Here comes the sun.

There goes another week. Week after week just rolls on by doesn't it?
And then, BOOM! The sun comes, without warning, from 4 degrees to 25 degrees., all in the blink of an eye. I didn't train in 25 degree heat. That was a shock.
What the?

Taken and modelled just before the hot
hot weather breezed in! Hence the stripy tights!

Anyone else Moshi Monsters crazy?
Is there a child in the land that isn't?
This is 'Poppet' apparently, and it was for one
of THE sweetest little 'Poppets' we know!

May the force be with you.
Well it could snow next week. This is Scotland!

The recent sunshine has made us feel all colourful....although we're always full of colour here. I picked up some amazingly colourful stripy knitted fabric,seen here below,and some easy-up-easy-down trousers are ear-marked for it but with the rest of it, I'm not sure....
Maybe a tshirt or a skirt or maybe some summery shorts for our annual jaunt? Hmmmm?
Thoughts? Or probably all of those, but with seconds to go before we need to leave.....That's the norm.!

A rainbow of colours.

A brilliantly summery golden yellow for a sunny little
girl I'm told! Glad I managed to use my owls and bird houses
fabrics for this shirt.

What a lovely little name!

Ballet-shoe fabric 'M' for a pink princess.

I love this blue. I think it might be my favourite.
I think I managed to use all my best boy's fabric in this shirt.

So I managed my big race. And in torturous heat too...in Scotland. The irony.
I have a medal.
But I didn't have any sausages.
BUT, there was beer and chips and much whooping and some champagne.
That's what it's all about.
Bring on the next big one. Bring.It.On.
Happy days.
Happy happy days.

The Sunday run. Arthur's Seat. Edinburgh.

I had mentioned in a previous post about noticing things in the city I had previously swept past in the car. Now I tend to run all over the city these days, especially on the long sunday run.

So I thought this week, as a treat, (as it is a taper week) that today I'd have some fun and take some 'photos along the way as I had just 8 miles to cover.

I have a bad habit of going anti-clockwise around the city, (turn left, turn left, turn left, home!)
Last week I unwound myself and went east first. And discovered bits I had never noticed before.

Today I turned right out of our gate, then headed south at the nearest road and headed towards Arthur's Seat.

Arthur's Seat is what people thought until a few years ago, an extinct volcano right in the heart of Edinburgh, located in Holyrood park. Actually, it has been upgraded in recent years to a Dormant Volcano. Which means it could actually erupt. Not a lot of people know that.

It dominates the city and is also the highest of a series of peaks which take the form of a crouched lion.

Here we are at the bottom, this is the view looking up to the right (south)
from The Scottish Parliament and this is a view of  the Salisbury Crags.

The last volcanic eruption in Scotland was about 55 million years ago. The last time Arthur's Seat erupted was 200 million years ago. So not that long ago really. I think I've got some packets of spices in the cupboards approaching that age.....

So best foot forward, let's go!! It's about a 2 mile run to the bottom from our home and usually I go around on the road bit., which is 3 miles all round. But today, I went up and over.

The sun was just broaching and about 5 minutes later it was glorious as it peeped over this section. It almost felt like summer had arrived.

Here comes the sun!

A view of the Pentland Hills as you emerge to the other side, before the rest of the steep, steep climb to the summit.
There's a lot of weird history surrounding Arthur's Seat. Check this out: Coffins found on Arthur's Seat.

Salisbury Crags from the other side. Remember that photo from the bottom as we set off?
This is it from above.

Up, up and up again.

At the top. Finally. It's very satisfying. Not running as such, but fast climbing/clambering.
I called the family from the top, who waved at me (apparently) and I waved at them, and they knew  it and saw me waving away (and also the young American called Matt who I also roped into waving!) as they had the telescope trained on the summit from the bedroom window. You can just about see our house from the summit!

The sun was shining over the top of the Salisbury Crags by the time I'd run down from the summit to Dunsapie Loch and ran round back to the bottom again.

A couple of views of Our Dynamic Earth
A very special place to us.

The new Scottish Parliament.
Blue blue sky.
Well it is May, godammit!

The gates of Holyrood Palace. The Queen's official
 Scottish residence.

