This moment... one year on

This moment .. in Soulemama style.

Today one year ago, I planted a tiny apple tree. Look, how it has grown and blossoms. New life pushing towards the sky, soon to bear fruit and nourish my little ones.
But this little tree was also planted on the day my darling daddy passed away. Rest in peace, dad, you are loved always and much missed by us all.

Thrifty Thursday - bargain hunter

I do  love a bargain, I know thats not unusual but I also have a love of 1950's crockery and often the two most definitely do not go together. Vintage is huge here and so are the price tags.So, treasure is indeeed, just that. We only have charity/ thrift shops here, unfortunately yard -sales do not exist in Ireland. Everytime I get a chance and with a limit of £5 per item (maximum!) I hunt through the second hand shops.  Then, sometimes, very occasionally I have "the luck of the irish". As i did today. I was dropping off two bags of the kids clothes to my fave charity outlet and had a good nosy at the same time. These goodies came out with me!

JAJ Pyrex Meat Platter £2.00

JAJ Pyrex Autumn Gold veggie dish with lid £1.40 & huge ball of Sirdar wool for 59p!!! (one hr scarf, £8.99 retail)

  definitely a good day!

Nature's larder

For weeks the hunt has been on. With every hint of increasing spring weather we've been looking, searching. To no avail. The recipes waiting. Last night we were down on the beach, a new path back through the forest was found. Still no sign - lots of bunny rabbits, tweeting birds, vetch, nettle, dandelion, clover - abundance of nature, but not what I was looking for. We clambered into the car, and as I siganlled out I checked the drivers wing mirror and lo! up on the bank at the edge of the mirror was reflected acres of little white chirpy flowers. My bounty at last!

An afternoon of bliss was had making pesto (read playing like a kid!) with the garlic, good parmesan and some nuts, olive oil. I don't use a recipe per se, its more rough and ready than that. I throw it all in and taste and flavour.

I added some lemon juice (all Italian mamas will shudder) but it does give it another layer of freshness.

Its perfect for pasta, marinade rub on meat and fish or lovely with toasted crostada.

The rest as you may be able to see from the pic was mixed into some lovely fresh irish butter  which was very soft and then rolled into some baking paper(you can use cling also but the paper is thriftier as at the end any waxy bits of butter can be used to a pan or two). I then pop it in the freezer and any time we need garlic butter i just slice a bit off. Delicious.

I'm reading Anna del Conte's biography which is just glorious gastronomy. She makes it all sound so simple and in the book is a great recipe in it for risotto with nettles and I think I'll cook it one night next week and add some of my lovely wild garlic. Will let you know how it goes.

Peace to you all

Beach school!!!

I totally agree with Richard Louv who wrote this.  I know that as a family we are more grounded, more relaxed and more together when we get outside and breathe and smell and move and see. The stresses of the day seem to ebb away when we 're walking through our local landscape. We are very lucky and live within walking distance of a fabulous beach and forest. Whether the sun is shining or the snow covers the ground, its all about enjoying nature's bounty. Much as I enjoy technology and I do believe it has a valid place within our society (thought thats a conversation for another day), nothing can replace the gorgeousness of being outside with the kids.(hopefully I'll be able to show you some of my bounty tomorrow night!!)

And so to today - who needs school when you've got the rockpools,  beach, meadows anda disused lifeboat station as your teacher! I was poking around in the wild flowers with my camera and didn't get a chance to capture on camera the little bunny family that Andrew and I saw through the trees. Maybe they were out for a walk too.

MONKEY BARS!

SOCIAL HISTORY

WEIGHT LIFTING

MARINE STUDIES

When I see the sun setting over the ocean I always ponder at the sheer magnificence of creation. This poem  i did for A level  reminds of it too.

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Windhover 

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,	5
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion	10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

Old fashioned fun in the sun

The weather in the UK and Ireland is glorious and if its good weather, the whole country pops on their shorts and heads to the beach. I don't know if its just me, but as a crowd hater I prefer it when the beach is just me and mine, the starfish and the seagulls. So on holidays and high days we tend to stick to the quiet spots.After baking some pies this morning we chilled out in the garden this afternoon. Kiddos decided to paint their feet. I  was chuffed imagining beautiful portraits of little footsteps framed and given to the grannies as pressies. That idea didn't quite work. I painted  their feet the first couple of times mutli -coloured, bright and gorgoeus shades of the rainbow. But when left to their own devices, they mashed all those colours together and made.... brown!!

Then painting feet wasn't adventerous enough, they decided to paint themselves like Easter eggs.... brown, again!

Though the real fun came in the cleanup operation. Obligatory for a sunny day?  Outside showering in the garden hose.

 Doing an Irish jig and loving the cold water.

We had a fab afternoon, what about you? How was your holiday?

This moment... meet new Fonzy

Missed one!!

There must be something about being a wildlife photographer, sitting all day waiting for the perfect shot, animal in action, bird in flight only to mistakenly blink or move and the moment is gone.I caught a tiny glimpse of that last night. The warm and sunny days have helped make our world full of life,laughter and fun. We've walked to the beach everynight, through the lush silent meadow and to our amazement found the long sandy stretch mostly deserted, apart from mussels, whelks, starfish and seagulls. Watching the still waters by dusk I sat on the sand , burying and stretching my feet in broken shells and listening to the birds chatter and call.
There was much climbing, feeling, poking and of course jumping. They've danced across the dunes while I have investigated the wild flowers and searched for samphire.  Of course I had the camera, to capture those kodak  moments. While I was snapping these something made me turn around and standing on the rocks above the beach watching us was a fox. Cool and erect he eyeballed me before slowly turning and disappearing once more. Where was the camera? In my hand.duh!!