon when my jobs were done I took a drive to the shops. I live in the countryside and to get to most places you need to drive through a lot of winding lanes. Although it was such a beautiful day driving in the ice is not fun. On this particular journey I had to drive up a very steep twisty lane, I should have been warned when the car in front of me did a very dangerous U-turn in the middle of the lane and retreated. But on I drove and all of a sudden the noise coming from my tyres as they desperately tried to grip on to the road filled the car. I gripped the wheel tighter but as I got to the top of the steep part of the lane my car started sliding around on the ice. I made it to the main road without incident principally because I met no oncoming traffic, thank goodness, but it could have been very different. Take care everyone as the weather becomes colder, I am going to try to avoid the lanes as much as possible even if it does take me twice as long to get anywhere, please do the same.

The Friday Picture

2008-12-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Well it's Friday .. again! I can hardly believe how quickly the week has gone!! The temperatures here in Wales have dropped over the last couple of days and we even have a forecast for snow! At the moment I can just hear the patter of the rain on the velux windows above me but I am holding out for some soft soundless snow. Growing up in Belgium we had freezing winters, I remember being wrapped up from head to foot, literally, with just a hole in my snood for my eyes to peak out of! We lived very near a park; the grounds of the old summer palace of the Belgian royal family. The park is absolutely beautiful with lakes and woods and beautiful old buildings. In the winter the lakes would freeze over and we would skate on them in our moon-boots. When it snows here, in the Vale of Glamorgan, we generally have just a light dusting that lasts for a few days. We have to go to the Brecon Beacons aka the mountains for 'proper' snow, the kind that you can build snow men out of, sledge down and craft snowballs from for lobbing at friends. I love this fabulous picture taken by Ralph Moorse in 1942 at the Timberline Lodge ski club party of snowbound fun...

Beautiful Baubles

2008-12-03T16:29:00.001-08:00

I love baubles. I love the shininess of them the sparkly colourfulness of them, the glitteryness, the prettyness the sheer decadence and fun of them. I even love the word 'bauble'. Just look at these fine examples of baubley gorgeousness...

* V&A vintage baubles * Plumo jewelled baubles* V&A faberge baubles*

Last Christmas...

2008-12-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas this was N and I's tree in London. It was such a beautiful tree! Our decorations consisted of two boxes of baubles from Ikea - one box of red, one box of gold, and some fairy lights, expertly draped by N. Not the most sophisticated or styled tree in the world I know but it was lovely!

Advent Calanders

2008-12-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

Okay so I'm a few days late, but here are some fab advent calender ideas to build anticipation for the festive season!

*Advent Buckets from Sage Inspired By Life*

*Advent wall hanging Aspen & Brown*

Random Mumblings

2008-12-03T07:17:00.000-08:00

Many appologies for my lack of posting over the last couple of days. I spent the weekend in London with N, it was very lovely: we ate lots of lovely food, slept a lot, caught up with friends and attempted some Christmas shopping. We both had Monday off work which meant the weekend lasted three whole days! Fabulous!

On Friday, before I left for London, I downloaded the TED Lecture podcasts to watch on the train. These are really inspirational short lectures by people in all sorts of fields who are deemed to be the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers. These people are challenged to give a lecture in 18 minutes on their work/mission/inspiration/passion. I listened to amazing individuals talk about architecture, gardening, smallpox, the value of creativity in education and even blogging! They were really fascinating and made my two hour journey go by in a flash. Do check them out...

On Monday we spent a bit of time researching a trip to California. N's cousin, who lives in California, is getting married in April at a ranch outside of Los Angeles and we are seeing if we can arrange a holiday around it. Nothing is definite yet but we thought we would explore the different options. Our only criteria are that we have to be at the wedding on the 18th and we want to see my friend from Cordon Bleu days who lives in LA / Santa Barbara. We would like to travel up route one to San Francisco but are a little unsure about how long this might take? Can anyone offer any advice / point me in the direction of must-see places / lovely but inexpensive accomodation? Any pointers would be wonderful!

Something for the Weekend: Edward Steichen

2008-11-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

*Norma Shearer (1935)*

These gorgeous photographs were taken by Edward Steichen (1879-1973). Born in Luxembourg Eduard Jean Steichen became a naturalised American citizen after migrating to the US with his family as a child. Steichen was first and foremost a fine art painter until he realised how his skills in fine art could translate into photography to create a new kind of pictoralist art photography. During World War One he comanded the photographic division of the American Expeditionary Force. Viewing the world from above, as director of arial photography, led Steichen to experiment with a new ‘modernist’ photography and after the war he turned to photographing the fashion and film world from new perspectives. Just feast your eyes on these truly beautiful images... What do you think?

Kendall Lee (1925) * Gloria Swanson (1924) *Marlene Dietrich (1934)*

puddings and fairs

2008-11-28T04:22:00.000-08:00

Hmm so I didn't find any christmas presents at the fair. But I did buy a delicious looking christmas pudding from Ogmore Farm which had a stand at the fair. It has been steamed for 12 hours in an aga and so just needs re-heating on the big day. It is all bundled up with red gingham and tied with a piece of string. It looks fabulous! Ogmore Farm is in a beautiful spot, right next to this castle ...

which is a stones throw away from this beautiful beach:

It is one of my favourite spots in the Vale of Glamorgan and it gives me great cheer to think our christmas pudding will have come from there!

The fair went really well, it was a charity fair in aid of Ty Hafan which is a childrens hospice entirely funded by donations. It's a really important local cause so I was so happy that we managed to raise a lot of money for them!

