A Capital Time - London Loveliness

My gorgeous family spent last weekend in London. It was a fairly last minute plan - two weeks ago Mr Wren and I sat down in his office, looked at his calendar and realised that if we didn't go away that weekend we would end up not going anywhere at all this holiday. Now the Little Wrens and I are getting along fine but we all needed a change of scenery. So a hotel was found, train tickets were booked and we all had something to look forward to.

My soft spot for my old adoptive city is well documented - it is where I feel most at home. But the children too just LOVE London. We have always spent time with them there - my sister in law lives there, so that always makes things easier - but there is nothing quite like staying in a hotel in the centre of a city to really give you a taste of the metropolis. 

Master Wren would in all honesty be happy to ride around on the tube all day, but his choice of London landmark was a visit to The British Museum. Having studied the Egyptians at school last year he was very excited to see all of the ancient Egyptian relics. We saw actual mummies and tombs, the Rosetta Stone (which I was vaguely aware of but my encyclopaedic son explained "was the key to unlocking the meaning of hieroglyphics" - so there you go!) and even a preserved two thousand year old body (complete with hair and skin intact). It's a very special place, although I couldn't help wondering quite what all of those wonderful exhibits from around the World were doing in dear old Blighty. All of it presumably acquired during the grand days of the British Empire. Fabulous as it was to see it all, it does feel a bit like a very large and impressive exhibition of all that we have plundered from other nations. 

Our hotel was near St James' Park, so for dinner on Saturday night we wandered out past Scotland Yard through the grounds of Westminster Abbey, crossed the road in front of Big Ben and walked alongside the Houses Of Parliament, crossing the Thames at Westminster Bridge to reach the South Bank. So pretty unremarkable really! The South Bank itself had, as it does every Summer, given itself over to The Southbank Festival which this year took the theme of 'Love'. So after stuffing ourselves silly in Canteen, the children took a spin on the carousel and we all threw ourselves down the enormous family slides they had dotted around (see photo, top), before treating ourselves to an ice cream and taking a sundown stroll back to our hotel. 

Maxi Dress - American Vintage

Sunday began with breakfast with a view of Buckingham Palace in St James' Park followed by a quick tube ride (oh, happy boy!) to South Kensington and a wander around Miss Wren's museum of choice, the V&A. I love this place and spent many lazy hours as a student gazing longingly at the vintage Dior and Balmain dresses on display. So beautiful. Both children were fascinated by the fashion through the ages and were hypnotised by the jewellery exhibit. The dizzying display of diamonds left me feeling slightly giddy. They really are a girl's best friend. Or would be, if she could ever get her mitts on any!! Breathtaking!

We spent our last few hours in the capital in sunny Hyde Park, before heading to Paddington on our last legs to begin our journey home. We had a wonderful family weekend. 

In order to have as full a weekend as possible we caught the early train to London on Saturday morning. So we were all up at 7am and out the door before 8. Breakfast needed to be eaten on the train so on Friday evening I baked some healthy and sustaining muffins for our railway picnic. They were also very delicious. Here's the recipe....

30g unsalted butter

60g (two heaped tablespoons) honey

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsps crunchy peanut butter

2 large ripe bananas

150g light spelt flour

1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Around 12 teaspoons raspberry jam.

12 hole muffin tin and cases

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees C/ gas mark 5

Put the butter, honey and vanilla in a pan on a low heat to melt, then set aside. Mash the bananas.

In a large bowl, measure out the flour, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix the peanut butter and bananas with the melted butter mixture and combine with the dry ingredients.

Line the muffin tin with the cases and fill them about half full. Dollop a scant teaspoon of jam in the centre of each, then top with the remaining batter (making sure that all jam is covered).

Put in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Eat warm ideally. Train optional.

Busy Doing Nothing

We're into week 3 of the Big School Holiday now and I am loving having my monkeys around every day. In holidays past we have had a pretty quiet time of it (and driven each other mad in the process!) But this year we are packing it in - meeting up with friends 2-3 days out of 5, working on little projects at home, day trips, visits to family, a camping trip and the odd weekend away. Plus many water fight-filled days in the garden with this incredible weather we've been having. We are BUSY! Which is wonderful - the little Wrens are having fun, I'm having fun and we're spending real quality time together. All this though, of course means that I am struggling to fit in more tawdry tasks - the ironing has piled up and the house has definitely seen cleaner, tidier days - poor Mr Wren is regularly returning home from a day at work to utter chaos! 

It also means that I am struggling to find time for my selfish little pleasures - visits to the gym have been rare (and that makes me slightly jittery) and my tiny little corner of the internet has been sadly neglected. But now the holiday is in full swing I am hoping to get into more of a routine (both writerly and housewifely!) and I will make sure my nests (both physical and digital) are much better cared for.

