Happy Holidays...at Home!!!

Happy holidays are here again and for MAGICAL 6 weeks I will be with my children devising ways to amuse ourselves....JOY! And NO I am NOT being sarcastic....
Iam in a totally joyful and happy happy HAPPY place right now with a grin that stretches from ear to ear, skipping along pavements( daughters hide or run on in shame) and singing a merry tune or humming one when admonished by kids to '' be quiet mum it's embarrassing...''

I HAVE THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS OFF: No work! Well still the mothering and taxi-ing and cooking/cleaning/procurement/social secretary type work but none of the paid variety!!!
Just when the office/professional job was getting me down in it's daily tedium of repetitiveness and desk-boundness, total lack of creativity and lack of people contact-ness: a reprieve was available and I'm FREE!!!!!!

No excuse then not to have been blogging daily : however the last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of fabulous activity which I'll be catching up on very shortly- give me the next few days OK? There was Sports day and Music Afternoon and Plays to attend at the school, and Leaver's ASSEMBLY and LEAVER'S MASS and yep you've got it a HUGE MILESTONE in a mum's life has happened: my eldest has left primary school.....WOW.
You suddenly remember all too clearly what they were like aged 4 holding your hand to go to ''BIG school'' and taking them into Early Years class with lots of re-assurances: you'll make friends, this will be fun etc etc....

They do of course and luckily my children both adore going to school and learning and so on but 7 years fly by and there it is: the last day of primary school after all those really happy days ( 2555 days at least have gone by so fast!!!) when they learn to; read and write and do maths and science and learn to dance, sing and play tag- rugby and cricket and rounders and netball and sit SATs and eleven plus exams and cycling proficiency and swimming and learn to play flute or piano or cello and sing in a choir for Oxfordshire at the Royal Albert Hall.........and soooo much more...

So this was Sports day and she's skipping along fabulously.... We had a few prizes this year: a first a third and a few fab effort ones and overall the girls' Blue House WON this year: hip hip hooray!!!

At home there were cherries to die for! MY FAVOURITE: the blackest, sweetest, juiciest cherries EVER!!! Were sooo blessed with all this wonderful delicious fruit! I do so love this time of year.

And the nectarines, plums and kiwis and oranges, which we're eaten just after the shot was taken or ended up in a fresh fruit salad: yummy!

I was so proud of this: a personal effort to arrange some flowers! Some from the market and some from the garden.

What a zingy zesty gerbera: such a sunny joyful colour! Then there were the silly moments of playfulness in the making of school lunches: squirty mayonaise onto a multigrain wrap.... More fun, more relaxed and no rushing , no stress.

Still trying to get that gerbera into focus? Maybe I need a new camera or better eyesight?

And there's time to cook!!! It's another favourite: SUMMER PUDDING time!!! I first made this many years ago in a small hillside cottage in North Wales but I 've lost that recipe so when I found one in a Waitrose foodie magazine - as above- I had to have another go!

My first one was HUGE and it took big amounts of red currants and black currants which I bought in a market by Llanelli but I made a really small one this time as the kids said they didn't think they'd like it.....
Find the recipe on the waitrose website at: www

This is after pouring over the extra raspberry coulis I had made and dolloping a spoonful of thickly whipped double cream on top.... I was in a dollopy kind of a mood, not the neatly piping kind, no! a funfilled-devil-may -care -dollopy mood!

YUMMY!!! One daughter liked it, one was not impressed, JJ loved it and I loved it too....So to protect the rapidly expanding waistline- how can that be? Less deskwork and more walking.... oooh it's the baking and the cooking and all those picnics????!!!!-I had to do an extra 20 minutes stepping on the WII FIT.

( had to put that in- it's a bit of social history - who knows if we'll remember what it is or that we did it in 20, 50 or 100 years???)

Then: oh YESSSS I have discovered another fun thing to do and it used to be something I hated no LOATHED to do!!

CLEANING!!!!

But it's IMMENSELY satisfying when a dustladen windowsill suddenly shines and reflects the sunshine back to you! So I have been following the book as below and spring cleaning a house that has only had the bare minimum to stay healthy and sane done in the last 4 years......

I'm sooooo happy I can hold my head up again and invite anyone to come home for home-baked cookies!!!! Or appel- taart - yes It's with 2 aa's as it DUTCH you know!!!!

More of this soon, see you then!