Christmas is coming

2008-11-25T17:48:00.000-08:00

Today I saw the coca cola advert which signals the start of all things festive for me. Do you know the one? The jingle goes 'holidays are coming, holidays are coming' as a big coca cola lorry delivers Christmas coke cheer through snow swept lands. This, along with my appalling Christmas shopping experience on Sunday, has started me thinking about Christmas presents. I need to get cracking. I'm going to knit a few cashmere hot water bottle covers but other than that I have absolutely no inspiration. I am so busy at the moment with Christmas cakes, wedding cakes and consultations that I can't set my mind to it. This must be remedied ASAP. This Christmas is going to be a bit special as N and I will be spending our first Christmas together. Hmm yes I know we have been together for 7 years but we've always gone our separate ways over Christmas. N only normally only gets Christmas day and Boxing day off work and when I was living in London I always wanted to spend time with my family back in Wales over the holidays. Likewise he wanted to be with his family. This year, in an unprecedented move, N is coming to Wales for Christmas - I am so looking forward to it! But I'm a bit worried - will he find our Welsh family Christmas traditions a bit odd?! Hmm it all remains to be seen. On the Christmas present front I am exhibiting at a Christmas fair tomorrow so perhaps I will see some lovely things there to purchase...

My Weekend...

2008-11-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

My weekend has been BUSY! It has been another weekend without seeing N. He had an accident in his car (someone drove into the back of him - the guy admitted he wasn't looking as he was trying to retrieve something from his glove compartment - idiot!). N is fine, but his car is undrivable until the insurance people get it fixed, if it gets fixed - it's a very old car, and it's done some miles so we are keeping our fingers crossed it doesn't get written off!

On Saturday I had a wedding cake to deliver and set up, followed by two consultations, followed by christmas fair baking, followed by the first part of making a celebration cake for a gentlemans 50th birthday. Apparently this man has a penchant for baked beans and so the instructions were to make a cake which looks like a stack of baked beans cans...!

Sunday morning was spent on the celebration cake. It ended up looking like this! ....

After the cake was finished, my sister took me into Cardiff shopping - ostensibly for christmas pressents but we ended up going into Howells our main department store, ... just for a look mind. K bought some gorgeous silver cutlery in a bargainous sale and somehow I managed to leave with a big bag with a beautiful dress inside. I'm not quite sure what happend. It is mostly a blur. I remember being in the changing room, I rememer ooohing at the lovliness of the dress, I remember my sister flashing her store card and saying I could get an extra 20% off by using it, then all I remember is leaving, bag in hand, with a big smile on my face!

N.B. this was not in keeping with the idea of Christmas shopping I was supposed to be buying gifts for other people not for myself! I am a bad person. But oh it's lovely and it feels so nice on! Now I just need somewhere to wear it!

A Blog Award

2008-11-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

Nola from the fabulous With Love From New Orleans gave me this award! It made my day!

How lovely! Thank you Nola!

The Scarf...

2008-11-22T08:50:00.001-08:00

... is finished! Complete with a dash of winter sparkle! Here's how to make it (It's super easy).

Russian Beauties

2008-11-19T03:25:00.001-08:00

On Friday Bonhams, London, are having a Russian art auction, here are some of the beauties for sale:

Autumnal Fishing by Andrei Nikolaevich

Moonlight Reflections - Migirdic Givanian

Sunset by Mikhail Markianovitch

These three paintings are all pre 20th century and to me are so evocative of the grand, romantic pre-revolutionary Russia depicted in 'Golden Age' literature by the likes of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Pushkin. The last reminds me of Pushkins epic poem Eugene Onegin:

'Tatyana...
Loved Russian winters with great passion:
The sun-lit hoar-frost on frozen days,
Sledge rides, and from the sunset's glow
The rosy radiance on the snow'

My Weekend

2008-11-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

My weekend was a busy one. N had a weekend of sporting events - watching England play rugby on Saturday with some brokers from work and on Sunday playing golf with friends, so for the first time in a while we had separate weekends. On Saturday morning I had a LONG lie in - ah bliss! I then picked up my Nana from the Cynon Valley where she lives and drove her to my parents house for the weekend. The valley roads are long and very narrow as they weren't built for cars, and due to bad weather and road works it probably took the best part of 2 hours there and back but it did give us chance to catch up and for me to hear all of her news. The rest of the day was spent eating, shopping and then eating some more with the three generations of our clan - Nana, Mum and my sister - it was a lot of fun! Sunday was a working day for me but I achieved a lot which is great - including making my first gingerbread house for this festive season ... a sure fire sign that Christmas is on its way!

Very excitingly N has booked our gettogetherversary (and christmas present to each other) weekend away in January! Yay I am so excited, we are going to a place called Bibury in the Cotswolds, the hotel looks lovely and he has booked some kind of deal with champagne (I love champagne) and our own outside hot-tub! Very swanky! N's grandmother lives in the Cotswolds in a beautful town called Broadway so we have visited the area a few times and it is so beautiful! I am hoping for snow, I think the hotel would look so lovely with a fine dusting of the white stuff!

Did I mention that I was excited?

Lovely Followers

2008-11-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

I have a big smile on my face this afternoon - I have just noticed that I have a whole host of new followers! (I can be a bit slow on the uptake at times!) I am so excited! Thank you lovely Followers for making my afternoon! Here's a bit of Fred and Ginger for no other reason than it's Friday and I feel all happy and dancy! Have lovely weekends all!

