teo and tea

January

2012-01-30T19:06:00.001-02:00

Theo was 4 this month. It doesn't seem four years since he was born! He's so very typically four, though: full of questions, songs and opinions. He's continuously challenging the boundaries of my knowledge - last week, he asked, "is symbiosis good, mom?" I had to check the dictionary to make sure I remembered what symbiosis even was! He loves numbers - to the point of obsession. He carries a calculator or a stopwatch with him at all times and counts everything. He was very happy to be new number on his birthday!

He's also crazy about Octonauts - a book and TV series about a team of adventuring animals who live under the sea and "explore! Rescue! Protect!". I'm fairly certain that the TV show is where he heard about symbiosis! So, I made him an Octonauts cake for his birthday.

In keeping with the aquatic and animal theme, I'm hoping to take him to an aquarium or zoo next week, for a belated birthday gift.

Theo's great-aunt has her birthday the day before his. This year, I made her flowerpot cakes since she loves gardening. I've been waiting since before Christmas to try these out, and although they were incredibly time-consuming (in preparing the terracotta pots for baking), they worked really well. Everybody believed they were real potted plants!

And to top off a pretty great start to 2012, we were able to see the Northern Lights in Northern England! Since I inadvertently missed them last September when they were visible from my house, I've been looking at reports of solar activity, CME alerts, magnetometer graphs, and KP indices daily in an attempt to anticipate their next showing. Most of it is far beyond my comprehension, but what little I did know allowed me to anticipate and see the Northern Lights for a good four or five hours hours about a week or two ago. It was amazing - for the first few hours, you could see the auroral oval stretching over quite a large expanse of sea, island and land. Perhaps to the uneducated eye, it would have looked like nothing more than a bright glow (the glow of a full moon, except it was a new moon night!), but if you looked closely, you could definitely see green and pink tones to the glow. At around 10.30pm, the lights started dancing and it was absolutely breathtaking!

The photos I took (from my bedroom window - I did take some from outside but it was too cold and the wind was strong enough to keep shaking the camera tripod) didn't come out amazingly well, but I am just so happy to have seen the Lights at all, let alone have a few photos to remember them by. If I were to have a 'bucket list' of any kind, seeing the Aurora would definitely be near the top, so now I can mentally tick it off!

Catching up

2012-01-20T10:20:00.003-02:00

I'm quite terrible at updating, but when I do, I feel compelled to fill in the gaps. So, from my last post in August to New Year's, this is what happened:

September -

I went for a walk over the beautiful heather-clad moors with my parent's dog and managed to lose my phone somewhere over a few square miles. Oops.

Theo got a package in the mail from Brazil - it included an Avai football strip, which he adored.

We also discovered that Theo is almost big enough to properly ride the toy tractors in the Gardens.

The Autumn leaves in the Gardens were very pretty.

We made lots of homemade marshamallows. You cannot believe how amazing they taste compared to store-bought. Not having a candy thermometer put me off making them for a long time (I really should get one) - but, as long as you know your soft, firm and hard ball stages, it's not too difficult.

Hallowe'en! Oh, I love holidays. Theo dressed up as a vampire, I - a crow, and we made a spooky cake. My brother bought fireworks for the Guy-Fawkes/Hallowe'en/birthday mash-up celebration, and Theo was sufficiently awed. We also carved six (!) pumpkins and discovered that roasted butternut squash and pumpkin tastes absolutely divine when sprinkled with roasted pine nuts, blue cheese (mozzarella or stilton - but not one that's too overpowering) and maple syrup.

November -

It was my 28th birthday and Theo was adorable. He gave me kisses and hugs in bed and then insisted on making (i.e. putting the teabag and sugar in a cup!) me a cup of tea for my present. In the afternoon, we went for a quiet walk in the woods.

My mum had a major fieldmouse problem in her house. She laid traps and caught 10 within the first 3 hours! She even discovered that one had made a home in my dad's old boot. The mouse had seemingly made itself very cosy - stockpiling the dog's biscuits and a collection of nuts and bolts. So, for my mum's birthday, we baked a tongue-in-cheek "cheesecake", overridden with mice! The chocolate cake was filled with pop rocks and orange-chocolate.

December -

We were very excited for Christmas this year!

We were promised lots of snow - but none arrived! We were quite disappointed, having prepared ourselves to go sledging, build igloos, and make snow angels. Despite this, we had a surprisingly busy month. Theo played the role of Joseph in his first school Nativity - and was the loudest singer by far. We visited Santa at the Gardens and as we came out of Santa's log cabin, it snowed for about ten minutes... perfect timing! We baked a Christmas cake with an igloo and polar bears on the top and generally had a great Christmas - except for being sick! Theo and I both came down with the most awful cold on Christmas Eve, that lasted for weeks. Theo had already been struggling to get rid of cough from a previous cold, so the poor boy was absolutely exhausted on Christmas day. He just kind of lounged around pitifully, watching The Gruffalo and playing with a calculator - which he found even more exciting than any of his gifts. Theo sure does love numbers!

Goodbye 2011

2012-01-14T21:16:00.000-02:00

Time for a 2011 survey!

What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Take my son to (pre-)school three days a week!

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Resolutions from last year included: exercising, learning to dance, brushing up on Russian and become more proficient with my camera. Well, I kept none of those. I feel like my photography is better and that I'm more proficient with my camera, but I think any improvement in my photography is down to better post-processing skills!

Resolutions, or goals, for this year: exercise, find a career or go back to school, sort out my finances, read more.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

Did anyone close to you die?
No.

What countries did you visit?
None! My new passport has not seen any action, alas.

What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Job and all that comes with it - money and respect mostly.

What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory?
Same as last year, I don't remember dates! But I have plenty of incredible memories.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting through to the final interview stage of a job I really, really wanted.

What was your biggest failure?
Not getting a job at all.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just colds.

What was the best thing you bought?
Hmm. I would like to say "books". My most triumphant buy was the HP Touchpad at a firesale price!

Whose behavior merited celebration?
I'm amazed at how many ways Theo has matured and progressed this year.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Nobody, I don't think. Unless I can say "employers" for not having the decency to write "thanks, but no thanks" letters when rejecting you, instead of completely ignoring your application.

Where did most of your money go?
Living; the constant travelling to London to attend interviews.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The Government job I applied for. When I got through to the final stage, it gave me a much-needed confidence boost (until they then rejected me, of course!).

Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? Neither. Maybe slightly less optimistic.
ii. thinner or fatter? I weigh the same, but I definitely feel fatter.
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer. Much.

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Reading.

What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sitting at the computer job-hunting and filling out applications.

What was your favorite TV program?
I liked a lot of TV actually. Pretty Little Liars, The Lying Game, Reveeeeeeeeenge, CSI:NY, NCIS, The Vampire Diaries and The Big Bang Theory.

What was the best book you read?
Oh, oh! I can't pin it down to one. I seriously got the book-bug back these past few months and I'm not a literary snob in the slightest, so almost everything I read is awesome. I loved, loved The Hunger Games trilogy, also the Millennium trilogy (y'know, The Girl... books). I will admit to liking Twilight and New Moon (although not so much Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) because I actually related a lot to certain parts of Bella and her relationship with Edward.

What did you want and get?
The Touchpad, heh.

What did you want and not get?
A job. Someone nearby to talk and relate to.

What was your favorite film of this year?
It came out a while ago, but this year I found an absolutely beautiful children's film called Lost and Found (I also found the book a few weeks ago, which is just as pretty as the film!). I don't remember very many other movies, but I will say that I am very, very excited to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Hunger Games.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 28 and I went for a walk in the woods. It was beautifully simple.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Ahh - a job!

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Same as usual. Smart-casual, classic.

What/who kept you sane?
Heh. Not sure I stayed quite sane. My boy drove me bonkers, but also kept me on the right track.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
The usual fictional characters: Mac Taylor, Sheldon Cooper (is that weird? ;)), Ethan Whitehorse, Jack Porter, Spencer Reid. Daniel Craig!

What political issue stirred you the most?
Well. Library closures, austerity measures, I suppose. The topic of state education gets me incredibly riled up at the moment, but I'm doing my best to ignore the entire topic since it seems likely that I'll have no choice but to enroll Theo in state education in September.

Who did you miss?
My girls, always. My States-side friends.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Life is hard and no-one cares if you have a degree. Heh, I don't really know. I'm still a little too bitter about this past year to reflect on the positives.

And finally... a 2011 photo collage.

And mostly to see how much Theo has grown - the 2010 photo collage:

And 2009 photo collage:

Lullaby

2011-08-15T20:10:00.002-03:00

I don't have a lot of exciting news these days. Each day is the same, and the days stretch out into the future - all similar, all bittersweet. Sweet since spending the days taking photos of me and my little boy and listening to the million little funny things he inadvertently says is the greatest gift. Bitter since I spent so much of my life imagining something different and something more. A silly little dream of a gentle husband, charming home, fulfilling work, children and their sweet little footfalls, a warm purring kitten. As the days stretch out, dreams tend to evaporate and I feel awful longing for something more than what I already have.

