In the UK – Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It was customary for people to return to the church where they were baptised and to visit their mother and their families, bring gifts to give their mums.
I look forward to this day, as my kids surprise me with a homemade card which is just about the best thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day card from Little Bird with a little lavender scented felt blackbird decoration
I think it’s the little things, small pleasures that keep you going.
Since we received a Dolce Gusto coffee machine, I have come to appreciate a small hit of caffeine to kick start my day.
We’ve been trying out all sorts from the Dolce Gusto range, both from the online shop as well as the ones you can find in the supermarket.
As I’m not keen on lattes, being a little too milky, I much prefer strong black coffee. The one that I like most is the limited edition Yunnan espresso. This little capsule is only available from the online shop.
I had never heard or read about coffee grown in China. Like most people I associate tea with China, so it was so lovely to discover a coffee grown in a climate and location of dramatic mountain ranges. Imagine these as the scene to wake up to, where rice is grown on man made terraces on mountains. It must be such an experience. It’s going on my bucket list now as a place to visit.
The coffee itself is distinctive due to its light fruitiness. Even though it’s an intense Esspresso, I think it smells light and refreshing. The texture of the coffee is delicate yet rich and powerful, a combination which reminds me of the Yin and Yang symbol, a balance of light and dark.
In a few days it will be time to celebrate Chinese New Year. I can’t wait… We’ve always celebrated. The last two years, venturing into China Town to see the dragon dancing in the streets in London and eating in one of the nearby restaurants. It’s become a bit of a tradition for our family.
This is one of my favourites as there’s only one way to describe the scent in this bottle and that is its sublimely indulgent.
The heady scent of Jasmine will hit you the moment this makes contact with water and skin.
The scent is as natural and as authentic as you can get to real Jasmine. I love the idea of enveloping myself in its aroma, drinking in the scent as if I’m sipping my favourite Jasmine Tea from Whittards.
From outside in, the scent of Jasmine can be a natural drug to lift your mood. It stimulates the release of serotonin which boosts energy. Perhaps this is the reason I love it so much.
As it is one of the most expensive essential oils to buy, I have a small bottle which contains a 10% dilution in jojoba oil, which I keep to add a few drops into the night time facial oil I made.
Around 8 million Jasmine blooms are needed to produce a kilo of essential oil, commercially the blooms are hand picked at night when their scent is at their most powerful. I love the idea that the magic of the scent is only released at night. There’s something very Arabian nights about this. It also means it’s one of the most expensive oils to buy.
It also reminds me of my early childhood home where we had a Jasmine bush climbing outside our front door.
In in early evening as the blooms released their scent, our home was bathed in the delicate scent. I can’t explain how I remember this, I just do and that’s mostly the reason why I am always drawn to anything that’s Jasmine scented.
I have a feeling that the blizzard that has besieged the U.S. is headed for the U.K and we are going to get a lot of snow. Not as bad as New York, but bad enough to want to stay home with a warm cuppa instead of venturing out.
These bright sunny roses were in the supermarket on Sunday and I could not resist. I’ve filled a vase with them, long stems with their dark green leaves and yellow petals, lighting up the room. They’re bringing an instant cheer making the room feel cosy with their warm glow.
Not much else to say except, just enjoy the cheerful brightness that they’re bringing.
A very happy new year to everyone.
It has been a lovely long break which has been filled with lots of good food, drinks and a lot of time spent with family.
On Monday, it will feel as if normal life will resume, with getting the kids ready for school, the daily commute and preparations for the working week ahead, there’s just some time to reflect on 2015 and hope what will come to be in the year ahead.
In 2015, I started this blog, filling it with posts about scent, food, skin care and anything else that came to mind. It gave me a space to be creative, I discovered new ways to explore scent, not just in perfume, food and drink but through the creative outlet of making and creating scented skin care, hair treatments and fragranced room scents. I also blog met a lot of new friends, discovered interesting perspectives from blogs that I’m following, all of which have been immensely enjoyable.