Figaro qua, Figaro la, Figaro su, Figaro giu

2008-11-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

My sister has just bought a shiny new car, I'm going with her to pick it up next week. She is very excited. I am very excited for her, it's going to be lovely. All this talk of new cars has set me to thinking though. My car is fairly old (10years old to be precise) but it is loyal and never gets into difficulties or scrapes. It's never had any problems or troubles and has seen me through some adventures. It's a good car. But it is not my dream car. This little beauty is my dream car .....

Look how lovely it is... I want one!

Books and Values

2008-11-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

I have been tagged by London Bride. Well to be more accurate, my other blog Posies and Pearls was tagged but Posies and Pearls is misbehaving and not letting me post anything this evening so I thought I would post here instead....!

First off is "The Bookworm". the rules are that you have to open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence as well as the following few sentences. It has to be the closest book, not your favourite, or the most intellectual!

The nearest book to me right now as I am lying on my bed with my ibook is Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I first read this book many moons ago while I was at university studying Literature. It's a lovely gorgeous book - if you haven't read it, read it, please please please! The prose is amazing and beautiful and romantic. I've been re-reading after I went to see a new opera called 'Love and Other Demons' at the end of the summer which is adapted from one of Garcia Marquez's short stories. Oh my goodness the opera was strange - completely a-tonal with no melody at all but it was dramatic and dark and strangely fascinating. (I was also very excited as Kevin Spacey was sat behind us). Anyway I digress! Here is page 56 sentence 5 onwards:

'But her father's strict regime soon provided an irremediable difficulty. Unlike the other students, who walked to school in groups or accompanied by an older servant, Fermina Daza always walked with her spinster aunt, and her behavior indicated that she was permitted no distraction. It was in this innocent way that Florentino Ariza began his secret life as a solitary hunter. From seven o'clock in the morning, he sat on the most hidden bench in the little park, pretending to read a book of verse in the shade of the almond trees, until he saw the impossible maiden walk by in her blue-striped uniform, stockings that reached to her knees, masculine laced oxfords and a single thick braid with a bow at the end, which hung down her back to her waist.'

Second Tag:

Six Things I Value

My lovely Man who is my best friend and my lovely family who are truly wonderful: crazy, loopy, odd and wonderful!
Creativity: in whatever field - art, dance, music, drama, literature, fashion, life. Innovate - do things differently and express yourself.
Kindness. A simple act of kindness can change someone's day for the better
Laughter. Everyone needs to laugh every day
Freedom: I am very aware that I have a completely different life to those of previous generations of my family. So many opportunities are open to me which never were to them. I intend to make the most of every opportunity!
Time: time to spend with people, time to spend with myself, reading, drawing, cwtching up and relaxing

Six Things I Don't

Rudeness
Spitefulness
Self-centerdness: I go by the brownie-guide law 'think of others before yourself'!
Being cold ... brrr - don't like it!
Bad service: I was once in a hotel and it took them one hour to bring me two slices of toast! I was not a happy lady!
House prices at the moment ... please fall, N and I want to buy a house!

I am supposed to tag six people, so I tag: Rachel, CeeCee, Miss Meep, Mila, Nola and Brazen

It's raining, It's pouring ...

2008-11-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

Cheer yourself up with one of these lovelies:

* Guy de Jean * Bella Umbrella * Pare * Nestorama *

Ode to sleep

2008-11-07T04:08:00.000-08:00

Today I feel a bit like this lady I photographed in Castries, St Lucia. I've been working until late all week and last night was no exception. I was nose to the grindstone in my studio and didn't realise time was passing by so quickly until I looked up at the clock and saw that it was 1.00. It took me another half hour to clean away and another half hour again to pack myself off to bed. When the alarm went off this morning at 7.00 I felt surprisingly sprightly and jumped up and went on my merry way to my little office to do some paperwork. But now it is lunch time and I don't feel so sprightly any more ... I am so looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow!!

Remember remember the fifth of November...

2008-11-04T18:13:00.001-08:00

*Fireworks at Cardiff Bay - Photograph Welsh College of Music and Drama*

"Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot

I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot"

Today is an historic day in the US and indeed across the world. Here in the UK, whilst many will celebrate Obama's landmark victory, this evening people will be celebrating for another reason too. Today is known variously as: the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night. Today we celebrate the foiling of a plot in 1605 by Mr Fawkes and his comrades to blow up the houses of parliament during the state opening of parliament (in order to kill the king and most of the ruling aristocracy). The plot was stopped when Guy was discovered with his barrels of explosives underneath the houses of parliament. Guy Fawkes was not the ring-leader of this group of religious dissidents, he was just the explosives expert, but he's the fella we remember.

Tonight villages and towns around the country will host packed celebrations, at the centre of which will be a bonfire where a 'guy' (a stuffed straw man made to look like Guy Fawkes) is ceremoniously burnt. Crazy catherine wheels will spin around emitting light and sparks which will leave small children agog; sparklers will be waved around in circles by gloved hands creating bright 'O's' in the gloom; and then of course there will be a fireworks display. Children will munch their way through toffee apples and people everywhere will cast their gaze skyward letting out gasps of 'ooh' and 'ahh' over the beautiful light shows taking place above their heads, momentarily oblivious to the cold night air.

If you think about it dispassionately, it is, quite frankly, a bit odd: I read this fabulously funny post by an American living in Cardiff yesterday and it did make me chuckle to read an outside perspective on the whole event. Nonetheless, 403 years on and we still mark the occasion a group of dissidents tried and failed to change the way our country was run through violence and aggression. Today America has democratically voted for change. I cannot pretend to be fully appraised of Obama's political agenda, I cannot pretend to fully understand the political implications of his appointment. But today is a first, a victory that will truly reverberate around the world. It is a message to many that what seemed impossible, even a generation ago, can become a reality. A message of hope and perseverance. Another good reason to remember the 5th of November...

