Walking in the new year

Two Christmas weeks of whole-family idleness has been blissful.

mocha and knitting - this is what much of my Christmas looked like

And now I'm starting the year with a pair of new walking boots, a whole pile of lists, plans, maps and new pens.  Its good to feel busy and energetic again after so much sleep and rich food.

I have resolved to cram as many walks as I can into 2015.

The slow advent of Christmas

 

Although the children and Graham are still ploughing on at work and at school - revising for science exams, writing up computer science coursework and making presentations to the Board of Directors - there are a few hints of Christmas starting to appear around here.

Olivia is appalled at Graham and my refusal to put up the tree so far.  But in fact, it is going up tomorrow - an early record for us.  The tree makes the house feel so cluttered and cramped it rarely goes up before the 22nd December.  However, there are twinkly lights around all the front windows, up and down the stairs, and around the railings and in the bay bush at the front of the house - they went up a couple of weeks ago, as they look pretty and don't take up any space.

As a diversion from complaining about the lack of tree, Olivia made a giant advent calendar on her bedroom door - filling each envelope with a fat marshmallow or a handful of chocolate coins.

I've baked mince pies, bought clementines, and done some secret making and wrapping of presents this week.   Tomorrow I am going on a long yomp through Epping Forest to gather some foliage for a wreath.

Little, by little, the festive season begins to draw us in - as a subtle, seasonal shift, rather than as a loud, hectic, explosion of stress.  That's just how it should be in my book.
 

Thoughts on January

The first daffodils of 2014

For me, January has a clean, fresh feel to it.  It doesn't seem like the start of the year - for me that will always be the new school year in September - but rather, January is a tidying up and a re-grouping.  A shake of the shoulders, chin in the air, and carrying on with a renewed sense of determination.

Back at University today

A new term started for me today: a new module, new reading lists, new tutors, one new pen and no new notebook (so restrained of me), plus all my lovely nursing friends together again.  But, alarmingly, it's my last ever term of teaching on this course.  After this, I have placements until July, then the summer holidays off, and placements again up to Christmas, when I qualify.  Qualify!  It's pretty scary to even write that word. 

So I am enjoying the sense of calm and resolve that this time of year brings for me, and trying not to think too much about my time at University coming to an end.  I am grabbing as much fresh air as I can, looking out for the first British daffodil bunches in the shops (Waitrose had some this week!), running, baking bread, and reading novels.

 
And I'm also filling up all my spare days with plans of nice things I want to do while I still have a bit of time on my hands.  Its January now, and I've got the time and inclination to fritter away 20 minutes photographing blood oranges; but before I know it, it will be December and I'll be a fully qualified nurse.  Fewer blood oranges and more actual blood, I should imagine.  Not long now.
 

10 things

Bulrushes in Dulwich Park

• I met up with a friend in Dulwich.  We went to the Dulwich Picture Gallery to see the Whistler exhibition.  I loved the pictures in the exhibition - the detailed prints and etchings of life alongside the river were my favourites.  It is only on for a few more days, but well worth a visit if you are in the area.
• I had never been to Dulwich before.  It is a very pretty part of London, with a delightful park to wander around.
• Yesterday, I went up to Cambridge to see my sister and her small daughter, who is nearly two.  I spent a wonderful morning reading books, building duplo, sorting Postman Pat's letters and cooking play food.  My sister, who is due to give birth to her second child any day now, had a chance to put her feet up and do a little bit of cooking.  When she thanked me, as I left, for coming to visit I was instantly transported back eleven years when I had two small children and my sister, who was only about twenty at the time, would come to see me and spend hours just sitting on the floor with Cam and Olivia, building train tracks, playing, cuddling and reading books.  I had forgotten what a wonderful thing that was: adult company for me, and an adored entertainer for the children.  It's a good feeling to be able to return the favour for her.

  

  Small niece, looking at books

• In between visits to Dulwich and Cambridge, I have been studying pharmacology for an exam I have coming up later this term.  I find pharmacology really interesting but incredibly difficult to learn.
• Olivia was back at school for less than three days and she already had two birthday parties and a sleepover lined up for this weekend.
• I have had a great many turnips in my veg box the past few weeks.  I am rather enjoying them, although it can be a struggle to find many recipes for them as they are seen as quite an unusual vegetable these days.  I ate one raw and discovered that it tastes very like a radish.  Who knew?
• I baked an apple and almond loaf cake - it looks plain but tastes delicious.  I rather like cakes that do that - they seem quite classy and sophisticated.