On New Year’s Day, our little family of four went to Hyde Park to visit the Winter Wonderland. We usually do something on New Year’s Day to get some fresh air, last year we went to Battersea park, the year before,the New Year Parade. I think by doing this we’re building a collection of memories that we can look back and remember, when the kids are grown up we can say “Remember that time we…
I don’t know what 2016 will bring and since I’ve never been good at keeping resolutions, it’s better not to make any that I won’t keep. What I will resolve to do is keep going with this blog and hope to make it a creative space filled with more interesting things about everyday life through scent.
There’s just one last thing I have to say.
May 2016 be filled with happiness and contentment!
We knew the weekend would be special, it had been planned early on in the year. A celebration of my father in law’s 80th birthday which my mother in law had planned in great secrecy.
She had mentioned that the hotel booking was in central London, something about it being near Whitehall. This was some time ago and with getting the kids ready for school each day, work and everything else in between I forgot all about it until the weekend approached.
The address of the hotel is located at Number 2 Whitehall Court and called The Royal Horseguards Hotel.
We checked in last Saturday afternoon, that is my hubby and our two kids and headed for our rooms on the 8th floor. My parents-in-law had checked into the hotel the night before.
As we looked out across the London skyline from our room on the 8th floor at the top of the building, we both commented almost at the same time that it vaguely reminded us of something we’d seen in a film, probably a James Bond Movie.
Turns out we were staying in a hotel a few feet away from the scene and shoot location for the Skyfall movie. The location of the shoot was at N0 3 Whitehall Place, the department of Energy and Climate Change.
Directly opposite the hotel is the street sign for New Scotland Yard, I think you can just about make this out in the photo with the Bus below.
Here’s the scene in the movie trailer:
Here’s some pics from the windows across the rooms on the 8th floor:
The Royal Horseguards Hotel was once apartments and built in 1884. It was modelled in the style of a French Chateau and adjoins the Liberal Club.
During both world wars, the building that is now the hotel was taken over by the Ministry of Defence and used by MI5 and MI6.
The 8th floor of the hotel is where the MOD held meetings and coordinated their activities during the wars, it was then known as Block Two.
It was easy to get carried away imagining the secrets, decisions being discussed, perhaps even, in the rooms we were staying in.
The opulence of the hotel and its history was breathtaking, we even managed to get a sneak peek into the Liberal Club, where a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill is proudly displayed amongst many portraits of national heroes.
In March of this year, the first Chief of Secret Intelligence Sir Mansfield Cumming was honored with an English Heritage Blue Plaque which commemorates his former London home and office at 2 Whitehall Court which is part of the Royal Horseguards Hotel.
He was known as “C” due to his habit of initialising papers. This tradition of adopting the pseudonym “C” continues today as each Chief of the service is called C. It inspired Ian Fleming to create the character “M” in the James Bond novels.
Nearby to the hotel are a number of London’s landmarks:
Although we live in London, it isn’t often that we take a moment out of the hectic daily grind to take-in the history and iconic scenery that surrounds us in everyday life.
As we looked across the rooftops, it was easy to imagine James Bond standing on the roof terrace planning a secret rendezvous. With the release of the next instalment of Bond’s adventures in Spectre this week, I’m looking forward to watching the film.
All in all, it was a fantastic way to celebrate such a big milestone for someone who has been the patriarch of the family. I couldn’t imagine anything else more fitting than this.
Some lovely Cavolo Nero leaves arrived in Friday’s Organic veg box and we decided they would make for a lovely hearty autumn soup.
The dark green leaves of the Cavolo Nero are also known as Black Kale and like Kale are full of vitamins, A, C and B, not to mention fibre, calcium as well as minerals.
It has a sweet flavour, and I think it’s an easier veg to tempt kids to eat more greens.
Since it can be used in so many ways, in a soup, or lightly braised with garlic or onion, it makes a great accompaniment.
For lunch, we wanted a hearty soup that would serve as the main meal, served with crusty bread or these soft chewy pretzels from a local bakery.
There is something warm and comforting about the smell of minestrone soup gently cooking away on the stove that makes a weekend seem to last that bit longer.
