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A thousand to one

Merry Christmas!  A lady from my Dad's church asked me if I had written a poem about the Christmas star.  I said I hadn't, but I would be happy to try.  Since it has now been shared with its intended recipients, I thought you all might like to read it too. A thousand stars were shining in the black and brilliant sky When the Eastern kings were searching for a meaning from on high. A thousand stars were shining, but the wise men followed One. A thousand lamps were beckoning in the dwellings on their way As the magi journeyed onwards through the long and weary day. A thousand lamps were beckoning, but the wise men searched for One. A thousand sparkles shimmered in the stable bare and cold, From the flasks of richest perfume and the gleam of purest gold. A thousand sparkles shimmered as the wise men honoured One. A thousand lights of Christmas now shine out in radiant joy, All in cheerful celebration of the birth of Mary’s boy. A thousand lig

Christmas cakes

I finally got around to icing the Christmas cakes, but I think the mince pies will have to be a new year's event instead.  Well, and why not?  Following the tradition of recent years, I baked a large square cake from Nigella's recipe in How to Be a Domestic Goddess , cut it in half and iced each part separately.  This has the dual advantages of providing more icing and making the cake keep better.  Not that it ever seems to keep that long. Long thin cakes lend themselves to long thin decorations, do they not? Or else to digging out that old standby, the Christmas cookie cutters.  Every year I think I might do something really fancy, and then I run out of time and think, well, the important thing is that it tastes good! Merry Christmas!

A difficult time of year

No, it's not been an easy Christmas.  I wanted to feel it, you know, all the joy and goodwill, but it's been hard work from start to end.  It always seems harder, doesn't it, when everyone else is out enjoying themselves and you're stuck in a dreary grind of endless details.  Like you're in a little gray world of your own. You wouldn't believe how much paperwork there's been.  I'd put that application in from my parents' address months ago.  Never thought it would come to anything, but all of a sudden I got a call to say there's a council flat available down there.  I couldn't say no, could I?  Not in the circumstances.  Even though it only meant moving to the other end of the sodding country.  So we packed up quick as we could and stuffed the Astra as tight as a Christmas turkey, and then - then what happens?  "Oh I'm sorry sir, there's been an administrative mistake.  You can't move in until the end of January."  Fa

Christmas scribbles

My writing muse has been working elsewhere this week, but I felt like it was about time for a new blog post.  So, a few quick Christmassy scribbles to keep you entertained. 1. I have not had a mince pie yet.  There is a mincemeat samosa recipe that I'd like to try, but we have been drowning in cake recently because we hosted a Christmas social and everyone brought ridiculously calorific and amazingly huge cakes from Costco and refused to take them home .  This is some kind of conspiracy. 2. We have, however, had Christmas cupcakes, decorated by Toby.  He had a great time doing them.  Meanwhile his little brother demolished an entire cupcake and tipped washing powder all over the floor. 3. On a related note, putting up the tree feels like the sort of thing that should be a family activity, but trying to deal with two excited boys tying the lights in knots and throwing baubles at my head tends to make me stressed very quickly.  Once we had the tree sorted, I waited unti

Monthly Munch: November 2015

It's been one of those months where we've felt a bit battered.  As well as the violence in Paris, we've had news of several friends suffering from severe injury or illness, which has torn at our hearts.  Moreover, the weather has blown us around, soaked us, hit us with hail, and even tried to snow on us slightly.  Despite all that, some chinks of sunlight have found their way through, both metaphorically and literally.  When you live with two small boys, there are always going to be some giggles. Toby  - was very excited about going to see fireworks for Bonfire Night.  He was the one jumping up and down and cheering. Fun with sparklers... ...and light sabres. - is doing really well with learning cursive handwriting. - announced that he "loves green beans" when I went to have a school lunch with him.  Something I had not previously suspected. Quotes: When my Dad was getting all intellectual in his sermon and talking about the relationship b

What is a blog?

Well, what is a blog?  And why am I asking the question now, after seven years of writing one?  You'd think I might have worked out the answer already.  But there's nothing like meeting hundreds of other bloggers to start you wondering again... Of course, the first shock is that there actually are hundreds of other bloggers.  And that they make so much NOISE!  As I descended the escalator to the venue for Mumsnet Blogfest 2015, the clamour of dozens of voices rose up to meet me.  There was no one in the crowded hall that I knew; but although many others had also come alone, you couldn't have told it from the level of conversation. Panel session with live link to Margaret Atwood It quietened down once we had drunk our coffee and entered the auditorium.  The speakers covered a wide range of the writing world; from authors to agents, columnists to comedians, and brand experts to bloggers.  Every discussion was very entertaining, with plenty of humour and some thought

Apple Treacle Tart

This is one of those scrappy puddings that I conjured up out of a bit of leftover pastry and whatever I could find to throw into it.  Traditional treacle tart is composed of golden syrup and breadcrumbs, which is precisely as sickly sweet as it sounds.  When I spotted a recipe which included grated apple, it sounded as if it might cut the sweetness quite nicely.  So I gave it a try. Apple Treacle Tart pastry made with 2 oz butter and 4 oz flour 1 large slice of bread, made into breadcrumbs 1 eating apple, peeled, cored and grated juice of 1 lemon 3 tablespoons of golden syrup Roll out the pastry and use to line a flan dish or other shallow dish (I used a lid from one of my Pyrex casserole dishes).  Mix together the breadcrumbs, apple, lemon juice and golden syrup.  I had a whole lemon that needed using, but that did make it quite lemony; try half a lemon if you prefer.  Taste and see if you like the sweetness, and add a bit more syrup or lemon juice if it needs it.  Spread

