Remember not to rush...

One of the other mums at I.'s school brought me up short with a comment today when I met her while picking I. up - "You seem to be in a rush today - calm down" she said. And, thinking about it, I realised she was quite right - in fact I was feeling quite breathlesss from rushing. It had been one of those days - I had been into the city, birthday-and-Christmas-and clothes for DD2's-work experience next week-shopping, come home, done a few jobs and had a quick blog-browse then realised I was runnung a bit late to pick I up. But it is more than just one day - I seem to rush at life a lot of the time, even feeling anxious and a bit panicky about all the things I feel I need to get done. Even though I have taken the decision to cut back on some activities ( I talked about this here) I still feel sometimes there are not enough hours in the day, and this also leads to me staying up too late and ending up a tired and grumpy mama.
The picture above is of me with my littlest and biggest on the beach at Wells-next-the Sea ( one of our very favourite family places) last February and is there to remind me to calm down and remember not to rush through this life of mine. To be honest, it's going too fast anyway...

Memories in a tree

I love this little tree. It is a winter-flowering cherry (Prunus Subhirtella Autumnalis) which was one of the first trees we planted when we moved here nearly 6 years ago. Then it was tiny, quite ungainly in the way its branches fell. Now it is filling out and becoming more graceful. I love it for the beautiful autumn colour, and the anticipation of the starry white flowers adorning the bare branches in winter. Most of all, though, I love it for the memories it represents - we had a much larger version of this tree outside the front of our house in S.W. and it was a special place for the girls when they were very young - almost magical. They used to hold tea parties for their dolls and themselves under its shelter and it was a joy to look at with it's firey leaves in autumn and abundant blossom in winter. When we sold the house to move here, the purchasers were concerned about the tree's roots getting into the drains and they cut "our" beautiful tree down.

So the young tree in the photo above is the repository for me of all those memories and will, I hope, go on to make its own memories. The girls are too old now to hold dolls' tea parties, and I. is only really interested in trees if he can climb them, but I hope that one day its branches will be shading the patio where we will be eating our meals outside, and maybe one far-off day, when the tree is really quite big and old, my grand-children might hold dolls' tea-parties under its shelter.

Duvet day

Yesterday a pale, tired, headachey-and-tummyachey boy greeted me when I woke him up. Not exactly ill, but not exactly well either, and definitely someone who needed a day just being at home. So we had a lovely, restorative day quietly at home, a lot of which was spent snuggled under his duvet, lying on the rug reading or playing. I. loves his duvet and usually appears downstairs in the morning wrapped in it, having trailed it down the stairs like a prince trailing his cloak.

By teatime, the rosiness had been restored to I.'s cheeks and all achiness was forgotten. He ended the day happily relaxing on a makeshift "sofa" in front of the woodburner. A happy day indeed.

I just couldn't resist

this gorgeous Rowan reindeer pattern which is in the current issue of Knitting magazine, and I got the wool for it in John Lewis while I was supposedly beginning my Christmas shopping yesterday. I've never knitted a toy before, but I'm looking forward to having a go at this once I've finished working up my pinafore pattern.

On my needles

...and on my lap this morning is my new design. It is a "no sew" baby/toddler pinafore dress in Rowan handknit cotton which I am in the last stages of test kniting and writing up the pattern. I hope to have it as a download on Ravelry in the near future.

Started out here as a lovely bright morning - now it has clouded over. I think it may be time to light the woodburner...

Alone at home...on a weekend

While I'm often in the house alone during the week with R at work and the children at school, it's very unusual for me to have any time in the house by myself at the weekends. But this morning E was still at our friends' house where she had stayed overnight after a fireworks party, and R went with I and L into the city, and I was here unexpectedly by myself for an hour or so until E returned. I don't know whether it was to do with the pale autumn sunlight in the rooms downstairs, but the house felt especially peaceful, not as if it was holding it's breath waiting for the family to return, but as though it was breathing out in the quiet after a typical busy, noisy, week.

The house settled down around me as I pottered about, clearing up, washing dishes...just the house and me...blissful.

Crab-apple jelly

Coming into the kitchen when I woke up this morning I was greeted by the sight of the sunshine glinting through the jars of crab-apple jelly which I made yesterday which I had left to cool down on the kitchen table. They certainly are a wonderful colour, but although the jelly is set, it looks as though it will be quite runny - I think the fruits from our tree, which is the variety "Evereste", may not have as much pectin in as some crab-apples.
It was easy and fun to do and I used a doubled -over piece of muslin, which I wet and then wrung out, instead of a jelly bag - I had checked out the prices of a jelly bag and stand at Lakeland - £18! Halving all the fruit took a bit of time as the crab-apples I used were quite small.
Here is the recipe I used, given to me by my neighbour, Liz:
Crab-apple Jelly
6lb crab-apples
4 pints water
sugar - 1lb to each pint of juice yielded
(note: I used 4.5lbs apples, so I needed only 3 pints water. This quantity yielded 2.75 pints juice to which I added 2.75 lbs sugar.)

1) Wash fruit and cut apples into halves.
2) Put into preserving pan or large heavy-bottomed pan with the water.
3) Bring to boil and then simmer gently for 45mins to an hour. Resist stirring during this time as this can make the jelly cloudy, but be careful the apples don't catch and scorch on the bottom of the pan when bringing to the boil.
4) Strain the pulp through a jelly bag or muslin for at least 2 hours or overnight.
5) Measure the yield of the strained juice and add 1lb sugar to each pint juice.
6) In the pan, bring to the boil and boil until setting point is reached - between 5 and 20 mins depending on amount of pectin in the fruit.
7) Fill pre-washed and sterilised jars while the jars are still warm and put on lids.
8) Enjoy and/or give to friends!