Busy, busy...

Well it's Wednesday and I'm still recovering from the weekend, I'm getting old I just can't take the pace! On Friday I went out with some girlfriends to celebrate a birthday (not mine!). On Saturday, the two little things, Darling Husband and I went to Woburn Safari Park, we all had a great time. Then we went to my dad's 70th birthday party at a beautiful hotel on Sunday. Little man wandered off with our camera and took some great shots, this one looks professional, he's a better photographer than us!

I'm dreaming of a white christmas...

Well, I can dream can't I?! I'm starting to think about Christmas, and before you bury your head in your hands some of my friends have finished their shopping and are sitting back smuggly! Meanwhile, I've found this wonderful website:

http://organizedchristmas.com/

It's great, so I know where I'm spending my evenings this week...

September...

September has meant a lot of different things to me over the years - the end of the summer holidays, the return to school, friends and homework, my dad's birthday, the beginning of autumn. I love the clear blue skies, the smell of the leaves as they start to fall and the chill of the air in the mornings. But more than anything else, for the last seven years, probably like everyone else, I have remembered 9/11. I know where I was when it happened, and how I felt as I watched those huge buildings collapse. I also remember seeing the whole of New York from the top of one of the towers, when my parents took me to New York, as a little girl. But most of all I remember Erik Isbrandtsen.

When I was 13, my parents took us to live in the States for a year. I went to school in Marblehead, near Boston, and Erik was in my 'Home Room' class. I remember him being a kind and thoughtful, popular boy who was full of fun. He loved his country, but tried very hard to understand why I loved mine as much as he did his. I often think of all the friends I made in Marblehead that year, I wonder what they're up to, whether they have children, if they're happy. So it came as a great shock when, in 2002, I found out that Erik died on the 105th floor of the World Trade Centre on 9/11. He was 30 years old.

Tomatoes, tom-toes and more tomatoes...

Every year, as soon as the weather starts to warm up and the days lengthen, my Darling Husband gets an urge to plant things, so about this time of year I am faced with his seemingly never ending (highly prised) supply of produce. Over the years, we've had fields of basil, mountains of raspberries, kilos of courgettes (often marrows when we've left them a day too long) and huge helpings of french beans. Although most of the produce varies from year to year, tomatoes put in an appearance every year. This year we've made tomato sauce and tomato and mozzarella salad as usual and then I got the urge to make tomato relish. I daren't put the recipe up quite yet, mainly because the whole house stank of vinegar for the hours the relish had to cook, and I can't imagine the result is going to be nice. We're going to wait a couple of weeks and then the sampling will begin, if it's any good the recipe will put in an appearance, watch this space! I'm off to skin more tomatoes...

Partying in Bronte country

We've just had a wow of a time at a friend's 40th birthday party weekend.
My Darling Husband flew in from Houston on Friday morning. (He'd been away for a week, my parents came over from France to help out, but that's another story...) Anyway once he'd had a sleep and a bath, we stuffed the kids in the car and set off for Howarth in Yorkshire. The traffic was awful, so it took us almost five hours to get there, but we weren't the last to arrive! There were sixty-seven (Yes, 67) people altogether, we took over a large youth hostel that had been built in the 1840s, it was absolutlely beautiful. The kids were over the moon, they had bunk beds to sleep in, loads of children to play with and a never ending supply of food, sweets and activities. The first night we ate, unpacked and got to know everyone. The next day we all walked down one hill and then up a very steep one, past the Parsonage where Charlotte and Emily Bronte used to live and up onto the moors where many of their novels were set. We met some people walking their dog so Little Man and Little Miss made friends. Little Man loved 'rock climbing' with the other boys. We met up with everyone on top of the moor and had a picnic, then made our way back down the very steep hill.

Simon had a rest on a fence on the way. I'm getting old, my knee has been giving me a bit of trouble since then. When we all got back to the hostel, there was a children's party, where we discovered that Little Man doesn't take losing very well, to say the least! Little Miss made sure she got her face painted, and spent a lot of time roaring! The children had their party tea and then it was the adult's turn for tea, Happy Birthday and a Disco, Little Miss was boogiing with the best of them... This morning we had the full English breakfast and then everyone trooped off to Ingrow train station, a few miles from Howarth, and caught a steam train to Oxenhope where we had a picnic in the millenium park there. Little Man was determined he'd see the inside of the engine's cab, so as soon as we stopped he made sure he was first on board! Little Miss just wanted to pose!

We went past the smallest station in England, and the one where they filmed the railway children. Once we got back to Ingrow, we all said our goodbyes and made our way back home. I'll post some photos tomorrow. It was a lovely weekend for all of us, and now it's back to work tomorrow, snif...