Hike to Harvest

Our neighbor's tree out front has just started turning yellow. Isabella is with her second cold  in two consecutive weeks. We are using our heater twice a day now. And dinner tonight is a hearty, hearth-y moussaka. Autumn is really upon us here in England. I feel we have to spend as much daylight hours outside as possible, before the sun goes down at 4pm by the end of December, and the days begin to wane dramatically by 2pm.

the donkeys and horses from down the road

So Isabella and I have begun to collect even more wild berries, apples and other edibles to use such efforts as an excuse to be outside. We have even started taking the dog down to the creek for regular baths, instead of a hosing.

footpath to Southwick and the giant crabapple tree

But today I'm definitely feeling the indoorsy vibe. My attention has turned from various scattered clothing and gifting projects to projects of the house: what do I really want to look at between these four walls for the next 6-7 months before spring beckons us out again? So I am putting together a few boxes of things we no longer use or need to sell in my first car boot sale - the equivalent of a garage sale, except various people in the village get together in a parking lot and sell their wares from the trunks of their cars.

last stop at The Swan from our recent hike

This weekend we are also planning a big family hike with some other friends and their kids. It will be a kid-friendly pub crawl from one village to another - with good food and drink at both ends - absolutely the best way to do it.

More Early Autumn Energy

"So you're not sleepy?" "No, it's just I hungry." And she's also eating like a teenager again. I got comments about it on her first day at playgroup. They marvelled at how much she ate at snack time. Parents get just as proud of how much their toddler eats as they do of their grades when they start school. I'm almost sure of it.

"Be careful, Isabella. There are a lot of pokies [thorns] around the blackberries." "The pokies tickle me." Then later after getting stuck, "Pokies, you don't have to hurt me." This was yesterday, when we took Spartacus for a swim down at the stream. This outing ended up being a hour and a half long hike, and by the time we made it home we were rosy cheeked and ready for hot chocolate! Isabella's first hot chocolate. It was a bit anti-climactic: I was expecting her to go bonkers over milk with loads of warm chocolate swirling around in it.

This week the days have been very full. It's not even 4p.m. but since we've been so active outside, it feels like it should be bedtime. Today we took a long bike ride to another village, then hiked up an old castle mound to see the panorama. I missed my camera every step of the way. Because she fell asleep on the bike on our way home, I missed out on a nap time break. But she has been letting her imagination run wild, and so has been entertaining herself very well.

behind her is the partially sanded table I hope to paint and stencil for her - yet another project

This week I also bought her a grab bag of toys at our Oxfam charity shop - only 99p. My investment in that cheap bag of Happy Meal cast offs and random bric-a-brac is turning out dividends in the amount of time she has spent playing with each new piece of junk. Sure, it makes for a huge mess but it buys me time to get other stuff done around here :).

Late Summer Happenings

that was my teddy as a kid!

Last month we finally decided to move Isabella into a toddler bed. It was just the right time. Now I can squeeze into her little bed for a book before bedtime or just lay by her side for a few minutes to cuddle when she needs it (or I need it - which is actually most of the time). Of course, she often plays in her room now when she should be sleeping, but the transition has made mornings much easier for me. Now she can show up at MY bedside to say "good morning to you!" instead of frantically screaming at me from her crib. It makes a big difference in my usually anti-social morning mood. 

With each passing day, Pedro and I swear that she is getting either clumsier or bolder - most likely the latter - but either way, she ends up with innumerable little bruises on her legs, bloody lips, and even a bruised nose. Last week was just terrible, and she fell badly twice in one day - once while playing around in her little plastic lawn chair (teeth to the coffee table), then she tripped on a new rug I bought and almost broke her nose on a dining chair.

                                         

We have put a strict stop to her cuddling with the dogs after Tracia clawed a deep gash in her cheek when Pedro's parents were here. But still, she tests the limits.

I plan to put her into playschool for one day a week this fall/winter. It will help me get errands done while she learns things from people other than me. When she turns three next February she will be entitled to school five days a week (half days), but I'm not sure how long I want her away. I do so like her company, and I have already learned how quickly these days pass. 