Miles covered in this run: 8
Sausages consumed:      3

The 360 degree view of Edinburgh from the summit. Cool run huh?

A great way to start the day.

Roasted Pepper soup

Soup is good for the soul. Especially when it's this colourful. It's good for the waist, (leave the cream out!) it is good for lunch or dinner and can be cheap. It can use up forgotten ingredients from the fridge and storecupboard and is great for weaning babies and also getting children used to new tastes without the visuals of an unknown alien vegetable. Celeriac terrifies my children. Well it did hit every branch of the ugly tree when it toppled out didn't it?
If you claim you 'can't' cook, then make soup. Simples.

We make a lot of soup in this house. All different kinds and textures. Lentil is the favourite after-swimming choice and Leek and potato is Grandad's favourite, that's why we eat it. All of it. *Ahem*

So then, yummy sweet roasted pepper soup...are you ready?

You will need:

6 peppers (red, yellow or orange and not green.)
2 cloves garlic
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
500ml vegetable or chicken stock
1 small tub of half fat creme fraiche
2 teaspoons sugar
salt and pepper to taste
chopped basil leaves
50g split yellow peas or red lentils


Cut your peppers in half and remove the stalks and seeds. Lay them on a baking tray with the peeled whole garlic cloves and give them a good glug of olive oil and place into a preheated (200 degrees celcius) for about 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Chop the peppers and garlic up into bite sized chunks.
Get a large pan and put the roasted peppers and garlic and sugar into it and fry off for a couple of minutes over a medium heat. Add the cans of tomatoes and the stock and the peas/lentils and bring to a simmer and then turn down to a low heat and leave to bubble and simmer for half and hour.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Remove from the heat and blend with hand blender or other until smooth
and add the creme fraiche and basil and heat a little to serve.

OK. I know an out of focus picture. We were hungry. Very. And sorry!

Make some bread rolls like we did or serve with crusty bread and butter.

It is always very satisfying to make your own bread. But the smell will
drive you crazy with hunger!

If we're having this as a family meal for dinner midweek, we serve it with a selection of cheeses and meats and/or pate accompanied with a salad with lots of crunchy vegetables.  It's very filling and packed with vitamins too. Yummy!

If you want to make this soup even sweeter, remove the pepper's skins after they have cooled, but we love their caramel and slightly bitter flavour through the soup. Adding a diced white onion to the sauteeing peppers wll also sweeten it further.
Enjoy!


I'm still in training. Running running running.

Miles ran this week:     27.5 miles
Sausages consumed:  Zero (yep I know, zero??!! WTF?)

Getting very excited and not nervous at all about the big race. I'm ready. Totally.
Bring it on.

Skirts and cake and cake.

I've been making these bags for ages now and the design has never changed much. Along the way though I changed the lining from a simple cotton one to a waterproof/wipe clean one. Which is a lot easier as you know if you have had a dirty gym kit/swim stuff or dirty shoes in it so you can simply wipe the inner instead of putting the whole thing through the wash.

I have however ditched the eyelets and stuck with the simple loop of fabric for threading the rope/cord through though. It works just as well. Sometimes, if I'm asked to, I'll add a pocket to the inside which is handy for locker keys etc.

I've made a few similar blankets over the last few weeks, all of them with the rainbow stripe reverse, which is so soft, colourful and stimulating for the babies and the ever popular elasticated pocket and ribbon tagged top. Everyone asks for something a bit different from the next person and lucky little Elizabeth is getting 3 pretty pink hearts on hers.

That's the last of the lovely limey green long sleeved T-shirts away out of stock now too...I'd love to find some more in that colour, it has been so very popular! Maybe it's because it goes with so many other colours?  And it's nice and bright?

I've been putting all the lovely supersoft denim to good use that I waited for what felt like a year to arrive into stock again! I loved sewing with it last year and ordered a whole heap more in a slightly lighter colourway and it's great to sew with.

I made this one the other way around and put the cotton colour frill as the bottom layer. Again, we're loving the orange this year :)

We love cake nearly as much as we love orange as well, which is almost as much as 'we' love Hello Kitty. But not quite.

Cool huh? A bit pink, but cool.....and homemade by me of course...but wait 'til you see these......

