Tree patterns in a cheerful sky

Tags

appreciation, Beauty, Blossom, Blue sky, Botany, Bouquets, cheerful, flowers, gratitude, Leaves, nature, photography, simple, spring, springtime, Sunshine, Tree, Walking

After posting up my photographs last week of trees set against a dark, rainy sky, I went for a walk last week on a beautiful sunny day. The pictures I took of the same trees look completely different and I thought it would be interesting to compare them. Original post can be found here: Tree Patterns in a Moody Sky.

Make-do baking

Tags

Baking, Bread, Cook, Flour, honey, ingredients, Julia Child, Julie and Julia, Making do, muffins, Muscovado, pumpkin seeds, Raisins, recipe, Sucrose, wholemeal self raising flour, Yeast

Today I felt the need to be creative. Being the cosy creative, this happens a lot, although I haven’t always been good at allowing myself the time to just bake and paint and make stuff for the fun of it. Since it’s a bank holiday here, I spent the afternoon watching ‘Julie & Julia‘ a film about a 30 year old New Yorker who wrote a blog about her year attempting every single recipe from Julia Child’s French cooking recipe book. At the same time I worked through a huge pile of magazines my friend had given me, cutting out inspiring pictures and words. I’ve been doing this with different magazines lately, sorting them into folders labelled ‘home,’ ‘gardening and nature,’ ‘cooking,’ ‘crafts’ and ‘travel. I plan on using them for future projects, particularly vision boards.

Since the film is all about cooking and blogging about it, of course it made me want to cook and blog about it. For the first time ever I did a simultaneous Cook and Bake – I cooked rice and dhal whilst baking honey, oat and raisin muffins. It felt a bit crazy trying to balance the timing of everything but it was actually fairly easy and felt like a good challenge, much was my need to make today! I realised I didn’t have the muscovado sugar required for the recipe, but I was too fired up not to bake so I thought ‘stuff it!’ and used caster sugar instead. I find this happens to me a lot, that I go into the kitchen, get all my ingredients ready to bake and then realise I’m missing one thing. I think this must happen to everyone, so I dedicate this post to just doing it anyway, by finding a replacement ingredient or if it’s really just an added extra, do without it. For me, experimenting like this is part of the fun of making something – seeing what I can come up with using what’s available. It might not be completely perfect, but who cares. In my experience it usually turns out just fine.

Here’s some bread I baked last week using ‘the wrong’ type of flour. We didn’t have any bread flour, so I just had a go with self raising wholemeal flour instead. I used all the other ingredients listed in the recipe (just yeast, warm water, sugar, salt and olive oil), let it rise before baking in a warm place as usual and it turned out well (considering I’ve only ever made bread a couple of times in the past). I’ll have a go with proper bread flour and it might be better, but this loaf still went down a treat

I’ll leave you with a lovely quotation, which I stumbled across in one of the magazines I was attacking. I think it’s what I’m trying to do with my life at the moment, that is do what I enjoy and watch as the path unfolds.

..and a cosy cup of tea with a muffin for good measure.

And so one day, the lonely pack of photo paper found its purpose in life.

Tags

cards, cosy, Crafts, Creativity, flowers, hand made, home made, painting, paints, photo paper, photography, photos, printer, purpose, recycling, thrift, useful

Whenever we buy printer cartridges, we come home with a load of ‘useful photo paper’ which always seems to be come free with in the pack. Since we never use photo paper and don’t find it particularly useful, there has been a steadily growing pile of the stuff next to the printer threatening to topple over and cause chaos at any moment.

One day I had the idea of actually using it for something. I decided to try printing some photos I took last month (‘A gift from the universe in the form of a digital SLR – I would link to this but the links don’t seem to be working again…) to stick onto cards and send to friends. I’d been having a go at making my own cards and envelopes until my friend told me you can buy packs of them ready-made but plain, for you to decorate, leaving you to focus on the design on the card rather than the measuring and folding of envelopes (measuring has never been my strong point). So I bought a pack, printed out some photos and attached them using a kind of roll-on glue, which was great for not being too gloopy and messing up the card. The printer ink started to run out on a couple on the pictures, but I quite like the effect this created despite it being unintentional. I was even inspired to get my paints out after a ten year hiatus and had a go at painting one:

So the printer paper was useful after all. I expect it feels better knowing it has found a purpose in life and has been saved from the recycling bin.