A very pleasing new biscuit tin

• I have a self imposed tradition of acquiring a new biscuit tin each Christmas, which then becomes a new cake tin once all the biscuits have been eaten.  M and S is usually the best source for beautiful tins at Christmas, and this year's did not disappoint.
• I have read a run of really good books lately: The Butterfly Isles by Patrick Barkham, The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) were both gobbled up in a few days and I am now on The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, which is another excellent read. 
• The cowl I knitted from leftover sock yarn has proved to be very disappointing.  It looks pretty but rolls up into a fat sausage whenever I wear it.  I think I probably should have used a thicker yarn, used a different stitch, and made it longer.  I shall go back to my default setting of knitting socks and shawls.

My newly finished cowl...

In its default setting - rolled up...

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     I was very kindly awarded a Versatile Blogger award by Phoebe at The Stylish Baker. Thank you, Phoebe!  Having blogged for nearly seven years there can't be that many more interesting things left to find out about me, so I have gone with my usual ten current things instead.  If you haven't come across Phoebe's blog already, do go and have a look.  Her Twelve Days of Christmas Baking had my mouth watering all December, and I made the 30 Minute Soft Pretzels as soon as I read the recipe - they were utterly delicious.

No man's land

No more tree - my sewing and knitting corner restored to normal

I am always happy to see the Christmas tree come down.  It is never up for very long - this year was an all-time record from the 19th to the 27th.  The lights and excitement that come with the tree are very welcome, but the displacement of regular furniture and the cluttering up of empty surfaces with tinsel and ornaments makes me feel hemmed in and chaotic.  The moment when we pack everything away always reminds me of this book I used to read to the children when they were very little.

The removal of the tree heralds one of my favourite parts of the year: the no-man's land between Christmas and the resumption of school/university/work in early January.  Long lazy days where we might catch up with family or friends, or we might idle around the house, just the four of us, playing with new presents, watching TV or reading.  The house is full of good food so I do very little cooking after Christmas lunch - everybody helps themselves to leftovers, creating eccentric, tailor-made meals involving smoked salmon, brioche, fancy chutneys and cheeses and bits of stuffing (not necessarily all at once).  When I do feel like cooking, the amount of stock, made on Christmas day from the joint, means that it is almost always soup.  I love soup.

Today I went running (with new Christmas-present headphones), had a nap in the sunshine, watched some Friends with Olivia (who received the entire 10 season box-set for Christmas - very exciting!), ate some of the mulligatawny soup I made yesterday for lunch, did a few more rows of stitching on my kantha quilt, and read a little bit from two books I received as Christmas presents: Eat, the latest Nigel Slater book, and A Handbook for Nurses (published 1920).  This afternoon Graham and I are both going out and meeting up later at the pub.

A Handbook for Nurses - such a wonderful present

Really, what could be nicer than all this?  These days of Christmas no man's land are very special days indeed; that tipping point between the end of one busy year and the start of the next.

Christmas preparations

I finished work.  I finished my essay.  I made mince pies.  Olivia made even more.  Graham put up lights.  Cam counted the number of presents under the tree and ate mince pies. 

We are now turning our attention to the very large amount of cheese that I seem to have ordered.  Olivia says she doesn't mind eating the stilton all by herself, if that would help?  She has discovered that she likes stilton as much as Cam likes mince pies.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

The unlovely East End

I love London, and especially the East End of London, and am usually fiercely loyal...but the area where I am working at the moment is really rather grim and hard to love.  A dual carriageway thunders through the middle of it, the pavements are greasy and dirty, the Georgian and Victorian terraces were almost all destroyed by a combination of the Luftwaffe and the town planners of the 1960s, and replaced with tower blocks. The shops are tired and half-stocked and people hurry along to get somewhere else rather than linger here.  

My fifteen minute walk from the tube station to the hospital does not fill me with wonder and excitement...

...except for just one short moment when I walk over Regent's canal, and on a clear day can turn my head to the left and glimpse the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf rising out of the early morning mist.

And this is why I will always love East London.  Even in the middle of the grime and the deprivation, there's still something unexpected to see which makes me smile and feel alive at the start of a long day's work.

Winter fairisle hat

The temperature, even in inner London, was minus two at half-past eight this morning when I took Olivia to school.  If I'd been working I would have left the house at ten past six, when I suspect it would have been even colder.  It is even getting a little bit too cold for my liking now.