I love my little boy more than anything - even when he's being as stubborn and obstinate as I am. I love his sweet little face more than I ever thought I could. I never imagined I would feel this way about what was once a little alien growing somewhere inside. These days are soft and dreamy and do well at hiding shadows.

I'm a romantic. I always long to see beauty in the ordinary and to be surrounded by people who see the same. These days, there is no-one and when Theo's laughter is not filling the air, it becomes suddenly lonely.

I wonder how long these days will last.

Little things

2011-08-09T17:46:00.002-03:00

In the last couple of months:

- Theo loved dressing up as an explorer and an elephant for a safari-themed fundraising week at kindergarten. He also loved volcano week - especially when he got to help build a volcano and make it explode (with vinegar, dye and bicarb) and has since been drawing volcanoes non-stop.

- (And while I'm on the subject of Theo, I absolutely adore that he insists on sleeping with a book under his pillow every night!)

- Summer seems to have been and gone, but it was really nice while it lasted. We played in the garden and enjoyed the few strawberries and blueberries that we were able to grow.

- Theo's been working hard on learning how to throw and catch a basketball. He's getting pretty good!

- My step-dad had a birthday and retired, so I baked him a golfing cake (chocolate sponge and frosting, of course, since soil is brown).

Cameras & lenses

2011-07-30T10:50:00.004-03:00

I've been using some of my alone time, whilst Theo is at kindergarten, to play around with my camera. I've also been experimenting with shooting in RAW and post-processing, which is a ton of fun!

I actually broke my 28-90mm Canon kit lens shooting these photos. In the background, you can see a storm approaching - well, it suddenly turned and started pouring buckets on me, so I tried to grab my camera and tripod before they got too wet and instead knocked the whole thing over! I was pretty upset - the lens is not a great one by any means (it seems to be causing mirror lockup problems in the camera body, plus the photos it creates are just not that sharp) but my only other lens is a Sigma 70-300mm, and whilst I really like the clarity and colour of the images taken with this lens, it just doesn't work for self-portraits, even with a tripod (I don't have a remote shutter, only the camera timer). I have in the past used an old Praktica Pentacon 35-70mm lens with my Canon 350D body, which gives a nice creamy, vintage feel to photos - but I have to hold the lens in place manually since the mounts are incompatible (although I have heard of there being an adapter for Praktica PB lenses and Canon cameras, which I will look into eventually).

As an aside, when I first got the Praktica bx20 camera, the mirror mechanism was pretty messed up and the shutter wouldn't fire. I took a chance and tinkered around with the mirror and whatever else I could reach without taking the camera completely to pieces (although I did consider doing this for educational purposes and to satisfy my "how does it work" curiosity), and finally got the camera working. I ran a roll of film through it, but having not shot film in the last decade, I accidentally exposed it when rewinding the film.

So, after the fall, the Canon kit lens seemed to have jumped the threads for zooming/focusing and was jammed. I'd dropped the camera and lens before but luckily the UV filter that the previous owner had screwed on and overtightened took the brunt of the force and shattered. The camera and lens had no such protection this time! Given my success with the Praktica bx20 and the fact that I really had nothing to lose (there's no way I could afford to have a lens fixed professionally), I did an awful lot of poking around and levering and prising inside the lens. My heart stopped a few times, particularly when I heard a snap and a crunch - but somehow, I have no idea how, I got the lens unjammed and working again. I'm looking forward to picking up some new lenses (and a new body) as soon as I have some spare money - but for now at least, the 28-90mm lives to see another day and take many more slightly blurry photos!

Bamburgh

2011-07-25T10:42:00.003-03:00

Another beautiful place with great history near us (there are a lot!) is Bamburgh. I worked in one of the hotels here before, during and after university. I also spent some time living here just after Theo was born. I'd never been a huge fan of Bamburgh given that when Summer comes, the tourists descend and the village turns into anarchic chaos (seriously, though, what is it with tourists that render them incapable of following even basic road safety rules?), but in the quieter months it really is a peaceful and serene place to be. I'd often bundle Theo up in a skisuit and take him for a walk in the pushchair or backpack just to marvel at the silky-blue waters lapping at the freezing sand on calmer days.

Of course, now it's Summer and the beach is busy once again, but I know a few quieter spots that are good for picnics and collecting shells. Theo wasn't too keen on dipping his toes into the sea unless I was holding his hand, but he loved the rocks. I remember feeling much like a goat when I was younger, bounding over the jagged outcrops quickly and surely - but I was no match for Theo. He climbed and climbed with little sense of fear and would have happily spent all day foraging and climbing if the tide hadn't already covered the vast majority of the rockpools.

St. Cuthbert's Cave

2011-07-25T09:53:00.002-03:00

We took a walk up to St. Cuthbert's Cave on what was the hottest day of the year thus far. It's a beautiful walk - as I well know, since I spent my childhood on the farm bordering the National Trust land. I'd often wander up to the cave by myself to be alone with my thoughts in my preteen years. It's a popular spot for hikers and pilgrims, since the cave is thought to be one of the (many!) resting places for St. Cuthbert's body as monks carried him from the priory on Lindisfarne Island to Durham Cathedral in order to escape the attacking Vikings. I grew up with this story and developed a particular interest in and connection to this small fragment of history, not least of all because my mother had traced our geneology back to this same area and given the likely Norwegian origins of our surname, had suspected that we were perhaps descended from the Vikings who landed and settled in this area.

We now only live a few miles away from the farm where I grew up, so I thought it would be great to show Theo a place I loved as a child. Of course, he's still too young to understand sentimental value and a forest is a forest to him - but he did have great fun searching out magical woodland creatures since we'd just finished reading a part of The Enchanted Wood (Enid Blyton).

Kindergarten

2011-07-25T09:37:00.004-03:00

Theo started kindergarten a few months ago. I was initially reluctant to write about it, since my feelings about it were not at all what I was expecting. There was no doubt that Theo was ready for kindergarten (for the first month, he cried whenever it was time to go home!) and I thought I couldn't wait until I had some time completely to myself - but once I got that time, I didn't know what to do with it! It was such a foreign concept that for the first few afternoons, I just sat on my couch wondering what I should be doing.

The worst feeling, however, was not knowing what Theo was up to. Since I've been the one who has made all the decisions since Theo was born, it was strange handing that over to other people, even if the decisions they make for him are as inane as what is for lunch, or what activity he does and when. I've always been there to oversee everything he's done and now the only way I know what he's been up to is if I ask him how his day has been. This loss of... control or omniscience... really hit me quite hard in the beginning. I guess it's my first lesson as a parent in letting go - and I'm quite surprised by my reaction. I never thought I would feel this way; I always imagined myself as one of those parents who drops their now grown-up kid off at university with a car full of practical household items and a cheery wave goodbye. Parenthood is constantly surprising me.

May Day

2011-05-03T11:55:00.003-03:00

Other photos from the long holiday weekend!

It feels like Summer already! This time last year, we were still wearing warm hats and scarves.

We originally went hunting for bluebells, but in the fifteen years since I was last there, the part of the wood I remembered being carpeted in bluebells had been cut down as part of a 50year wood regrowth scheme. All the same, this lane was very pretty!

Hopefully there will be many more walks this Summer - although, next time I'll be a little more prepared. I thought we'd go for a 20 minute slow stroll and we ended up on a 2.5 mile loop through the depths of some very secluded woods!

The Royal Wedding: Kate and William

2011-05-03T09:22:00.004-03:00

To celebrate the Royal Wedding last week, I baked a chicken, leek and mushroom pie (since the leek is the national emblem of Wales, and Prince William's last name is Wales) and made strawberry and chocolate cheesecakes for dessert (since Cadbury's used to be a Great British institution and strawberries and cream is very British). My parents put up British flags for the day, but hastily took them down the day after. It's very difficult to be patriotic these days, without being accused of being racist and/or a member of the BNP - so it was nice to indulge in a little acceptable patriotism on the day of the wedding.

I used to lean towards republicanism. Throughout the circus surrounding the death of Diana, I abhorred the actions or inaction of the Monarchy to recognise their part, however indirectly, in her suffering and death. I cried at Diana's funeral - not because we had lost "the people's princess" but because there were two young boys, my age, who had to follow her funeral cortege through the streets of London, and contain their grief in front of a television audience of millions. I guess I feel some kind of connection to these boys. Their first days of school were mine; the pictures of them riding a log flume at a theme park were identical to ours; William's gap year mirrored mine in many ways; Harry surely regrets some of his well-documented university antics the way I look at mine and think "what fun, but what was I thinking?!"; and the strain of William's often long-distance relationship with Kate took its toll, in the same way mine had. A sense of their privilege was never far behind, but first and foremost - they were just kids who liked the same music we did and suffered identity crises the same way we did - and now, they are adults, getting married like we are, still liking the same music we do.