Tree patterns in a moody sky

Tags

Birds, Calm, Camera, Dark, Inspiring, Leaves, light, Magical, Moods, Moody, nature, Patterns, Peaceful, photography, Rain, Refreshing, Seasons, shadow, Silhouette, Sky, spring, Trees, Twilight, Walking, weather

In the evenings, I often go for a walk around the streets near where I live if I feel like I’ve not physically moved a lot during the day, or I’m feeling frustrated or like I need to mull something over. No matter what the weather is like, it always refreshes my mind, clarifies my thoughts, calms and uplifts me.

During a dark mood last week I went for a walk in the evening rain. There was a comforting and inspiring moodiness in the sky, which was slowly getting darker and coloured with washes of various shades of grey as the light spring rain fell. Far from being depressing, it felt surprisingly magical as I walked through the streets and focused on things that caught my attention. The birds were singing particularly loudly, their tiny bodies silhouetted on the tops of houses as they enjoyed the fresh spring air and defied the darkness of the sky.

I brought my camera and took some pictures. I was particularly interested in the patterns the trees made against the sky, it has given me some ideas for art projects…

Learning to Sow (and learning a whole new verb in the process)

Tags

Allotment, Basil, Compost, flowers, Fruit, garden, Gardening, Greenhouse, Herbs, Lemon Thyme, Organic, Pak Choi, Rosemary, Seeds, Sewing Seeds, Soil, Tomatoes, Vegetables, Wild Rocket

My parents are brilliant gardeners and I’ve been very lucky to grow up surrounded by gardens full of flowers. My dad also loves growing herbs, fruit and vegetables and maintains both an allotment and a greenhouse which becomes teeming with tomatoes in the summer months. This weekend he showed me how to sow seeds. I’d done this a couple of times before but had forgotten, and I’m really keen to learn from him so I can add to the small collection of herbs I’ve been growing over the past few years. I’ve also just learnt it’s spelt ‘sow’ not ‘sew’

He has already sown several varieties of tomatoes plus broad beans, leeks, sprouts (yuck!) cauliflowers and a load of flowers with mysterious names. So this weekend we sowed basil (my favourite), wild rocket, courgette and pak choi. It only took about twenty minutes to do and it was great, so I’m keen to add coriander, flat leaf parsley and somewhat randomly elderflower (I have visions of making it into cordial on lazy English summer afternoons) to the neat little pots of rosemary, lemon thyme, mint and parsley we have growing on the patio…

The Easter Nest Awards

Tags

Award, Baking, Chicks, Chocolate, Creativity, Depression, Easter, food, Humphrey, Kreativ Blogger, London, Maple Syrup, Mental Health, Mini Eggs, Nests, Shredded Wheat, Vegan, Versatile Blogger

Well a little while ago I was nominated for the Kreativ Blogger Award by the lovely Jean Robin Marie from http://bringingeuropehome.com. Then last week I was awarded another unexpectedly, the Versatile Blogger Award from Javeriya at http://javeriyasayeed.wordpress.com.

Last Monday I went to a super cosy Easter gathering at my friend’s house. She entertained a small group of us feeding us delicious home made bread rolls, barley and veg soup and baked pears. I made us all Easter nests complete with little mini eggs and fluffy decorative chicks (who cares if this sort of thing is meant for children, I love it and do it every year!) So I’m combining the photos of this with the post on awards, since the Easter nests don’t really need a recipe (just crush up shredded wheat, melt chocolate, mix it together and spoon into small bun cases. For a Vegan alternative which my friend tried, swap chocolate for cocoa powder and maple syrup, or melt dairy-free solid hot chocolate. The shredded wheat is happily dairy-free, just avoid the mini eggs).

On to the Awards. I was reading up on the rules, and then I read another multiple award acceptance post from Lorna at http://lornastearoomdelights.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/awards-galore and see she combined them all and made up her own rules. She admits to this being a bit naughty but the alternative means nominating about 35 other bloggers and I’m just not sure I even regularly visit 35 other blogs. Therefore I have decided to follow her on this so I’m going to tell you a total of six facts about my self and for each award I will nominate three people.

