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..............

Three go to Dorset...

..... and what a time they had! We stayed on a Featherdown Farm, which was so much fun and a wonderful experience for the Beautiful Girl. The "tents" (to a seasoned camper, calling these luxurious structures, with their running water, flushing loo, wood burning stoves and comfy beds seems a tad ridiculous) were situated in a field with it's own chicken coop and little pen for a couple of goats, named Tom and Petal by the Beautiful Girl. I wish I'd taken more photos with the blog in mind, so I could show you some of the sights we saw but instead, in my inveterate list-lover's way, I'll have to make you a list of my highlights:-

* watching Beautiful Girl running through the field towards us, carefully cradling a just-laid, still-warm egg in her cupped hands, enormous, proud, look-what-I've-found smile on her face;

* fresh, locally-caught sardines with a Parmesan crust;

* a long, long walk (rather longer than we intended after we mis-interpreted the map!) through beautiful Dorset countryside, singing made-up nonsense songs to each other to keep the spirits up;

* a day at Weymouth beach (this resort was a real surprise to me, I'd snootily imagined tackiness galore but instead we found soft, clean sand, gently lapping sea, a traditional Punch & Judy show and donkey rides - Beautiful Girl fell in love with one of the donkeys, of course and spent the last of her holiday money on a rosette proudly proclaiming "I rode BeeJay";

* tucking up the Beautiful Girl each night in her adorable bed-in-a-little-cupboard, Heidi style;

* campfire stew, made using the farm's own beef, eaten from an enamelled tin cup;

* poking around the weekly flea market and shopping in "Girl's Own Store", stockists of many, many lovely things in the little town of Bridport;

* on a wet and windy day taking a long walk along a pebbly beach, followed by a warming lunch of local seafood soup and a hefty slice of Dorest apple cake;

* Beautiful Girl making instant friends with children from the other tents and experiencing the freedom to run around, inventing games and exploring without constant adult supervision;

* lunch at Wild Garlic restaurant (run by Masterchef 2009 winner, Mat Follas) - elderflower and champagne cocktail, onion tarte tatin, trout en papillote and mixed-berry Eton mess - yum;

* waking up in the night to the pitter-patter of rain falling on canvas;

*finding fossils on Chesil beach;

* sitting in the evening with the Lovely Husband, reading together by candlelight, no sounds except for the crackle of the stove, pages turning and the occasional soft murmur so as not to disturb our sleeping child.

Now we're back home with mountains of laundry, little collections of random pebbles and shells and the smell of woodsmoke in the Heirloom blanket. Best of all though, we've brought home with us just the sort of childhood memories that I want the Beautiful Girl to have.

Away Day

Five little heads - all in varying shades of blonde, from Lady Ga-Ga platinum, to strawberry blond, to just-two-more-winters-before-it's-brown - all bent over the sand, digging away. Three mummies, free to have long chats about the most important things in life; children, crafting and cake. Happy days.

Busy, busy, busy

This time of year is always manic in our house. The Lovely Husband has been working on a project which has completely taken over everything and has swallowed him up into 18-hour days. I've been so busy at school with all those end-of-term jobs that need to be completed. And we've entered into wedding-birthday-end-of-school-year-party season. The combination of these things means that our home life has descended into chaos. My kitchen floor looks like the before shots on "How Clean Is Your House", the Lovely Husband has no clean pants left and the Beautiful Girl has eaten more spaghetti-with-butter-and-Parmesan dinners than I would ever happily admit to.

In the midst of the madness though, there have been moments of loveliness. Lovely Husband and I had a rare night out, just the two of us. We went to Winterbourne House again, only this time instead of blazing sunshine and cream teas there was live jazz, by candlelight, on the lawns. It was a very special evening.

Then there was my birthday. Lovely Husband is officially World's Best Present Buyer and I've started life as a 34 year old (eek! How did that happen?!?) with a fantastic pile of books, perfume that makes me smell like peonies, series 1-5 of "House" (Hugh Laurie joining my Older Men I Have A Crush On list) and the most, most beautiful flask for picnics, camping holidays etc. On the day itself he was poaching smoked haddock at 6:30 a.m. for my favourite breakfast (omelette Arnold Bennett - yum!), complete with chocolate birthday cake. He's not called Lovely Husband for nothing, you know. In the evening friends arrived, laden with thoughtful, generous presents and we scoffed homemade rocky road and drank strawberry bellinis. All in all, I had a wonderful day and, without getting too cheesy, felt blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

Now we are all three finished with work and school for the summer and have very quickly found our holiday mojos. Only the second day in and we have already spent a lot of time in pyjamas. Got lots of lovely plans though and hope to blog a bit more often, as well as catching up on all the wonderful blogs I've not had time to read recently. Right now, bacon and eggs are calling though. (Another great thing about the holidays... plenty of time for greedy breakfasts!)

Vintage and Handmade Textile Fair

Vintage scraps of flowery fabrics; old wooden French cotton reels; green spotty ribbon to wind onto the reels; Liberty fabric-covered buttons. Tea and cake in a pretty courtyard. Long, uninterrupted converstaions with friends. It was just bliss. I'll definitely be back.

Deadly sin #4

Pride

OK... I'm not even going to pretend I'm anything other than utterly beside myself here.... I've been trying for so long to teach myself to crochet and then one day I have a breakthrough. All of a sudden I can do it! More than that - it's easy!

Whenever I sew or knit something I always enjoy the process but the end result is a bit... well, it's never quite how I imagine it will be. This time though the end result is (she says, immodestly) absolutely gorgeous. It is set to be a blanket for our bed, but as we have an enormous bed I've got a long way to go.

I took the blanket to show my aunt at a family get-together at the weekend (she is the most talented "domestic artist" I know) and she called it an heirloom. An heirloom! My Heirloom Blanket. Yep, absolutely beside myself.............

Just to add: the yarn is Rowan DK Extra Fine Merino. It's wonderful stuff - the colours are soft, yet deep and it is deliciously soft. I bought 4 balls, then, when I was certain it was working went back for more... only to find it on sale for less than half price! Bought 40 balls for £80, rather than £170. Even the yarn gods are smiling on the Heirloom Blanket!

Half term's been and gone....

............ and we had a lovely time.

I hosted a birthday afternoon tea for a friend who was visiting from Cornwall. It was so wonderful to see her and her two children and get our little group of friends together. The tea was yummy too. Did you spot my little collection of vintage teacups? And my cakestand, made with thrifted china? Am particularly proud of it because I've wanted one like it for ages, but couldn't justify the £40-ish I kept seeing them for. Mine cost the grand total of £3.25.

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We are big fans of Lauren Child in this house so when we heard a production of Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play was coming to town Beautiful Girl and I had to go. I wasn't at all sure how they would manage to bring the irrepressible characters to life but they did, wonderfully. Keep a lookout for it coming to a theatre near you!