A bit twp ...

2008-11-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

In Wales, by law all signs must be bilingual, English first, Welsh second. Unfortunately as a fair proportion of Welsh people are not Welsh speaking this does not always go to plan! This is a classic! N's brother sent me the picture. This sign, near a supermarket in Swansea (or Abertawe in Welsh), reads 'No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential Site Only' in English ... In Welsh it reads: 'I am out of the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated'!. A hapless, non-welsh-speaking, council worker had sent an email to an in-house translator with a request to translate the sign from English to Welsh. The translator was out of the office and so the email bounced back with an out of office reply in Welsh. The council worker thought he was getting a speedily efficient translation and without checking 'the translation' got the signs printed up and erected. It was only after some time had passed that amused Welsh speaking passers by let the council know their error!!

Beautiful Things I Would Like To Own ...

2008-11-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

*Silver Console table - Brissi* *Silver Bath - Brissi* Chaise Longue - Sweetpea and Willow, Teapot - Mariage Freres*

The Weekend

2008-11-03T04:53:00.000-08:00

I'm back. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but lovely. On Friday we did go and see Quantum of Solace. Even at the 22.00 showing it was so busy N and I couldn't get seats next to each other :o( rubbish, but as soon as the film started I completely forgot I was sat on my own as I was lost in the ever so blue eyes of Daniel Craig (is that bad?). Now I can't quite put my finger on why I like him so much, he has after all, got a bit of an odd face and at certain angles is almost a bit ugly but oh my goodness he is gorgeous! It's not a classic Bond film, far from it: Bond does not win the girl, there is no out and out plot to plunge the world headlong into destruction and it is of course the first sequel. It definitely has some plot flaws, but the cinematography was gorgeous, especially during the opera scene, which I thought was expertly crafted. I have to say I really enjoyed it. But then I'm a big 007 fan. What I did think was awful though is the theme tune! Have you heard it? I am all for going for something a little different but blimey this has to be the most forgettable non-Bond theme tune ever made!

On Saturday morning N dropped me at Westfield to meet S on his way to Hertfordshire. It's only a 10 minute walk away but I am lazy and it was raining! I wore my new red tights and my sparkly red 'fireworks' (not literally it is just red and purple and sparkly gold) scarf in homage to pretend bonfire night, but spent a considerable amount of time worrying that my legs were a bit too red and standoutish. Westfield is absolutely enormous (and fantastic!), we walked around for about an hour before we even started shopping and even then our efforts were a bit pitiful: I bought gloves and a long black cardigan and S bought a rather funky skirt and a bracelet. We were just so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of purchasing possibilities that we didn't know where to begin, I found some really lovely things but couldn't bring myself to buy anything for fear that there might be something even better in the next shop! We did manage to have a few free glasses of bubbly though as shops were giving it away, oh and we did take in a fashion show:

It was a lot of fun! As we left the rain started to pour and it was pretty cold. S headed back to Hammersmith and I limped my way back to the flat, my shoes pinching like mad (I packed in such a hurry I forgot to take comfy flat shoes, silly girl). Back in the flat I kicked off my shoes and put the kettle on. N got back about 10 minutes after me with his funky new glasses (v nice indeed). We looked out of the window together ... it was still raining :o( We didn't say anything but both of us were thinking the same thing ... could we bear to leave the lovely warm flat to head all the way to Battersea (about 45 min bus journey) to watch the fireworks in the rain. We both thought about how lovely it would be to spend a night in but then decided that the other would think it lame to suggest not going ... and then the phone rang. Our friends had all decided it was far to wet and cold and had collectively decided it was a no go ... did we mind? Not at all ...! We stayed in and had this chocolate dipping adventure from Hotel Chocolat (a gift from a lovely friend):

This weekend ...

2008-10-31T09:12:00.001-07:00

I have literally just decided to go to London. So after work I need to rush home, pack, get a train to Cardiff and wait for a train to London then idle away two hours before I arrive at Paddington where lovely N will be waiting for me to drive me to the flat.
Tonight we are going to grab a really quick bite to eat before going to see a late showing of The Quantum of Solace.
Saturday Morning I am going to check out the new Westfield shopping centre - it is the biggest shopping centre in Europe apparently with over 265 shops inside .... :o) N has to go back to Hertfordshire to pick up his new trendy glasses tomorrow morning so I shall while away an hour or two drooling at Tiffany's with one of my oldest friends S.
Saturday night we need to wrap up warm as it is the early bonfire night fireworks extravaganza in Battersea Park which we will go to with a bunch of friends, sparklers at the ready!! The theme is Paint the Whole World with a Rainbow which seems a bit non specific to me...! That will be a fireworks theme then! (In previous years they have done aliens, sport, rock music etc. but we shall see I'm reserving judgement)
On Sunday I need to get up REALLY early to get back to work!

Escape to Serenity

2008-10-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I mentioned that I had been looking for somewhere for My and N's 7 year getting-together anniversary in January. I have found the perfect place. It is gorgeous, simple, romantic and close to nature. Perched just above a beach in Cornwall, the beach hut has one bedroom, a kitchen and a living area. And ... no road leading to it. You need to park the car some little distance away and walk down a path towards the sea to reach your cosy little abode. I can just imagine waking up to the sound of the sea, wrapping up warm and going straight for a stroll on the windswept beach before a hearty breakfast back at the hut. I can imagine snuggling up in the evening with a nice bottle of wine and a warm fire with the waves crashing down below ... The only problem is although it is simple and close to nature the price tag on a weekend here is anything but simple and N may need quite some persuading so for now at least I can only imagine ... Here are some pictures so you can imagine too...