The Kreativ Blogger Award
-Jennifer from http://jdaophotography.wordpress.com – a beautiful photography blog of calm, nature-inspired work.
-Urvashi’s http://thebotanicalbaker.wordpress.com blog, for inspiring cooking and food photography.
-http://averilgomes.wordpress.com- I can’t find the writer’s name (unless it’s Averil?) but this is by a food blogger who was on the wrong path (not food) and then made the change to the right one (food).

The Versatile Blogger Award
-Liz from http://catsandchocolate.wordpress.com – a blog about creative writing, feminism, creativity and a whole lot of other interesting things. Plus cats and chocolate is a win win situation so a great blog name.
-Martina from http://martina-in-jozi.com Reading her recent post I see she is going through some tough times and thinking about stopping blogging. I hope she keeps blogging as she has a great blog which I find funny, original and inspiring.
-http://366daysofpinterest.com by Kirsten. Her blog is self explanatory – a documentary of her trying out a new Pinterest project for each day of the year!

The Secret Six
- I did a degree in languages and I can speak French (decently) and Italian (less decently).
- I lived in London for two years but missed the countryside, nature and animals. I decided there was no point paying a big rent to live in a city with lots going on when all I really wanted to do was stay at home and bake, sew, paint and read
- I didn’t make the house bunting on my title page, it was from a craft fair I walked past last year near Stroud, England. I am just learning to sew now and it helps to inspire me, something to aim for.
- This is a big one, but an important one for me: I suffer from depression and have done on and off since 2005. I believe the world would be a better place if more people were open about mental health problems and there was less confusion and fear surrounding them. Being creative helps me feel better and gives me hope.
- Humphrey, the cat who appears in some of my blog posts, isn’t my cat, he’s actually a stray who has moved in, like a lodger, next door, after running away repeatedly from his original owners. He visits our garden daily and we’ve decided he’s a free spirit trotter who doesn’t like to be tied down, instead preferring the outdoor life with a string of human friends. He’s a fantastic cat who cheers me up greatly whenever he drops by, a real gentleman cat with a heart of gold and a way with the ladies!
- I play the piano but can only play one piece – Elite Syncopations by Scott Joplin!

Worth the Wait: Hot Cross Buns

Tags

Active Yeast, Baking, Bread, Cat, Celebrations, Christianity, Culture, Dough, food, Glaze, gratitude, Hot Cross Buns, Humphrey, Mixed Peel, Raisins, Rising, Seasons, simple, Spices, Time, Traditional, Traditions, Yeast

I’m not a religious person but I love marking the seasons and traditions throughout the year. There’s something comforting and cheerful about it and I feel a bit disorientated if for some reason I miss marking a season. I think it helps us to slow down, live in the moment and appreciate simple things like seasonal produce, traditional cooking and family gatherings. I wasn’t very organised with it, but yesterday I decided to make hot cross buns. Apparently it’s traditional to make them on Good Friday but that was a happy coincidence as I only found this out when they were in the oven!

I remember making these a few years ago and afterwards thinking ‘that was satisfying but what hard work.’ I couldn’t remember why I thought this yesterday morning as I looked at the recipe and decided it looked fairly straightforward. However, I was agreeing with my original statement by the end of the day and I can confirm this is not a quick recipe: overall it took me about four hours to make them. This is because there are several stages to the recipe such as letting the dough rise twice, making a separate ‘dough’ for the crosses and glazing them at the end. I’d recommend anyone attempting this to leave a full day or half day and to just enjoy the process of traditional bread making. It was quite a lot of work but I really enjoyed the process and Humphrey the cat was clearly impressed, waiting patiently all day in the garden for one (before realising he’s not really into citrus or anything not containing meat). It was also great seeing them all at the end and knowing I’d made them, and offering them to friends and family who so far seem to like them!

The recipe I used was a Delia Smith recipe which can be found here: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/hot-cross-buns.html
Since it is a fairly labour-intensive bake, I doubled the ingredients to make it a bit more worthwhile, making 22 small-medium sized buns. I also added the freshly grated peel of one lemon for a bit of extra flavour. Happy Easter everyone and thanks for reading my blog!