It's hard to put my finger on why, or what it is exactly, but since my last post (over a month ago - shame on me!) I have in all honesty lost a bit of oomph. I have been approaching everything at half speed, with minimum effort since it was all I could seem to muster and as a result I have been feeling really dissatisfied. That old 'put 100% in, get 100% out' adage would, I'm afraid, appear to be true. So consider a leaf turned, the rose-tinted spectacles are back on and I am going to try and approach life in my usual positive, upbeat manner. And if I'm not happy with something, well, I have the power to do something about it. And, actually when I look through my photographs from the last few weeks I can see that I have had a really lovely time and done and created some very special things. Most of them involving the two most special things of all - my babies. Seems I've been achieving a lot more than I thought. It's all about perspective. xx

Chocolate caramel birthday cake - mmmmmm!

The boy's Mad Science party - blog with details to come...

I finally got my Frame Denim dungas - I promise I'll stop now!

GP's fish tacos - incredible!

The Frozen cake - made three batches of my own candy for this. That's love.

Even Miss Wren had had enough cake by the time her birthday came around. Birthday rocky road it is then!

National Trust membership - the saviour of many a school holiday.

Perfecting my Dutch braid.

Playhouse renovation using child labour. They've had so much fun planning this.

Summer Fair - Name the Ted and Fresh Gingerbread

I've been AWOL again, I know. I'm sorry. But this post should help explain why. Last Saturday was the school Summer Fair and Sports Day that along with the rest of the PTA committee I was in charge of organising. It was a loooooonng day. Set-up began at 9am, stalls opened from 10.30 am and we weren't packed up until 5pm. But it was such a beautiful day too. Everything looked gorgeous - from the glistening tombola prizes, to the mountain of cake donations, from my hastily created Human Fruit Machine to the bunting that had been lovingly hand-sewn from old school summer dresses by a very talented friend of mine. The sun gazed down on us from morning 'til night and all day I was surrounded by the faces of smiling children. It was hard work, but absolutely worth it. Here are a few pics from the day. (Thanks to my friend, Alan for the beautiful photos)

It's Party Time!

God, I love a kids party! Which is a good thing really since I'm in the midst of planning three in the space of as many weeks. First up is the imminent school Summer Fair. I'm head of the Parents Association (did I mention that before? No? Probably because I'm trying to pretend it's not true myself! So stressful and did I mention thankless? Sorry. I'm at risk of going off on a rant here!) and the Fair is imminent (like next weekend imminent -aaarrgh!) so I am currently up to my eyes in bunting and raffle tickets. I am busily sorting tombola prizes and preparing rats to be splatted. I am the person who has to count those sweets into the jar so some lucky person can "guess how many" and win the lot. My husband says I should just make up a number, but really, that's not in the spirit of things, is it? It's loads of work but it makes the kids so happy, and really, I don't think I could just stand on the sidelines while someone else does all the work. I secretly love it.

Sunshine and Showers - Loving the Leopard

Well, what a difference a day makes! Yesterday the sun was shining and so I was out in the garden all day - weeding, planting, picnicing and playing with the children. Our garden is a small urban garden, but it is such an oasis of calm and remarkable quiet in the midst of the city. We were feeling some serious garden love yesterday.

Bank Holiday - Birthdays and Rainy Days

I love a long weekend. This Bank Holiday Sunday we travelled up to Richmond to celebrate my brother-in-law's and his twin sister's 40th Birthdays (coincidentally it's on the same day! Ha!) It was also my Father-In-Law's birthday on Monday, so it was a big group celebration. As usual, cake duties fell to me. So I baked a huge batch of my brownies and the Birthday Boy's specially requested favourite carrot cake. 

It was a glorious day - a beacon of sunshine in the midst of a week of solid rain. Much Pimms and white wine and delicious food was consumed. The children ran around together all afternoon, while the grown-ups chatted and laughed until the early hours. Perfect!

Summer Breeze - sunshine, weddings & celebrations

Well, that's more like it! Summer sun all weekend and today. There's nothing like a bit of sunshine to make me feel that all is well with the world. I have had the most wonderful weekend. A beautiful Cotswolds wedding on the hottest day of the year, a world-beating first barbecue of the season and to top it all off another pretty major reason for my family to celebrate. Today's is a pic-heavy post!

Dress - Diane von Furstenburg, Jacket - Rag&Bone,
Bag - ASOS, Shoes - Shoemint.

My wedding outfit was a riot of colourblock (although, in 23 degree sunshine that jacket was a bit surplus to requirements). My jacket and dress were Yoox designer bargain finds and that bag was a half price ASOS steal (still available too - link here.

Oh, the places you'll go! A plea for the bedtime story.

I was woken up on Tuesday morning as always by Chris Evans' breakfast show on Radio 2. After dancing out of bed to the soft rock sounds of John Parr's Man In Motion (the theme from St Elmo's Fire - classic! I had the 7"single) something he discussed stopped me in my tracks. He said that a poll had revealed that young parents are no longer reading books at bedtime to their children, that the bedtime story is dying out. And my heart sank.

