Being Mrs C

The Teatime Islands - Ben Fogle

Whenever I smell mixed herbs (the dried variety that come in little glass jars) I am taken straight back to the house my parents lived in when I was a young child and in particular to the bay window of the front bedroom where I used to play some sort of game where I created a den and imagined that I was on a boat sailing across the oceans to discover islands that no one else had yet discovered. I have vague recollections that I needed to take some food with me and when I asked my mum for some the only thing she gave me was some mixed herbs.

Quite how I thought I was going to find new islands I have no idea, and I don't think at the time I had maps to make me realise just what a large job I was taking on, but still. I had my mixed herbs to live on so I'm sure I would have been fine!

I sounds like it was a similar childhood game that set Ben Fogle off on his adventures. He had maps though and it was noticing small islands in the middle of giant oceans that were marked as belonging to the UK that made him want to visit these "Teatime Islands" as he called them.

As the title suggests The Teatime Islands is Ben's story as he visits Saint Helena, Ascension Island, the Falkland Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territories and Tristan da Cunha. After his time on the Castaway Island of Taransay Ben felt an affinity with Islanders and wanted to find out how his experiences compared to theirs, but, much like in some of his own Taransay experiences he did find that some of them didn't want a "journalist" in their midst. Unfortunately Ben was refused permission to land on Pitcairn Island when they "found out" who he was - a huge shame.

I challenge anyone to read this book and not feel an urge to jump on a ship straight away to visit these islands for themselves. The fact that they are all under British rule gives them a certain quaintness that's irresistible. 

This was Ben Fogle's first book and I have to be honest and say that it shows. There are some places where the writing seems to lack depth and some points where good bits of the story are glossed over, yet more detail is given to what comes across as something rather tedious. I've read severaly of Ben's more recent columns and articles and know that his style now is much more mature as a writer. Please try not to let this distract you though as it is definitely worth a read - just make sure you have access to a good map or atlas when you do as it's impossible not to want to look up where places are and to understand the scale of some of the journeys involved.

Daddy's slippers

And there was me thinking that Little Miss C was a bit young for dressing up. She proved me wrong though when she got hold of Mr C's slippers the other evening...

Counting my chickens... - Deborah Devonshire

As a child Chatsworth was one of those places that we visited quite often. For a while it was a bit of a family tradition to go to the farm shop on Christmas Eve to buy meat for Christmas. I remember many, many visits to the children's farmyard and also have such fond memories of the annual country show that I really hope I can take Little Miss C and Mr C there one year.

It was at the country show that I was once served lemonade (lovely homemade stuff!) by the then Duchess of Devonshire (now the Dowager Duchess) and even at my young age I was struck by just how down to earth she was. Counting My Chickens has been on my mum's bookcase for ages and it's one of those books that I've always been keen to read, but for some reason never have until now.

The book is rather strange in that it is a collection of writings and thoughts that have been published elsewhere and all come together in this volume. There are some real gems in there, but it jumps from one to another without any context as to when things were written or why.  As I read it I was left feeling a bit frustrated at times as I wanted to know more background to what her views were and to be able to put them into context more.

Also on my bookcase at the moment is a copy of Wait For Me!: Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister which I picked up in a charity shop a while back and I'm hoping that this will fill in the gaps for me.

Off the needles...

I know I shouldn't have, but another knitting project found its way onto my needles this week.

I'm afraid my little model was in bed asleep as I sit here writing this post so for the time being this photo will have to suffice.

This is the Rosy Posy Hat from The fourth little Sublime hand knit book, but at the moment due to a complete lack of time it is missing the flowers that should be on it. The sudden cold snap made me realise that all the hats I made for Little Miss C last year no longer fit her and there was no way I could justify buying her a new one when I have a stash of baby yarn at the moment.

The yarn used is Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino in colour 340029, which strangely doesn't appear in the list of colours here so I'm still puzzling over that one!

I'm hoping I can update you with a better picture when my little model is awake and when the flowers are finished - although I can't promise on the timescales for that!

Holiday with toddler must-have items

It seems a while ago now that I wrote about our first foreign holiday with Little Miss C. We learnt so much in those few days about travelling with a little one and I therefore want to share wih you the three things that we took with us that I would encourage anyone travelling with a toddler to take.

1. Ergo Baby Carrier  

I'm afraid I don't have a photo of me using our carrier, but that's mainly because of the times it was useful. We flew with Easyjet from Stansted airport and I have to say that they were really good when it came to carrying baby equipment with us. We were able to take LMC"s pushchar right to the gate with us and then it was put in the hold for the flight itself. That did mean that we still had to climb down all the stairs at the gate to get to the plane with it before handing it over. But then we next saw it again in the baggage reclaim area when we arrived. It was the same on the return jorney. Left it at the aeroplane steps and then saw it in Stansted in beggage reclaim. 

