We have had a lovely long holiday hubby and I together, it has been wonderful to walk around London ooohing and aaahing at all the pretty Christmas lights, window displays and prettily dressed shops.  Today is the last day we can delight in the festivities, although I have to say that I have fairy lights adorned about my home on a permanent basis, they are just too pretty to tuck away for a whole year.  So let me leave you with a final glimpse of London in all its Christmas finery. 

A few days before Christmas hubby and I caught the train down to Warwickshire from London to celebrate my Dad’s 80th birthday.

It was wonderful to see such greenery on such a clear blue day. 

Soon we were bantering like only daughter and Father can do, – he’s giving me stick about putting the light on! – I’m giving it all back!  It is wonderful to see him in such fine form only a few weeks after his open heart surgery. He has to take it gently for a good few weeks yet so the party was as gentle as it could be, just a loving embrace from his family.

We had party food, bubbles and Cake!  And very nice cake it was too.

And later when everyone had left, I took a few snaps of them cuddled up together reminiscing about good times.

Dad is a natural story teller and he can remember his exploits from long, long ago, most of which involve scrumping or why he got the cane!

And how he had to write out a hundred lines “I must not throw projectiles at people in The Blundells” as he’d been caught throwing a snowball at Mum!

Hubby and I had spent a lazy day resting up after a couple of very long days when we decided that we really needed to blow the cobwebs away before celebrating the New Year, so we decided that a trot around Richmond Park was in order.

Hubby wrapped up against the blowiest and coldest day of the winter so far, an earth shattering 10 degrees C.

Me as usual feeling the cold just a tad more than hubby, making good using of my scarf as caulking rather than mere decoration.

And then we saw them the Parakeets flying home to roost into the trees behind us, chattering and squawking very loudly as they flew past.  I love the way they almost party in the air as they twist and turn and almost tumble as they fly, its most amusing. 

And I wish we had arrived earlier to make better use of the light, as it was fast approaching dark by this point.
Not only that but a front that was going to be very wet was fast approaching. We had had a good stretch of the legs for an hour and a half so made our way back to the car, in pitch blackness towards the end and just before the heavens opened with the wind gathering speed, it was absolute bliss.

Today is my beautiful son’s birthday.

I love the magnificence of your beard with the gingery streaks, the chestnut in your hair being an almost carbon copy of my own.  It will be a sad day when you go into industry and you have to make a decision as to whether the company your with will be able to understand your love of the beard, which it has to  be said is nearly a life form of its very own.

I also very much love your sensitivity and mind of great complexity, your ability to understand problems much greater than I’ll ever be able to understand and how during conversations you are prepared to break down an idea into bite sized pieces just so that I can understand, rather than leave me frustrated and in the dark.  It shows great compassion for us lesser mortals of a more limited educational level and I love you for it.

And I love that you have such a strong bond with son no.1.  One never knows how that relationship is going to pan out, one hopes of course, but sibling rivalry is what it is and one can only hope.  I’ve never had the slightest doubt that you were best friends and I see your relationship deepening over the years and that makes my heart sing.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy, and in the words of Banksy ‘Don’t forget to eat your lunch and Make some Trouble’.

Love always,

Mum

x

Happy New Year everybody.

My resolutions for 2016, just to live as simply and mindfully as I can and to enjoy it all. Not to let fear stop me from exploring London, (obviously keeping a modicum of common sense!) to knit, to read, to sew, to cook, to garden, to walk and to swim,  to enjoy my creativity and my photography on a daily basis.  It might sound simple, but for me its a big ask, and when I do get side tracked by whatever is being thrown from the sidelines, to remember to bring myself back, re center and carry on.  These are the resolutions I wish for myself this year.  For my family I wish them health, wealth and happiness along with finding themselves and their true path, but I think you already knew that. Last but not least I give thanks for my wonderful friends that I am lucky to have in my life.  They have given me strength when mine was failing, listened with love in their hearts and laughter in their soul along with supporting me in a myriad of ways and without them I would truly have been lost.

And just because we are about to run out of days I can put sparkly pictures of London in full festive mode may I present South Molton Street in all its glorious sparklyness.

I was having a wander around Brick Lane when I thought I would meander into Cheshire Street, there were some lovely cute independent shops but Jimbobart really caught my eye. 

Such a pretty shop, but what was that in the window,

a very good likeness of Pip our lurcher.  I stared at it and laughed out loud and knew that I had to go in.

And I was not disappointed, the plates are magnificent, I loved them all. Although I think the cheese and sandwich defender along with (Pip) the biscuit nibbler would be my three main choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are equally amusing mugs to enjoy with your tea party and if that was not enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a very big bear to share your honey and bread with,  but I don’t think he is for sale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There comes a point in the Christmas festivities when you simply long for simple dining.  I’d reached my peak the day after Boxing day and jumped on my sledge to do a fast run back down to my normal with a big bowl of home made soup.

Using the ham stock carefully saved in the freezer, onions, carrots, lentils and coriander it was devine with many levels of flavouring, salty yes, but oh so delicious.

And plenty left for the following day.

On this occasion the recipe was,

2 onions, sweated in butter.

2 heaped teaspoons of ground coriander.

1 lb of carrots (approx)

1 mug of dahl lentils.

1 1/2 pints of ham stock

1 1/2 pints of water.

Add all the ingredients to the golden brown fried onions and simmer until the lentils are soft and then blitz.

A couple of days before Christmas I made a batch of Gingerbread men, women and hearts.

And popped them into a biscuit tin so that my evil plan could unfold on Christmas Eve.

Unfortunately, although in London, hubby was a tad busy helping son no.2 with some revision, but at 6.00 p.m. I called time and ushered him into the living room. 

Where he was met with a myriad of coloured icing, sparkly balls and multicoloured chocolate treats.

We filled the icing bags, popped the cork of a bottle of bubbles and then the fun began.

We did have fun, hubby working on a Hipster!

And I do love stripey socks in all mediums. (as well as very flamboyant waistcoats!)

I especially love the ginger jazz player with the white jazz hands and blue hair, Toile and hubby’s hipster.

And in these I think the reindeer is inspired and I love the rainbow dress with gold sparkly shoes. And on occasion, there was a little 3d experimentation.

Tucked away ready for Christmas.  I must say the amount of icing we used did make the Gingerbread go a tad soggy!  But we didn’t care. I think this is going to be one of our new to us traditions, it really was the best of times.

Having fun!

(as an aside, make sure you have a solid agreement as to price, it can go up into hundreds of pounds, apparently)

 

 

I must apologise for the delay in the writing up of this post, Christmas kind of got in the way.  I managed to get to see this on the last day of the exhibition and it completely blew me away.  The energy in his work combined with his political stance and sense of powerful emotion was clear for all to see.  Sadly it was a very quick visit, I would gladly have gone back to see it again and absorb the finer details of his work.

This first piece is in memory of 5000 children that lost their lives in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, mainly due to shoddy workmanship and cost cutting from the construction of the school houses. The Chinese government refused to investigate so Ai Weiwei launched a citizen’s investigation to create a list of the victims, which he did, the Chinese government promptly put him in jail for 81 days. Next Ai gathered together 150 tons of steel rebar from the sites of the collapsed schools in Sichuan and straightened them to make an installation which along with the names, ages, dates of birth and address of the children that died make a very powerful image. 

Ai Weiwei’s trees are simply beautiful and created a tangible presence in the courtyard of the RA.

These are the pieces that I most wanted to take home – but you knew that!