Flaming Ballerinas and Flying the Nest

We moved our gorgeous girl down to London at the weekend ready to start university.  I knew it would be emotional, but I have to say that I was not at all prepared for quite how upset I would be.  There was a moment on Sunday when I thought I might never surface from my pile of soggy tissues.  It sounds rather dramatic, but I felt grief stricken and rather lost, even though I am not completely "empty nested" yet.  It is a very strange feeling indeed and I don't like it but, as my husband (who is always very level headed about these sorts of things) keeps saying, we're just moving on to the next phase of our lives.  I'm not sure whether that's a comfort or not when you think that it also means we're getting older!

Dorothy's room at the Hampstead residence is much bigger than we had expected and it was instantly transformed by the addition of the blanket that she has been crocheting over the summer.


             














It was her 19th birthday on Monday so we had "fake" birthday celebrations last week with cards, presents, a family dinner, silly games and home made chocolate birthday cake.

Hubby went off into the kitchen to make some coffee and do the honours with the birthday cake.  As he came around the corner into the dining room, cake in hand with candles lit, and we began singing "Happy Birthday to you...", he said "those ballerinas are candles, aren't they?"

Well...we could hardly draw breath for laughing...the ballerinas were plastic cake decorations that Dorothy had spotted in my candle box as I was making the cake earlier that day.  She recalled how she had had them on a cake that our very kind neighbour had brought round to us the year that I was laid out in bed with an injured back following the collapse of our ceiling.  That was in 2002, her 9th birthday!

Ten years on, the two ballerinas with their gold and silver headdresses and tutus were a perfect match for the gold and silver candles that I had already put on the cake.  Unfortunately, they are now a little worse for wear...one suffered a burnt scalp, the other lost her head and most of her left arm in the incident!  I shall keep them in my candle box though and they will bring a smile to my face with each birthday cake that I make!

Dorothy seems to be making lots of new friends, finding her way around and partying well during freshers' week so all is good so far!  I miss her so much, but I don't have a tissue in my hand as I write this so I am seeing that as progress!  I know she will be feeling a little up and down for a while too and there will be things that trigger a tear or two for both of us, but we will be fine!

...and we have plenty!

I am so excited for Dorothy as she begins university life at King's and starts to enjoy all the delights of living in London.  When Dorothy started school here in Yorkshire one of the other children told her "you talk funny you do". Dorothy replied "Well, I was born in London you know!" so it's as if things have come full circle really.

Meanwhile, back up north, I am throwing myself into my work and keeping myself busy (to avoid falling into the tissue box!) by spending most days at my lovely new studio, which is a great place to be. I love the light here, I love having so much space to spread my things out as I work and I love having an internet connection which means that I can try to keep up to date with things like blogging!  I am very much looking forward to welcoming people to workshops at my new place and you can see what's coming up here.  

Bye for now,

Rebecca

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I've fallen in love

...with Italy! Hubby and I have just had a fantastic weekend away in Milan!

The weather was hot!

The architecture was amazing:

La Scala

and Il Duomo, which was beautiful inside too!

We discovered a market just minutes from our hotel on Saturday morning with stalls brimming with delicious, fresh produce:

and how about this for a shopping centre?

Gorgeous food, wine, ice creams...just the two of us! It was a real treat and the first time that we've been abroad, child-free, since before they were born! We were sad to leave...

but our post-wonderful weekend blues were soon lifted by news of our daughter's GCSE results yesterday: a total of 7 A*s and 5 As - we are so proud of her!

Back soon,

Rebecca

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Home Grown Produce

We have had the house to ourselves this weekend, a situation that is becoming all the more frequent now that the children have grown and have busy calendars full of social events! Our daughter is jamboreeing in Norfolk for the week - camping is not really her thing and the weather has not been too good, but I do hope that she's enjoying the experience! We have no way of finding out until she comes home as, much to her disgust, mobile phones were not permitted! Our son is away in Wales with one of his friends and, despite the rain, we know that he has been having a good time from the texts that he has sent us!

We dug the first potatoes from the garden yesterday...well, hubby dug and I held the bowl! We must have looked a sight...both of us grinning with sheer delight as each little potato was revealed! It was very exciting indeed, especially as these have grown from a supermarket potato that we chitted! And, of course, nothing beats home grown produce! We had to remember when to stop digging as we are only cooking for 2 at the moment and not 4! On the way back to the kitchen I collected the few sugar snap peas that were ready - not enough for 2 helpings, but delicious to crunch on while preparing dinner!