I have no such attachments to the Queen, or to Charles - my interest in the future of the monarchy lies with William and Harry and this is why I am so happy to have watched the Wedding and seen it unfold the way it did. For a moment, I felt not just proud to be British, but proud to be patriotic, to embrace certain traditions, pomp and ceremony and eschew others (such as the promise to "obey"). I no longer lean towards republicanism - I support a modern monarchy, led by my own generation and I take pride in tradition, where it doesn't impede progression into a modern society (for example, I don't see the point in male preference primogeniture).

To change the topic ever so slightly - this cheesecake recipe is so quick and easy that I have to share:

+ 150g strawberries, blueberries or any other fresh or frozen fruit, cooked with 2 tbsp of caster sugar for a few minutes and cooled
+ 5 digestive/oatmeal/chocolate chip/any biscuits, whizzed in a processor or bashed and mixed with 25g melted butter and pressed into the bottom of 4 glasses and chilled
+ 250g tub of mascarpone
+ 4 tbsp double cream
+ 4 tbsp icing sugar
+ 1 lemon , zested and juice (optional, but balances out the sweetness of the cream cheese mixture)

Mix the mascarpone, double cream, icing sugar, lemon juice and zest together. Make alternative layers of cheesecake and fruit mix in each glass and serve.

(Recipe credit: BBC GoodFood)

Forget You

2011-04-27T15:43:00.004-03:00

Theo really loves to dance and he adores music. He's always asking me the song titles of music on Spotify and he frequently requests I play "night train" (Journey - Don't Stop Believin'), "chasing pavements" (he calls all Adele songs this), "fairytale" (Alexander Rybak) and "flying grabbidy" (Glee - Defying Gravity). We watch So You Think You Can Dance on BBC iplayer, and he tries to copy all the dances! So, this is Theo rockin' out to Cee Lo Green and burning off some of that Easter chocolate:

Theo Forgets You from Marina on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T12:27:00.004-03:00

Happy Easter! We had a great Easter. I love all holidays and Theo loves chocolate, so it was a great day for us both! We had an egg hunt in the garden and Theo collected far too much chocolate and candy - definitely enough to see him through the next few months!

And now we are both experiencing a severe sugar rush! I predict a lot of walks in our near future in order to work off all the chocolate we've consumed.

Cragside

2011-04-15T12:11:00.003-03:00

I have a few complaints about living in the country - the lack of non-tourist industry jobs for one, and the biggest at the moment: lack of public transport coupled with rising fuel costs and large distances between the places you need to go. For example, if I worked in the nearest city, my fuel costs alone would be over £120 per week! But there are also plenty of advantages to living in a rural location. Schools tend to be a little better, with smaller class sizes; and the scenery! Everywhere we go is breathtakingly beautiful and it's fantastic to live in an area that has so much history.

Cragside house and gardens is a National Trust site near to where we live and is the first house in the world to be powered by hydroelectricity. Home of Lord Armstrong in the 1860s and beyond, the house had hot and cold running water, central heating (through steam passages and air ducts), fire alarms, telephones, a Turkish bath suite and a hydraulic passenger lift - all considered revolutionary at the time.

The house is set in 4 km² of gardens and forest, which are beyond beautiful. Theo loves being out in the forest, collecting pinecones and I really like the serenity and calmness that being in nature provides. I also can't deny that most of my enjoyment comes from knowing that Theo is going to be exhausted when he gets home (since he usually cannot sit still for more than a minute at a time)!

Mother's Day

2011-04-03T11:41:00.002-03:00

I had a great Mother's Day, although I can't wait until Theo is old enough to start bringing me breakfast-in-bed, instead of waking me up at 6.30am and demanding I make his breakfast!

I baked a cake since all the women in my family were getting together for afternoon tea. It was my first layer cake (surprisingly!) and the first time I've really used rolled fondant to cover a cake - it's harder than it looks!

Rainbow cake! I had no idea if it would work, until we cut out the first slice but it came out very well! Everyone assumed it was a plain vanilla cake, so it was a really good surprise.

Happy Mother's Day to all my mom friends!

In times like these

2011-03-14T12:25:00.003-03:00

3 days ago, I dreamt that I was escaping a tsunami with three children. By the miracles of dream-land, we had enough time to get to our house, rescue a few needed items, jump in the car and outdrive the approaching wave. I woke up with the dream so fresh in my mind that it gave me the most unsettling feeling while I was getting dressed, and I couldn't shake it. This dream of mine had been so real. And then, while making breakfast, I switched on BBC news to see actual footage of a tsunami. I swear, I thought I was still dreaming - but I wasn't. Japan had been hit by an 8.9 earthquake and the resulting tsunami. At first, I felt really sick. My dream had been so real, it almost felt as though I'd actually been there. But as Theo and I watched the continuing footage, one thing became apparently clear - despite my dream, I couldn't even begin to comprehend what the victims of the tsunami were feeling or going through. And I've never felt luckier - lucky to live in a country where the weather is relatively mild and natural disasters are very few in number; lucky to have a home and the ability to indulge in simple pleasures; lucky to have my beautiful boy eating his pancakes and strawberries by my side.

It's almost awful how it takes such a tragedy to put life into perspective. I've spent months worrying about jobs, finances and allowing myself to get irritated at my son's inability to stop talking - and now it all seems so ridiculous. I have a home; my finances are going to require some juggling (thanks 'austerity measures'!) but are not beyond help; and if I can't find a job right this second, it's not the end of the world. My son is happy and healthy and what more could I possibly want for him? Sometimes I feel so lonely - but although I have no friends around me, I am so incredibly far from alone. I hope I never forget that.

Census

2011-03-10T14:00:00.003-03:00

It's census time, so I thought I'd fill out a census meme!

In March 2011, I... am 27, single and living in a (semi-detached) house in the middle of the countryside in the North East, with my 3 year old. I'm a stay-at-home-mum but looking for work (unsuccessfully!). I spend most of my days spelling out words, cleaning up letters, cooking, baking and singing - it's pretty simple, but we're pretty happy. I guess I must be pretty normal since there's no outrageous answers to put on my census form.

In March 2001, I... was 17 and living by myself in a cute one-bedroom maisonette just outside of the city of Newcastle. I was probably single, having just broken up with my first boyfriend. I spent most of my days sleeping, although I was supposed to be studying for A levels in English language, Literature, Law and German. I spent most of my nights talking online and making a friendship that changed my life so much for the better. I think I put "wicca" as my religion on the census form.

In March 1991, I... was 7 and living in the Midlands with my mother, (first) step-father and two brothers. These were tough times for us, but things would change completely the following year (if the census had been in 1992, we could have put "caravan" as residence on the census form!). I spent my days at school and all my spare time reading in increasingly bizarre places (such as the wardrobe). One of the few things I can remember about being 7 is that my favourite books were The Mutineers of the Bounty, The Swiss Family Robinson and A Tale of Two Cities.

Shrove Tuesday

2011-03-08T19:06:00.002-03:00

Happy pancake day!

We eat a lot of scotch pancakes in this house, but I'm normally not a big fan of traditional pancakes (unless they're served with meat and sour cream). But we rustled some up and had them with lots of sweet treats. Theo preferred them with lemon, yellow sugar and jellies, and I ate mine with strawberries, chocolate and fudge. Delicious!

We should probably give up chocolate for Lent, in preparation for Easter - we have big plans for an egg hunt!

Spring awakening

2011-02-27T11:34:00.003-03:00

Spring is slowly arriving, and I'm very excited for sun and saturated colours. I'm excited to go to the beach to hunt for fossils and visit the sakura festival in the gardens (if the cherry blossom ever blooms!). I'm excited to eat outdoors on the grass and wear pretty skirts. I'm excited to explore places nearby that we've never visited (though less excited about spiralling petrol costs limiting how far we can go).

I'm also really very excited for Theo to start preschool in a month! He will only attend for 15 hours a week, but that gives me a whole 15 hours a week to do anything I want by myself - write, take photos, exercise, sit silently. I love spending time with Theo, but we have quite different personalities and where he has a complete inability to not talk or sit still, I need quiet, reflective time in order to feel balanced. Fifteen hours will seem like such a luxury; I can't wait, and neither can Theo. I think he could even be more excited to start school than I am!

St. Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T21:27:00.006-02:00

The recipe for a perfect Valentine's Day?

Prosciutto and pomegranate salad (herb leaves, watercress, cherry tomatoes, gouda, baked prosciutto, pomegranate seeds, sesame seeds and balsamic vinegar) with white tea;

banana and brown sugar muffins with doce de leite for dessert;

Theo, very proud to have written "yoyo" and part of xylophone all by himself;

lots of pretty pink things to look at and smell (Very Irresistible by Givenchy, Insolence by Guerlain, a matryoshka, a flower ring and my 2011 diary);

wearing lots of pink on the first sunny day in a while;

and to end the day, a very pink and orange sunset!

