Category: Family life
Ode to Creative Coffee..
We had our final Creative Coffee EVER yesterday…a day of sadness, joy..and achievement all rolled into one.
Sometime it’s the simple things in life that make the magic and one of those things for me were Creative Coffee Mornings. They were started by the lovely Sophy many years ago now, when she made the genius decision that chatting over coffee with young children was so much more fun when creating was involved. Originally we’d all take over our unfinished projects and use the time to give ourselves much needed permission to complete them. Then Sophy and best friend, Minta developed it further and prepared, for a small fee, everything in advance with a termly timetable of once-weekly delights. From sugar craft to liqueurs to making sausages…it was the perfect antidote to urban brain boil.
Now Minta is off to pastures new – a whole new chapter is opening up for her in the wilds of Scotland, which I know she’ll relish and grab with both hands…but she’ll be missed.
Wednesday mornings will never be quite the same again..
(These are not handmade rolls but an edible sculpture, entitled ‘eight nude elderly ladies tying their shoelaces’..)
So I raise a cupcake to the wonders of Creative Coffee and all who sailed in her…. Ladies, it was a commanding performance with a spectacular range, lead with aplomb and an indescribable magical touch of alchemy. Thank you for the opportunity to spend time with some of the best women I know laughing, baking, making and creating. The memories will live long..(well..those that aren’t addled by sloe gin…)
I absolutely loved it.
Laters, Kate x
Oh Charlie….
I’m not sure what it is…end-of-term-itus, the weather..a growth surge? But Charlie and I are having regular run-ins like a pair of bulls in mating season. I picked him and Bella up from school just the other day and he got upset because I refused to carry his bag. I never carry his bag – it’s a principal. But because it had a library book in it, a big one chosen by him, he wanted me to. I had 4 bags and a laptop to carry. There was no way. He moaned and moaned. So I gave him my bags and took his. He couldn’t walk..and moaned again. Took my bags back and told him to stop complaining. He complained more. I said if he didn’t stop, I would dock 20p off his pocket money. He lost 20p. Then I realised we had to go to the shops before going home as Bella had a school trip the next day and needed a packed lunch. In the time it took us to get to the shop he’d lost £4.00. I asked him to wait outside the shop so I couldn’t hear him whine. He refused. By the time we eventually got home he was £8.00 down. I advised him in no uncertain terms that after 45 minutes of pure torture he got out of my sight before I did something I regretted, and maybe the best thing to do would be to go up to his room and punch a pillow till he’d calmed down and could be human again.
Five minutes later he re-appeared with arms outstretched saying, ‘I’m sorry Mummy,’
I went to give him a cuddle…
He looked up at me with his big brown eyes full of concern…’I’m so sorry Mummy….but unless you change your attitude I’m going to have to leave home.’
I pointed down the hall, ‘There’s the front door.’
Laters, Kate x
Clean Slate x
Old fashioned..or functional and full of character? Anaglypta or embossed wallpaper has that decisive, divisional effect.
Personally, I love it..it protects walls from the bumps and bangs of everyday life and offers a rich, timeless texture that’s hard to find anywhere else.
My marmite moment was what they did to it in the eighties..blinging the raised bits with lightly brushed metallic gold and copper paint..I can feel the bile rising all over again. But in a deep, dark matt grey or black?
(last 2 pictures mine, all the others from Pinterest)
It’s time to experiment with samples..how high should the dado go? Maybe a whole wall of anaglypta..different anaglyptas….the mind is happily starting to bubble..
Laters, Kate x
Mr and Mrs!
A cloudless sky..a balmy day..a beautiful bride..a beaming groom..there’s not much that beats the pure thrilling tide of love a wedding inspires. It’s that pure moment of magic when you get to celebrate a fork in the path of people you love, because they’ve chosen to walk that way together, forever. (Or in this case, dancing, singing…..laughing..)
(Great pic by Kayte Cable!)
The gorgeous bride (naturally) (as your do) MADE HER OWN DRESS. Respect….(I think we can all be proud of the way we have brought her up..she’s a credit to us!)
(Heart-stealer Wilf also stealing Sarah’s limelight)
The service was delivered with suitable grandee gravitas, impeccable diction and great teeth.
Full of the potent force of shared years/drunken forays that make 20 years disappear to re-awaken the past in bright, nostalgic technicolor. Flamboyant, slapstick and joyful with a pearly heat haze of pure charm and happiness.
And then the dancing began!
Spinning, twisting, whirling into the night…
Congratulations you lovely, lovely pair!!!!!!
Laters, Kate x
7 Questions..
Favourite Colour: Blue..denim, navy, the sea, the sky..it rocks.
Best trait: I value the simple things in life..but truthfully, what I hold truly dear doesn’t a lot, but is ultimately priceless.