We were also able to collect up the seed pods from the old purple sprouting broccoli plants, which had been left at the side of house to dry. We probably have enough seeds to keep us in purple sprouting broccoli for the rest of our lives! Now that we know what to expect, we'll probably give growing it another go next year as it was delicious!

We've also been enjoying home grown produce from some friends of ours: spinach and courgettes - long ones and round ones! We've not grown spinach before so, when we spotted some packs of seeds reduced to 19p each when we were out yesterday, we couldn't resist! I am going to plant some this week and see what happens!

I hope the spinach is a success as we've really enjoyed eating it torn into warm, griddled courgettes, peppers and red onions with some basil leaves, as pictured below alongside the home grown potatoes, which have been tossed in butter with mint from the garden...accompanied by a glass of something of course!

Over this weekend I have realised who makes all the noise, all the mess, all the washing and eats all the food! It is lovely having the house to ourselves, but I do miss them...they make this house a home!

Back soon,

Rebecca

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Oh, for the life of a cat!

How can it be Friday again? It's been a week full of children's activities for me - starting Easter projects with my school-based art clubs and back to knitting egg cosies with the Brownies! The egg cosies are coming along nicely and we've begun making the pom-poms for the top. I've been invited back for a third week, which is really good because it means that all of the girls should be able to finish their work to take home for the Easter holidays.

I've also been working hard on my website - www.rebeccamaryjanes.co.uk. Not being a very technical person, I'm quite pleased with what I have achieved - perhaps you'd like to take a look and let me know what you think?

All in all it's been a busy week...oh, for the life of a cat, eh?


Back soon,

Rebecca
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Let mum eat cake...and chocolate

It all began on Friday evening when my lovely daughter came home and presented me with a bunch of freesias (love them!) - "Happy Mother's Day! I won't see you much this weekend, so I'm giving you these today and I'm going to make you a cake tonight!"

A coffee and walnut sponge...my favourite...and very yummy it is too! I hasten to add that I've not eaten all the missing sponge myself!

This morning my teenage son gave me this choccie bar onto which he'd iced 'Love you mum' - apparently, it had all "gone a bit wrong", "it got stuck to the cellophane", but none of that matters to me - I love it!

Thank you my lovely children!

Back soon,

Rebecca

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Joy

My little bundle of joy....

is 16 years old today! 16 - how did that happen? It reminds me how much truth there is in the words of a poem that I used to keep on the fridge door when the children were small:

I hope that my children look back on today
And remember a mother who had time to play.
Children grow up while you're not looking;
There will be years and years for cleaning and cooking.
So hush now cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Little did I realise 16 years ago what a wonderful daughter, friend, young woman she would become - I am very lucky indeed. Happy Birthday D! xxxxx

Lemony Cheer

I love the look of luscious lemons in a bowl...

and the taste of homemade, luscious lemon drizzle buns with a nice cup of tea!

We've all been feeling a little down in the dumps today as we should be have been in Norfolk this weekend to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday and my niece's 6th birthday, but we had to put off our visit due to my son not being well for the second time this holiday! Poor lad - terrible headache, raging temperature and generally feeling awful! My husband keeps asking if he's "craving truffles" in an attempt to make light of the possibility of it being swine flu! Needless to say, he's not impressed!

Thank heavens for lemons!

Rebecca

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It's official...

it's the holidays! Although the soggy school uniforms were kicked off with joy on Friday afternoon, the first Monday of the holidays is when the holidays really begin here!! The weekend feels just like any other...then on Sunday evening that holiday feeling begins - no shirts to iron ready for the morning, no packed lunches to make, no last minute homework panics!! By the time Monday morning arrives, it's official - the holidays have begun!

A lovely 7 week break from ironing 15 of these each week!!

So this morning, we are quite at our leisure! We should have been going out to the dentist and then for a browse around Sheffield, but my son has come down with a sore throat and is feeling a little out of sorts so we thought we had better cancel the appointment. I shall be keeping a watchful eye on him as there have been a couple of cases of swine flu at his school! He's still in his dressing gown and has just gone back to bed with his book! My daughter and her friend are yet to emerge!! It is a lazy start to the holidays but they deserve it - they've worked really hard at school this year and we are so proud of them!

Here's my absolute favourite from the lovely old craft books I found at the charity shop last week - it's a Family Circle book from 1967 promising "Toys your children will adore...Exciting home ideas to copy...and Gay Accessories for you and the family"!

There are lots of these black and white "arty shots" - this one made me smile!


So did this one...especially as, when I first flicked through the book, I thought it said "Mr and Mrs Numpty Greenfinger"!!!

Well, time for a cup of coffee...back soon!

Rebecca
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