I hope your Valentine's day was just as good!

Theo's third birthday

2011-01-20T15:00:00.003-02:00

A few weeks ago, I bought the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs DVD for Theo and he absolutely loved it (so do I, actually!). He chooses it every time he's given the chance to watch a DVD and he's been re-enacting scenes from the movie quite regularly (mostly the bit when Steve the monkey fights off the gummi bears!). So, when I half-jokingly asked him what cake he would like me to make for his birthday and he said "a cloudy cake", I though I'd give it a go. It was much simpler than I first thought. My mum recently closed down her online candy business (new eBay policies and fees are forcing a lot of small businesses out) and has a ton of candy left, including burgers, pizzas and fried eggs - all of which rain down from a giant pink-purple cloud in the film:

So, I made a giant cupcake (I thought the food rain would look better on a bigger cake, rather than the cupcakes I usually make), covered it in purple and pink cream cheese icing and topped it with jelly burger parts, pizzas, fried eggs and gummi bears. Theo loved it!

Since there's a big scene in the movie where Flint makes a giant orange jelly palace for Sam - the weather girl he has a crush on - we also made some orange jelly. And at the last minute, I decided to make some brigadeiro to serve as "meatballs", but I didn't cook the mixture for long enough and it didn't set properly (not that I think it mattered all that much!). We had some family over for the party, and Theo loved being the centre of attention!

But before the party and cake, Theo had presents! For a while, we've been talking about the "dummy fairy" who visits on the 3rd birthday to whisk away dummies to other babies who need them. In return, just like the tooth fairy, the dummy fairy leaves a gift! I know it all sounds a little silly, but it seems to have done the trick! Theo has been without his dummies for 2 nights now, and he doesn't seem to care at all. He occasionally asks for them, but once I remind him that they've been taken away to other boys and girls, he's fine!

I have no problem believing that he's 3 (sometimes, it even feels like he's a lot older!), but I can barely believe that it's been 3 years since I gave birth. The changes I've been through are crazy enough, but to watch this little guy turn from a sleepy little bundle of spit-up and snores into a polite, smart, talkative, beautiful boy who enjoys nothing more than cuddles, writing and kisses is just incredible.

2010 almost over!

2010-12-30T10:49:00.005-02:00

Time for a 2010 survey!

What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
Became a single parent, officially (though I've actually been raising Theo alone since he was born - except for the few months we were in Brasil). Drove to the Lakes and back in one day to see one of my girlfriends (it's a 4-5hour journey each way and the furthest I've driven so far!).

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I made a resolution to take control of my life and not stagnate. I... took this to the extreme, which in some ways worked, and in others backfired. I finished my AS and A2 in Sociology (got an A, and narrowly missed out on the new A* by getting 99% or 100% on all exams except one), but didn't apply to grad school because of lack of funding. I applied for a few very cool jobs - got as far as the waitlist for one (librarian at the V&A) and frozen in the application process for another due to a recruitment freeze (Civil Service). I made plans to move to London, but those fell through when my potential landlord pulled out. I found another place in London, eventually, and moved in, but moved out after a few days (the previous tenants trashed the place, the conditions made Theo sick and a fox tried to get into the apartment). So, now I'm back exactly where I was a year ago, but I'm wiser and a little clearer about where I want my life to go.

Will I make more? Yeah - I want to exercise more next year and learn to dance (mostly ballroom, but others too). I want to brush up on my Russian and speak it to Theo. I'd like to become a bit more technical with my camera, if I have the time.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
No. I'm still the only one out of my circle who has a child.

Did anyone close to you die?
We weren't very close - but this really amazing girl I knew, Lauren, died in a snorkelling accident.

What countries did you visit?
For the first time in something like 10 years - none!

What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
More stability! Doubt this will happen though.

What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory?
I don't remember dates! But I have plenty of incredible memories.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Being a single parent.

What was your biggest failure?
Having to be a single parent in the first place, although I doubt there is anything I could - or should - have done differently.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
Anaemia - nothing too serious.

What was the best thing you bought?
Portable DVD player. I weaned Theo off TV - but when I desperately need to get something done, I can put Toy Story on and Theo sits perfectly still! Amazing.

Whose behavior merited celebration?
My stepdad has been amazing to me and helped out a lot.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Not appalled or depressed - but I do wish A. kept in touch with Theo a little more often. It's hard explaining to a toddler that he can't talk to his father because he's too busy.

Where did most of your money go?
The constant travelling to London to look for somewhere to live, then the move!

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The move to London - which turned out to be disappointing, and then Christmas. Christmas with an almost 3 year old is very, very exciting!

Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? Happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? About the same - maybe a pound or two heavier.
iii. richer or poorer? The same, probably.

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Making the most of the chances we get.

What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying, house-hunting, moving in a direction that was clearly wrong.

What was your favorite TV program?
Vampire Diaries.

What was the best book you read?
I didn't read too many books! Perhaps that should be my New Year's resolution this year? I did read The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and I did like it quite a lot (I've always had a thing for epic romances!).

What did you want and get?
Good grades in my exams. A car. Millions of amazing moments with my son.

What did you want and not get?
A professional, decent paying job.

What was your favorite film of this year?
Haven't seen too many new releases. Theo and I both love Toy Story 3 ("the claaaaaaw!"). I also watched 2012 and liked that.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was... old enough to start forgetting! 27, I think. I was actually in London to take a friend to the airport. I think we went to the British Museum, ate lunch at Leon, had a quick look in Liberty, walked down Carnaby St., had afternoon tea at Camellia's. Then I think we met with one of my girls at Tower Bridge, had more tea in a pub, then said goodbye and hopped over to Westbourne Grove for Brazilian rodizio (chicken hearts and strawberry caipirovskas!). That sounds about right.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Stability. We spent a great deal of the year in flux, transit and different beds. In retrospect, that wasn't the greatest idea, but I've learned from it.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Comfortable. I'm having a hard time driving in uncomfortable clothing or shoes, so it's been comfort, but classic (which has always been my style), and smart.

What/who kept you sane?
Theo, as usual. He drives me bonkers for sure, but always reminds me about what's important, so it's a nice balance.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
The usual TV characters and movie stars (John Cusack, Stefan Salvatore, Mac Taylor, etc.). John Isner!

What political issue stirred you the most?
There has been plenty of cuts and measures that I haven't been too happy about (recruitment freeze, scrapping CTF vouchers, freezing child benefit, etc.), but most of it needs to be done, so who am I to complain?

Who did you miss?
My girls! So much!

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
Sometimes things don't work out for a reason, so don't keep forcing it.

And finally... a 2010 photo collage.

(And because I made one last year and didn't post it, the 2009 photo collage).

Christmas

2010-12-29T14:48:00.001-02:00

We had such a great Christmas. One of the first white christmases that I can remember! All our family came, everyone was very generous with Theo and my mum cooked a great venison and turkey Christmas dinner and lobster for supper. Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures! When you spend all day behind your camera, it's difficult to really enjoy the day or appreciate the small moments, so I decided to put it down for most of the day.

This was the first year that Theo understood that Santa was going to visit and leave presents. On Christmas Eve, we left out iced Christmas tree biscuits that we'd baked the day before and tracked Santa in Google Earth (with the help of NORAD). The next morning, Theo woke up saying that he could see Santa standing on the roof! He loved organising and handing out gifts to their recipients and then opening his own. He was really spoiled with lots of playdough, lego, a power tool set and workbench, and Toy Story things (Woody, Slinky Dog, two Potato Heads, puzzles, clothes, DVDs, books and more). We spent the afternoon on the Wii (watching my grandad attempting to flap his arms like a bird on one of the WiiFit games was definitely a highlight), and ate a ton of chocolate to balance out the exercise.

Although I absolutely loved it, after all the family chaos, I'm now looking forward to a quiet New Year's. Just me, a bottle of sparkling rose, a movie and Theo sleeping quietly in his bed.

9 months

2010-12-13T10:32:00.003-02:00

I am terrible at updating. We've been alternately busy and not-so-busy and we've been through so many changes and ultimately ended up at exactly the same place - which is where I guess we're meant to be. Some highlights from the past 9 months:

Taking photos in the Spring:

Strawberry-picking in the Summer:

Summer birthdays - Mickey Mouse cupcakes for Theo's friend, and mechanic themed cupcakes for Theo's Grandpa:

Playing in the leaves in Autumn:

My mum's birthday - we're both obsessed with IKEA and the Ektorp sofa, so I made her this:

And then Winter and the snow arrived early!

Collecting pinecones and fir in the forest to make Christmas decorations:

Seeing Santa (Theo asked him for an elf for Christmas. Santa replied that he needed his elf to reach the presents on the top shelf for him, so Theo told him to "get a ladder"):

Decorating the house for Christmas!