Actually, the poll he was discussing looked specifically at Dads. He was referring to a survey by Booktrust which has found that only 19% of 18-24 year old fathers read stories to their children. But it's not just the Dads at fault here, because there was a similar survey in 2012 that found that less than a third of parents read regularly to their children.

Anniversary anticipation

Just a quickie post today, because I am running around like the proverbial headless chicken getting the house, myself, husband and children organised ready for Mr and I to set off on a night away in the Big Smoke. It's our anniversary tomorrow (11 years - count 'em!) and since we were living there when we got engaged we thought it would be great to spend a bit of time in our city of love - London.

The restaurants are booked:

Here for lunch

Polpo

And here for dinner

Berners Tavern

Failing better.

This was a surprisingly good weekend. I say 'surprising' because it was just me and the little wrens at home in the nest. We had two lazy mornings followed by two 8 year old birthday parties for Master Wren, which meant that missy and I had some girly time. On Saturday this involved some light shopping after a little lunch at Carluccio's with friends.

I got these:

Dior Addict Extreme Limited Edition Lipstick (Shade 551 Aventure),
Diorskin Nude Tan Matte (shade 003 Cinnamon Matte)

Missy got these:

M&S Girls Slip-On Giraffe Trainers

Sugar rush - It's time to lock up the chocolate.

   

This Easter holiday we have all fallen head first off the healthy eating wagon. In holiday mode, James and I have been opening or finishing a bottle of wine most every night. We have indulged in white floured crumpets and croissants for breakfasts. The children's regular cries of "can I have a snack?" have been greeted with a carefree "Help yourself!". Chocolate. So much chocolate. And we've barely scratched the surface of the Easter egg stash. 

"It was like having a box of chocolates shut in the bedroom drawer. Until the box was empty it occupied the mind too much."     Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter

I am

Holiday Zen

I'm back. It's been a while, I know. We returned home last night after 10 days in a wifi free villa in the Algarve region of Portugal. The weather was utterly glorious - 23 to 25 degrees C every day. We ate well, drank well (Portuguese wine is utterly delicious - who knew) and best of all spent day after day just the four of us together, our little family, my favourite people.

It's a funny old place the Algarve. As you would probably imagine most of the towns are pretty overdeveloped with

In Your Face Cancer - my take on the nomakeupselfie

So, I did it. You probably did it. And as a direct result Cancer Research UK has raised over £2 million so far. I have read, seen and heard a lot of people criticising the campaign - suggesting it is flippant, saying that the last thing a woman with cancer cares about is her appearance so what has going without make-up got to do with supporting women suffering from cancer? There have been words like 'narcissism' thrown about, that the women posting these pictures are 'missing the point'. I think they're wrong. And here's why.

The Wren Cooks Key Lime Pie

In my last post, I wrote of how my Mum was the inspiration for this blog. She named her much longed for home in France Nyth Y Dryw which is Welsh for The Wren's Nest. Not long after she died, my Dad gave me her Nyth Y Dryw note book in which she had jotted down some of her favourite recipes. It is such a precious gift - full of her scribblings and sketches. On Sunday, in between sobbing sessions I thumbed through it and decided to knock up one of our family's favourites. In tribute number two to Mum, I give you Wendy's Key Lime Pie.

My Mum....a tribute

Today is a tough day. Two years ago, on March 9th 2012 my beloved, beautiful Mum died very suddenly. I miss her every minute of every day, but every year this date looms in the diary and it's so hard to know how best to get through it.

On feeling beautiful...

I am constantly telling my little girl how beautiful she is. I do it without thinking. And I think it's so important that she feels that she is beautiful, but I do sometimes worry about it. So much so that I find myself consciously adding on extra compliments to the endless chimes of "gosh, you're pretty" for fear of her growing up thinking that it's all she has to offer the world.

Weekend in London - A Very Happy St David's Day

Not the obvious place for a Welsh woman to spend St David's Day, this weekend we were visiting my gorgeous Sister-In-Law and Brother-In-Law at their new home in London. It is only a ten minute walk to the beautiful Kew Gardens

Cookies and Carnage.

Yesterday, the little wrens had friends to play and so the perfect kids spaces I showcased on yesterday's blog are today looking just a little rough around the edges. Actually, I think the phrase I used was 'a complete tip' and

A person's a person, no matter how small

Half term has begun. It's day 2 and the little wrens are currently playing at opposite ends of the house. There have so far been no major battle lines drawn which may largely be down to the fact that they are currently playing at opposite ends of the house! They are 7 and 5 (sorry, 7 and three quarters and 5 and three quarters - I'd be in trouble for that) and

Comfort Food.

Some meals just take you somewhere. They often aren't the grandest, most haute-cuisine of dishes, but they transport you to a place of comfort and familiarity. Last night, confronted with the last leftovers of a roast chicken, I made chicken croquettes. I had seen Michel Roux Jr. cooking his version on Food & Drink on BBC2 this week and so I searched the BBC website for the recipe. I added a little Dijon mustard to his recipe to give them a little kick.

As I stood there, mindlessly (but very messily) rolling these little cylinders of mashed potatoes, up to