Worst trait: I like to think I’m tidy, but I fear I’m not – things just get discarded like the feathers from a plucked chicken so there’s a perpetual circle of chaos around me. I’m also surprisingly crap with technology – I’m not an obsessive checker and regularly lose my phone. I see the internet as something wonderful but inherently dangerous and I suspect losing my phone is a Freudian way of trying to keep a distance from it’s pull.
Oldest item in wardrobe: Hard to say – there’s a fair amount of vintage with unknown heritage, but I do have a cream cape that used to belong to my Grandmother. It’s a treasure.
Newest item: Vintage silk dress bought on Ebay and dyed black, otherwise it’s my Miss Hellfire stripey shoes..certainly different and surprisingly comfortable..
Favourite piece of music: Schubert Lieder sung by Ian Bostridge which shouldn’t work because he’s a light, English tenor, but does..maybe because it’s such intelligent singing.
The last time I laughed: Charlie was asking me about the world’s tallest animal. I said ‘Giraffe’..he looked at me in surprise, and said ‘But what about the Decondra lizard Mummy? It’s at least 2 metres taller, lives in South African and has the ability to make anything you need – if you’re in the Arctic and you need a coat, the Decondra will just make one for you..it can also make plastic..and toys..basically it’s the best pet ever to have..just a big shame it’s so tall’..deep sigh…..
Laters, Kate x
Trial 1..
The inspiration..
The recipe.
The attempt.
That never progressed beyond this.
The aftermath.
The rain.
(Trial 2…soon….I will not be beaten. My garden might…)
Laters, Kate x
In England’s green and pleasant land..
We spent the Bank Holiday weekend with family in the light, clean air of the country, marvelling at the fresh greens and bright colours of early summer, whiling away happy hours reading papers that got read, drinking wine and watching dogs happily snoring in the sun.
Their’s is a garden that represents all that is good about England; It’s a place were time stands still yet life buzzes around.
It’s a joy just to walk around and breathe in.
And the children love the freedom of space..
(Taken just for Lauren..)
They have the most amazing tree..
Like something straight out of Doctor Seuss and The Lorax..
I loved it..made me giggle and sigh.
There was much playing of football with cousins and dogs till the sun went down. Gentle, simple..heavenly.
Laters, Kate x
Black Beauty.. x
Welcome to my unexpected night of bacchanalian revelry with it’s feast for the eyes and over-flowing platters of deliciousness.
Unexpected because it was a Corporate night out with The Husband and his suits…
But then strange things can happen when you mix the dark arts with a private viewing of the McQueen exhibition..
Pure alchemy..
Laters, Kate x
Morden Hall Park x
My book club book (due for discussion next week) is H for Hawk, a memoir by author Helen Macdonald about raising a Goshawk in a time of grief. So it was pretty thrilling to go to the Morden Hall Park Country Fayre on Bank Holiday monday to see live birds in action.
Morden Hall Park is a National Trust property right at the end of the Northern line where the river Wandle, the river used by William Morris to power his factory, flows powerfully through.
It’s a place that manages to marry urban and country in seamless unity..and this Fayre was no exception.
A barn owl flying over one of Charlie’s class mates.
Full of people but still far from the Madding crowds, there were salt of the earth stalls like this man, quietly making the most beautiful and realistic flys for fishing.
In the grounds blacksmiths and basket weavers were practising their fine arts.
There was even time to catch bubbles..
With miniature steam trains, ferret racing, dog shows, lots of animals as well as traditional stalls..and not so traditional ones…it was a genuinely great and unexpected day out.
But that’s the nature of Morden Hall Park – they really like to embrace the wild. In July they’re holding a Big Camp weekend with the opportunity to set up an overnight camp in the same field that Lord Nelson tethered his horse whilst he fished in the River Wandle and two days of ranger led activities with dinner cooked on a camp fire and story telling. Just gutted we’ll be away…next time Rodders, next time..
Laters, Kate x
6 Today!!
It’s Charlie’s birthday today..a date that always brings back memories. He was due on the 18 May but I had a date with the operating theatre on the 11 May for a planned c-section. Then I went in on the 5 May for a routine check-up..and was told I had pre-eclampsia and wasn’t going home – I just thought I was feeling shite from being pregnant and looking after a toddler. I was prepped and ready for an 8.00 am section the next morning…and finally was wheeled into theatre at 10.20 pm that evening: the joys of a busy hospital and not being a priority…but, despite nil by mouth all day, I did get to enjoy the last kicks I would ever feel and savoured every one of them. When he finally came out I can still remember the shock of being told his weight – I ‘d been on regular monthly growth scans because of problems with my blood and his umbilical cord and they’d all shown he was within normal limits…then they weighed him and he was a mere 5 lbs 8 oz..he was absolutely perfect but so very, very tiny..but I was always crap at the pregnancy lark – his poor umbilical cord was like a piece of string…honestly, it’s a miracle either of my children made it through – out of 12, they were the ones that did – and for that I am and will remain eternally grateful.
(With his cousin Bea)
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 