Street peformers at the outdoors Christmas market:

Despite all the stress of moving (in with my parents', before moving to London and then moving back in with my parents', and finally back into our old house - a long story!), we've had so much fun this past year. Theo's favourite activities are talking and spelling, and he does both non-stop. I am so thankful that he's a good sleeper, I cherish my quiet evenings so much! He can write a few words ("Theo", "Mummy", "Woody", "Pa") with a pencil - he's totally left-handed; and can spell so many more from memory with his foam letters. He copies the words from books until he remembers!

Christmas should hopefully be a time for us to slow down and enjoy life. We've already had so much fun making wreaths from real fir and pinecones, and garlands by stringing hundreds of buttons together. We attempted Linzer biscuits and will make brigadeiro and gingerbread. I'm looking forward to watching Toy Story (1, 2 and 3!) over and over again with Theo, attacking each other with tickles while exclaiming "the claaaaaaaaaaw!". Then, after Christmas, it will be Theo's 3rd birthday, and then he starts school - which is the thing that he is looking forward to the most.

Almost Spring

2010-03-07T18:41:00.003-03:00

Capturing memories of our time on a farm, in case we leave for the city one day and become awestruck by the dazzling lights, never to leave (though luckily for us, my parents will always live on a farm, so we get to visit and have the best of both worlds!). We're not leaving for a while yet - but any excuse to be outside with the little boy and a camera makes for a really pleasant, if chilly, Sunday afternoon!

There are always lots of things to be found lying around on a farm, like tree stumps and empty wooden barrels (soon to be filled with herb plant seedlings!)...

...hessian tarps leftover from the demolition of the old pig sties...

...old car tyres...

...tractor tyres...

...and abandoned buildings.

And finally, the ubiquitous green door (which is actually my front door, but it has been bricked up).

He's getting very good at standing in front of walls and doors to have his picture taken. Next step: looking at the camera and smiling!

House tour

2010-03-02T21:08:00.002-03:00

I've had two essays to write for my evening class this week, and in the spirit of procastination, I spring-cleaned most of the downstairs of my house and then took photos while it still looks somewhat respectable (before the toys take over!). I like my living room, in particular. I painted it myself and chose everything to co-ordinate with the blue, black and white colour scheme. I normally don't bother too much with the places I live as they always seem temporary, but it's nice to have a room that actually feels like it belongs to a home.

My window overlooks abandoned farm buildings. It's kind of romantic in that farmhouse chic kind of way!

Theo has his own little desk, stool and laptop (two laptops actually, and a radio). When I'm busy ~~procastinating~~ writing essays, Theo likes to sit and work at his table, too. Behind his desk is the door to the understairs closet. I turned it into a reading nook, full of all my old books (I have a lot!), but it's much too cold to actually sit in there.

My desk...

...where Theo likes to work, too. He's pretty smart when it comes to the laptop. Yesterday, he renamed my Recycle Bin something like ",,zlgddxc@". Oops.

Ceiling view. The balloons are from Theo's birthday party. For whatever reason, they're not deflating and they look kind of pretty, so I left them there. They definitely jazz up the linen closet door! (I have 4 doors, a fireplace, a large old-fashioned storage heater, a window and a built-in cupboard that's built into a recess in this small room. There's barely any wall space and it's a nightmare to arrange furniture!)

The fireplace is working, except that I put newspaper up the flue and never use it. It's a real pain in the ass to clean and light each day. Also, it's very ugly - I wish I could rip out the tiles and replace with painted white brick. However, since the fireplace has a functional purpose and isn't just there for aesthetic, there is not a lot I can do.

Besides the balloons, I also left up Theo's birthday banner! Again, I think it looks cute and the lettering is so small that you really can't tell it says "happy birthday" unless you look closely!

Theo likes to 'read' a lot.

The only part of the room not shown is the recess with the built-in cupboard. I keep Theo's toys in the cupboard (it's just big enough for him to walk inside) and the small TV on top. There's two shelves where I keep a few books and the cute Habitat cities clock that the girls got us for Christmas. (For some reason, all the pictures I took of that corner were really overexposed.)

Birthday

2010-02-28T10:12:00.003-03:00

It's been a while! Theo had his 2nd birthday last month - we had just a small party with family, but we had a good time. Since Theo likes shapes at the moment, I thought I would go with a shape theme - but I kept things very simple. A few circle and square pieces of paper in different shades of blue strung from the ceiling with cotton and blue and white balloons were our only decorations, along with a simple "happy birthday" banner made from triangles:

I made a simple buffet with shape-themed food (shaped crackers, pizza slices, smoked salmon blinis, cherry tomato and mozzarella pearl skewers, a cheese platter, veg sticks and houmous, homemade seafood spring rolls and dim sum... sounds a little ecletic, but it kinda worked!) and some blue cupcakes:

The cupcakes were a hit, as always. Even now, Theo keeps asking for "blue cake"!

More recently, Theo and I have been busy adjusting to changes - trying to figure out what the future holds for us and where it should take us. I'm in the middle of application season - for jobs and for Masters courses. I'm not sure what to do (the eternal single working mother vs. single-SAHM-on-welfare debate means that I'm doomed whatever I decide!), but I think I'll see if and where I get accepted and make a choice from there. I want to give Theo the best life I can, but I also want to give myself the best life that I can. I hope I can find a way to make it work.

But in the meantime, we've had a little more snow and took the opportunity to go sledging for the first time! Theo kept calling it a "snowboard" and had so much fun!

Speaking of snow, we've been watching the Winter Olympics (my favourite out of the two!) and Theo has quite taken to ski jumping and curling. He stands in front of the TV when a curling match is on, bends down and swishes his hands back and forth like he has a brush! Very cute - but then, he was born in Scotland, after all.

More snow!

2010-01-08T17:26:00.003-02:00

I lived in Serbia one Winter, visited Russia another Winter and even spent one frozen Spring in the US, so I am no stranger to snow or ice. But I have never seen so much snow in the UK nor have I really ever had to deal with it. I'm shovelling snow from my front door for the first time ever, driving in the snow for the first time (mostly because I only just got my licence 3 weeks ago) and watching Theo play in the snow for the first time! We're pretty much snowed-in now, but we have tins galore in our cupboard and with Theo's new snowsuit, we're having a lot of fun in the abnormally sub-zero temperatures.

"So... snowballs, huh?"

In contrast to this picture (taken in the Autumn):

Year in review

2010-01-03T20:25:00.002-02:00

I was in Brasil, and then I came back to England. First it was Summer with lots of wild flowers and trips to the beach;

and then it was Autumn with apples, blackberries and crisp October skies;

and finally it was Winter with snow, wet mittens and hot chocolate.

Now, we're looking forward to the spring thaw. With a brand new driver's licence and a new (old) car, we are ready to conquer!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year

2010-01-02T19:21:00.003-02:00

Christmas was fun. It involved a snowglobe (it's always been a dream to have a whole collection of snowglobes and globes);

a real fir tree (that leaned ever so sweetly to one side);

a first ever visit to Santa;

the first year that I've ever had my own proper tree with presents underneath;

a vague attempt to coordinate the tree decorations with the presents;

and the first year of understanding the mechanics of opening presents.

Then a decade was over. A decade of so many incredible moments - in so many ways, I've been very fortunate. I haven't made resolutions for a while (as far as I recall), but I'm making one this year: to take control of my life. For the past few years, I've been letting the wind blow me from place to thought to directionless moments and though it bought me the most beautiful little boy, it's also stranded me in a very stagnant place. It's time for things to change. It's time for me to stop waiting and move forward. I want to inspire my little boy to always believe in hope.

Autumn and apples

2009-08-20T14:00:00.003-03:00

Summer and Autumn are blurring into one another.

It's time for hay bales, blackberry and apple picking. We have an early crop of blackberries this year (and time enough for a second crop!) and the apples are just starting to fall. We have our eyes on some sloes, damsons, hazelnuts, elderberry and rosehip - waiting for them to ripen before collecting them. We missed the gooseberries - they took forever to ripen and then the birds got them before we could. We have ambitious plans for pies, jams, rosehip syrup, sloe gin and elderberry wine (the last three being truly ambitious!).

Theo and I went for a walk today and I couldn't keep him away from the apples - they're just so sweet and juicy.

"Ahhpuhhl? Ahhpuhhl?"

Enjoying these days. The moments when my son says something completely unexpected, like "ahhpuhhl" - I didn't even know he knew the word! The sweetest moments when he tries to climb up my leg in an attempt to get me to pick him up - then he throws his arms around my neck and gives me the longest kiss: "mwwwaaaaaaaaaaa...aaaaah!". The annoying moments when he moans like a ghost and rattles the bars of the stairgate at the doorway to the kitchen, impatiently waiting for dinner. The constant change - one minute he hates his shoes and screams if they touch him; the next moment he loves his shoes and will spend a straight half-hour trying to put them on himself. Every day brings something new and leaves me longing for yesterday, but looking forward to tomorrow.