Trick or Treat?

2008-10-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

Treat Please ...

*Image Martha Stewart Living*

Carving Pumpkins For Halloween

2008-10-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

I love carving pumpkins for Halloween, there's just something wonderful about the whole process: standing outside the green-grocers stamping your feet in the cold whilst sizing up and selecting your pumpkins, the delicious woody autumn smell that fills the kitchen as you scoop out the bright orange flesh (and the promise of the delicious feasts that it will create later), carefully carving your pattern and of course the sense of creative satisfaction when the candle or fairy lights are placed inside. Once on the doorstep they sit there, lovely orange glowing beacons to welcome happy trick or treaters as they patter around in the dark. These pumpkins from Martha Stewart Living are quite special.

*All images Martha Stewart Living*

This time last year ...

2008-10-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

This time last year I exhibited at my local food festival to test the market with my idea for a cake and cookie company. A year on and this weekend the local food festival is taking place again. Last year I spent days and days preparing, nervously wondering if anyone would buy these cakes which I had spent so much time on. With more than a little fear, I wondered if anyone would linger at the tables, (which the very kind Sarah from Xantippe had given me) to take a look at and, most importantly, buy my cakes. I needn't have worried. Over the two days I sold almost everything I had made (I'd made a lot!!), received some wonderful feedback and had taken my first orders for Christmas cakes. N spent the two days running back and forth, handing out flyers and cutting up cakes for samples - what a star!

*One of my tables*

This year I am not exhibiting. This year I can wander around the stalls, grab a glass of bubbly from the champagne tent, enjoy looking around me and celebrate how far I have come in a year. As over the last year I have set up iced and just yesterday made my first deal with a shop to sell my cakes for retail!

Autumn Warmer

2008-10-22T15:14:00.003-07:00

On my early autumn walk the other day, I stumbled upon a patch of pumpkins, nestled in a bed of green, hiding away amongst their own foliage - what a lovely sight... I had to take a photograph:

This gorgeous pumpkiny goodness inspired me to combine two of my favourite things into a lovely delicious soup. I love butternut squash, I love it roasted and added to a goats cheese salad, I love it in stews, I love it on its own - I really do like it. I'm a vegetarian so my diet does focus quite disproportionately around vegies but yum yum yum! One of my other passions is Thai food - I absolutely adore it! So I decided to make a Thai butternut squash soup! It was a bit experimental so there are no set quantities of ingredients I'm afraid, but it is extremely easy to recreate. I obviously used butternut squash but you could just as easily use pumpkin (this should provide two hearty bowl fulls):

So take a large sized butternut squash, peel off the skin and scoop out the seeds from the centre, chop it into chunks then put it in a roasting tin. Take some nice unhealthy butter and spread it over the butternut squash pieces then sprinkle liberally with sea salt and put in a hot oven (c. 180 degrees) for about an hour or until the squash is tender...

Next, empty a can of coconut milk into a saucepan and add a teaspoon of Thai red curry paste and put the pan on a low heat. Add the roasted butternut squash a piece at a time - no need to include extra calories, so avoid adding any excess melted butter from the bottom of the pan. Warm the mixture for around five minutes to let all of the lovely spices from the paste infuse the milk. Remove from the heat and blitz with a bamix, or use a food processor to blend, until you have a lovely smooth thick soup. Return the soup to the pan and gently heat. Dilute with vegetable stock to your desired thickness (I think I used around 1/2 a pint). Heat thoroughly and then serve ... delicious!

What I am doing this weekend ...

2008-10-17T07:06:00.001-07:00

Going to London tonight to see N - yay!
On Saturday morning, after breakfast - which we will probably buy around the corner at this fabulous but kooky deli (the staff wear 1920's vintage clothing!) - we will drive to Hertfordshire - N needs to get a new pair of glasses as his broke when we were on holiday (how rubbish!) so we are taking a trip to his opticians and will go and see his parents for a spot of lunch at their house.
On Saturday afternoon we need to drive back into London as it's a good friend's birthday dinner in Battersea in the evening - said friend has just landed a new job as a fabric designer for a very well known company so it's a double celebration - yay! Well done Mrs M!
On Sunday ... well on Sunday we have no plans, which is lovely. N and I spend every weekend together but we are normally so busy rushing around catching up with friends and family that it will be very nice indeed just to have the day to ourselves!
On Sunday evening I will wind my merry way back to Wales ...

Flowers in the bathroom

2008-10-16T16:49:00.001-07:00

How a bunch of flowers can cheer you up! I put these in one of the best rooms in the house ... the bathroom. I lit some candles, put some of my favourite bubbles in the bath, and grabbed myself a glass of vino and a good book ... bliss!

Scrumdidilyumptious!

2008-10-16T05:31:00.000-07:00

Pice ar y maen or Welshcakes are scrumdidilyumptious! These traditional little spicy cakes are made on a bakestone or planc - pice ar y maen literally means 'little cakes on the stone' in English. The bakestone is an ancient cooking tool which is still widely in use today. In Wales bakestones are often passed down through the family – they are heavy, black cast-iron monsters on which cakes can be made and bread baked. But the best thing you can make on a bakestone are ... welshcakes! Yum yum yum. If you have never had one you are missing out! You don't even need to have a bakestone - a heavy based frying pan will do. Welsh cakes are normally round but I wanted to express my love for them by making them heart shaped! I was being a bit experimental yesterday so I also changed the recipe ... sacrilege!! The welsh cakes below are made with cranberries and white chocolate instead of the traditional currants and mixed spice ... delicious!