But of course the redeeming feature of this teeth-shuddering weather is that I can layer myself up in shawls, hats and armwarmers until I look like a woolen Mrs Tiggywinkle.  Last night I came home from work to find a parcel from my Mum containing the most wonderful hat which she had knitted for me.

Tired eyes, happy smile, new hat.

It is a slouchy fairisle beanie hat, knitted from Kate Davies's Tantallon pattern, with a few size modifications.  You can see all the details on my Mum's Ravelry page, here.  The extra rows make it more of a slouchy shape, which I love.  It is incredibly warm, and comfortable, and I don't think you're going to see me wearing anything else on my head for a very long time.

I bought Mum Kate Davies's new book, The Colours of Shetland, for Christmas.  I love every single pattern in there, and even if you weren't going to knit anything from it, the book would be worth buying for the glorious photos alone.  I've not attempted any fairisle knitting myself yet.  It baffles me in the way that sock knitting once did; but I got the hang of that, and now love making socks, so perhaps it won't be too much longer before I give fairisle a go.

For now though, I need to curl up on the sofa with my new hat on, a shawl around my shoulders and a quilt over my knees and have a nap.  All this caring for other people is quite exhausting.

Where I was - 2012

How can a year be so wonderful and so hard all at once?  That was 2012.

I started the year at home, going for walks in my usual favourite haunts - Epping Forest, Kew Gardens, Mum and Dad's house in France, the streets of London.

At Kew Gardens

 

In Epping Forest

 

Hiking in France

 

Life ticked along.

Waiting for the tube - reading my Kindle

Then in June I decided to see if I might be able to apply for a place at University in 2013 to do a post-graduate nursing degree, despite my lack of any science A-levels.  I took Olivia with me to the summer Open Day, and thought to myself there's no harm in finding out. 

By the end of the day I'd had a first interview (with Olivia sitting by my side - solemnly reading her Beano) and had been given a date for my second interview.  Two weeks later I had my offer - for 2012, not 2013.  What I thought might take a year to sort out, took just a fortnight.

Olivia reading her Beano , as we waited for a lecture on student finance at City University

In August the sportsmen came to town, and we all went to the Olympic Stadium.  Cam went as a performer too.

In the Olympic Park with flags - Cam and me

In September I started University for the second time and became a student nurse - the best, most overwhelming, most interesting thing I've done in my adult life.  So many injections, so much work, so many biology workbooks, so many flasks of coffee, so many hours referencing essays.

At West Smithfield - on my way home from the Health Sciences library

 

First day at university - lunch, a bottle of water and coffee

In December I left the comfort of the campus behind and started my first placement - working long shifts in a large London hospital.  On my first day, as I walked to the tube along dark, cold streets at 6am, I thought to myself 'this is the single most scary thing I've ever done in my life'.

An early morning walk for me and Graham - late November

And before I knew it, it was Christmas.  Two people in the family were very poorly and I was reeling with exhaustion.  I've spent the last few days feeling thankful:

• for lovely, long-limbed children, who are kind and who make me laugh
• for my own health - I've learnt this autumn and winter that you can't take health for granted
• for friends who let me doze on their sofa, and forgive me when I don't write and forget to post their Christmas presents
• for corner shops that sell Green and Blacks and decent cheap wine
• for the doctors and nurses who looked after my own loved ones so well - I hope other people might think the same of me one day.

Dad and Graham - in France, Easter 2012

Me and Nigel Slater - New Year's Eve 2012

Along the way there were also two new nieces, a second hip replacement operation for my Mum, the arrival of a slow cooker and the departure of the bread machine, a bit of journalism, plenty of sewing, quite a bit of knitting and numerous cakes.  Olivia took up the French Horn and Cam became a teenager.  I don't think there'll ever be another year like it for testing me, challenging me and rewarding me.

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Where I was in previous years:
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007

Making Winter - 10 things

I love winter - it is my favourite season.  I savour the quiet, the peace, the cold and the thoughtfulness that comes with winter.  I am very happy to potter rather than do, which suits the colder months.  I discard my sewing and pick up my knitting instead.  I bake pies rather than make jam.  I wear warm tights and thick boots and read books.

Today in London it feels as if winter has very definitely come to an end.  The sun was up early, and shone all day.  I cleared the back garden - raking, digging, pruning, sweeping, weeding and tying back.  Then I tidied up the front garden - more weeding, more sweeping and more pruning.  I was outside in the garden for over four hours, and ended up with a warm, pink glow in my cheeks, and a mildly achey back.  As I worked I thought back over the winter and it seemed to me to have passed by in a flash. 