Geneva Soup

Tags

blend, carrots, coconut milk, Cold, coriander seeds, cosy, curried, food, Frosty, Geneva, nutritious, parsnips, simple, snow, Soup, Spices, Switzerland, warming, weather, winter

After a week of weather so warm we were sunbathing in the garden, today it decided to snow. When we saw the weather forecast we thought this might be a few drops of sleet, but when I awoke this morning the ground was thickly covered and it continued to fall all morning. Snow can be a hindrance in terms of things like transport delays and school closures but I love the feeling of excitement it brings, as if everyone is suddenly a child again and can’t wait to get outside and play in it. Sensible grown-up type people pretend otherwise but you can just tell that, given half the chance, they’d love to go for a snow walk, make a snowman then head home to a cosy house, bowl of steaming soup and hot chocolate. For this reason I knew today was a perfect day to make soup!

When thinking of a trip to Geneva a few years ago, my main memory of it is that it was RIDICULOUSLY cold. I can’t remember much else about the cultural things we saw or even the markets, as when you are that cold you just don’t care about anything. A brief but memorable moment of heaven on this trip was when we discovered this cafe which served up the most delicious soup I can honestly say I’ve ever tasted. I think that perhaps any soup tastes incredible when you have been walking around in below zero temperatures in a foreign land all day. However, the memory of this soup persists so ever since I’ve been trying to recreate it. I’ve made it about three times now, each time it turns out slightly different but I must say it always tastes lovely. It’s not quite up to the ‘nectar of the heavens’ level of the soup discovered on that freezing day but it’s close and you can experiment with it to suit your particular taste. I’ve not seen a soup quite like this in any recipe books so this is my own recipe based on the memory. Feel free to have a go at it and let me know what you think!

(Serves 4-6 people)

Ingredients
4 x large parsnips
3 x carrots
2 x sticks celery
1 onion
1 clove garlic
splash of olive oil
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 – 1.5 pints chicken or vegetable stock
Half a tin of coconut milk (about 4-6 tablespoons)
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt

Method
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan, chop up the onion, garlic and celery and add to the pan. Next peel and chop up the carrots and parnsnips into approx. 2cm cubes. Add to the pan alongside the salt and pepper, and spices. Grind the coriander seeds into a pestle and mortar and add these too.

Leave to simmer on a low heat for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the mixture doesn’t burn. Next add the stock and leave on the stove to simmer for about 15-20 minutes until all the vegetables are fully cooked.

Turn the heat down and add the coconut milk. Leave to cool for about 20 minutes then using a jug pour the mixture (it can be messy so be careful!) into a blender (or use a hand blender) and blend until smooth. I usually blend the mixture in about 3 batches as it’s very important not to overfill the blender.

After blending each batch pour into another saucepan, stir and serve. Perfect for a snowy day.

Primary School Painting and Apple Cake Baking

Tags

apples, art and craft, Baking, cake, career, Creativity, Dorset, Italy, primary school, rustic, teaching

This week I went to my first sewing class. I am so happy about this because I’m really excited about learning to sew so I can alter clothes, make clothes and do more craft projects. Part of the reason I’m doing this blog is to encourage me to try out different creative projects with the idea it will help me decide on a new career direction. Maybe I’ll find something to make which I love and which I can sell? Or maybe I’ll learn about a project, company, charity or organisation who is looking to employ a cosy and creative type of person!