Strawberry Picking

pick your own

This post is a bit overdue. At the end of July, some of my friends and our little ones all went to a nearby farm and did some berry picking. This was a ritual my family performed almost every year where I grew up - my brothers and I would help pick gallons of berries and my mom would fill every free space of countertop preparing them for preserves or freezing. I did the same when I got home too. 

getting ready

 This, of course, wasn't Isabella's first foray into berry picking. We've been picking edible stuff around where we live since she was old enough to walk.  It was, however, her first time at a real vegetable farm. The kids were all so happy just to get together - we certainly didn't need a gimmick to get their attention. But once they saw the strawberry fields, and the rows upon rows of redcurrants, blackberries, tayberries, and raspberries, they began "working" in earnest. Isabella ate every single berry she laid hands on - and they were so candy-sweet, I couldn't blame her.

covering each other in hay 

The girls have been friends since Isabella was 6-months-old, so every time we see each other there is a lot of hugging involved - they're practically sisters. This time, when the two of them hugged goodbye - they embraced each other so hard that they both fell over, mid-hug. They got hurt and there were some tears, but it was so ridiculously cute my heart practically burst in an overwhelming sappy mom moment.  

While the parents took turns paying for the loot, the kids all took off to the park and burned what little energy was left. I hope to go back to the farm very soon to repeat the experience. I love the idea of making these sorts of traditions with her, and I hope that she looks back on these times with the same warm and fuzzy feeling I do.   

Impeccable Fashion Sense

As per usual.

August

"esa nena tiene fuerza en las manos!"

a BBQ and a tea party all in one day

rainy days ain't gonna get us down! (idea per madebyjoel)

how she managed to stand in these, who knows?

We may be experiencing our last days of summer. We have had a couple of very chilly days: days that if the calendar had read October I would have happily turned the heater on - but I object to using the heater in August! We wore wool sweaters instead - which now sounds at least as bad.

Isabella had her 2.5 year development checkup last week - but she doesn't actually turn 2.5 until tomorrow. (I refuse to let her grow up too fast, even a day - so today she is still 2.4999999!) She did great - here in England one of the big tests is whether they can properly play with a tea set - a game she has had down pat for months. Most afternoons we do a "tea time" following her nap - I have a cup of coffee and she gets some diluted chamomile tea - the proud grown-up look on her face during this little game motivates me to try to do it every day. Anyway, she passed all the little tests administered by the health visitor, was weighed and measured and is growing and learning most excellently.

At this stage, Pedro and I are blown away by the power of her memory - she can repeat the most random, offhand comments we make days after they've been made. Yesterday, she saw the ice cream man pass us on the highway and asked where he was going. I told her he wasn't selling ice cream then but was on his way home to see his family. When she heard the music of the ice cream van today, she told me he was just on his way to his home to be with his kids.

She has times of completely fluency with her speech, but some days she gets caught up on words. Every bit of it is so amazing to witness.

Les Cousines Dangereuse

Paloma + Isabella June 2010 Part I

She's Ready For Her Close-Up

South Wales

Pembroke Castle

This year Pedro's annual birthday trip involved a foray into South Wales. We wanted to take his 4X4 vehicle on its first roadtrip through somewhat rugged territory. Our plans were a bit spoiled by a brakedown that lasted almost three days and extended our trip by an extra day. But despite the car troubles, we did a bit of hiking along the coast and probably sat around a bit more than we would have otherwise.

Pembroke Castle moat

When we got restless we took taxis. The villages are pretty close together so it wasn't too bad.

Welsh cheese: Caerphilly, Welsh Brie, Red Devil (spicy!), and Harlech (with horseradish)

We stumbled upon a gourmet food shop in Pembroke; it had a huge selection of Welsh cheeses so I had the lady behind the counter put together a little picnic selection for us.

We stayed at a self-catering cottage (no-frills country house) in a village called Freshwater East. The local pub had delicious food (local fish, mussels, and pork) and put together a special ice cream sundae for Pedro. Plus, they had a huge fish tank that kept Isabella absolutely transfixed.

We only managed to get in a good coastal hike once - and it was absolutely stunning. Pedro had Isabella on his back in the child carrier and we hiked up and down the rolling hills along the coast from Freshwater. There were spectacular views. The scenery reminded me a lot of Cornwall, and also of how much I want to go back!

