10 things

I've been busy and distracted these past two weeks.  Birthdays and school holidays have added a pleasing measure of disruption to our regular routines.  The children go back to school tomorrow and while I shall welcome the familiarity of usual service being resumed, I shall also miss their company so much.  I don't think I'm never ready for the holidays to end.

C and O at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, last week.

Here's what's on my mind, as our family birthday season finishes and we head back towards the familiar, steady comforts of the darker, colder, damper half of the year.

• I need a new word for 'babysitting'. I looked after my friend's two delightful girls, aged 7 and 11, the other night and I may have offended them by referring to 'babysitting'. They're not babies!  I need a new word.
• As soon as I've tracked down some red food colouring paste, I'm going to make me some red velvet cupcakes.  I ate an awesome one at this cafe a few weeks ago, and then Miss Moss Stitch made some last week which were simply delicious.  I need to have a go myself.
• It is always good to end the weekend with a pan full of stock on the stove.
• The garden is very wet and carpeted with layers of orange leaves from the cherry tree.  I am in denial.
• The children are obsessed with Scrabble right now.  They've been staying up late to play each night over half term. C managed to put 'fezes' on a triple word score and we may be talking about that particular move for some time. I wondered how he knew the word 'fez' but he reminded me about the very famous recent fez scene.
• I haven't been near my sewing machine in nearly two weeks.  I miss it.
• I'm rather belatedly reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and loving it so much.  If you are also late to the party, read it now.  So good.
• This is my absolute favourite bread recipe at the moment.  I use creme fraiche as the sour cream, and it works perfectly every time.  I am not normally a fan of white bread, but I really love this one.  Trust the strange instructions for kneading - they are improbable but do work, I promise.
• I have introduced C and O to the delights of the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. They love it.  I fully expect words like 'vex' to appear on the Scrabble board very soon.
• I have put these three little wooden carved animals, which I bought in Switzerland in the summer, in their own alpine meadow on the mantelpiece.  They are pleasing me enormously.