When a Diamond is a Girl's Best Friend

A couple of days before we set off on holiday we celebrated my mum's 60th birthday. My dad and I had planned a surprise dinner party at a posh restaurant, involving close family and friends. The evening was a success - my mum had been suspicious that something would be happening, but she did not expect to have a group of people gathered to celebrate with her - my brother and his girlfriend had managed to come down from university, my dad's sister and his partner had come down from Birmingham, and one of my mum's sisters had secretly come to stay with my husband and I, so my mum had no idea that any of them were down in Sussex for the occasion until she walked through the door of the restaurant to all our "Happy Birthday!" cheers.

I had opted for a diamond theme, as like the Queen celebrated 60 years of her reign this year in Diamond Jubilee, so this was my mum's diamond year. She had never made much fuss about her previous big birthdays, doing nothing special for her 40th or 50th like many people do, so it was only right that we made sure that this birthday would be marked appropriately.

But I didn't only choose diamonds because it was her 60th, but because she is a diamond herself. A diamond that we wanted the opportunity to surprise, to show how much we love her by being there, by surprising her, and by treating her. My mum loves gifts - she's always been a great gift-giver herself, always finding special little things for the people she cares about - but she also loves being surrounded by those dearest to her, and we knew that this dinner party would be the best way to do this.

My present to my mum, with valuable contributions from others, was a memory book - tracing her life from birth through to this special birthday - filled with photos, loving notes, and happy and silly memories. It was a pleasure to do. I've always loved hearing my parents talk about their life before I was born - their childhoods, their wilder days, their best friends, their work, their meeting each other and their getting married, so I loved going through that material for my mum. And when I got to the pretty pink page for the year 1984, the page for my entry into their world, their first baby, I was able to admire once again the cute pictures, think back to the fond tales my mum has told me of my birth, my learning to crawl and then walk, my first word, my first snow, and my two-year-old's joy at the arrival of my brother in 1986.

Mum giving me a doll on my first birthday

And then of course, come my own memories. My mum was the first person I ever set eyes on - apparently I didn't even look at the midwife, it was my mum who I looked at first. She has been an unswerving pillar of strength for me throughout my life. She is a great mum, and I thank God for her. We do not always get on, and she frequently annoys me in a way that only a mother can, but I would not be the same without her. She has always cared for me, always looks out for me, and still remains the one person I want around whenever I am sick. She still likes to mother me, even though I am more than two years married and have lived away from her since university. She's very good at coming round and tidying bits and pieces up, maybe taking away a bag of laundry, and fussing over things. I always feel guilty, but at the same time I like that she helps me out, because I'm pretty useless at this housewife thing, and I think that she still likes to be my mum like that.

I love to meet her for tea and cake, to go and see a girly film together, to go clothes shopping with her, but mostly to talk to her about anything and everything. Despite many ups and downs, I've always been able to share things with her.

She's always been a sparkling diamond in my life. A best friend unlike any other of my best friends.

She's the kind of person who has low self-esteem, who doesn't think very much of herself. But from the input of friends and family to both her memory book and the dinner party it is clear that she has been a diamond as a sister and friend too. My dad, brothers, and I will testify that as a wife and mother she has made a positive impact on all of our lives. Whilst we're family and we will always gripe and disagree with one another, we are who we are together and because of our pasts with each other, and this special birthday was the perfect way to celebrate my mum's irreplaceable role in our lives.

An Adventure to London's Wildlife Haven

My husband's birthday treat was a trip to the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust in Barnes, London. Having gone to the one in Arundel for my birthday, I chose Barnes as it is a prime location for bird photography. Now that my husband has his very own fancy camera and has become pretty good at wildlife shots I thought he would enjoy spending a day at a place renowned as a haven for birds, as it is the largest wild green space in the capital.

Our adventure began much the same as usual - a large tea at the station before hopping on a train. We had to change at Clapham Junction, and then it was a ten minute walk from the station in Barnes to the wetlands.

We were thirsty on arrival so headed straight to the cafe for a cup of tea and a cookie, which we enjoyed outside on the water's edge, admiring a range of waterfowl splashing about. Of course, my husband had his camera out immediately, bravely ignoring the monstrosity belonging to the serious birding couple on the table next to us.

Our first stop after tea, however, was not to see more birds. It was the otter enclosure. The centre has recently introduce a family of four Asian short-clawed otters and I was eager to see them. However, they were nowhere to be seen in their specially landscaped area of rocks, waterfalls and pools. We peered through the portholes into their sleeping holt but they weren't in there either.