Our last day was spent wandering around in the village of Tenby - in the rain. Thank goodness the child carrier closes up like a little capsule and keeps Isabella out of the wind and the wet. To matters more uncomfortable, the place we were staying had closed, so we couldn't even go back just to get out of the rain. After enduring too much frustration from the mechanic ( who could never give us an estimate of when the work would be done), we decided to take a taxi to the garage and give them the evil eye until they got moving.

In all, the trip had plenty of high points and at least we were never at each other's throats! I'll post a slideshow in the margin soon.

Isabella the Flower Girl

We have been planning my good friend Kathryn's wedding for the last year. My role as a bridesmaid included making the flower girl dresses so that they would match the bridesmaids gowns. So I sent swatches of fabric and Pedro's mom was able to find just the perfect material in Puerto Rico.

Kat and I made the crowns for the girls and the end result was totally adorable. They looked like two little fairies flitting about the church and the field where the reception was held. My friend Amanda graciously offered to do my hair, even though she was dealing with a house full of boxes only one day after moving.

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, the couple opted for a cheese tower, using traditional British cheeses. Isabella kept robbing it of its grapes throughout the reception. We were experiencing one of the hottest days of the summer and this cheese tower got pretty ripe before the night was over.

It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to. The weather was unbelievable. Isabella was a perfect flower girl - she spent over three hours dancing on the dance floor, up WAY past her bedtime, but happy the entire time. Seriously, we couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Cooking with Kids - Cheese and Pizza!

First thing in the morning yesterday, we made mozzarella cheese.

It takes a lot of milk to make one ball of mozzarella cheese (3.8 liters - or one gallon of whole milk - the fattier the better!).

Paloma added salt, citric acid and rennet to get the whole milk to separate into curds (solids for the cheese) and whey (the liquid left over).

This is what it looked like once we poured off the whey. We then had to heat it up enough to get the curds really stretchy, in order to get that rubbery and slightly stringy texture of fresh mozzarella.

At first, it was too hot for Paloma to handle so I got it started.

Then Paloma worked it into a ball, folding the cheese in on itself until it was shiny and smooth on the outside.

Paloma claims not to like cheese unless it is on pizza....so we made pizza! We used the warm whey left over from the cheese to make the dough. It was a scorcher outside so we filled the kiddie pool and swam until the dough was ready.

She decorated her personal pizza with pepperoni and tons of the fresh cheese she made herself :).
We used the whole ball of mozzarella and had a pizza picnic in the backyard.

Cooking with Kids - Elderflowers

elderflowers

Our neighborhood has a plethora of things to pick and eat - as you may have seen we often pick things like nettles, wild garlic, and berries (sloe and blackberry). This year I have made it my goal to follow the seasonal foraging opportunities presented in a book I bought at the Eden Project last year (Seaweed and Eat It). The book chronicles the foraging adventures of a small family with two little girls who pick and prepare anything from wild crabs from the English coast, to sloe gin (which I actually made last fall). This year, I am right on track, having made special dishes from nettles and wild garlic. We are now full into the season of blooming elderflowers.

Paloma La Fritolera

We went for a short stroll through our village to find and pick a bagful of elderflowers - enough to make fritters (as you see Paloma doing) and elderflower cordial (a syrup used to flavor carbonated water or even white wine - though the syrup itself is alcohol free). Paloma was all over helping me pick the flowers, and I think she was especially excited by the prospect of getting to eat what we were picking.

the fried flowers

We sprinkled them with sugar and served them up with applesauce and jam for dipping. Isabella wasn't so sure about them, but Paloma ate more than half of the flowered stems that we cooked. Supposedly she is a picky eater - not too much evidence of that here.

ahhh, lovely donut-flavored flowers

and for good measure, look at this beautiful face!

Father's Day

I have been talking hundreds of photos in the last few weeks but there has been little time to update the blog. I know, I have had complaints :).

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the good fathers in our lives. Our kids are lucky to have such a legacy.

Our family on this side of the pond spent Father's Day at the Haycock Hotel, where we had a traditional, full English Sunday lunch. The food was beautiful and delicious. Paloma especially loved dessert - some decadent chocolate tart.

And Isabella especially enjoyed the little fountain, conveniently located alongside our table!