Recipe
225g Self raising flour and ½ teaspoon of baking powder
125g of butter chilled and cubed (or margarine can be substituted)
75g of sugar
75g of currants or raisins
1 large egg and a little milk
a good big pinch of mixed spice

Sift the flour and baking powder and mixed spice together into a nice big bowl.
Rub in the butter / margarine until the mix looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar and fruit.
Crack open the egg into another bowl and lightly beat, then add it to the flour mixture and combine. Add a little milk until the mixture has a dough like consistency (a bit like shortcrust pastry).
Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least two hours.
Once the dough has chilled, put your bakestone onto a very low heat on the hob and rub with the tinest bit of butter - this should be all you need for the whole cooking process (you are not frying them!), leave the bake stone to heat up.
Dust your work surface with flour, roll out the dough to about a 1/4 inch thick and use cutters to cut into rounds, hearts, stars ... what ever you fancy.
Place on the bakestone a few at a time and cook, flipping them over once you can move them around the pan without them sticking, keep flipping them until they are cooked through and nice and brown on both sides.
While they are still warm dust with caster sugar, then alow to cool on a rack or plate, whatever you have to hand.
If you want to make cranberry and white chocolate flavoured welsh cakes - simply substitute the cranberries for the currants / mixed spice and add chopped up white chocolate.

Rules of the Welsh Cake

Welsh cakes must be eaten sprinkled with caster sugar.
Welsh cakes must be eaten with a pot of tea
Never ever split them and fill them with jam or put jam on top of them ... what you are after is a scone ... go and buy one.
The first welsh cake of a batch never comes out quite right (a bit like pancakes) do not panic the rest will be perfect.

Beautiful Blog

2008-10-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

The other day I stumbled accross a beautiful blog called Aller-Retour, written by Sophia Barão, a visual artist based just outside Paris and wanted to share it with you. Aller-Retour is a place of beautiful musings and images. Here is a taster:

40*

Je ne sais pas

si c'était le soleil ou

peut-être le froid.

Rien n'était comme

avant

à cet endroit là.

Je ferme les yeux

pour me donner du

cran

et j'avance d'un pas.

Décidée à tout

remettre en cause,

à tout refaire

sans toi.

I don't know if

it was the sun or

maybe the cold.

Nothing in that place

was like before.

I close my eyes

to give me guts

and I move a step

forward.

Decided to reconsider

it all,

to do it all over again

without you.

Posted Friday, October 10, 2008 by sofia barão at Aller-Retour

Something for a Friday Afternoon ...

2008-10-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

*Musician in the Rain*

Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), was one of France's most prolific reportage photographers. With his lens he captured moments in time, absurd idiosyncrasity, love and life in the streets and cafe's of Paris. He wrote: "The marvels of daily life are excting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find on the street." We often look to experience other lives through film, television and literature, forgetting that it is out there all around us ... if we just look. I wonder what marvels I will find this weekend ...

*Le baiser de l'hotel de ville (Kiss by the town hall) 1950*

Done, To do, Guilty Pleasures & Facts

2008-10-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

So far today I have:

Made a wedding cake
Eaten two sneaky mint chocolate truffles mmmmmmm!
started designing a gingerbread Ty Hafan (a local children's hospice) for a fundraising Christmas Fair in November.
washed and dried my bedding ... yawn
Spoken to N on the phone for 59 minutes (60 minutes and you have to pay for the call-don't tell me romance is dead!)

To do:

Nothing today ... it's time for bed ... hooray!

Guilty Pleasures

reading in the bath this morning when I should have been rushing to work
eating an extremely un-nutritionally balanced breakfast of a welsh cake and a cup of tea (I was rushing after spending too long in the bath, but oh what a nice way to start the day!)
looking up swanky hotels, which we could never afford, on Mr & Mrs Smith for N and I's 7 year anniversary weekend away in January.
and I can't think of a fourth - that's bad ... I must do better on the guilty pleasures front - tomorrow I will make a concerted effort!

Facts:

When I'm old I'd like to be like Miss Marple ... live in a thatched cottage, have afternoon tea in the garden, go on lots of holidays to exotic locations and solve dastardly crime
I like cold weather but I hate to be cold and so I love my hot water bottle
My favorite alcoholic drink is a Dark and Stormy. It's a cocktail of black rum and fiery ginger beer. N introduced me to it, it is one of the national drinks of Bermuda, which is where he was born and brought up (his family moved back to the UK when he was a teenager). N first made me a dark and stormy when we were university students and I was visiting him at his family home in Hertfordshire during the winter break. I was really cold so he ran me a hot bath and made me a dark and stormy with a scoop of ice-cream in it, to drink as I soaked ... what a fella and oh my goodness, what a drink!
I love cake.

Autumn Knitting Project

2008-10-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

It's getting chilly here in Wales; although the sun is shining, there is a definite bite to the air. The nights and mornings are slowly getting darker, and the first fire has been lit in our house. Thoughts are turning to the cold months ahead, to cwtching up in scarfs and gloves and hats for bracing weekend walks. There is nothing quite like knitting your own scarf, every time you wear it, every time you wind it around you to keep you warm you will do so in the knowledge that you made it ... out of let's face it a ball of string and two sticks ... amazing! If you have never knitted before this is a perfect one to try first off. If you can bear to part with it, after all that hard work, it would also make an amazing Christmas gift for a loved one...

