Author Archives: birdonthehill

Father’s Day and a 5 star breakfast – Update

Posted in At home, Family, Food, Health & Wellness, Home, Wellbeing by
Breakfast tray with freshly brewed coffee, sesame seed bagel with bacon.

Breakfast tray with freshly brewed coffee, sesame seed bagel with bacon.

I managed to wake fairly early this morning, by the time I headed downstairs, my eldest was awake too, this was a good sign.

Reminding her to wish her dad a happy father’s day, she asked what I was doing up. I let her know that I was making dad breakfast.

Columbian Coffee, Marmalade and Rasberry Jam for breakfast

Coffee, Jam, Marmalade, ingredients for breakfast

She got out of bed pretty quick and came down to inspect what I was doing. By the time I had found the bacon in the fridge, she was in keen to join in and with the pan on the stove had taken over to fry the bacon.

We had Sesame bagels in the cupboard, along with sliced bread, so these went into the toaster.

By the time the coffee was brewed, my youngest had made an appearance, she took one look and disappeared upstairs.

Hand Made Father's Day Card

Hand Made Father’s Day Card

When she came down, we had just started to put breakfast on the table. She presented her dad with a card.

I hadn’t seen what she had written and assumed this was a card she had gone to buy with her nanny when she came to visit on Tuesday. Turns out she’d made it.

It produced a burst of laughter from my husband. I looked at the card and as he’d only just had his birthday, the humour and timing was perfect.

Although I’d had an idea to treat my husband to a breakfast, the kind you get in a swanky hotel, when you order room service, wearing their fluffy bathrobe and slippers.  We used to enjoy these as a treat on weekend breaks, when we were just a couple without kids, when breakfast would arrive cooked to perfection. It didn’t turn out quite the way it was planned.

As my cooking skills are basic and it mostly involved keeping my eldest from burning herself on the hot stove, it ended up a simple home made breakfast, with a few good ingredients. I think this breakfast turned out better.

Father’s Day and a 5 star breakfast

Posted in At home, Food, Uncategorized, Wellbeing by
Columbian coffee, marmalade and Rasberry jam for breakfast

Coffee, jam, Marmalade ingredients for breakfast

 

This is a quick post today, as we’ve been visiting our parents to watch my father in law perform in a choir concert.

For Father’s Day, I had the idea of getting a few things my husband enjoys and pulling off a great breakfast, with the kids helping me. I picked up a few ingredients on the way home from work on Friday:

Coffee – artisan bag of Columbian coffee, hand made.  I love the smell that hits you when you open a fresh bag of ground coffee.

Rasberry jam

Marmalade

In the cupboard, I should have the following. (Unless the kids have eaten their way through some of it)

Sliced Bread for Toast

Croissants

Bacon  & eggs, of course

Pics of how we got on later. Could be good, could be a disaster –  I’m not a morning person at the weekends, the kids know not to wake me up too early. They went to bed very late this evening so I’m not sure if they will be up without being grumpy.

Come back later to see if we made it together.

 

Lavender, lemon and Rosemary foot scrub and soak in one

Posted in beauty, Scent, Skincare by
Lavender and Lemon essential oil, with Dead Sea salt foot scrub

Lavender and Lemon foot scrub and soak in one.

Summer has finally and at last arrived. As I was sitting outside on the terrace at work, I thought how lovely everyone looked in their sandals walking about on the lawn.

My feet though felt hot and uncomfortable in the shoes I had been wearing, by the time I got home they were puffy and sore and all I wanted to do was plunge them in cold water.

So yesterday evening, I made this quick no fuss foot scrub and soak in one, which was inspired by a blog post by Emily Jefford about a sugar and coconut oil scrub she uses to clean her hands with after painting with oils, you can read it by visiting here.

I have major art envy, her paintings are exquisite and I have fallen in love with her summer collection, so am figuring out what I can do to save up for the set.

If you’d like to try out this version, which uses just coarse salt, so that you can use it as a soak for tired feet. (I wasn’t sure what soaking with sugar might do) The foot scrub couldn’t be easier to make. All of it is made with ingredients which most people should have in their cupboards:

Coarse salt

Essential oils

Fresh or dried herbs

Oil – either sweet almond or coconut

Lavender and Lemon essential oil with Rosemary and Dead Sea Salt foot scrub

Dead Sea Salt foot scrub

The one I made is with Dead Sea salt which you can get in a chemist or online. As I wanted it to be refreshing with the scent and a pick me up for hot tired feet after work, I used Lavender and Lemon essential oil. To exfoliate the skin, I mixed the Dead Sea Salt roughly with some dried Rosemary and a dash of sweet almond oil, along with a squirt of lemon juice (don’t use this if you have broken skin as it might sting).

