never ever turn your back on a courgette plant.                      

the rain is falling my work is still waiting the boys are bickering but  kind friends are helping me Thank you. thank you. thank you.            

The boys have been playing a game at school which I’ve never heard of before: You go up to someone and wave. If they wave back they’re sweet and if they don’t you shout ‘sour’ at them and run off laughing. Which makes me sweet because I always, always wave at children whenever they wave at […]

It’s hot here and we are thirsty all the time. But, we’re fed up of plain water, juice is too sticky and I’m refusing to buy fizzy drinks. The solution? A big jug of homemade Still Ginger Lemonade to keep in the fridge. I like it neat over ice (but it is very sharp), the boys dilute theirs with sparkling […]

                                      My friend Charlotte has a cake making business. Yesterday, she asked us to taste her new range of fairy cakes with the posh buttercream toppings and let her know what we thought of them. And so, just to help Charlotte we have munched our […]

On Saturday, we got up and decided that it would be strawberry picking day. But, when we got to the pick your own place they said it was too early for strawberries.   We could, however, pick gooseberries instead. I wasn’t so sure (after all, gooseberries are hairy green sour things which grow on thorny bushes) but the boys were determined. Once home I […]

If you want to make my boys happy and yourself feel like a yummy mummy and domestic goddess, simply make them a cake, lay the table properly and then pick them up from school. After some chatting, eating and general wrecking of the tablecloth all will be right with your little part of the world.         […]

I have been encouraging the boys to make some presents too. So out came the cook books and after some consideration (arguing) they decided to make these: ridiculously sweet but fantastic fun to make. Here’s the recipe. And just for the record, I couldn’t find any corn syrup over here (not even in Waitrose!) so used […]

Autumn, for this year and every year for my family means: back to school, Joe’s birthday (he wants a shop bought cake this year, unlike last year)  and satisfying my blackberry obsession. Well, how can you not be obsessed by free vitamin C growing in abundance?           This years’ take on our traditional […]

I kept sneaking off all weekend to do some more pages in my family cookbook. I was especially pleased with this one, so I thought I’d show you, as you have all been so complimentary about this little project!                                 […]