Easy-peasy instructions:

Buy a few balls of DK 50g wool. I am using RY Classic Yarns Cashsoft DK yarn because it is 57% extra fine merino, 33% acrylic microfibre and 10% cashmere and it is the loveliest, softest most snuggly wool ever. At the same time buy some 4mm knitting needles. In the UK you can buy all of these things here.
Twist a hair bobble onto one of the needles and push it down to the end, this will help you remember which needle you are knitting which pattern onto later.
Make a slip knot (here's how). Then cast on 63 stitches onto the needle with no hair bobble. This is easy, for instructions see here.
take the needle with the hair bobble and knit 3 stitches, purl one stitch, then repeat (knit 3, purl 1) all the way along the row until you get to the end.
turn the needle around and then knit one stitch, purl one stitch onto the needle with no hair bobble, then knit 3, purl 1 and repeat knit 3, purl one, knit 3 purl one to the end. The first two stitches have the effect of staggering the pattern which makes the scarf ribbed.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 over and over again and just keep going until it's the length you like, then cast (or bind) off. Really easy.

So to recap:

Needle with bobble: knit 3, purl 1.
Needle with no bobble: knit 1, purl 1, (knit 3, purl 1) then repeat the stitches in brackets to the end of the row.

Happy Knitting!!!

A Walk In The Woods

2008-10-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went for a walk in the beautiful early Autumn sunshine. I woke up to my idea of weather heaven: crisp and cool but with a warm autumn sun and blue blue skies. I had jobs to do, errands to run and plans set firmly in place for the whole day. One look out of the window on Saturday morning though, and thats where those plans went ... straight out of it. When days like this happen, if at all possible, everything has to stop. On went the jumper, on went the scarf, off went the phone and off went I.

My New Blog

2008-10-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

I have a new blog which you can visit here. That doesn't mean I am forsaking this one, oh no no no no, quite the opposite. It's just that I am enjoying writing this blog so much that I wanted to write one for my business. You see by trade I am a chef de patisserie and wedding cake designer/maker. I have so many scrapbooks in my studio filled to the brim with snippings from magazines, photographs of lovely things I have seen and had to snap, little pieces of writing that have inspired me and of course photographs of the final cakes which I have designed, that I thought I might give an online scrapbook at go....

Sailing the Turquoise Coast 2

2008-09-27T03:19:00.001-07:00

Loryma was our next stop. Loryma is a spectacular hidden harbour where over 200 boats assembled before heading off to Troy. Guarding this magnificent harbour, Loryma has a ruined fort perched high on the headland. All that remains are the fort walls which literally skim the cliff. We clambered along these walls, precariously picking our way around the total circumference of the fort. The drop is sheer down to the sea and at points you literally have to dig your feet into grooves in the rock and climb. The view is magnificent and although it is clearly dangerous, it is refreshingly non-european in the sense that there are no warning signs and no restrictions - people are free to clamber and climb at their own risk.

We had some amazing sails during the week, visiting beautiful deserted bays and witnessing fragments of Turkey's ancient past, it was truly a memorable holiday. What stands out is how wonderful the crew were. Every day Mehmet laid on a beautiful breakfast spread, two course lunch, afternoon tea with freshly baked cake or biscuits, pre dinner drinks and nibbles polished off with a three course dinner and all of this in a small galley kitchen ... my hat goes off to him. Turkey still has national service and Mehmet explained that he learnt all of his skills as an army cook. Lucky Turkish army if that's the quality of the food they get to eat! I needn't have worried about the brioche!! Two days on board and I'd undone a fair few months of being good! To give you an idea, this was the feast that was breakfast....

N and I are going flotilla sailing in September 2009 and I have already been designated Cook ... I have a lot to live up to!!!!

Sailing The Turquoise Coast 1

2008-09-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

It was truly a wonderful week... beautiful weather, great company, lots of sailing, lovely food and early morning swims off the boat in the quiet balmy water. Every day we'd arrive at a new place, jump into the launch and go off exploring. We stopped at Knidos a (amazingly preserved) ruined ancient Greek town in modern Turkey replete with its own amphitheater ...

... what a beautiful setting, you can imagine it in full use, crammed with people, twinkling lights, hustle and bustle and then silence before the play began looking out over the glimmering water.

Our next stop after Knidos was the Greek island of Symi, this involved a short stop at the Turkish port of Datcha where Mehmet the captain had to spend some hours sorting out our papers in order to cross the border. Mehmet was not only our captain, but also the chef, so he used this stop as an opportunity to stock up on fresh fruit, herbs, freshly caught fish and vegetables. Soon we were starting our 2.30 hour sail to Symi. After a quick stop off for a swim we arrived early evening and oh what a beautiful harbour, little houses all painted yellow with splashes of colour around door and window frames ....

Beautiful. We had showers to wash the salt out of our hair and the sun cream from our skin and put on our glad rags for our one night off the boat. For one evening and one evening only we were forsaking Mehmet's wonderful cooking to go ashore for a meal. We had selected the Mythos Roof Terrace Restaurant. After drinks and nibbles at the back of the boat we strolled around the harbour in the evening heat to find the restaurant. What a view, uninterrupted across the harbour. There are two ways to eat at Mythos, either from their lovely menu or the chefs choice, the chefs choice means that Stavros keeps bringing you dishes until you tell him to stop. Obviously this is what we went for and the food was DELICIOUS, modern Greek specialities galore but there was so much of it ... by the end we were crying for mercy! We rolled our way back to the boat and all slept very well that night! The next morning after breakfast we got into a people carrier and explored the island's dizzying heights before returning to the boat ... Next stop Loryma

The Journey

2008-09-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

We almost didn't get there. N and I arrived at Heathrow airport about three hours early, it was 6 o'clock in the morning and no one else was there... including the check in staff. This was my fault, I had booked the taxi from his flat in London and needless to say N wasn't very happy. This is one of the key differences between us, he is happy to arrive at an airport half an hour before a plane is about to take off and rush through by the skin of his teeth. I operate at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I like to get there really early, go to WH Smiths and buy an extra book (or three - there's inevitably some kind of deal that I can't pass up!), potter round, have a bit of breakfast, start reading one of my new purchases ... But okay admittedly this time we were there far far too early ... there was us ... and a cleaner!

