Becoming Domestic

We had a lovely full house this weekend as our friends (two couples and their five children) came from Wanstead, East London to visit us here in the sticks.

We all had a really happy, relaxed time of it partly because the late November sun shone so we all got lots of hearty country air and exercise, the kids (all under 9 years old) got on fantastically well and enjoyed playing together, we kept the food and booze levels nice and high. Nobody (I hope) had more than a few moments between refreshments.

Now that our chums have left to go home and Bealers and I are sitting in the same breakfast room which saw so much chatting and eating this weekend we are saying that the food we did for the gang is a menu scheme we would do again - essentially hearty British winter stodge which everyone was able to pitch in with helping in the kitchen with preparation. Bealers and I talked on Thursday night about what we would eat and therefore what we needed to make and shop for and we’ve just agreed that it all went to plan - we particularly liked the fact that all the meals were done as a buffet in the kitchen for people to help themselves (or parents to help the little ones) which meant less clearing away afterwards…

Saturday lunch (kids & adults):

• Bread & butter
• Strong cheddar cheese
• Thick slices of ham cooked on the bone
• Quiches
• Cherry tomatoes
• Crisps & dips
• Soup (not really needed)
• Fruit juices (kids)
• Tea (adults)
• Victoria sponge cake
• (should have remembered that we had 8 jars of homemade pickled onions to use at this point but instead had them as h’ors d’oevres later)

[Big Walk]

Saturday tea/supper (kids):

• Pizzas (3 for six children)
• Chocolate upside down sponge pudding & cream
• Fruit & yoghurt

Saturday dinner (grown ups):

• 2 x roast chickens (stuffed with lemon, tarragon & garlic)
• Roast potatoes
• Roast parsnips
• Roast leeks & onions
• Stuffing
• Carrots
• Peas
• Cauliflower & broccoli cheese
• Champagne (thanks guys!)
• (far too full to even entertain the idea of desert - we would have had apricot tart & custard)

Sunday breakfast:

• Cereals
• Toast
• Croissants & pain au chocolat
• COFFEE
• Juice

[Blustery hilly walk]

Sunday brunch/lunch:

• Sausages
• Bacon
• Scrambled eggs
• Baked beans
• Tomatoes
• Brown bread & butter
• Fried potato
• MORE COFFEE

The plot of land we’ve had added on to our tenancy at the back of our garden has been a vegetable patch for many years as it was owned by the keen gardener next door neighbour and landlady. Emily Dennly had lived here since she was 5 years old when she came to live with her grandmother, the only child of the woman who built the two semi-detached houses in the late 1800s.

Emmy’s friend Janet, who continues to be a great source of inspiration and knowledge, has lobbied Miss Dennly’s nephew (our landlord) for this house to have the veg patch. She knew Emmy through the local walking society, has been a professional horticulturlist all her working life, keeps bees for their honey, makes chutney and teaches me as much as I can absorb about plant names, pruning tips.

We now have the opportunity to grow and eat huge amounts of lovely fruit and veg. My daughter Eden and I really enjoy gardening together and eating vegetables so we’re going to have a whale of a time. Darren has happily taken on the chore of chief digger which just leaves Mo to be inside reading or watching the tv (or wailing about how he wants to be indoors if you insist he comes out for some fresh air, sunshine and running around). Eden gave me the following list of veg we should grow as soon as I read her the letter from the letting agent telling us we were officially allow to garden the piece of land at the top of the garden:

• Sweetcorn on the cob
• Brocolli
• Corgettes
• Peas
• Tomatoes
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Beans
• Leeks
• Onions
• Garlic
• Cucumbers
• Cauliflowers
• Cabbages

Have you ever heard of a 3 year old who likes vegetables *this* much? Bless her for living up to her garden paradise name.
Anyhoo I’ve been Googling for some easy to digest info on how to get cracking on planning and implementing a new veg patch and have found out really quickly that it is really easy and really fun. There’s a few great hints and tips about how to get loads of things from a smallish plot (by growing a number of tall growing things like beans, cucumbers, melon [see melon anguish]. Oooh I can’t wait to get digging over, planting seeds, making cloches, mulching and then eating!

