Sunday 26 September 2010

Favourite things #5

I heard someone say once that the cello plays the sound of the human heart. It seemed to be both a beautifully apt and utterly true thing to say. After all, the cello produces one of the most perfect pieces of music ever, Bach's "Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major".......

The Beautiful Girl has just started learning to play the cello and brought it home for the first time this week. Apparently it can also make the sound of a cat being tortured by a lusty warthog, at the bottom of a very deep well....

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Blackberrying

Sunday morning. A walk along the river. Stained fingers and mouths. Later, after lunch, a crumble, with custard. Autumnal bliss.

Thursday 16 September 2010

Favourite things #4

One of the results of having much less time in the evenings, I've found, is that a lot of TV and Radio 4 has gone by the wayside. Other than the Today programme in the morning while having my tea and toast (what can I say? I'm a creature of habit) I've hardly watched or listened to anything while it's being aired. Thank goodness then for BBC iplayer. It's allowed me to listen to Murakami short stories and to Kathy Burke on Desert Island Discs (the Lovely Husband has been a little in love with her since her incredible performance in "Nil By Mouth". But after she chose records by The Specials, Joy Division and Frank Sinatra, I'm seriously worried that he's going to try and run away with her). It's also meant that I could catch up on the wonderful "Roger and Val have Just Got In" and on episodes of "The Great British Bake Off". Come to think of it, if the Lovely Husband does abandon me for Ms Burke at least I'd have iplayer to keep me company....

Monday 13 September 2010

So much for posting more frequently.....

The busy business of the holidays has meant that I've found it much harder to post than Iwas hoping. And now...sigh... the holidays are over for another year. Those six weeks are so precious, yet they slip by so quickly. And with my Beautiful Girl turning six during the last week of the holiday, the analogy is too clear to be ignored. She had a wonderful birthday - a picnic in the park with her friends, where she tucked her party dress into her pants to go fishing for minnows in the brook - then, on her birthday itself there was pancakes and presents, pony rides and Pizza-That-A-Man-Brings and the chocolatiest birthday cake known to Girl.
The time since has been one of change for all of us - the Beautiful Girl has a new teacher and a new classroom, the Lovely Husband has a new role at work and I am working full-time for the first time in - eek - six years! Already, the juggling act that I'm required to do as a working Mum has threatened to overwhelm me. It seems less of a juggle and more of a stagger, under the weight of everything I've got to do (have given up on the idea of a To Do list and now have a To Do book!). I think it'll be sheer bloody-mindedness that will get me through - I'm determined to do a good job as Mummy and as Teacher but also to live a life that is not just busy, but one which is full. So in the week and a half since term started, in between the Hoovering and the planning lessons, the sewing on of name tapes and marking books, the making of beds and the making of resources, I have carved out time for fun stuff too. I've been to my Book Group meeting (we read Carol Ann Duffy's book of poetry "The World's Wife" - wonderful, read it!), strolled round the farmer's market to buy sunflowers, crocheted a row and a half of the Heirloom Blanket, read a fantastic "literary thriller" ("The Bed I Made" by Lucie Whitehouse), been to a folk music concert at the Symphony Hall and baked lavender shortbread. The shortbread, by the way, is divine. I've used a recipe from "The Vicar's Wife Cookbook" and it is the best shortbread I've ever made - buttery yet crisp, lemony with just a fragrant whiff of lavender. And, as I tucked a foilwrapped piece into the Beautiful Girl's lunchbox this morning it made me think, maybe I can pull this off, after all. Watch this space..............