When we linked up with his family and his brother's girlfriend and finally went through to departures we discovered the plane was delayed ... rubbish! Even more rubbish was that this meant we'd miss our connecting flight in Istanbul to Bodrum where we had to meet the boat. Considering there were seven of us we didn't hold out much hope of being able to get seats on the one remaining flight to Bodrum that day. The men (N is one of three boys) got their blackberries out and started looking up timetables - we considered ferries, trains and busses. Let me tell you - we were worried - even if we did make it we were pretty certain our checked-through luggage would not, and all had visions of a week in the heat on a boat in jeans and a t-shirt.

In true N style though he got us to all chill out and soon we were on our way to Istanbul. On landing we got through to domestic departures and we managed to nab the last seven seats on the last remaining flight - hooray things were going our way! Before we knew it we were being met at Bodrum airport by Hassan who collected us (and thank goodness all of our luggage) and piled us into his people carrier to take us to the gullet. During our transfer from the airport to the boat, through the hubub of Bodrum and then out along roads that seemed to hover halfway between land and the sea, the sun fell and the moon rose. We arrived at the gullet, chose our cabins, and almost immediately the crew made ready to set sail. We were poured a glass of fizz, all of the lights on board were dimmed, and off we sailed in the quiet moonlight to a little cove where, suitably calmed, we sat down to a scrumptious feast of a dinner ... in this short space of peaceful time we all forgot airports, luggage and aeroplanes ... we had arrived, we were on holiday!

Sailing the ocean waves

2008-09-10T06:02:00.001-07:00

I am going on holiday on Saturday with my fella and his family. We are sailing around Turkey and Greece for a week on this ... I am very excited ... very very very excited. Did I mention that I am excited?!

Tea with jam (and bread)

2008-09-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

My favourite confiture is very special indeed. I was introduced to it by an American friend when we took a girls weekend to Paris a couple of years ago. We were all about to finish our training as Chefs de Patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu in London and we thought it only right that we should go to Paris to do some serious sampling. Which of course we did … with great gusto. We tried many beautiful patisseries from the very special Ladurée to an ordinary (but amazing) local patisserie in Montmatre. And then our friend took us to Mariage Frères. Mariage Frères on the rue du Bourg Tibourg, is a wonder. It is one of the finest well- known tea companies in France, founded in 1854. Downstairs the walls are lined with tea caddies (they have literally hundreds of varieties of teas) and tea accessories.

Upstairs are the tea rooms, with starched white table linen. There we each selected a different type of tea and all opted for brioche (of course) with the company's very own gelee. But the gelée! Oh my goodness! The gelée is made from their most fragrant teas, it is fine, almost liquidy in texture and absolutely bursts with flavour! We greedily sampled marco polo and pharaeon both of which were absolutely divine. Of course we all plunged straight down stairs after sipping our beautiful tea and bought jars of it. Back at home I gave some as gifts and kept two delicous jars for myself. But it wasn’t long before it had all gone, however hard I tried to stretch it out. I keep telling myself that I will go back to Paris to buy some more but sadly I have not got round to it yet. It is with great excitement then that I have recently discovered that they have an online shop – hooray! You can visit it at http://www.mariagefreres.com/. So I am going to place an order and that should keep me going until I can arrange that trip…

Mmmm ... Brioche

2008-09-08T03:18:00.000-07:00

Mmmm … brioche, buttery eggy deliciousness. I LOVE it! You can eat it all sorts of ways – plain, converted into a delicious pudding, fried with egg mixture to make the lovliest French toast but I like mine straight out of the toaster with a thin sliver of butter (not that there’s not plenty of butter in it already - I am just really greedy) and some jam. More about jam later. So on Friday evening when I was doing my shopping after work I went to the bakery section and asked them for some fresh yeast (they will always give you some for free, which is lovely) and spent the evening making brioche-a-tete and pate levee feuillete for croissants and pain au chocolat. I have now had a lovely couple of days eating toasted brioche for breakfast. Did I mention that I LOVE it? It leaves you with such a lovely warm feeling inside for hours and hours and although it is really bad for you, I think it must be really good for you too as it makes you feel so lovely. That said I should NOT be eating brioche as I’m trying to be good before going on holiday on Saturday … I just can’t help myself!

Hiding From The Rain

2008-09-08T02:20:00.000-07:00

I have a new little house, it is the perfect place to hide from the rain. It is made of wood and the windows are plastic but with a paint brush and a few pots of cream and lavender paint and a few odd bits and bobs rescued from the garage / attic (and some cup hooks), it is as cosy as anything. Its a wonderful place to find some quiet with a flask of coffee to read or write. It's amazing what a difference painting up odd bits of furniture can make. The table with the radio is the cheapest plant table from ikea - dab some cream paint on it and it comes up a treat! The beautiful table and chairs outside the front of The Cwtch are from the lovely Xantippe in Cowbridge (www.xantippe.co.uk). The Cwtch (as we've named it ... of course) is so cosy that it's hard to tear yourself away from it! Once secreted inside you have your own little world away from television, telephones and other people, it's like having your own 'den' again!