I realised, after training as a primary school teacher, I’d been hugely drawn to the creative side of the job. I had visions of creating this beautiful classroom which had huge sash windows with light streaming through, children’s artwork on the walls, inspiring interactive displays, 3D models hanging from the ceiling and a little reading den in one corner. After tackling Maths and English in the morning, the class would have fantastic afternoons with paint and felt and glue and cereal box modelling. Describing this now I realise this is how my primary school life was with my favourite teacher, Mrs Reed. But I found as I became a teacher myself, things have changed and there is a big focus on maths and literacy results at the moment. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because every child deserves an excellent education in these vital subjects. I’m not, however, the kind of teacher suited to this sort of results-oriented system, so I continue to look for a calmer, freer way of working…

This week I had a go at making an apple cake, I found a good recipe from another blogger, Maria of the Goddess’s Kitchen here: http://thegoddesskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/dorset-apple-cake.html. Maria’s cake looks beautiful and very professional. Apparently it’s a traditional recipe from Dorset, but it also reminds me of the delicious apple cakes they make in Italy. Mine turned out quite a bit more ‘rustic’ shall we say. I adapted it a bit, decorating the top and bottom of the cake and added raisins and spices. I seem to be addicted to adding cinnamon to everything at the moment. I think it would have fitted in well on a big wooden table in a farmhouse somewhere, perhaps next to a vase of daffodils?

Cosy Rustic Apple Cake

Ingredients:

225g self raising flour

225g butter

225g caster sugar

450g apples (I used big bramley apples)

3 large eggs

25g ground almonds

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground mixed spice

2 tbsp raisins

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp demarara sugar (for sprinkling over the cake at the end)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a deep 23-24cm springform cake tin and line with baking paper. Peel and core the apples. Take one large apple and slice thinly – these pieces will be used for decoration. With the remaining apples, cut them into 1cm pieces then place them in a big bowl and cover with the lemon juice to stop them from browning.

Using an electric hand whisk or food processor cream together the butter, caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a little sieved flour with each addition to keep the mixture smooth.

Sift in the remaining flour, baking powder and spices and gently fold into the butter mixture with the ground almonds. Stir in the raisins and 1cm apple pieces (leave the thin slices in the bowl for now).

In the greased and lined tin, make a pattern using half of the thin apple slices – this will be the bottom of the cake, or the top if you decide to make this an ‘upside down cake.’ Spoon the cake mix carefully into the tin over the apple slices and level the top. With the remaining slices, lay them on the top of the mixture in another pattern then sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well-risen, brown. If the top starts to burn, cover carefully with some brown baking paper after 45 minutes (mine did burn a little on the top as you can see from the photos, you definitely need to keep an eye on it).

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin on a wire wrack for about 15-20 mins. Remove the cake from the tin and place on a serving plate and marvel in its rustic beauty! This cake goes very well when served with plain yogurt or clotted cream. With thanks to Maria from The Goddess’s Kitchen for this recipe, it tasted great!

Liebster Blog Award! Yay!

I have been away from the blogging world for a few days but when I logged in today I was so cheered and surprised to see that Ginger from ‘So I did it Myself’ had nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award. What an unexpected and lovely thing! Apparently this award is for the little ones of the blogging world, the newbies just starting out or maybe more seasoned bloggers who have lovely things to share but have been a bit hidden and need dusting off and propping up on the shelf for others to see and enjoy, all with less than 200 followers. I hear this is how it works:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
3. Copy and Paste the award onto your blog
4. Nominate 3-5 blogs to receive the award.
5. Inform them of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog.

Therefore I hereby accept the nomination with gratitude and nominate five bloggers whose comments and blogs have cheered and inspired me:

A Girl and Her Brush – a cheering, and inspiring bright and colourful blog from an artist who discovered her art after a traumatic incident. She inspires me to dust off my old paints and get splashing colours onto a canvas!

Stars and Rainbows – this girl reminds me to be thankful for small and beautiful things every day through a quirky, creative vintage inspired blog.

Life as I see it – a peaceful photoblog, this lady finds just the right quotation, sentence or thought to go with each one.

Cloches and Lavender – a lovely calm and cosy blog by a lady who decorates and recreates furniture inspired by european countries.

Bringing Europe Home – Jean Robin Marie was inspired by her travels around Europe and now recreates her experiences there in the US through food and drink. She was also the first to inform me very kindly of my embarrassing ‘publishing one post eighteen times’ disaster lol!

Some of you may have more than 200 followers so I’m sorry if you do, I had a look but couldn’t always see how many followers people had. Either way, I like your blogs and look forward to your future posts.

So does this mean I’m allowed to show the Liebster Blog award on my home page now?! I’d like to but don’t want to jump the gun!

Sending good vibes to you all. xxx