What you need to remember though is that from the gate there is still a walk to the plane - and in our case that involved walking up to the plane and climbing the steps up to it. In Madeira the walk thorugh immigration etc wasn't too bad, but when we returned to Stansted there was a long, long walk from our gate to immigration, a huge queue to wait in, and then another trek to baggage reclaim. At 15 months (as she was at the time) LMC is very good at walking for her age, but there is no way that she could have walked all that way without either getting trampled by other passengers, getting tired or going somewhere she shouldn't have done. The Ergo Baby Carrier was so useful at these stages. I could just pop her in it and still have my hands free to carry bags, show passports etc etc. It also packs really small and is lightweight so wasn't a problem to have with us in general.

2. Totseat

I should start by saying that even before we went on holiday I was completely in love with my Totseat. I use it frequently when out and about with LMC and it is so useful.

If you've not come across it before then it is a fabric portable highchair that folds down so small that it fits into my handbag (and comes in a lovely little puch so it can do just that!) It fits in pretty much any chair that you find and means that you no longer have to worry about whether the place you want to eat in has a free highchair or not. It's adjustable and once you've used it a couple of times very simple to put on to a chair and make your child secure in it. Best of all you can also just throw it all in the washing machine when it gets dirty!

When we were away it gave us a level of freedom about where to eat and meant that we always knew that LMC was securely fastened in when we had meals. Some of the restaurants we went to did have highchairs, but some of them were so broken that we chose not to use them. One was a beautiful wooden one (in a posh restaurant we should add) but seemed to have no straps or bars to actually keep the child in. Within second LMC was stood up in it and trying to stand on the tray part! We pulled out the Totseat and used that with the highchair and instantly had a contained child who could eat her dinner without trying to see if she could freefall or not.

Before buying the Totseat I researched it carefull online and whilst I found several similar products this was the only one that was consistently reviewed well. Other seemed to have failings either in how easy they were to use, or on how few chair types that worked with.

When at home I regularly take mine with me when going round friends' houses so that I can give LMC her tea when out.

3. Wax-crayons and colouring book   

This is such a simpel one, but without it things could have got quite diffcult at times. Being able to pull out some crayons and a colouring book diffused many tricky situations where LMC was bored of waiting for something, whether it be during the flight or whilst waiting for food in a restaurant. It was only a last minute thing to throw these into my handbag but I am so glad I did.

However, I did discover that even baby wipes will not remove wax crayon from an aeroplane tray table...

 

All of these products were things that I bought and took with me on holiday. Both the Totseat and Ergo are available from Amazon by following the links above. This is not a sponsored post, but just simply sharing with you what I found useful. I hope it helps!

The Testament - John Grisham

There's been a bit of a book reading frenzy here in recent weeks, but my blogging about what I've read has fallen a bit behind. Apologies in advance therefore for a few back to back book reviews in the next week or so.

John Grisham's The Testament was something I quickly picked up in a charity shop as a quick holiday read and that's exactly what it was. There wasn't much time in Madeira for lounging around by the pool, but there was some time to kill on the plane and also time once Little Miss C had gone to bed in the evening. I've always liked John Grisham's books, but it is a few years since I've read one. I was not to be disappointed though as the usual Grisham mix of law and suspense was still there.

This time round rather than the lawyers trying to defend or prosecute a major criminal they were trying to find the heir to a family fortune, the only problem being that this was an heir that not only didn't want to be found, but also didn't even know she was being looked for. The book also looked at a religious beliefs and the motivation of money on people in an interesting way. There was a gradual religious awakening for one of the characters in quite an unexpected way that certainly made me as a reader quite intrigued and also strangely at peace as I read the book.

Overall this book seemed slightly less cut-throat as some of Grisham's other books, but that was no bad thing and also fit in with the storyline. If you're looking for a book that appears a light read on the surface, but actually ends up as a deeper story, then this is the one for you.

Damson Gin

It's over two years now since we moved to this house, and I'm ashamed to say that for the last two years we've just ignored the potential harvest from the two damson trees in our garden. This year was different though!

Firstly I made the effort to go and pick the damsons before they all became mush in the grass, and after washing them I put them in plastic bags in the freezer until I had a bit more time to get organised. We love damson gin, but have been finding it increasingly difficult to buy without going to farmers' markets and shops. A quick request on a few internet forums soon gave me an ideal "recipe" and so I was off.

One advantage of freezing the damsons to start with is that you then don't have to bother pricking them before making the gin. Simply put the required amounts of sugar and damsons in a Kilner jar and then pour over the gin. As the alcohol hits the fruit it will cause them to split. Seal up the Kilner jar and shake it to mix the sugar. Then leave it in a dark, cool place and shake daily until all the sugar has disappeared. This took about ten days in our case.

We made our first batch of damson gin about two months ago and last week I gave it the first taste to see how it was getting on, and to determine if any more sugar needed to be added or not. In our case we felt it was sweet enough so I will now leave it for another 4 months minimum before tasting again, passing it through a muslin to remove the fruit and then bottling it. I'll let you know how I get on...

 

Fabric numbers

There are so many unfinished sewing, knitting and crochet projects in this house at the moment that it's more than a little ridiculous - even for me!

Here's a little sneak preview of one of the sewing projects though - the irresistible numbers from Meg McElwee's latest book Growing Up Sew Liberated: Making Handmade Clothes and Projects for Your Creative Child. You may already know Meg from her lovely blog, Sew Liberated, and as you would expect this book is crammed full of amazing projects for children of a range of ages.

