Two tutus

Isabel isn't anywhere near crawling yet but she's mobile in an odd way and is forever going backwards - very frustrating when your toy is in front of you. It means she keeps getting stuck under things like the bathroom cabinet...

She's loving sitting up and is 90% secure once I've sat her up but sometimes I need to know she's not going to suddenly go over backwards and so this morning she ended up in the washing basket whilst I popped something in the oven. As you can see she loved it. I won't be able to do this for long though as if she tries to pull herself up it'll tip.

I've been making a few things for a soon to be 4 year old and today was tutu day. The boy had to try it on...

And then a little while later the request came to 'make me a skirt too'.

What's a boy to do in a tutu? Ride his bike of course!

But then he heard the mixer going as I was making breadcrumbs for the turkey burgers. Pressing buttons is his job so the stool was pulled up and I was told to get out of the way.

I've talked before about the Artisan Bread book after I found a recipe online from it. I now have the book (thanks Kev & Ruth) and finally got chance to make my first batch today. It really is yummy bread and whilst it's a bit messy (the dough is very wet) it's very easy as it's a no knead dough. There's enough in the fridge for at least another 2 loaves and I need to try the sweet recipes too.

The end of the week

It's really hard trying to get a picture of both of my babies together - or maybe it's just me...

Today was the first time in a long while that the boy has gone out without a hat as it wasn't hot enough for a sun hat and we left the bike at home.

On the way home he confiscated the camera and took photos of his sister...

and err of me... I'm still claiming that I've just had a baby but as she's now 5 months I guess I just am fat....

I think we chose the wrong trousers... I'm not sure they'll recover.

Afternoon fun was mostly laughing at Isaac - she really does find that boy funny.

He's quite physical with her but I think she's starting to hold her own...

The playsilks came out for the first time in a while and were mostly flung at and over me (the dog tried to rescue me when I got completely buried - at least I think that's what he was trying to do....)

The one surviving apple on our apple tree is doing well. I don't want to pick it too soon but I also don't want to miss the moment and find it bruised in the pot.

Reflecting

My Gran (my mum's mum) used to let me help her bake. I have fond memories of making mince pies at Christmas and scones and other things throughout the year. She always said I was good at scone making and as I've learnt more about the art of scones I've realised that's because I always had cold hands so the butter didn't get too hot whilst I was rubbing it in. The ghost of my Gran is always there in my scone making even though I've now usurped her recipe in favour of Rachel Allen's. I like the speed of making scones and the fact that I can do it without having to remember to get the butter out of the fridge hours before.

I have a shelf full of cookbooks but most of the time I want a recipe these days I go onto the internet and get one - even if it's the same as the ones I have in the books on the shelf. There's something quite magical about a cookbook though and as Isaac has been watching DVDs on the laptop I've had to revert back to them recently. My Rachel Allen Bake book falls open at the scones page and the page has splashes and grease marks on it - the sign of a well used cookbook (there's also a notation that I've added that it may need less milk as sometimes I find the dough too wet if I add of it in). It's like consulting a magic book to create a potion or a spell.

I'm mostly a traditionalist when it comes to scones and stick to fruit or sometimes cheese but in her suggestions Rachel Allen has cinnamon, orange and chocolate amongst others and as I happened to have both oranges and chocolate chunks I decided to do chocolate orange scones today. They are amazingly yummy and I'd highly recommend them.

After the green

He does wear clothes sometimes...

Granny & Grandpa gave him a camel and he asked what the thing on its back was. When I said it was a sort of saddle he said okay and took it into the other room Next I looked this is what was happening...

The train set is the favourite toy of the moment and is made and remade several times a day.

Isabel is sitting up pretty well now and is mobile (although mostly in a backward direction). I can't believe how quickly she's growing up.

Yes I really am as tired as I look. Snot boy is coughing all night and when he's not waking me up Isabel is making up for the feeds she's been too busy to have in the day.

And of course there's the bear...

It's not easy being green....

Amazingly there wasn't that much of it in the kitchen (although I'm not sure it'll fully come out of the grout).

And he did get some on the paper too.

Free food

Our lovely old next door neighbour has had to move out as her health isn't good enough to live on her own any more. She used to have the most amazing garden that she spent hours every day tending to and it's been sad to see if slowly go wild in the months since she moved. We had a long standing arrangement that we could help ourselves to the apples that grew on our side of the fence but as there's no one living there at the moment I figured we should use the ones on the other apple trees too. Growing up into the tree were some brambles (blackberries) so I got as many as I could reach and made a bramble & apple crumble. Yummy. Although I'm sad that we seem to be moving into autumn already.

I also made a batch of Nigella's rocky road (although I add about 100g of raisins too). It's quick to do which is the important thing at the moment and bashing the biscuits is very satisfying.

5 months