Once all the ingredients have been combined, I sat down and rubbed my feet over a bowl of warm water. The coarseness of the Dead Sea Salt acted like a pumice and took the dry skin off.

Any flakes of salt or dried herbs that fell went into the bowl of warm water beneath. I poured the remaining salt mix into the bowl and let my feet soak for about 10-15 minutes.

Dead Sea Salt has many therapeutic benefits. In fact, I managed to snag a bargain as the bag I purchased had a big sign with an extra 25 percent included.

Here’s what it said on the back of the pack: Dead Sea Salt have a unique ability to attract and retain moisture. For dry skin conditions and aching joints, Soak for 20 minutes. This reminds me, I  will need to find an air tight container for the salt as it has a habit of turning to liquid though it’s still good to use in this state.

Bliss. My feet are literally tingling and feel like new. I think I’ll be wearing sandals tomorrow now that they have had a bit of TLC. My kids were a bit sceptical, they took one look at the mix and left me to it.  Just wait, once they’re older they will appreciate this recipe and I’ll be gloating with the Mum knows best smile!

Organic Veg Box update

Posted in Food, Health & Wellness, Home by
Bunched carrots

Bunched carrots

These lovely carrots were in Friday’s Organic veg box.

As they arrive complete with their stems, they are a reminder that they were freshly pulled from the ground.

They can be a little soft, because they are so fresh and have not been stored for long like winter carrots, so we like to soak them in very cold water so they become crisp and crunchy. It makes them easier to slice too.

We only needed five of these to add to the garden peas which we had already in the fridge.

As the weather had become cloudy, we decided against a barbeque outdoor.

Since most of the food had been bought for a planned barbeque, we had light summer veg, such as garden peas and asparagus, so we used these as part of Sunday’s roast .

The Pork Belly which would have been for the barbeque, was scored and then salted (to take the moisture out) to make the outer layer of fat crisp up in the oven.

It takes a good 2-3 hours for the Pork Belly to cook slowly on a low heat, (about 160 degrees) so that the fat within the meat can release it’s deliciousness.

In the past, we’ve usually roasted pork above a bed of root veg, so that as the juices run, they combine with the veg to make the gravy. A side effect of this is that the roasting pan at the end of the meal is easier to clean.

Roast belly of pork

Roast belly of pork

Belly of pork is thinner and this meant that resting it on veg might make the whole thing soft. Instead, we filled the bottom of the pan with water and put the pork above on a rack, so that the meat could roast with a bath of steaming water to keep the meat tender.

It worked out quite well as the skin became crispy and the meat was soft and buttery.

To compliment the pork, a sauce was made, with fresh apricots, that had been peeled and the stone removed, they were cooked with some sugar and honey and then strained to take away any pulp to make a smooth sauce. (We didn’t have any cooking apples to hand)

Along with this, was some Venus black rice that was a gift. We had never tried this variety of rice, and when cooked the rice turned a deep purple and had a nutty aroma.

Even though the weather was overcast today, we still enjoyed the time to just cook and enjoy lunch together.

The smell of the cooking and food usually brings the cats in from the garden, and today was no different. They sit on the kitchen window sill inspecting the meat, waiting for one of us to relent and feed them.

Shelling the garden peas with dad
Freshly shelled garden peas and carrots
English asparagus cooked till tender
Slices of roast belly of pork
Black Venus Rice
Freshly made apricot sauce

Friday’s organic vegetable box

Posted in Family, Food, Home by
Organic Vegetables

Organic Vegetables

We’ve been getting a box of organic vegetables delivered since we started our eldest started weaning.

Now that the girls are older, we’re a little more price conscious about food and don’t always buy organic produce anymore. But the organic vegetable box is staying.

Every fortnight, the yellow van arrives early, and I am usually the first to see it pull up in front of the house. It is always a surprise to see what’s inside, the seasonal food that comes has been sourced carefully and I love the fact that we’re trying out vegetables that we wouldn’t usually buy in the supermarket.

As it’s summer, most of the box is salad. So here’s a few things that we’ve done with this lovely box of veg this weekend:

Cucumber, tomato, lettuce leaf and yellow pepper salad

Summer salad with Red Salanova lettuce

1) Summer Salad with Basil and lemon dressing.

For the salad we used the Red Salanova Lettuce, some of the tomatoes, spring onions and the rest of the ingredients in the salad were the Yellow Peppers and yellow cherry tomatoes that were in the fridge.

For the dressing, we used fresh basil which was growing on our kitchen window sill, the juice of half a lemon, a small dollop of whole grain mustard, extra virgin olive oil. Since we had a small jar of mini baby capers in brine, I used this as well, plus salt for seasoning.