Business

2009-07-25T07:08:00.002-03:00

Life has been pretty crazy lately. My mum has drifted in and out of owning a candy business over the last decade or so and has always talked about establishing it online. Since I moved back to England, we decided to go for it and do as much as we could in our spare time. It ended up taking over our spare time and we even worked overtime on getting it open!

I'm quite pleased with the results - it took a lot of hard work to get to grips with CSS and eBay's policies (which are both complicated and vague!) and although the site isn't quite perfect (there are one or two bugs, but most of these will disappear when eBay completes the switchover to the new listings view), it at least looks better than a standard eBay table layout.

If you're looking for candy and sweets (especially the old-fashioned 'quarter of' style sweets), then be sure to take a look around at our store: The Candy Barrel. We don't have a lot of stock yet, but we're building the business up slowly and will be expanding our range on an ongoing basis.

In other news, Teo is walking confidently. He does crazy things like walking in circles until he gets dizzy and falls over and has this particularly annoying habit of tipping his food out of plates or bowls and handing them back to me before he eats. He says "noo!" (a toddler's favourite word!), "caaaaa" and "brrrm brrrm" (car), "bawwwl" (ball), "Herey'are!" (here you are!), "cowww" (cow/cat), "yum-yum" (food!,) "juuuuu" (juice), "shoooo" (shoe), "mama" (of course), "dadn" (grandpa), "bahbah" (bye-bye) and he can count - but only some of the even numbers "toooo, foooooor, aaaaaate!". He talks nonsense incessantly and will occasionally repeat a word back to us, like "Jess" (my parents' dog) or "bwwwu" (blue) or "geeeeeen" (green). He's incredibly well-tempered and loves to give kisses while saying "mwwwaaaaaah!". He loves to read and I have to admit that I spoil him when it comes to books. He's an incredible little boy and I can hardly believe how lucky I am to be his mother.

Long ago

2009-04-28T16:49:00.003-03:00

It's been two months since my last post. It started off as just a few weeks, but then as the days go by and more things happen, it gets harder to know where to start. So, I'm going to take the plunge - just start at the beginning and write a brief summary of the past few months. And to distract from the inevitable lack of words, I'm going to post lots of pictures.

Teo and I left Brazil. It's hard finding your feet as a new mother, life changes so completely that there are a hundred-and-one things that you need to adapt to. I found it difficult to adjust to the life change alongside the environment change. Things that used to be simple (like running errands) became ten times harder with a child in tow, and a hundred times harder with a child in tow and not being able to speak the local language, or even know where to go. I was very isolated there - no friends, no mother-baby groups and I couldn't communicate with A.'s family because of the language barrier. I relied too heavily on A. who was already under a lot of pressure in other ways and our relationship began to suffer. So, we made the decision to move back to the UK.

A. is still in Brazil for the moment (as hard luck would have it, he found his perfect job a few days after we decided to move back) and we're very undecided about the future. Brazil is such a beautiful country, and Florianopolis is one of the most spectacular places I've ever seen - I don't think I could ever not live there again. Maybe in a year or two, when I've adjusted to life with a toddler and feel able to cope with learning a new language and culture on top of the day-to-day demands of being a mama, I'll move back.

Now, we're living on a farm. I grew up on a farm when I was a child, so I'm very excited that Teo will have the opportunity to be surrounded by nature and animals from such a young age.

We spend a lot of days going for walks down the country lanes, or hanging out in the garden. We've planted a bed of wildflowers in the border of our small lawn, and in the old pig-pen we've started a strawberry and herb garden. Some of the strawberry plants even have flowers already! We also have two beautiful apple trees that apparently yield an inordinate amount of deliciously sweet apples. I'm looking forward to Autumn and making apple pies, applesauce and cider.

I've really enjoyed moving into this farm cottage and making plans, decorating the house and our frequent trips to IKEA, digging up the garden and potting plants - we even have designs on a veggie garden for next year.

So for now, we're enjoying a relatively simple life. Trying to figure out what Teo could be allergic to (I'm pretty certain it's lavender, but our GP doesn't want to rule out food allergies yet) and experimenting with menu planning (an idea from simplemom) are keeping us busy at the moment. That, and enjoying Spring - it's a little refreshing to see such well-defined seasons. I loved the constant vibrancy of nature in Brazil, but there's something a little bit magic about seeing the countryside wake up from a long, deep sleep and burst into colour.

Truck, book, cook

2009-02-20T20:39:00.005-03:00

+ A. started a new job last week, which has us all exhausted already. Teo and I aren't able to go anywhere during the day - it's far too hot to go to the beach, and we don't live within reasonable walking distance to any parks, or shopping plazas. Sometimes we head out to the children's park once A. gets back - but most days we've been going stir-crazy, trying to find activities and games to fill the time: whizzing around on the wooden truck, shouting at stray dogs from the window (this is Teo's favourite one), reading the same book for the billionth time (Teo has a lot of books, but he likes to rip the pages as much as reading them, so he's only allowed to "read" his eight cardboard-page ones).

+ I've been in love with Starbucks Rocky Road bars for quite a long time - but there are no Starbucks in Florianopolis and it seems that the Starbucks recipe is super-secret. I've been trying to recreate them myself, and this was the first attempt. They were pretty close, actually. I mixed the melted chocolate with melted butter, cocoa powder and confectionar's sugar before adding white chocolate chunks (instead of nuts), marshmallows and 'shrek' sandwich biscuits (kind of like chocolate bourbons, but with a softer biscuit). It's very rich, but light and melt-in-your-mouth - just like the Starbucks bar. A. has been stealing slices of it to take to work and share with his work-mates. He's also badgering me to bake cupcakes that he can take to work with him (Brazilians adore cake, but nobody ever makes or sells cupcakes here).

+ Teo loves fruit. He eats fruit for breakfast, and then usually has fruit for dessert after lunch and dinner. He's a very good eater, but I think if he had to subsist only on fruit, he'd be quite content. So, our fridge is stocked full of fruit, and unfortunately a lot of it goes rotten before we can do anything with it (I'm used to buying fruit in England which usually takes up to a week to ripen - here, in Brasil, the fruit is already ripe when you buy it and sometimes only lasts a day or two). We have a whole carton of figs that I want to use (they just smell so good!), but I don't know what to do with them. Most of the recipes I find are savoury dishes, but I'm much stronger when it comes to baking. Does anyone have any good dessert recipes with figs that they'd be willing to share?

(One day soon I will actually write an entry that doesn't just consist of bullet point paragraphs, promise.)

Lately...

2009-02-08T21:50:00.004-02:00

+ I won a contest at Snap and Tumble and received 5 beautiful letterpressed cards! I was excited, because I never win anything and I love these cards.

+ We've been driving ourselves insane trying to find things to do to distract ourselves from the sticky heat. Luckily, the weather seems to be cooling off, so we might be able to head out some more to the beach. I managed to head down there last week for a great sunset while it was raining, and there were quite a few people on the beach, huddled under umbrellas, watching the sun sink below the mountains on the mainland. Very romantic!

+ When I'm playing with Teo, I always have this feeling in the back of my mind that I have so much other stuff to do, but the second he lays down for a nap, I don't know what any of those things are! It started making me very anxious - I'd try and put Teo down as early as possible so I could get all this stuff done, and then spend a few hours (I'm the proud owner of a champion sleeper!) trying to figure out what exactly needed to be done, and then be frustrated that I hadn't accomplished anything when he woke up. So, to curb this feeling, I've been playing around with crafts and watercolours during his naps. I'm pretty terrible at painting, but at least it makes me feel a little accomplished and less frustrated.

+ Things are changing a lot right now. Seasons, time (daylight savings ended at the weekend), vague concepts of life. Next month, everything is going to be completely different, you'll see - but first we have Carnaval. I'm looking forward to this - it's going to be an incredibly interesting experience. Teo is also definitely going to enjoy himself: he's enraptured by the samba girls who constantly dance across the television channels.

+ Teo is teething like nobody's business. He's been quite happy the last six months with just four teeth, and now his mouth has exploded into this mountain range of little snowy white peaks. It doesn't seem to be troubling him too much, apart from the occasional nibble on mama's arm. And by nibble, I mean scream-inducing chomp. We've been bombarded with conflicting advice on how to approach this, and a lot of it just seems outrageous. So, we're dealing with it calmly and nicely, and we'll just have to see how it goes. Luckily, it's nowhere near a habit, and so hopefully we've got some time to nip this behaviour in the bud.

One!

