An Autumnal Spring Clean.....

Autumn's finally here. The havaianas have been shelved and the half empty suncream bottles stored with the 7 others, dating from 1997, under the sink. Now its all about wellies and raincoats, fires and a wee nip of sherry. New seasons always make me reflective. I yearn for new beginnings, new goals and new love for old, discarded activities. I have a long list of things I want to achieve by Winter - in truth, too long. It would be darned tricky to undertake all of them if I did not have two small boys wanting this, that and the other but as it is, impossible. However, enough of this defeatest attitude...... this is what I will be filling my spare (uch um) time with this 'fall'.......

- Watch all those classic films I am ashamed to admit I have not seen - no 1, Annie Hall
- Spend at least 30 minutes a day reading. I have a huge stack of unread books beside my bed now is the time to tackle them.
- Visit more South West landmarks we have never been to - The Lost Gardens of Heligan is a priority.
- Make Sunday roasts with family and friends a priority. All the trimmings and crumble with custard washed down with a strong claret.
- Start swimming again. I am lucky enough to have a swimP3 player so I plan to download all the Radio 4 podcasts I have missed and dust off that crawl.
- Continue my music journey - try to listen to at least 1 band/ artist I have not heard before. This week, embarassing to admit, was Fats Waller - amazing!
- Make the boys some toys. I love hand made stuffed toys and spend a fortune on that linen cheetah or those screen printed fish but I am sure I could give it a go myself (????!!!!??!)
- Give brown hair a try (will I end up looking like her?!?!)
- Beg my great friend Fritha to re install my knitting lessons.
- Add to my sheepskin collection and wear pretty much nothing but. My family think this fetish is very odd and slightly dodgey.
- Sit down and write all the thank you letters I owe. Some are 3 months late - but better late than never right?
- Its all about box sets. I am sick of having to remain dumb during the Breaking Bad phenomenon - Walter White, welcome.
- Phone my friends more. I am a terrible communicator on the phone but need to keep in touch way more so improvement essential.
- Visit more galleries. The National Portrait gallery in London has the Taylor Wessing Photographic Exhibition coming up - it is always breath taking.
- Make more time for Rupert and I.
- Organise the boys books. They are threatening to drown us.
- Begin the long haul to lose this baby weight. There is only so long you can blame the baby!
- Carve pumpkins for halloween. Havent done it for years and I have some spooooky designs in mind.

Wish List - embracing Autumn

1. Essie nail polish in Luxedo - £9.95 Feelunique / 2. Geometric wool dress - £338 Orla Kiely / 3. Cross Blanket by Pia Wallen - £159 Haus / 4. The Kinfolk Table - £16.25 Amazon / 5. Zip it Emy boots - £259 Hasbeen

SNAPSHOTS - last week, a little late....

bedhead

autumn prettiness

the Maurice dancer

Lenny loves Annie dog

Ambrose loves carrots (and makes Ru very nervous!)

the police parking in the lift shaft

Hilda

Hide and Seek - always the same places always the same joy!

I'm freezing.

the last Dahlia - bye bye Summer

Boo

pretty whippet

our daily stroke of the clip clops

obsessed with The Jungle Book

god bless the St Margarets Hospice shop

trampoline action

The tiger, tractor and me

Mint.

teepee chill time with Moomin

basking in the sun

Apple Cake.... mmmmm....

We are (happily) over run with apples in the garden - the two trees we have are straining with fruit..... any apple recipe's send 'em over please! So to utilise his beloved garden produce Rupert chose an apple cake for his birthday last week - I wouldn't naturally marry apples and cake but the result was yum - a classic sponge, fruity apple chunks and toasted almonds. It really was rustled up in the shake of a lambs tale and if you have any apples in the house you probably have all the other ingredients in he cupboard so bonus, no shopping required! Its a Mary Berry recipe - who doesn't love MB?!

* warning - I not only used dessert apples with the cooking apples but halved the cooking time and mine was still slightly over cooked. I don't know whether this was my wrong prep (?!) but stick a knife in the centre of the cake after 1/2 hour - if its clean when removed it's cooked and if not keep going........ (crikey its a brave women to mess with a M Berry recipe - I'm afraid.....)

• 225g self-raising flour
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 225g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 150g butter, melted
• 250g cooking apples, peeled and cored
• 25g flaked almonds

METHOD

-Preheat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 

-Lightly grease a deep 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin

-Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, almond extract and melted butter into a bowl. Mix well until blended, then beat for a minute.

-Spread half this mixture in the prepared tin. 

-Thickly slice the apples and lay on top of the mixture in the tin, piling mostly towards the centre. Using 2 dessert spoons, roughly spoon the remaining mixture over the apples. This is an awkward thing to do, but just make sure that the mixture covers the centre well as it will spread out in the oven.

-Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.

-Bake in the preheated oven for 1¼-1½ hours until golden and coming away from the sides of the tin.

Wish List - with grey rain outside, loving colour this week....

1. Orange wellies - £89 Hunter /  2. Impecable Spectrum dress - £33 Modcloth / 3. Dig the Earth cards - £12 Etsy / 4. Animal Russian Dolls - £19.95 Little Baby Company / 5. Lattice Cuff - £243 Hattie Rickards

The weeks snapshots.... our Sunday roundup.....

too sweet these two

Watchet seaside

choo choo

1st smiles..... so rewarding.....

Ru's birthday brekkie - a predictable choice!

sunny day

combing the beach for good stones

Ru chose apple cake this year - it was lovely will post the recipe later this week

footsteps

dinosaur fossil

birthday supper

cracker time

stone

reflections

stoney beach

pasta

Sunday sun

Kevin's man made house

flare

good pillow

smiley chops

beautiful light

Marbling with shaving foam.......

This activity is messy. There is no avoiding it - foam, paint, glitter everywhere. However my toddler loved it, I thought if was fantastic and what is a washing machine for anyway?! I did it outside (thank goodness) which I would highly recommend - messy play should be exactly that and if you are constantly fretting about the carpet it will be zero fun.

You can use any colours you like but we chose Autumn shades to make leaves which we had been spotting this week - well, in truth I had been spotting to earnestly explain the seasons and why trees drop their leaves etc...... Lenny completely ignored me and just kicked them in puddles…..

All you need is a can of shaving foam, a flat tray, red and yellow paint, paper, scissors and some gold glitter (we did not have gold so used blue!).

- Spray the foam onto the tray 

- Add yellow and red paint and mix it by hand

- place paper on top of the marbled mixture and peel it off

- Scrape off any thick foamy excess and let the paper dry 

- Cut leaf shapes out of it

It really is that simple and teaches children sensory investigation, mark-making, print making, colour mixing……. well, thats the theory anyway……. I just like the way shaving foam feels when you squeeze it through your fingers - Squiiiiiidgyyyyyyyy.

To be honest I think Lenny agreed with me - he spread the foamy mess all over his face, arms and hair but hey ho, he did it with a smile.