As there is no set recipe for minestrone, it’s just made out of the vegetables that are in season and can be vegetarian or contain meat.
After a quick rummage around our fridge and grocery cupboard, here’s what we used for the soup:
Ingredients:
Chicken stock was made with the left over carcass of a roast chicken we had previously cooked for a meal. If you want to skip this, a stock cube or ready made stock can be used instead.
Light Olive Oil (1-2 teaspoon if necessary)
Bacon lardons or pancetta
1 or 2 sticks of celery (chopped to the same size as the bacon lardons or pancetta)
2-3 Baby leeks (or large leeks trimmed to remove the thick green leaves, use the tender middle section of the leeks if possible). Chopped to the same size as the pancetta/celery
Baby Sweet Corn chopped (Alternatively Carrots if you have these instead)
Cauliflower florets chopped (optional)
A hand full of mushrooms. Chopped
Peeled Chopped tomatoes (x 2)
1-2 cloves of garlic
3-4 stems of Cavolo Nero leaves, or any green leafed cabbage you have to hand (Savoy works as a great alternative, as does Chinese Leaf – this would make the soup look lighter in colour). The leaves should be finely chopped – to the size of the pancetta or bacon lardons that are being used in the soup.
A cupful of small pasta shapes for soups (We had the small star-shaped pasta called Stellini)
To make:
In a very large pan, fry off the bacon lardons or pancetta. It’s the saltiness of the bacon that will infuse with the vegetables making it very tasty.
Add chopped leeks, mushrooms, baby sweet corn, cauliflower, peeled tomatoes, celery, garlic, gently saute in pan, once the vegetables are soft. You can add some light olive oil if the fat from the bacon is not enough to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan. The aim is to soften the vegetables in the pan with the bacon.
Once the vegetables have been softened, pour in chicken stock and simmer gently for a minimum of 20 minutes. Longer if possible. The goal is to let the vegetables, bacon and chicken stock work together for maximum flavour.
Just before serving add the pasta shapes and Cavolo Nero leaves and simmer until the leaves and pasta shapes are tender.
Enjoy!
I came down with a cold not long after returning from our holiday. I have a feeling that it was probably caught whilst on holiday, but the symptoms only started to show once we got home.
By last Monday, my head felt as if it was caught in a vice and a sore throat was making me feel as if it was on fire.
My first thoughts was to turn to the usual remedy in our medicine cupboard, which is a hot mug of Lemsip. After two days however, I didn’t feel much better, in fact I was counting down the hours to my next fix of Lemsip.
It was at this point that I decided to stop using Lemsip and try something more natural as my stomach wasn’t feeling too great with all the chemicals and my head was feeling fuzzy as if it was wrapped in cotton wool.
Lemon and Honey as a hot drink was easy to make and since when you look at the ingredients on a pack of Lemsip, it contains for the most part lemon and paracetamol, plus a decongestants.
I decided that all natural ingredients would be better and hopefully it would also act as a detox and help cleanse my digestive system.
For blocked nose, instead of the chemical decongestants in the Lemsip, I have been inhaling steam from boiling hot water and adding a few drops of Olbas Oil (If you don’t have this, eucalyptus or any type of oil that has menthol/mint essential will have a similar effect) in a large bowl with a towel over my head.
Adding a few drops of lemon essential oil to the water as well, means that the steam is also acting as a facial, opening pores and giving my skin a deep clean.
As a parent, I’ve never been keen on using over the counter medicines on my kids. In fact my youngest doesn’t like Calpol (a liquid suspension of paracetamol in syrup) that I used to give them when they were very young. She too prefers the hot drink of Lemon and Honey when ever she feels a sore throat beginning to take hold.
For coughs, on my last visit to the GP with my daughter when she had a bad cough, he advised that a simple linctus of honey and lemon or glycerine would be just as effective as an over the counter medicine to help soothe a cough.
In fact in the UK, the National Health Service has information about simple treatments for colds and coughs, which advises against over the counter medicines for coughs as there isn’t enough evidence that they are effective.
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.
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
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.
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:
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
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.