Janet has told me we need to create a pathway down the middle, to make sure we only plant things we like and to sow the rows from north/south so the sun shines on each side of the row throughout the course of the day.

Yay! I made £200 on eBay this week by selling just six things which have lived in the loft for the last few years.

Actually that’s not completely true the first thing I sold was the new Nokia mobile phone which was sent to me by the phone company for free last month. As my current mobile is perfectly adequate (and I finally know how it works) I decided to leave the new one in the box and sell it on eBay.

It reached the great price of £100 which I’m absolutely thrilled with as I would far rather have a new pair of boots than a pretty pink camera phone but I’ve just received an email from the would be purchaser telling me that he can’t pay me until next Friday until his pay cheque comes in. He asked whether I’d accept a cheque instead of PayPal but I’ve been warned by my hubby and others that this is a big No No with mobile phone sales and other ‘big ticket items’ on eBay as there are loads of dodgy geezers out there with new scams trying to rob people of their cash. Hopefully my experience won’t involve anyone like that but I’m not counting my eBay sales until the PayPal bucks are safely in my account.

More evidence this week that not everyone is aware of how to use the Freecycle Network to dispose of things one no longer needs or loves, when I went to put a cardboard box in the recycling centre I found to my horror/disbelief a huge pile of pristine, beautiful hardback books about Britain’s countryside, villages and wildlife.

Look even Big Ted (b. 1971) has come out to enjoy the new arrivals!

As a self-confessed, non-fiction book freak I was completely amazed that anyone could dump such wonderful books into the container which was destined to be pulped and made into recycled paper and cardboard. Grrrrr and aaaarrrgh! What is the matter with people today? To me this is yet more evidence that society has completely forgotten the value of Things. Just a few generations ago such books would have been highly prized luxury items to be looked after and cherished yet today they are just refuse (to some people).

I went and fetched the friendly recycling assistant who I’d said Hi to on my way in, fluttered my eyelashes a little more and told him there were some books I’d love to rescue. Apparently he had to retrieve them steathily as his supervisor was around and the rules are that people aren’t allowed to remove items from the containers… In total I got 9 super new books which the kids and I looked at all afternoon finding maps of places we knew, pictures of creatures we hadn’t known the name of etc. but felt sad that the other books in the bin hadn’t also gone to more loving homes.
Yet more eveidence also this week when my amazing friend Janet continued the very sad task of having to clear out the huge house of her good friend Emmy who lived in the house next door for 90 years (and owned the one we live in) until she died a couple of months ago. She told me that it was heartbreaking work not because of the passing of her dear friend but because Janet is super-green and recycles everything and the people she was working with to clear Emmy’s treasures so the house can be sold are not and almost everything the woman owned was going straight in the skip as they didn’t know what else to do with it. Beautiful collectable china, amazing framed photographs and watercolours, no end of fabulous kitchen equipment (don’t worry the microwave is no longer destined for the landfill as it will be rehomed in Bealers’ offices!), books, furniture EVERYTHING was being chucked away instead of being offered out on the Freecycle Network to people who would be able to get years of further use out of each item.

I promised Janet I would collect a bunch of Freecycle flyers from the local library and always have a stash on me in case I speak to people about the scheme as it looks more organised than a scribbled URL on a scrap of paper which one would lose almost immediatly.

My Perfect Calendar arrived this morning! Our friend Kurt has set up a new online enterprise www.myperfectcalendar.co.uk making FANTASTIC personalised calendars from any photos you upload. Mine arrived this morning and I am so thrilled at how huge and glossy it is. The other great thing about the product is that the calendar can start on any month. It’ll make a great present for one of the doting grandparents.

(NB. the pic below is not the calendar but a screenshot from the v. easy to use website with the photos I chose for our calendar)

The children and I went to tea at a new friend’s house this afternoon. Luke lives on a nearby dairy farm so we were all very excited about feeding the animals, seeing new born calves and generally sploshing around in stinky mud (yes I did have the forethought to pack some spare clothes, wellies and slippers). The kids played really well together and Luke’s mum, Jules, and I chatted non-stop the whole time we were with them.