'Hello Kitty' cake pops..Just how clever are these?....All of it chocolate, probably with a bit more chocolate to finish up...and if you stay in Edinburgh and you want some, contact the very fabulous Gisele.
And tell her I sent you!

Funky pants

We took a trip recently and we needed new trousers.
Funky ones.

They also needed to be easy up and easy down!

Enter onto the scene *drum roll*  'ape pants'.
That's APE not monkey. My clever little sticks are always quite keen to point out the difference to anyone who will listen.To make them easy to pull up and down and also for comfort, I added ribbing as the waistband and also ribbing as cuffs to the bottom of the legs.
And you'll always need a matching t-shirt too.

Orange hippo pants! How cute are these? We love them and it would seem everyone on the park loves them too :)

Could a cloudy day look any brighter? Cool aren't they?

Huge thanks to kitschy coo for her amazing fabric. We'll certainly be snapping up some more. I'm still hankering after some green astronauts fabric for a swishy new running vest.

*ahem*

Things to be thankful for.

We see different things everyday.
But we don't absorb them at all as we rush around in our busy lives.
Sometimes we don't notice the little things.

We set off a little early today for school and we enjoyed the slower pace together.
The child sees differently.
And when they notice these things and share them with us we can
appreciate the simple joy of it all.

We stopped to look at the beautiful pink blossom set against the bright blue morning sky.

And we even had time to capture the simple beauty.
We're lucky to be here.

Be thankful for every day.

Oat and raisin cookies

Oat and Raisin Cookies.

My these are good! Especially with a glass of milk.Great for lunchboxes too!

Ingredients:
150g unsalted butter
225 soft brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
125g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
235 rolled oats
125g raisins

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350f/gas mark 4)
Line 3 large baking sheets with baking/greaseproof paper
Cream together the butter and the sugar, then add the beaten egg and combine.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix lightly. Add the oats and raisins and stir in.
Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls (it's easier if you have damp or floured hands) and place on the baking sheets. Flatten with a fork that has been dipped in flour so it doesn't stick. Don't put the balls close together because the mixture spreads as it cooks.
Bake the cookies for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Eat.

Share the love Pizza

This recipe goes hand in hand with yesterday's tomato sauce one. (You can find it here: mummy's special sauce  )

We love to make pizza. We usually make our own pizza base in our bread machine (One of THE best inventions ever) and let the kids roll it out for themselves and put their own toppings on.
It usually works that whatever they put on they eat......usually!
This is very popular when friends come to tea! Who needs to go to Pizza express huh?

BUT sometimes, at least once a week let's say, we don't have time for pizza dough,(it takes an hour and a half in our machine) and I am not into buying those pre-made rubbish bases or pizzas either...this cheat's pizza recipe is the dog's whatsits. As well as being a life-saver in the dinner department!

So here's your answer. Pitta breads. Simple plain old pitta breads. White or wholegrain.
Seen here on my well-on-its-way-to-being-seasoned pampered chef medium bar pan.
Seriously if you can get your hands on any stoneware for making pizzas and baked things on, do it, it does make a difference.

Ingredients:
pitta breads
quantity of tomato sauce (simple tomato sauce ) or store bought/whatever!
1 packet/ball of mozzarella
basil leaves

We always have mozzarella in the fridge, it's cheap and it lasts for ages too.

Any other topping you wish, chorizo, ham, pineapple,peppers, mushrooms, olives, eggs, sausage....sweetcorn, tomatoes....well the list is endless isn't it! Chuck on what you fancy.

Pre-heat your oven to about 180 degrees centrigrade.
Grab your pittas from the freezer, yep you don't even have to defrost them.
Slather on the tomato sauce and add the other toppings.

Put them in the oven, for around 10-15 minutes.
Get it out of the oven.
Serve to children.
Bask in the glory of a job well done.
Receive medal and pick up the 'phone and order a chinese takeaway
for yourselves 'cause that was bloody hard work huh?

Share the love.

Great for grown-ups too! Supper in a hurry!
I know a grown-up who likes to fill the pitta with spicy meatballs or ham and mozzarella and calls it cheat's calzone! Go for it!

Goes down well with a nice cold beer. *Ahem*.