Not to be discouraged, as the day was yet young, we continued onto Wildside where native flora grows in abundance to create a habitat resembling an untouched area of English countryside, a far cry from the concrete jungle that is London. Indeed, the only reminder that we were in the city was the view of roofs beyond the main lagoon, and the occasional wail of sirens in the distance.

As soon as we entered through the tall double gates we were greeted by the musical trumpeting of marsh frogs. We scanned the reeds, attempting to make them out, and eventually we saw one out on the water and watched , fascinated by his bulging vocal sacs as he croaked. Eventually the peace was disrupted by a group of 'jolly hockey sticks' types on a tour, so we decided to disappear up a footpath into the relative tranquillity of the reed beds, after first attempting to photograph a rather majestic grey heron resting on a bridge.

We kept our eyes pealled for water voles but they were far more elusive than at Arundel, and unfortunately we didn't see any. There were plenty of brightly coloured damselflies and dragonflies flitting about however, which made me somewhat nostalgic for our honeymoon almost two years ago, as we'd several on our stays in both Devon and on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

We continued on to one of the many bird hides for some peaceful twitching until we became hungry. We walked back to the main picnic area with a quick diversion to the otter enclosure - they were still hiding.

After lunch we visited the other side of the wetlands, meandering through lush gardens full of brightly coloured June blooms. Eventually we stopped for a rest on a bench where the foliage thickened around one of the lakes, when my husband's eye was caught by a pretty little bird fluttering about the tree opposite. He got up to take a closer look and realised it was a long-tail tit feeding her six chicks all lined up on a branch. We were captivated by them for some time, and my husband began to take numerous photos. After a while I walked on ahead to practise my own photography in a slightly less committed manner, playing with the aperture and the macro features.

After some considerable time I managed to tear my husband away from the incredibly cute long-tail chicks and we continued on, visiting a few more bird hides, where we spied many birds from visiting Egyptian geese raising their young to sand martins flying back and forth on their hunt for food for their young.

It was then time for more tea, so we went back to the cafe, arriving just in time to see a greedy jackdaw demolishing the sandwich of one of the workers - occupational hazard I guess, tee hee.

We tried to see the otters again but they were still hiding, so we wandered around World Wetlands, looking at different wetland species from all around the world. My favourite was probably this puna teal, native to the Andes, because I think his blue beak is cool!

We did another circuit of Wildside but the water voles were still hiding, and even the dragonflies had disappeared as the sky grew greyer and the wind grew stronger. We decided it was time to head home before the rains hit, with one final stop by the otter enclosure on the way out.

This time they were there, hooray! They were playing in the water and on the rocks, clambering over each other and splashing about. We had unknowingly arrived at the enclosure just before feeding time, and so we watched as they excitedly scrambled for the food that the staff tossed into the water. It was definitely worth the wait to see them!

We then proceeded homewards, squished onto a commuter train reminiscent of both our days working in London. It was a relief to get eventually get off of the train, even into the torrential rain that had now hit. We hurried through town to our favourite Indian restaurant for a delicious meal to round off a lovely day, with a great deal of wildlife photos to show for it.

Photos my own.

The Great Birthday Cake Fiasco

The other day it was my husband's birthday. He had an exam up at university in London, which is obviously not the greatest way to spend one's birthday. I tried to make up for this by taking the day off work so that I could prepare him a special breakfast, and then prepare a little surprise party for him at our church house group that evening.

Sounds wonderful doesn't it? Except, nothing in my life is ever that smooth. The breakfast part went well. I served Scotch pancakes with maple syrup, strawberries, and strawberry & champagne cream, which was tasty. The day had started well enough, but then the stresses began:

I was eager to start making the cake so that I could get over to our youth minister's flat to sort out the party related stuff. But because my husband had only an exam and no classes he left later than usual.

When he finally left I got cracking with the cake. I had searched Google Images for science-themed birthday cakes. There were several great ideas, the majority of which amounted to fabulous works of art that I could only dream of ever pulling off. I furrowed my brow, and inwardly complained about my inability to sculpt icing to form a mini laboratory on a cake. Being a creative sort, however, I was not one to give up, and I thought and thought about how I could make a cake look science-y without much difficulty.

Sweetpeas & gypsophila in test tubes!

I planned to ice the cake with the addition of a couple of test tubes that I would fill with brightly coloured jelly to give the impression they were full of exciting chemicals. We bought the test tubes a couple of years ago from a school science website, and used them to hold flowers on the tables at our wedding reception, along with conical flasks of varying sizes. Since then we have not found a use for them, so I thought I could use a couple on the cake.