Driving home just now I was thinking about how lucky Bealers, the children and I have been to meet such great people since we moved here just 4.5 months ago. I was warned against moving away from London by a few people as we would miss our social life but luckily we have not been short of people inviting us to parties, to tea, quiz nights and just for a beer at the local.

Having children does make it easier to hook up with people when they have children of a similar age but also it really pays to be smiley and chatty (and not worry too much about appearing to be a nutter) as some of my favourite new friends have been ‘picked up’ in the most random of places (Helen I met whilst getting eggs at the local farm, Bryony, a friend of Helen’s, met at the local Post Office, Pete & Julia by the bouncy castle at summer fete) and also Upton people have approached me to ask if I’d like to come along to things they have been involved in (thanks Sam, Karen & Janet).

It is a bit nerve wracking moving away from top mates and to a place where no-one knows you but so far my advice would be to go for it as you will soon meet new people by getting involved in the local community and by being friendly and open about how much you like meeting new folks.

Out of all of the new friends I have made not one of them is from this area originally. People are so mobile these days that almost everyone was once the new girl/chap in the village and can empathise with what it’s like to be away from loved ones.

Oh the joy of seeing a bezzy mate twice in one week. Jane, Juan and Martha are the only residents of Skomer island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. Jane has spent four days in London while Juan took Martha to see his parents but now they can’t back to their home while the wind is so strong as the boat would be too dangerous to sail. They came to visit us for the afternoon yesterday.

What joy to see Martha toddling around and making conversation (with blessed little one-word sentences). We shall have to stop calling her Baby Martha soon… Eden and Martha played really nicely together and us grown up ladies had chance to chat, eat flapjacks and sit-down.

Thanks so much for coming over to see us and thanks also for the wonderful pile of books.

I’ve finally got round to selling some of my things on eBay. Just as well as the mound of kids clothes, baby equipment and ‘retro’ goodies is now reaching the ceiling in the spare room which can’t make for a very nice night’s sleep for our weary guests!

Here’s a list of things I am selling - go on grab yourself a bargain, happy bidding!

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it is to get an item listed for sale. I’m really looking forward to having less clutter and more cash from selling the things we no longer love having in our house.

My oldest friend (from 1984) and I have children the same age (Hannah was born a few weeks after our twins in 2003) but she and her husband now have gorgeous non-ID twin baby girls too who are now 7 months old.

I stayed the night with them on Saturday while I was in London as couldn’t resist an opportunity to see Deborah, John and their brood and as I remarked to them they are the picture of tranquility and happiness and seem to find their recent additions to the family far easier than when they first became parents.

Deborah is a firm believer in sticking to a strict routine with her babies as she is able to plan around the babies’ feeding & sleep times. She knows that at 9am when the little ones go down for their morning nap she will have 30 mins in which she is able to get herself washed and dressed, similarly at lunchtime she is able to have a good chunk of time (usually up to 2 hours) where she can do many of the household chores which can’t be done when two babies are needing entertaining and cuddling. Deborah is also able to spend time with the babies’ big sister knowing that three times a day the babies will be asleep at the same time.

Deborah and I both love Gina Ford’s ‘Contented Little Baby’ book with its detailed prescriptive schedules for young babies. I only discovered her book when my kids were nearly 3 months old and it brought me sanity when I thought I would never be able to get a handle on being mummy to two babies but Deborah’s youngest children have been in the ‘Gina routine’ since they were born. The whole family are obviously thriving on it as they have radiant good looks, energy, a really lovely clean house and super super children.

Well done Debba you are really special. xxx

Aunty Madders visited London for the weekend to hunt for bridal wear with her mum and Emma (sister in law)! and so I travelled down on the £1 Megabus from Cheltenham to spend yesterday with her. She very kindly bought the children some super luxury jazzy socks/tights from Milano where she lives and also bought them each a monogrammed mug the same as we have (as a wedding gift from Maz 5 years ago) from Heals while I wasn’t looking…

It was so lovely to see you Mad, Janer, Tis & Ruth - what a fantastic tonic you ladies are. More chatty afternoon teas for us please!