CabbageLarsen

Teachers.

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each."

Last night I sat and stitched J's present to his teacher and thought about being little and the school memories that stay with us as we grow, and I wondered how he will look back at this time.

Year 1 is over and his first loved teacher is leaving and at several bedtimes over the past week he has had tears in his eyes as he spoke about her last day.

Today I picked my boy up from school, he said his goodbyes, gave his present (that I annoyingly forgot to photograph) and positively skipped from the playground...I was amazed he had not cried.

...but then I saw it a little clearer; his school, his teacher, when he is there, fill him not with a sense of sadness or loss, but happiness, freedom, and elation...and I felt his anticipation for  the summer with him. I felt free and wild!

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books"

...let the summer begin!!!

...and I return!

...I have been absent, for what seems like and eternity...but I return...oh, weeks and weeks ago the computer went BOOM and we were left floating in cyberspace..well that's melodramatic, it broke and we tried to fix it, but to no avail; we tried to live without it. That was worse than the frustration of trying to mend it, and so here I am sat at a shiny new laptop.

Things that have made me smile over the last few months:

 

the conversations that button worms have.

 

...new books.

 

crabbing...such fun!

 

...lots of sewing projects...

 

selling a custom order dress...doing my first stall..and so much more. The garden is heaving, our first cucumber is almost ready to pick.

...and the plans we have for the holidays.

We are so excited.

Those boys...

Just in case you wanted to use it:

 

you can't!

Also, whilst cleaning Tobias's ears earlier (I am his mother!) "That's entertainment " came on the radio, the consequence of my exclamation is that now he thinks he has jam in his ears.

The First Sew Thrifty!

So I did my first lesson, I didn’t run away before it started, and I didn’t cry or panic…in fact I really enjoyed it.

There was even a moment when it was silent and everybody stitched and concentrated and there was something so serene…a rarity in my life of “the three cabbage boys”.

 

It was lovely.

 

We made yo yos, thank you heather bailey, for being my inspiration for this lovely craft.

 

 

I came across these a couple of years ago, and have been addicted to them ever since!

Please look at her blog, there are some lovely ideas on ways to use your yo yos, if you, like me, have an occasional abundance of them!

 

…and the beauty of her blog…

 

Everybody’s yo yos were beautiful. You should all be glowing with self satisfaction!

Nibbles this week were Oat Crunch biscuits, courtesy of Delia. Well the recipe was courtesy of Delia, obviously it was me that actually made them. I am in a quandary though, still, as I find Delia so unutterably dull…but then I cook something of hers…and…well…it’s just…amazing…

I want to say they are horrid, and dull, and not worth the effort, and to spit them out…but they aren’t.

So far everything I have ever made of hers has been, just superb.

So I should, I suppose, salute the woman.

Her Lemon Curd Cake, fabulous, her Kipper Quiche gorgeous, so much so it was eaten before I had a chance to take a picture of it to post here….worth even the effort of picking out every…single…tiny…tiny…little...bone!

 

Next week it will be Old Fashioned Seed cake

Not this one, another one - I doubt this one will make it through the night!

 

Also, am I the only one that finds something very reassuring about pastry made partly with lard? It's just the right way, but only if you wear a pinnie whilst making it, and preferably a headscarf...on that note I'm off to scrub the front doorstep!

 

Don't forget Nettlebed for any supplies you might need - a true rummagers dream!

 

A little bit of easter therapy

 

There is seriously not much home made croissants don't cure!

 

...and while I admit my crosses are not the height of perfection, these, toasted after a morning digging - definitely!

 

The curtain is sewn,

the buttons are sorted, and...

 

...the collection of sticks is sorted into neat, string tied bundles, ready to be used as kindling...sometimes, I guess, you just have to indulge that OCD!

The Easter Hat...

Yes, this is the easter hat, designed and created by Jasper himself, and worn to school, all the way, on his scooter, like some insane Dr Suess character.

The Easter Break

Well, we survived the Easter Break with only a few cuts, but many many bruises, from many many incidents ranging from a complete head over heals down the stairs fall (a result of horseriding very small toy dinosaurs from one room to another past the very steep stairs - and as a write I see how inevitable this was...!) to those small bumps and scrapes that are the clear consequence of lots of boys in a small area...

The project this break was to completely overhall the garden, a previous overgrown, secret garden-ish mish mash of pergoda, and plants, and mud where a lawn once was, and shade and shade and more shade...

Oh the boys loved pulling that pergoda down, and ripping out the ivy, and digging up those dead plants...they also like hitting each other with their golf clubs I had hidden, but we aren't talking about that...

And my sweet Tobias, so frightened of every animal, every bug, every moving thing (the screams when a tiny tiny fly flew past him whilst perched on the toilet...well!)

 

He brought me a caterpillar that looked like a stick, and then a bug, and then a worm, and then said hello to a little dog, until finally he stroked the big dog Max from two doors down, and he is a changed boy, and I am so proud of him.

I will look back with real happiness at these two weeks of really being with my boys, all of them:

 

5 minutes to himself, reading the Beano, perfect!

 

...painting the old table top nobody wanted...

 

A friendship forming.

And so we paved with bricks, constructed planters from the old pergoda, searched skips for rope and wood, and bought our seeds...and with some time and water and a little bit of sun and luck in a few months we may some vegetables and some flowers.

5 Minutes to Myself

 

Rooibos Tea and toasted banana and mango bread.

Some days, some weeks, just feel too hard, I am having one of those...where everything seems to go wrong, and doing the things that usually bring joy feel like wading through mud...

..I have to remind myself that these moments are cyclical.

I had another visitor in the night, this time Jasper, and we snuggled up for a 2am cuddle. His hair squashed into my face, his growing body spooning perfectly with mine, and he wriggled and muttered and I stroked and listened, and I remembered why we do what we do.

Sunday mornings...

Most days we are all bursting about, busy, busy, scurrying and scuttling, but Sunday felt, well, just slow and easy and all about just being...

...I put it down to the homemade mango and banana bread, ready in time for breakfast, so the soporific smells of sweet mango, warm banana and baking bread filled the house as we woke.

 

...so that accompanied our usual porridge, caramalised apple and walnuts,

and we felt full and warm...so, in our pyjamas, we ate and knitted, puzzled and chatted, until lunch time, when we ate some more...

...sundays were made to be like this.

Bedtime Baking

Well, my new apron was perfect whilst cooking up a batch of chelsea buns

 

 

...and a perfect bedtime treat with hot chocolate...