However, I came up with an even more 'genius' idea, thanks to Google, of making jelly petri dishes. So I prepared the jellies - bright pink raspberry and purple blackcurrant - in ramekins, adding touches of green food colouring and little sweets to hopefully look like something fascinating a scientist would be investigating in a lab. As my husband works in biochemistry I thought I could get away with such a theme. 

I put the jellies in the fridge to set, and then set about baking the cake.I had found a recipe for a double-layered chocolate cake. Seeing as our baking tins are somewhat mismatched I decided to make only one layer of the cake in a rectangular tin, thinking that would be easier to decorate.

The baking part wasn't too difficult, except for being interrupted by a phone call from my mum. However, I was getting behind schedule, and beginning to get a bit stressed. The cake took twice as long as it ought to have done to bake in the oven.

When it was finally done I set about icing it, and then took a couple of the jellies out of the fridge. There was only really room on the cake for two of these, and I had made more than enough in case of mishap. Turns out that was a sensible prediction to make.

I turned two ramekins over, on opposite ends of the cake, and waited for gravity to do it's thing. However, because the ramekins were glass, and because I hadn't considered greasing the bottom so that the jelly would slide out, the jelly just sat there. I banged the bottoms of the ramekins, I put hot water on them, I wobbled them around. Nothing.

In the end I grabbed a knife and ran it round each of the jellies, and they slopped out. One of them looked like the perfect, manky, diseased (yet yummy) petri dish I was going for. The other decided it preferred to be a liquid rather than a solid and it began to escape over the edge of the cake. In a panic I salvaged what I could, and regarded the odd shape it had become. I shrugged, thinking it looked like a very pink and very intriguing giant bacterium that a scientist might gaze at through an electron microscope. It worked for the purpose. It looked like a five-year-old had made it, sure, but it was just about passable as a disease themed birthday cake. Yep, I know how to be romantic...

Then, in something of a stress, as I knew my husband would be back home in a couple of hours, I ran around the house finding the decorations. When all was ready I went to put the cake in a tin to take to our youth minister's flat. And that was where the true disaster happened. I don't know how, but one minute the cake was sitting on the cooling rack on top of the oven, the next it was hanging over the edge, me just managing to stop it falling completely. In painfully slow motion the jellies slid off into a crumpled heap of toxic looking goo on the kitchen floor.

I was too enraged to cry or scream. I just yelled, "No!" and stared in dismay. My rubbish cake was ruined. Listening to my heart thud in despair for a few moments I attempted to come with a Plan B. I considered that as the cake looked terrible anyway, I couldn't possibly make it worse, and there were some jellies left so I could attempt to salvage it. To me, these jellies looked less 'diseased' as they didn't have the touch of green food colouring, but they would work. I was in no mood to go through the whole process again, and in any case there was no time.

This time I left the ramekins on the cake so that the jellies would stay in place until I got to our youth minister's flat. When I got there I explained the situation to her. She thought it was funny and when she took a look at the cake, with the ramekins removed, she thought it was brilliant. I was taken aback, but pleased that I could get away with a disease cake as an acceptable theme, and relieved that I wouldn't have to go out and buy a supermarket cake to make up for my disaster.

Disease Cake!

Grateful, I left her with the decorations, and dashed home to clean the kitchen and remove all evidence that any baking had taken place.

When my husband got home I was calmly reading a book as though nothing unusual had happened. He knew that we were going to have food at house group that evening because it was his birthday, but he didn't know that there would be a surprise party.

There was some left over jelly in bowls, which I explained we needed to take to have with ice cream at house group (because we are all young at heart!). He seemed to believe this, although he was beginning to grow suspicious.

We arrived at our youth minister's flat, and when I pushed him through the front door ahead of me he walked towards the living room with some trepidation. The rest of our house group were in there, and they all yelled, "Happy Birthday!" at him, letting off party poppers and clapping. Our youth minister, who is also a great hostess, had laid on lots of yummy food. The plush red blood cell and cold viruses that I had given my husband for Christmas a few years ago, sat happily amongst the plates of pizza, salads, and cheeses, and the test tubes full of bubbly red and green liquids were on the windowsill above.

I loved the plush microbes lurking amongst the food!

