Thursday 28 January 2010

Letting go

It's hard isn't it?

You feed them, clothe them, try to teach them the essential lessons of life

You worry and fuss about them all the time.

But one day you have to be brave and let them go it alone.

My friends all told me, you can't hold on to them forever.

And so it was that today, filled with apprehension, I did it.

I finally gave Lily her first taste of freedom.




Which is hard when she's a whippet puppy and you'd have no chance of catching her if she did decide to run away.

As it was, the small butchers shop I had in my pocket seemed to do the trick. She had a great time tearing around the field unfettered by the lead and accepted the bribes to return to me with suitable enthusiasm.

It was good to get her safely back home though.




And, like all good babies, she slept for hours after all the excitement.

Wednesday 27 January 2010

A note from my childminder

Oh dear...

... she must have picked up the wrong children!

Sunday 24 January 2010

A day of roast...

...but not much rest.

As a child, we had Sunday dinner, well, every Sunday. Nothing fancy, maybe a joint of meat rather than the chops that accompanied the potatoes and vegetables on most other days of the week.

It was never a big deal. No cookery books were consulted, no TV chefs proffered advice on a nightly basis and the vegetables were usually on the boil the Wednesday before.

But now I'm all grown up with a house and children of my own and we rarely have a traditional Sunday roast so, when I make one as a special request, it really is a BIG DEAL.


The chicken has a lemon stuck up its backside as recommended by Nigella, the roast potatoes are suitably crunchified thanks to Delia and the sprouts, get me, are homegrown.


And it was delicious. We should do this more often I think and then...
...I see the sink full of dirty pans and I realise that I'm still wearing the sweaty kit I went running in hours ago - hardly the picture of glamorous domesticity. Maybe next week we'll eat out instead!

Friday 22 January 2010

The biscuit tin

Such a lovely tin. Huntley and Palmers, don't you know?



But why has it been hiding in the back of a cupboard for so long?


What secrets does it contain?




Treasure? Or......


...the undeniable evidence that, for much of my youth, I could have been an understudy for Bet Lynch?!

Thursday 21 January 2010

Confessions of a lurker

It’s time to come clean. I’ve been reading other people's blogs for quite some time now but have only recently had the good manners/plucked up the courage to comment on a few of them. As ali was one of the first bloggers I stumbled upon and, as she has raised the lurking question generally, I thought I’d share my story.

I'm a bit of a technophobe really, not what you'd call an early adopter, so to be honest I only found out about blogging by accident. I was going through a "useless" patch. House was a tip (still is come to that), work was getting me down (ditto) and I was searching around the internet for ways to get organised.

What I found was the FlyLady. Now, although she has some good ideas, I just couldn't get on with some of her more "Praise the Lord" and "Stepford Wife" suggestions. All a bit too American (not that I have anything against Americans or people who praise the lord - it's just not me).

So I decided to see if there was a UK equivalent, and in the process stumbled across blogging. I think Becoming Domestic was the first one I found and from there I linked to Frugal Trenches and Ted and Agnes. And that was it - I was hooked. There were these women downshifting, growing vegetables, making beautiful things, living the idyllic life I dreamed of. A quick Google search then brought me to Domesticali who even had my dream job in a cake selling bookshop. From there I linked to The Magpie Files which then became ...the sight of morning.... Then it was on to The Coffee Lady and Silverpebble. And the list goes on, though most of the above are still my most regular places to lurk.

So why did it take me so long to comment? Fear, I guess. I wasn't sure if I was even allowed to comment if I didn't have a blog of my own. And, because most of the blogs I visit are linked to each other, I felt it might be a bit of an exclusive club where my clamouring for attention may not be welcome. You know, trying to hang out with the popular girls...

How wrong I was. Something about this post finally persuaded me to put my head above the parapet. It was a scary feeling, pressing the submit button, but then I got a lovely email back from ali and that was all the encouragement I needed. I still don't comment as often as I should but I'm getting better.

And now I've started blogging (does just 2 posts count?) I guess I've got no excuses anymore. Already I can see that it must be nice to get a comment. All I have to do now is write something worth commenting on!

Monday 18 January 2010

Oh, what have I done?

I've only gone and done it.
After months of deliberating, the odd tentative comment and a lot of lurking in the shadows I've (whisper) started blogging.
Oh my, this wasn't really meant to happen.
I'm at work and my lunch hour is about to end.
I have no lovely photos to post.
I don't even have anything to say at the moment.
I blame ali.
I only skimmed through this post earlier but it made me feel, what......guilty? inadequate? inspired? a bit of a stalker?
Or maybe it was just the gentle push that I needed.
Hmmm...we'll see.
Thanks ali - I think.