2009-01-21T22:03:00.004-02:00

My little boy turned one! The evening before his birthday, we hosted a small party - Teo's Vovó came, as did his Brazilian godparents, A.'s sister, and the neighbours from upstairs - a middle-aged couple who are very sweet to us. We knew Teo wasn't going to care, or even remember the party - and that the first birthday is usually about the parents instead, so we kept things pretty simple. We chose blue and green for Teo's nursery when he was born, and we decided to go with these colours for the party, too. We see so much blue and green outside, so it was nice to bring a little of that inside. I made a 'happy birthday' banner out of blue and green paper scraps I have, and also a few blue and green paper lanterns, embellished with stars and metallic discs. We hid our ugly vertical blinds by wrapping them in blue and green crepe paper and blew up a few balloons.

We served homemade pizza (A. was tossing dough in the kitchen all night), and I made a passionfruit trifle, dulce de leche brownies and vanilla cupcakes - which were a hit with Teo. We've been steering him away from sweet desserts and so this was his first cake. We put a little 'one' candle in the top, sung "feliz aniversario" and blew it out for him. He took a little lick of the icing and then tried to put the whole thing in his mouth!

We invited everyone over quite late, so by the time Teo finished opening his gifts, he was tired. We put him straight to bed and enjoyed some homemade lemonade (which was actually very disappointing - too sweet, not enough sour. Seems I need to adjust the recipe next time) and caipirovskas (sticking with the blue-green colour scheme!). I made cute cocktail stirrers, featuring each guest's name - an idea I gleaned from a Martha Stewart website. I never cared much for Martha Stewart before but I'm fast becoming a big fan. I like this life, baking and crafting - I feel like I'm slowly metamorphosing into the kind of mother I always wanted to be.

Sometimes it's hard to believe my son is already one - and at other times it feels like he should be much older, as though we've known him for years. At one, he: is 'cruising' on tiptoes, though we don't have much furniture for him to cruise along; crawling like there's angry little alligators snapping at his toes; has six teeth - two at the bottom and four at the top - though I think I can see several more getting ready to burst through; says a lot of things that mean nothing to us (perhaps some meaningful mixture of English and Portuguese? I guess only he knows), and a few things we can kind of interpret (like mama!); and likes to share his toys with us - handing them over for a few seconds before demanding them back again. He loves fruit more than anything (even lemons!) and the water (ocean, shower, bath, swimming pool, rain - as long as it's wet, he wants to splash).

There is so much I want to write about being a mother, and how I feel my role and feelings about motherhood have changed drastically in the last year - but I'm exhausted. Tired from the festivities and from constantly clearing up Teo's toys after he's done with them (I'm thinking we need to implement some kind of rotation system, before we get overwhelmed with all the plastic). Perhaps another time, when Teo is cuddled up like he's kneeling, praying in the corner of his cot and I can enjoy the cool, evening air and collect my thoughts.

Beach

2009-01-20T21:18:00.000-02:00

It's Summer here in Brasil. Summer holidays and hot, relentless sunshine. The beaches are crowded - sunbathers, children running along the shoreline, impromptu badminton, football, volleyball courts drawn in the sand. Most days, we stroll over to the beach in the early evening, when the sun has begun shifting lower in the sky - the heat not as strong. We buy green coconuts and sip the cool coco water, straws reaching through a small tapped hole in the top. We eat hot corn-on the cob, served in a husk for a wrapper, adding butter and salt with brushes fashioned out of the husks. Abandon flip-flops to dig our toes into the sand; float carelessly in the ocean.

For me, the weather is too hot and all I can do is lounge pathetically on a bamboo mat, playing sudoku, until the sun is almost dipping below the horizon. Teo and A. swim out into the ocean (Teo with his adorable yellow floating seat), splashing and being caught out by the waves. A few days ago, I took a little walk to cool down and found a cove of rocks at the end of our stretch of beach. The rocks were covered in barnacles, mussels and seaweed, jutting out into the tide. It provided a serene contrast to the unending stretch of sand, littered with bodies and parasols.

I started a 365 project a few days ago - and made it to day 2 before having to retire. Teo's birthday was approaching and I couldn't find the opportunity to shoot (we had to use a lot of public transport and I didn't want to risk taking my camera along - sometimes it's difficult to remember that I'm in a third world country where flaunted wealth is a beacon for unscrupulous opportunists). I'm now considering, instead, something a little less ambitious: a series on the beaches of Florianopolis - we have 42 beaches here, all beautiful in very different ways. Many of them are reasonably distant (considering I don't drive), though, so I'm not putting myself under any pressure to complete this during the year. We'll see how it goes, but in the meantime, Summer in Brazil lasts until the memories of carnaval are just starting to fade, so there will be many more days spent on the beach, and many more moments of watching my little boy splash around in the ocean through the lens of my camera.

Cameras

2009-01-11T15:46:00.005-02:00

In the past few months, I've been steadily scouring ebay for vintage cameras, bidding and having them sent to my parents' house in England. When I visited last month, I was finally able to pick them up and have a good look at them. I haven't had time to play around with most of them yet (a lot of them take obsolete film, so I'm going to have to do some respooling), but I can't wait. They include a Zeiss Ikon Nettar (in near-perfect condition) - a beautiful folding bellows camera that takes 120 film; a Brownie Twin 20 - a box camera that takes 6x6 photos on 620 film, but I think I'll attempt to use this for TTV (through the viewfinder) shooting as it has a beautifully clear, but unfortunately quite small viewfinder; and a Ross Ensign Ful-Vue Super - it also takes 620 film, but I'll definitely use this one for TTV. I have a ton of other cameras (I'll introduce them all eventually), but the most exciting acquisition was the Canon 350D - which I used to take these macro photos. It's not a new camera, but I got an incredible deal on ebay: the body with all usual accessories in a backpack plus Canon 28-90mm and Sigma 70-300mm lenses, a twin flash, macro extender tubes, angle-finder and a 2.0x super HD Telephoto AF 58mm lens.

I've been playing with the 350D non-stop (well, as much as Teo will allow!) since I bought it back to Brazil, and even though my camera skills are very poor, it's produced some great images (like the tunnel photos from the previous post). I've always loved macro photography and so yesterday I thought I'd use the macro extenders to see how the concept worked. It was exhausting! I had to manually focus the lens and with such a shallow depth of field, there's this one sweet spot where what you want is in focus and if you move, or you adjust the lens, even just one millimetre, it's completely off. Plus, I'm so used to point-and-shoots that not having liveview and so having to squint through the viewfinder gives me a headache very quickly.

I'll probably eventually invest in a macro lens, but first I'm just figuring out how to use the camera. I understand the concept of aperture and shutter speeds, but applying them is a different story. I'd like to become proficient with the camera, if only to try to capture and convey some of the many beautiful things I see here, every day, in Brazil.

Tunnel

2009-01-06T23:23:00.003-02:00

Teo was spoilt this Christmas - as far as spoiling can go when everything he received needed to fit into a standard suitcase weighing no more than 32kg. One of his favourite things (at the moment - it's ever-changing), was this blue tunnel from Ikea, courtesy of Nana, by way of Santa, yadda yadda. I have a feeling that my little boy is going to take after his mama when it comes to throwing ourselves into small, cramped spaces (underground, on a plane or a bus - I really don't care as long as I'm wedged in somehow).

I think Teo's favourite colour could be green. He certainly found this one green ball enchanting enough - he chased it in and out of the tunnel four or five times before holding it aloft, thoughtfully... "Alas, poor Yorick."

He spent a good hour crawling backwards and forwards and around and through and then back through and upwards - and he was utterly exhausted at the end, which provoked big sighs of relief all around: we were anticipating another night like last night wherein Teo (unusually) awoke three or four times and took forever to get back to sleep. As I type this, he's been peacefully asleep for about 4 hours, and hopefully will sleep another eight by morning.

Flying with a baby

2009-01-01T23:44:00.007-02:00

My trip to England was pretty good. It didn't snow (my luck with the weather is quite legendary and unfaltering), but I had a great time with my family and Teo really enjoyed seeing everyone again (he even learnt to clap his hands and talk on the phone during the three weeks). However, and this is quite obvious really, flying with a kid has to be miles above divorce and moving house on the list of "Stressful and Quite Possibly Insane Things To Do". In the last four months, I've done the trans-Atlantic-cross-hemisphere trip three times, once with A. and twice solo, which included a grand total of nine flights. Even just remembering them gives me the shudders - but I scoured the internet beforehand and through experience have learnt some tips and tricks to make the whole journey more tolerable.

My top ten tips for plane travel with an infant under a year old

1. Book the kid a seat of their own. I saw this one printed all over the internet, and although it makes great sense on short-haul flights, particularly if you're taking a carseat, it's not so great for long-haul flights - unless you have a lot of money to spare. Child fares are usually around 75% of a full adult fare - which in my case meant an extra $750. Um, no. I don't generally have that kind of money to spare, especially around Christmas time! If you do opt for a "lap-fare" (usually only taxes and booking fees), there are a few things you can do to make yourself more comfortable.