Amazing what you can do with sparkling water and food colouring :)

My husband was really touched, and after we had eaten the food it was time for the birthday cake. His face was a picture as it was brought towards him, "What the...!?" After we sang and he blew out the candles, I announced that it was a disease cake, and then he couldn't stop laughing. Thankfully, he loved it, and it tasted pretty good too! After all that stress and mishap, it all turned out well, hooray!

And the next day I took him out for an adventure at the London Wetlands Centre, but that is for another post, which will be coming soon!

I just wanted to add - thank you my wonderful husband for loving me enough to accept a disease themed birthday cake, for being a geek who loves silly things like that, and just for being you - you are awesome! Happy Birthday again!

Photos my own. First photo taken by our wedding photographer, Jess Foreman.

From Ear Muffs to Soot Sprite!

I have a confession. I have a serious case of craft envy. I have many talented friends who are very good with their brains and their hands and create beautiful work. Some have their own businesses, others just make fab things for their homes, babies, friends etc. I look admiringly at their handiwork and long to make similar masterpieces myself. I want to be uber housewife, who in her spare time (what's that anyway???) creates pretty things that make others swoon with delight.

I have a problem with seeing through such dreams however. First of all I lack patience. I want to see my work come to fruition as soon as possible and preferably with little effort. Even when I do sit down and work on something painstakingly, I'm all fingers and thumbs. I'm lucky enough that I can sew buttons back onto clothes, but even they unstitch themselves within a matter of weeks *sigh*

One thing I do consistently try to make an effort with though are making cards for people. I like doing it, especially when I can reuse old cards, calendars, ribbons, and other materials - I actually have a whole chest of drawers full of exciting things to decorate cards with. Sometimes I am a little too ambitious and my final products usually look like they were made by an eight year old, but I try.

Mei with a Soot Sprite

This being the case, I was extra chuffed with the birthday card I made for my brother's girlfriend this week. When we were spring cleaning recently I found my black ear muffs which had broken at the end of winter and I just tossed into a corner of the living room, too angry to dispose of them properly at the time. When I found them on top of the magazine rack I declared to my husband that I could make a Soot Sprite birthday card for my brother's girlfriend with them. Soot Sprites feature in one of her favourite films, My Neighbour Totoro. She actually painted me an awesome picture of Totoro in a memory book created by my friends for my hen party, and she also painted me another awesome picture of Sophie and Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle for my last birthday, so I knew I had to make something cool for her.

It was simple really. My husband detached one of the muffs from the headband, whilst I cut out two eyes from the scraps of a white sock that I had used to make my husband's stuffed owl a lab coat one day when I was bored... I then used a black pen to draw pupils on the sock eyes, and used glue dots to stick them to the muff. I then used several glue dots to stick the muff that was now a Soot Sprite onto the card. Unfortunately I had not been able to find any better glue for this, and not being naturally craft-minded I wasn't even sure what type would work best in the circumstances.

Anyway, for someone as ham-fisted as I am when it comes to delicate work, I was very chuffed with the result. He looks a little angry, and I haven't created anything on par with the Studio Ghibli themed crafts I've found online, but he's still very cute, if I may say so myself.

Ta da!

I presented it to my brother's girlfriend on Monday at a surprise birthday party organised by her sister, and thankfully she loved it, yey! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!

Picture from http://miyazakihayao.wikia.com/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro
Photo & card my own :D

A Wet & Wild Birthday

For my birthday this year my husband took me to the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust site in Arundel.

We travelled by train as when you have lots of time it is the least stressful option. The wetlands is a 15-20 minute walk from the station. Raindrops began to pitter patter down on us as we walked down the long tree-lined path, our shoes crunching the many golden leaves that already littered the ground. We were ravenous by the time we reached the wetlands so the first thing we did was order lunch. The cafe looks out over Swan Lake and watched as the ducks and swans swam happily around in the downpour.

What's a little rain to a duck?

Our first stop after food was to be the boat safari but the rain was proving to be unrelenting so we instead we sought shelter by the Icelandic Lake, watching ducks from Iceland - common scoters, harlequins and long tails. The ducks are from Lake Myvatn and are now an endangered species due to dredging of the lake floor for minerals, which has a had a negative effect on the lake's ecosystems. The scoters were really cool. They make a funny cooing noise before soaring through the water.

A common scoter in action!

We spent many minutes watching the ducks before heading back towards the small jetty as the rain had finally stopped. We joined seven others on a small boat along with a guide. The boats have silent motors so as not to disturb the wildlife and thus increase the chances of seeing something up close. After several minutes we spotted a water vole hurrying across the bank and then vanishing into the rushes. Further on we saw one chomping on a reed stalk. Apparently when they are eating they think you can't see them, which allows you to get fairly close as long as you are still and quiet. Sorry, I just have to say that water voles are so cute!