Chopped basil infused in olive oil and lemon

Chopped basil infused in olive oil and lemon

To get the Mediterranean aroma of basil to infuse into olive oil, I roughly chopped up a small handful of basil and added the olive oil and the juice of the lemon. I used honey, but if you don’t have this to hand, something sweet such as syrup or even marmalade is a great alternative. Using the pestle, this was roughly blended together with the whole grain mustard, mixed again until it was combined into a lovely mixture. I added some salt for seasoning, tasting it with my finger until it was right. The final ingredient added was the mini baby capers, which my eldest suggested as she liked them in salads.

Rosewater and Glycerine toner

Posted in beauty, Health & Wellness, Skincare, Wellbeing by
Rosewater and Glycerin toner

Rosewater and Glycerin toner

I love the floral scent of Rosewater. It is one of the most versatile ingredients to use both in beauty and in food.

Sometime ago, my daughter’s sensitive skin had a rash and as I was discussing this at work with a friend, he took me to one of the many shops along the Edgware Road that sells Middle Eastern ingredients for the local community that lived in the area.

He explained that his wife used Rosewater to soothe mild skin rashes for their children and it always worked. He showed me in the store where to find it, amongst the herbs and spices and explained that using the type of rosewater that is for cooking was better for the skin.

The bottle looked beautiful and I offered to pay him, but he said it was his gift. I took it home and that night applied it gently over the rash that was on her arm. After about a week the rash was gone.

Since then there is always a bottle of Rosewater in the bathroom, to use as a skin toner, refresher and of course as a tonic for irritated skin.

This is one of the simplest recipes for an all purpose toner and moisturiser in one, using just two ingredients.

Rosewater and glycerin. Both of which have properties that will make skin feel silky soft and refreshed.

I don’t really measure out the quantities, I fill up a 30ml bottle to nearly full and then add a small squirt of the glycerin into the bottle and shake well before use. I tend to use a cotton wool pad to apply, as the mixture is a liquid, like a toner.

If you have dry skin, add more glycerin. Your skin should not feel taught after using the toner and it has dried on your skin.

Making it in smaller quantities means it stays fresh and keeping it in the fridge, will make it extra cool and refreshing when you are feeling hot.
Embed from Getty Images

The scent of rain

Posted in In the garden by

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Last evening as I walked home, the pavement was damp with the rain that had fallen earlier in the afternoon. The weekend had been hot and sunny, the warmest it has been for a while.

As I walked the scent of the rain was everywhere. It is such a wonderful scent and made the walk home all the more enjoyable. The smell evoked freshly cut grass and earthiness as if nature all around had finally burst through.

It seems that there’s a great deal of scientific study that’s been done on this subject.

Scientists in Australia first named it Petrichor, and they worked out that it is the blend of oils secreted by plants after a dry spell.  These oils, when released become mixed in the air and creates the smell that we associate with rain.

We have a screen of ferns, at the front of our house which in wetter years, grow amazingly tall. As I arrived home, I noticed the tiny beads of rain on the fronds. I’m glad that I managed to capture it.

This year, the fronds of the ferns have reached over the windowsill of our front window. I am grateful that they are so beautiful to look at, as they distract everyone from the sight of our windows which have not been painted since we moved in.image

Every year, without fail, the ferns grow back after they have died down in winter and even though, most years we forget and neglect them as they should be cut back once the frost has taken hold.  The fronds turn brown and brittle and lose the lush green of summer.  We usually don’t get round to cutting them back until it is almost spring, and then all the faults in our front windows become glaringly obvious. It is a surprise that they grow back so quickly after being so badly treated.

This year, I am determined to get a decorator to paint the windows, they are very old. We live in what is referred to as a 1930’s semi and the romantic in me wants to keep the leaded panes of glass, but they are now letting in water and urgently need attention.  Having an old house means there is a constant list of things that needs to be fixed.

But, just for a brief while, the rain and the luscious green fronds of these ferns have replaced the never ending to-do list and I am thinking about poetry, the verses of John  Betjeman about surburbia and the beautiful rain in Summer by Longfellow:

How beautiful is the rain!

After the dust and heat,

In the broad and firey street,

In the narrow lane,

How beautiful is the rain

Back to that never-ending to-do list…..

Peppermint & Citrus room spray

Posted in At home, Scent by
Peppermint & Citrus room spray

Peppermint & Citrus essential oil room deodoriser

A few years ago, we had a downstairs cloakroom installed. It has been essential, in a house with young children. However, whilst useful, it does not have any windows, as it’s located beneath the stairs, a tiny room that was created from the broom/meter cupboard.

At times the air as you can imagine gets a little stale, even with the extractor fan on full!

