The recipe for silent children...

The English strawberry season has started! The ones in our garden are still green, although Little Miss (otherwise known as the Strawberry Locust) announced that one was 'almost born!' today. I thought we should fill her up with shop bought ones quick, to make sure we get to taste at least one of our own this year! Little Man asked (very nicely) for chocolate cake tonight as well.

I couldn't disappoint either of them, could I? Silence reigned as the Little People feasted, so I thought I should pass on the recipe so that others could enjoy the silence too!

Banana Chocolate Brownies

175g butter
300g light muscovado sugar
175g dark chocolate (broken up)
2 eggs, beaten
2 ripe bananas, mashed
100g self-raising flour
2tbsp cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

1. butter and line a square tin or a swiss roll tin.
2. Stir the butter, sugar and chocolate in a saucepan until they are melted and the mixture is smooth
3. Switch off the heat and stir in the bananas and the eggs.
4. Now add the flour, cocoa and baking powder and stir in.
5. Pour the mixture into the tin and then into the oven for 30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool a bit then cut them into pieces and Enjoy!

Apparently they'll last up to a week in tightly wrapped tin foil, although I don't think they'll last that long in our house!

Back from the tent!

My rose 'Welcome Home' wasn't out when we left to go camping last week, so it was a real surprise to see it welcoming us back when we got home!

I love camping, I really do. I like only having the bare essentials with us (the kitchen sink won't fit in the roof box!), I love the feeling of being cut off from everything, it is lovely to snuggle up in bed with the children first thing in the morning and listen to the birds and to really take notice of little things like how the weather changes from hour to hour!

But, for me, the absolute best bit of the whole camping experience is coming home again. Once the washing machine is on and the equipment is beginning to disappear, I begin to appreciate our home: the electric lights, the warmth, the (dreaded) TV and radio and most of all my bed!

So what have we been up to? We stayed in a lovely little campsite down a tiny country road about 400 yards outside the small village of Marazion. The only downside was that we were woken up most mornings at 4:40am by a huge crowd of crows (and their babies) who lived in the trees above our tent! I thought you might like a quick whistle stop tour of the southern tip of Cornwall, so here's our tent:


We went to Falmouth with the friends who came camping with us:


The two men body boarded at Praa Sands:



We waited for the tide to go out and then walked across the causeway to St Michael's Mount. Little Man couldn't wait for the tide to receded completely, so he and I took our shoes and socks off and waded (ankle deep)across the last bit. As Little man held my hand, he said "Mummy, is this what explorers do?", my heart melted! Here's St Michael's Mount before the tide went out:

Then as it went out:

The following day we went to Mousehole (pronounced mousle), which is an absolutely beautiful little Cornish fishing village:



Then the men and the Little Lady went back to Praa Sands, while the mummies shopped in St Ives:

The next day we drove up to St Ives and took the single track (most of the way) coast road down to Sennen Cove again, where we met our friends for the afternoon. The coast road was truly beautiful. The Little People loved playing in the water:

We even made a sand speedboat!


Finally, on Saturday we were on the 6:30am (yes really!) boat bound for the Scilly Isles. We thought we were lucky to see one basking shark, but then we saw four more and a pod of twenty dolphins! I don't think Little Miss appreciated how lucky we were, because on the way back she asked "Mummy, where are all the animals?". Once we got to the Scillys we took a smaller boat from St Mary's to Tresco and walked round the stunning gardens:

The weather was beautiful until we decided to have lunch on the beach, when it started to drizzle.
Sunday was spent taking a wet tent down, packing the car, driving all the way home and then unpacking everything. We were exhausted and it was work the next day, roll on the weekend!!!
It all seems like a distant memory now!

Little things that made me smile

A few things have made me happy recently, so I thought I'd blog them before I forgot them. That's what I love about blogging, it makes it really easy to record everyday moments that would normally be forgotten. So here I go on my little trip down memory lane, coming?

My african violet (in the cloakroom) is in full bloom.



Our very lovely next door neighbour couldn't resist the Little Bo Peep outfit for Little Miss when she saw it in a sale. She also knitted her the gorgeous cardigan.



Little Man was asked to carry the flag for his Beaver pack in the parade...



...and Little Miss and her friend watched their brothers proudly!



We're all off camping soon, so the cobwebs are going to gather for a while, but I'll be back to sweep them aside soon enough! See you soon.

Growing my own Pimms...

It has been a while since I updated my blog. I was doing so well in April, then life happened and my blogging went out of the window. But I have some great excuses:
I had to make my hat for our friend's 40th birthday medieval banquet (my brother and his girlfriend looked after Little Man and Little Miss ALL night!). We stayed up past 1:00 am for the first time in years!
I have the photos to make a hat tutorial, but I'm not sure there's much demand for pointy princess hats!
My blanket has been making ever slower progress (largely due to there being too much work and not enough people at work!), here it is just in case you don't believe me:

Then as my Darling Man started his usual spring seed planting frenzy, I thought I might join him. As he planted tomatoes and carrots, I thought growing the ingredients for Pimms might be more interesting. I started with Borage seeds (the flowers go in the drink), and they're doing well:

My Mint is looking less promising:

I wonder if my Parsley, which is doing far better, could act as a substitute? ;)

Maybe not!
I was going to try cucumber but, after the experience of courgette overload one year, I thought better of it! I'll post a picture of the Pimms later in the summer - promise.
It's been lovely catching up with everyone else again. I'd better plunge back into the rat race again now, there's ironing, shoe polishing and packed lunches to do before I go back to work tomorrow - no rest for the wicked!

Slippers for Little Miss

For anyone wondering what has happened to my Twenty Minuter pledge, I just wanted to reassure you that I am still minuting away. I have to say that sometimes the twenty minutes are being gathered up into one big session every so often at the moment, as work has gone completely manic and I've been bringing shed loads (literally!) home. It is all very creative, but when there's just too much I run out of steam and things get a bit hum drum!

Anyway enough of my woes, I have been beavering away with my hook recently. My granny square pile is growing (very slowly!), and I've made little slippers for Little Miss!

You may remember the slippers in my virtual giveaway here. I fell for them and had to have them, but I also wanted instant results! As much as I would like to think I have small little feet, Little Miss's are just that bit more manageable when it comes to crochet slippers! So here they are:



Tada! I had to adapt the pattern quite a bit. Then I decided I wanted to add a flower so I found this really easy pattern here. I'm really pleased with them and Little Miss calls them her ballet shoes, so everyone's happy!