Ratty from Wind in the Willows enjoying lunch :)

After the boat safari we just meandered around the wetlands, stopping by various bird hides in the hope of spotting something special, and otherwise enjoying the wide variety of ducks, swans and geese from around the world. We did spot a reed warbler - such a loud little chirrup for something so diminutive! We also saw a heron being chased by some vicious herring gulls. It looked like the heron maybe had a fish in its beak, and whilst capable of getting their own fish, herring gulls prefer to steal and scavenge, and so we watched them literally 'snapping at the heels' of the poor heron as we were looking out across the Reed Bed (a Site of Special Scientific Interest). The heron eventually disappeared, the gulls swooped after it and then they flew up into the air and back in the direction they had come, demonstrably fish-less. I later learned that herons can land in trees which gulls can't, so presumably the heron managed to land somewhere in the woods and enjoy his fish in peace.

After that drama we checked out some more rare ducks from around the world before meandering through the Reed Bed keeping our eyes pealled for kingfishers. Sadly we didn't see any - their iridescent blue feathers reflect the sun making them easiest to spot on bright days, but by now the sky had blackened considerably and before long the heavens opened and the rain really really poured this time, steady and torrential, combined with strong, chilly gusts. Oh autumn...

The Reed Bed SSSI

Thankfully we soon made it back to the cafe in time for tea and cake, and then delayed our exit by visiting the gift shop. The rain had stopped and so we began our wander back to the station, enjoying the fresh autumn air for at least a few yards. But of course this is Britain and so the rain returned with an even great vengeance. And so we arrived at Arundel Station like drowned rats (or water voles, but I don't think they mind the rain...), mud-splattered, dripping and shivering. Thankfully, at Barnham Station where we had to change trains, we were able to purchase a large steaming cup of tea.

And on the way home we saw a huge rainbow, arched high above the rail track. A beautiful addition to a lovely day and a welcome sight after being drenched to the bone.

The photo doesn't do it justice, it was stunning.

We had just enough time once we were back home to dry and change before heading to our favourite Italian restaurant for an absolutely delicious three-course meal.

A day of adventure with my favourite person, admiring the beauty of God, and indulging in fantastic food. My kind of birthday :)

Photos my own.

Sharing the Chocolate Love

It is a truth universally acknowledged that cake does not last long in an office. At least, it doesn't in my office. It is around for an even shorter length of time if it is of the chocolate variety, as I discovered today.

I had to adhere to that annoying tradition in the workplace - if it is your birthday you have to treat everyone else to cake. This is not a new tradition to me, I've been part of it since I was 2. At playgroup, at milk and biscuit time, if it was your birthday you provided cake for everyone instead of biscuits. The cakes I always had were amazing. They were made by a friend of my mum's, vividly coloured, full of sugar and wonder. My favourite, which I can still remember the smell of, was a cake in the shape of Love-a-lot Bear from Care Bears for my 3rd birthday. Amazing.

Anyway, now I'm an adult the onus is on me myself and not my mum or anyone else to provide cake for my colleagues. This requires considerable effort. Either you spend hours scouring supermarket shelves for the best offers on Mr Kipling's and then still cough up half a month's salary to pay for them, or you slave away in the kitchen covered in flour attempting to 'out-do' other colleagues who must secretly (surely) be related to Nigella Lawson or Jamie Oliver or some other cooking/baking genius. So this year I decided to do what I felt like. I love chocolate and I know what I can make with it, and that's what my colleagues would get, like it or not!

I made my signature, easy-peasy but very delicious, chocolate flapjacks and chocolate cornflake cakes. It's obviously the chocolate that makes them taste so good as they require very little skill to make! I also made some vanilla cupcakes which I then covered with choc fudge icing (licking the saucepan after making that was immensely satisfying). I then had to supplement these with some chocolatey bite-sized snacks from Waitrose as I work with many gannets people who enjoy cake and I didn't have enough time, butter or eggs to make anymore.

To my, admittedly somewhat naive, surprise all of these delights had vanished by lunchtime. I was pleased because they obviously taste all right but quite a few people missed out which means I will have to double my efforts for my last day when more cake shall be required (it's one of those unwritten parts of the contract, or maybe it's somewhere in the font 4 small print *shrug*).

Alas! it seems I am not the only chocoholic in that place. What a relief I'm leaving...