The non-clothes projects are all focussed on creative play with many of the ideas based in the Montessori education principles - just like these numbers are. I really hope that these won't be in my "to do" pile for much longer and just as soon as they move into the finished category I'll tell you all about them properly...

VTech Toot Toot Drivers Garage

It's as if Christmas has come a bit early for Little Miss C this year. I came home from town the other day with her buggy weighed down with the Toot Toot Drivers Garage to review from our lovely local toy shop, Cuthberts.

The Toot Toot Drivers range comes from VTech, and as you would expect from them combines bright colours and noises to attract the children, with interactive elements to help them learn through play. The vehicles are a lovely size to fit into small hands, and also talk and sing in response to pressing a button on them whilst the Garage provides a fantastic centre piece to play with. Not only is there a road area to drive the vehicles along, but also a lift to take the vehicles up to the upper level, a spiral ramp for them to come down again, a turn-table area, car wash area, parking space, heliport and filling station area. A couple of small barrier arms help traffic flow around the garage and seem to be one of Little Miss C's favourite parts - I had no idea that lifting a small arm up and down could be so fascinating. There are also some large buttons which can be pressed to hear various other things. There are two modes one of which seems to be a learning mode and the second a music mode, but since LMC hid the instruction book when we unpacked it all Mr C and I are yet to discover exactly what the modes do!

The interactiveness of the range really comes apparent when you combine the cars with the Garage. There is one section at the top of the spiral ramp where if you press the vehicle down the Garage recognises the vehicle type and sings a welcome song to that particular vehicle. (All cleverly done by a small plastic plate on the bottom of the vehicle pressing down on a series of buttons in the garage. The shape of the plate being unique to each vehicle type.) The garage itself comes with a pick up truck vehicle, but all of the vehicles in the range work with it and I can see that new vehicles would make great presents further down the line.

Little Miss C has been playing with this garage for just over a week now and seems to love it. Being only 16 months old she obviously doesn't quite understand all of the things that it can do (but then neither do Mum and Dad!), but she was very quick to work out all of the things that she can push to make it play noises and songs, and pushing the vehicle around it also came quite naturally to her. I know some people may initially think that cars are for boys to play with, but that's not an attitude we adopt in this household and LMC has played more with this than the doll she owns! With all the different areas in the garage there's loads of scope for imaginative play using it and I can see that the way LMC plays with it is likely to change as she develops.

The only complaint I might have is that when you have the garage making all its noise the addition of the vehicle independently making noise and singing can be a bit much. I've started ensuring that either the garage OR the vehicle is turned on at one time. I imagine that with more vehicles you might end up with a bit of a cacophony going on so I'm hoping LMC doesn't discover the on/off switch too quickly.

At the moment the Toot Toot Drivers range just consists of the vehicles and the garage, but looking at the way that it's built I am hoping that VTech will also bring out some road areas, as it looks like there is space for them to click into place. The inclusion of the heliport makes me wonder if the vehicle range will also extend to include a helicopter of some sort. There is no doubt that the garage is a huge hit in this household and I definitely think we'll look to buy Little Miss C a couple of extra vehicles for Christmas. I'm also going to keep a close eye on how VTech look to extend the range.

 

We were given a Toot Toot Drivers Garage to review by the lovely people at Cuthberts. Cuthberts have fantastic physical toy shops in St Albans and Letchworth, Hertfordshire and also have a full online store available on their website.  

If you're local it's also worth ensuring that you check in on foursquare when you visit them as they run some great check in specials as well as fantastic deals for the mayor. 

Messy painting

Whilst Little Miss C had her lunchtime nap on Monday I decided that we should make the most of the good weather and so I set up for us to do some painting in the sunshine. Whilst she slept it all looked so beautiful. I'd laid out everything carefully, taped the plastic sheet down so that wind didn't blow it away, put paint in four different containers, taped the paper down and I even had a special pot for the water that she couldn't tip over and spill.

Then the artist woke up...

She was very excited to see what we'd got lined up for the afternoon. She's done some painting at nursery before and I told she really enjoys it and likes to get stuck in. The same was true at home. She instantly grabbed the brush and started putting paint on the paper.

After a while, sitting there calmly just wasn't enough. She wanted to get more stuck in and seemed to have an urge to become one with her artwork (I'm sure all the best artists do this). The colours started being mixed and the brush was no longer sufficient to apply the paint to the paper - her hands could do it more efficiently she thought. Also, why bother putting the paint on the paper - skin can be painted too...

She was enjoying herself so much at this point that I didn't want to stop her. I was also feeling pretty smug about the fact that we were doing this outside rather than risk covering my living room or dining table in paint.

It was nearly an hour before she lost interest and then the real fun began. How do you get a small child, who wants to walk everywhere, upstairs to the bath without getting paint all over your cream coloured stairs carpet?

The answer - very, very carefully! 

I should add that we used Crayola Washable Paint so that we could clean up afterwards. Some of the blue colour on her hands was a bit stubborn, but I found that getting LMC to rub shampoo into her hair with her hands did the trick of getting it all off!