Gardening, today



Raking up the winter debris

Hard at work

These are my highlights.

• The arrival of a small, and very precious niece - my little sister is now a mother.  I feel pretty much as Soule Mama did in this post.
• Going to see three Olympic test events - the Handball, the Track Cycling and the Diving.
• Finding out about baked oatmeal.
• Making winter blankets.
• Mixed emotions when I paid a visit back to the village where I grew up.
• Meeting a lovely kitchenful of other bloggers for the first time, and finding out that they were in fact just like old friends.
• The return of G's drumming.
• So much knitting - a yellow hat, a green cowl, junior toast, my favourite shawl and two very slow knits which finally got finished.
• Making, and eating, loads of coleslaw. 
• Drinking cups of tea and coffee out in the garden, wrapped up in my woollens - not every day, but often.

It has been a very good one, but I'm looking forward to more days like today - outside, in the garden, turning my face to the spring sunshine.

The Track Cycling World Cup - 10 things

The crowd in the Olympic Velodrome

• We went to the Olympic Velodrome last weekend, to watch Day 3 of the official test event - the Track Cycling World Cup.
• We got to the Velodrome at 8am and left at 4:30pm.  It was so exciting I could have happily stayed there for twice as long.



G and C - still cheering on Team GB after eight hours in the velodrome

• The commentator was delightfully partisan:

"In lane 1 is Mr AB from Russia. In lane 2 is Mr CD from Mexico.  In lane 3 is Mr EF from Australia.  AND IN LANE 4, REPRESENTING GREAT BRITAIN, IS THE WORLD CHAMPION, THE WORLD RECORD HOLDER AND THE FOUR TIMES GOLD-MEDAL-WINNING REIGNING OLYMPIC CHAMPION...SIR.CHRIS.HOY!"

• Everybody screamed, shouted and stamped their feet when the commentator said that. 



Bottoms and bikes - lining up to start the keirin. Can you spot Chris Hoy?

• By the end of the day I had lost my voice.
• Velodromes are heated to 28 degrees C on race days to give optimum speed to the riders.



The countries' pens in the middle of the track

• Watching all the countries' support teams in the pens in the centre of the track proved almost as entertaining as the races.  The Dutch had at least 4 technicians per rider and had brought their own coffee machine into the pens - very classy.
• The thighs on the Greek male cyclists were of absolutely epic proportions.
• One of my tweets made it up onto the big screen in the stadium.  My 12 year old said patronisingly that he was most impressed that I knew how to tweet from my phone.


My tweet on the big screen - "well done, Mum"

• The track has a resident joiner, who was ushered out onto the track, clutching his toolkit, to inspect the wood and make necessary repairs each time there was a crash.

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This coming weekend we are heading back to the Olympic Park to watch Tom Daly in action in the Aquatics Centre test event, the Diving World Cup.  Tickets will be going on sale soon for more Olympic test events - you can find details here.

Time off

Half-term reading for C

Time off is always welcome - and time off from school is particularly appreciated around here, even though school itself is generally enjoyed.  This past week the children were off school for half term, and G took a week off work as well, so we all had a week off at home together which felt very special.

We crammed our week with Good Things:

• a family trip to Kew Gardens with cousins, uncle and aunt.  With the aid of a toppled snowman, C was taller than both Uncle and Dad for the first time.



G, C and Uncle M

• a family trip to Cambridge to see the newest member of the family, and another uncle and aunt.  O took approximately 200 photos of her smallest cousin.



Baby A's perfect little hand

• a birthday for G
• a trip to the other side of London to celebrate a milestone birthday for G's father



O reading and C listening to his iPod on the tube

• a long walk through the forest with old friends
• a day chilling out with more old friends, some computer games, and knitting for the Mums


Slow but steady progress on my shawl

• a day at the Olympic Park to watch the Track Cycling World Cup at the velodrome



Cheering on Team GB at the velodrome

Everyone's back at school and work today, and I miss them.  I am tidying, and cleaning, and setting the house back to normal.  It feels too quiet, but I go back to noticing - and appreciating - the small things. 

I spent a happy half hour in the garden this morning, chatting to the hens as I cleaned out their eglu and inspecting the progress of the buds and bulbs.  While we've been having time off with family and friends over half-term, the plants in the garden have been hard at work.  Spring is so nearly here.

Snowdrops

Clematis bud