The Way of Peace

In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. These words are read every day in the Anglican service of Morning Prayer.  They speak of the coming of Jesus at Christmas, as foretold by Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.  They speak of the hope that we hold, that there can be light in the darkness, peace in troubled times.   And today, many times, they have been spoken by Christians around the world. Yet there are times when to profess religion seems to make a mockery of life.  There are times when speaking of the tender compassion of our God sounds like a cruel joke.  There are times when each day dawns darker than the one before, the shadow of death overwhelms us, and the way of peace has vanished into quicksand.  What does it mean, in those times, to continue to say these words? It means nothing if they are merely an incan

Monthly Munch: October 2015

A mixed month.  We enjoyed visits from Graham's sister, Graham's parents, and my parents (not quite all at once!).  We suffered with lots of night-time waking, and sick boys during half-term.  We celebrated Toby's birthday .  I finished work, which made me happy and sad at the same time.  And we put the clocks back, which means it really does feel like winter. Toby Look at those cheeky grins! - learned to ride his bike without stabilisers! On the Tissington Trail - is learning phonics with sign language at school.  He regularly gives us demonstrations. - got a remote control car for his birthday, and got the hang of driving it straight away. - loves to chat, but sometimes gets a bit stuck while he remembers what to say next: "Well... I mean... well... the thing is..." Theo - can sing "E-I-E-I-O" at the right time in "Old MacDonald had a farm". - dances along to "Gangnam Style" (Oh yes!). - loves

Jungle Animal Birthday

Finally!  It feels as if we've been saying that Toby's "nearly five" for the whole year that he was four.  But now he is well and truly five years old.  To celebrate, he requested a jungle animal themed party.  We decided to risk inviting seven children to our house - which seems relatively unusual.  Most of the parties Toby has been to have been at the village hall or a soft play area.  Admittedly this way did involve a little more planning, preparation, and moving of breakable items upstairs, but we enjoyed it.  Oh, and the kids did, too. So, the games.  Some party games are non-negotiable; so I spent half an hour entombing a present in many layers of jungle animal wrapping paper, and Graham spent fifteen minutes sweating over the music player, trying to make sure that every child got a turn to unwrap it. Apart from that, we had: - wooden animal shapes to decorate with pens and stick-on felt pieces; - Crocodile Swamp - jump on a piece of wood when the

On the gift of a skipping-rope

"Martha, tha's brought me thy wages like a good lass, an' I've got four places to put every penny, but I'm just goin' to take tuppence out of it to buy that child a skippin'-rope." So says the warm-hearted Mrs Sowerby to her daughter in Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic The Secret Garden .  And the gift of a skipping-rope begins a change in Mary Lennox, helping to transform her from a spoilt and sickly orphan to a strong and spirited young lady. This quote was jiggling around my mind the other day, because life was hectic.  "I've got three places to put every minute," I thought.  If I wasn't doing this then I could be doing that , and if I wasn't doing that then I could be doing that other thing... But sometimes, even in those kind of times, there is something that makes you say, "I'm just going to take two minutes out." Money and time share some characteristics; a certain rigidity and a certain fl

Up the apples

Autumn is for apples!  Our generous neighbours across the road have once again been setting out trays of windfalls for anyone to help themselves.  After I'd stewed and frozen a few bagfuls, I decided it was time to try out some new recipes, which you are welcome to peruse below. We also went along to Calke Abbey's Apple Day, where we got to wander round the orchard and taste some of the dozen or so traditional varieties that they grow.  We enjoyed the Ribston Pippin enough to buy a bagful.  The bag then broke in the unlit and sloping Gardeners' Tunnel, and we had to chase runaway apples down the hill in the dark!  Apple tasting.  Yes I know I have grass all down my back. Toby helped out with some apple pressing.  The machine chewed up and squashed down a mass of apples to produce juice, all run on manpower (or childpower) alone.  The juice tasted mostly of bruised apple though, I thought.  Perhaps it would be better fermented. He pushed the handle round to c

National Poetry Day: Light

Today is National Poetry Day .  Poetry is the fine dining of literature.  We spend most of our days tossing together the everyday pasta of prose, finding a few quick metaphors in the fridge and splashing in a dash of humour to add to the flavour.  But sometimes we want to spend the extra time to make a meal to linger over.  We pick out the best of our rare similes and assemble them artfully, paying careful attention to rhyme and metre.  The restrictions force us to pare down to the essentials, letting the flavour of the ingredients speak for themselves.  The intention is not just to sate the appetite for words, but to stroke the senses and stir the imagination.  To create an occasion.  A poem. I'm afraid my blog is not a fine dining establishment this evening.  I tried to put some ingredients together, but they somehow failed to produce anything worth keeping.  Fortunately others are better poetry chefs than I am, and they have left a menu.  You can enjoy the free National Po

Monthly Munch: September 2015

This month we have had to adjust to being parents of an actual school student!  The amount of new information has been almost as bewildering for us as for him, but we are starting to get our heads around the mysteries of phonics, online communication and what to take for show and tell. September sunflowers We've enjoyed plenty of warm sunny days, so the boys have been getting lots of outdoor play.  At this time of year you feel like you want to soak up every last minute of sunlight before the cold and dark close in.  I've been painting the fence. Toby - started primary school!  We've had some tears and fears, but gradually the worries are dying down and the enjoyment is creeping up.  He's already won a certificate for an excellent picture of his house. Walking to school, first day. OBE: Our Best Ever - got to sit in the driver's seat of a winning racecar at Donington racetrack -achieved a childhood rite of passage by falling off his bike