There are a great many room scents available, but in a small enclosed space, I find the scent can be a little cloying, especially ones that are commercially made and created with synthetic fragrance.

If you have a spare 10 minutes and want to make your own, this is a very simple, but effective room scent receipe I have made from essential oils. It freshens without being overpowering.

Mitcham Peppermint oil is becoming a real favourite, the minty smell is both sweet and sharp. It really is like inhaling a peppermint sweet.

Mixing this with the citrusy scents of Bergamot and Lemon creates a refreshing scent that combats any whiffiness.

Ingredients:

100ml spray bottle – either new or one that has been cleaned out.

20ml vodka (used for dispersing/mixing the oils)

10ml vegetable glycerine (optional) used to help the oils disperse in water

70ml of distiller water

20 drops of Peppermint essential oil

20 drops of Lemon essential oil

10 drops of Bergamot essential oil

Put all the ingredients into the spray bottle, put the lid on and shake vigorously. That’s it.

The scent takes a couple of days to mature, if you think it isn’t strong enough or think it’s too peppermint or citrus, you can adjust it by adding in a few more drops of oil, whichever you want to get the scent you are after.

Jasmine and tea drinking

Posted in Drink, Food, Uncategorized, Wellbeing by

 

As far back as I can remember we drank Jasmine tea at our parents house. Even after setting up our own home, tea infused with Jasmine is my go to drink, especially late at night.

The lovely delicate scent of Jasmine seems so relaxing and familiar. I’ve tried lots of other teas, but always return to Jasmine.

I have often wondered why the beautiful little flowers are left in the loose tea.

Apparently, good quality tea that is infused with Jasmine flowers, goes through a time honored tradition of harvesting the Jasmine flowers late in the evening, just before the flowers open, so that when the flowers to open up and the scent is able to perfume the air, it is captured in layers of tea.

In China, Jasmine is used widely to scent a variety of teas, green, white as well as dark leaf tea. Traditions for tea drinking amongst the Chinese vary, but it is an important part of any social gathering or occasion.

The plant originated in Persia and was brought to China around 300AD and has been used in tea, but also used as perfume, in incense and traditional Chinese herbal remedies for improving liver function and for stress and anxiety.

I think that’s why it’s a favourite of mine. Occasionally, it is great to make a full pot of Jasmine tea, using the loose leaf type and let the steaming tea sit for while before drinking and although it takes a bit more effort to make and to clean up afterwards, it is worth taking the time out to enjoy the simple ritual of drinking tea. Most of the time, however, for convenience, though, I drink the green tea variety that comes in a bag.

The loose leaf variety can be found in most supermarkets, sometimes though I like to indulge and seek out a special blend which make the occasion of drinking the tea all the more special. I keep the tea in a small caddy from Whittards of Chelsea that was given to me as a gift one Christmas.

About Me

Posted in About by

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If you’re reading this post then I guess you’re interested in finding out something about me.

So here goes:

Music – I played the piano for a very long time, practised a lot and thought I’d have a career in music, until I realised there are lots more people with more talent and determination.

Lately I’ve been listening to Mozart’s symphonies and piano sonatas. If you were to ask me what’s in my record collection (I’m still holding on to LPs that I listened to as a teen) then you’ll find a lot of albums by Prince. My favourite is Parade.

I’m a cat person, as I like that they’re independent and still have it in them to be a little dangerous and wild. Our current cats bring in the odd mouse or bird and think they’re giving me a present.

Birthplace: Taipei and when we were moving to Britain, I learned my name and to ask for the toilet in English.

I don’t remember exactly when I learned to speak English, my memories of my first days in school were playing with the other kids, so I must have managed to communicate somehow. We lived in a small 2 bed roomed flat in Chelsea, until my parents had saved enough to to move to Bletchley.

At at secondary school, I met my future husband. I guess that makes us technically childhood sweethearts. We didn’t go out with each other serously until after we’d both graduated and got out first jobs.

My first perfume, the one that I bought for myself, is Chanel, Cristalle. I discovered it on board a ferry on the way to what was my first holiday without my family. A group of students, in our freshers year went camping to the south of France. I won’t do camping again, I hated having sand everywhere.

During the day, I work in marketing, there have been some fantastic moments in my career, such as working with the team at Royal Mail to help them promote the London 2012 Gold Medal Stamps. I got to watch every U.K athlete as they collected Gold and celebrate it in a stamp.

My eldest, (I’m blessed with 2 girls) is approaching her teens – where did the time go? How is it that they’re growing up so quick.

Lastly, this blog is for them, a way to discover and find things we can connect with, share a common interest.

Thanks for reading this post. If I haven’t bored you and you’d like to find out more, please come back and visit often.