2. If your baby is under about 10 months of age - request a skycot. I did this the last time I flew, on the way to England and on the way back to Brazil. To England, Teo slept in the cot quite peacefully for the whole night flight. However, returning, he was 11 months old and the cot was a squeeze for him - he resisted sleeping for a good three hours into the flight and boy, did I get stressed out. One thing about a skycot, though, is that it's situated at the bulkheads of the plane and so if you can't use the cot, you can use the floor in front of you as a bed. I had people sitting next to me both times (the second time the flight wasn't full and so a flight attendant asked the guy next to me if he wanted to switch, but he perplexingly said no. I'm guessing, though, that most people in that situation wouldn't hesitate to move away from a potentially tantrum-prone kid) so couldn't do this, but I've seen a lot of people make up a bed on the floor with blankets. In my opinion, if you're flying with the child solo, this is the best thing to do. As long as he sleeps, you've got a chance of being able to eat your in-flight meal as he won't be in your arms.

N.B. If your child is young enough, and you're planning on letting him sleep on a spare seat next to you (if you can get one) - don't book these seats. The armrests don't lift up, as the tables are stowed in them.

3. If there's two of you flying - and this actually depends on the seating plan of the plane - request an aisle and a window seat. If the flight isn't fully booked, the seat between you will probably remain unbooked. If the flight is full and someone is sitting between you, just switch one of the other seats with them (I guarantee they'd much prefer a window or aisle). But on the offchance that nobody is seated between you, then you have a third seat for free! We did this the first time we flew to Brazil when Teo was just 6 months old, and he slept on the seat between us for the entire flight (we did this because there were no skycots available). Ask the attendant who checks you in to put a 'soft hold' on any seats beside you if the flight is not full.

4. Get a night flight. Choose whatever flight is closest to your child's normal bedtime hours. Two of our longer flights were perfectly timed, but the other was a little later, departing at midnight. Teo couldn't sleep at the gate (too many people and too much excitement!) and by the time we boarded the plane, he had 'gone over' and then just wouldn't sleep. Still, he did fall asleep eventually and if just three hours of holding him in my arms, trying to calm him down, drove me crazy, I can't even begin to think how I'd feel after 12 hours of that! Also, try to keep some things from your normal routine - you won't be able to bath him, but you can give him a quick wash with wipes and change him into a clean vest or PJs. Doing this will help to settle him.

5. Take advantage of family-boarding priority and board early. This is especially important if you're sitting at the bulkhead. The overhead-lockers at the bulkheads are usually reserved for flight equipment (demonstration equipment, in-flight video system/tapes, flight attendant bits-and-pieces) and if you're the last on, you're going to be walking up and down the whole plane (with the baby in your arms) looking for somewhere to stow your luggage - and then when you remember that you need a bottle for take-off, you're going to have to traipse all the way back down to row 212895858 to get it - with the baby in tow. Also, if you're travelling alone, this gives you extra time and space to manage the baby and hand-luggage yourself - don't count on strangers offering you help. It happens sometimes, but when you find you need it the most, everyone else is too busy trying to find their own hand-luggage space.

6. Check your umbrella-pushchair at the gate and reclaim it at the plane door upon landing. It's a bit of a pain to get through security (a lot of airports require the pushchairs to be put through the x-ray machine), but you can put the baby down (and even rock him off to sleep, or use it as a makeshift high-chair for feeding during layovers) and load the chair up with your hold luggage and the duty-free shopping. I've used a pushchair, front-sling and a standing-frame-backpack while travelling and the pushchair just makes things easier. As before, board early to make sure you've got time to unload the pushchair and fold it at the plane door without holding too many people up.

7. Pack all of your formula/baby drinks/baby food into a separate pocket of your hold luggage, or even into a separate bag. With current restrictions, 99% of the time (even when going through transit security) you're going to be asked to unpack the liquids and taste them. It seems kind of obvious, but on our first flight, we just threw everything into the one main compartment and then had to pull out all my spare underwear to get to the bottles.

8. Bribe your child with cheerios (or any other favourite snacks). If he eats, forget about healthy eating options and routines and bribe him if nothing else works when he's irritable and restless. Teo constantly snacked on cheerios for the 48hours of travel we had to endure. It was entertaining for him to pick them up one-by-one and because his mealtimes had to fit in with boarding/landing/take-off times, it would tide him over until we could get him something better to eat. If he doesn't eat, or enjoy it that much, make sure you've got his favourite distraction (toy/book/cell phone/whatever) within reach at all times. Teo would always get the crabbiest during boarding or take-off/landing when his favourite things were impossible to get to.

9. If you're travelling alone, or if you have a lot of baggage, request an escort at the check-in desk. The airline should be able to get one of their staff to accompany you through security and to the gate (or in our case, right onto the plane as it was already boarding). If you're travelling alone and your partner/friend/relative is seeing you off, ask at check-in about escort passes for family members. They may be given a pass and can then help you right up to the gate (plus you get extra time with them which is great if Daddy or Grandma aren't going to see their little cherub for a whole month).

10. Pack hand-luggage carefully. I still haven't mastered this one: I pack everything I think I'll need for the journey (spare clothes for baby and me, toys for layovers, spare bottles for extra milk - presuming I won't have the opportunity to wash/sterilise the ones I've already used, snacks, extra blankets in case it's cold on the plane, etc.). On our last journey, I probably used about 20% of the things I packed - and that was mostly the bottles (though not the spare ones) and one change of clothes, as we were travelling for 48hours. So, pack what you think you'll need, but don't go overboard, and try to take advantage of the things that airlines often provide (like blankets). For example, because we had the skycot, our airline gave me a complimentary baby-wash-bag containing three nappies - incredibly, in the right size, a bib and a travel bottle of Johnsons baby wash. There's no reason why you can't ask your aircrew if they have one of these you can have, even if you don't have a sky cot.

For further tips and advice, you can visit: Flying with Kids, Babycentre's Travel section and DeliciousBaby. Or you can always leave questions in the comments and I'll answer with any experiences I have.

If you are planning on travelling with a small child - good luck, and don't forget to take lots of patience!

Dulce de Leche Brownies

2009-01-01T23:21:00.005-02:00

A. bought me a tub of Dulce de Leche - caramelised condensed milk - as part of my introduction to traditional Brazilian foods (we'd been working our way through the doce section of our local cafe, trying to find anything that didn't include condensed milk). Spooning it straight from the tub into gaping mouth is all well and deliciously good, but I haven't baked anything since I arrived and found this incredible recipe at davidlebovitz.com, which I urge everyone to try. If you can find a tub of dulce de leche (you can make it at home, but it's quite daunting), the recipe is very easy to do.

8tbsps (115g) butter, cut into pieces
6oz (170g) dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (25g) unsweetened cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 cup (200g) sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (140g) flour
Handfuls of dark chocolate chunks (David Lebovitz suggests pecans or walnuts but I hate nuts, so substitued for chocolate. Anything works and these are optional anyhow.)
1 cup dulce de leche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175C).

Line a 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray (if you do this, you're not going to make a mess trying to eas the gooey brownies out of the pan).

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour. Mix in the chocolate/nuts, if using.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan. Drop one-third of the dulce de leche, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over this layer, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining dulce de leche in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the dulce de leche slightly.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels just-slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Serve warm, with vanilla icecream, or just pile them up next to your computer and feign surprise when they're all gone after 20 minutes.

2009

2009-01-01T23:12:00.003-02:00

A message from our shower:

(We got Teo a foam alphabet for Christmas. He mostly just loves trying to chew off the dot from the i and the cross from the t, but until he's old enough to start spelling, they're pretty good for leaving shopping lists where A. can see them.)

Hoping 2009 brings you all good health and happiness. 2009 will be another chaotic year for us, but I think, this time, we're ready for the adventure.

Best of Brazil

2008-12-06T09:07:00.003-02:00

I leave for England tomorrow and over the past few weeks, I've been making many mental lists about what I can't wait to see or do while I'm there. But making these lists just emphasises all the things that I don't like about Brazil - and remembering the negatives will only make me not want to come back. So, I'm going to take the time to list the top three things that I actually do like about our island:

+ fresh fish. Watching fisherman catching fish using traditional methods and seeing the fish taken straight into the restaurants lining the beaches. Oh, and did I mention - the sushi here is incredible; sashimi just melts in your mouth.

+ the scenery. Dark, looming mountains overshadowing the shoreline; the glittering, glassy waters stretching out into the horizon; vast, knotted mangroves; and quaint fishermen's huts lining the lagoon.

+ fresh fruit and vegetables. I never saw a lime tree before I came to Brazil; I had no idea how pineapples grew. There's something so intoxicating about the possibility of having a garden full of cacao and coffea plants, orange, lime, avocado, mango, peach and lime trees. And even if I don't have a garden full of fruit trees, there are hundreds of farmer's markets nearby, selling tens of kilos of fresh fruit and vegetables for just a few reais.

Snowsick

2008-11-15T13:02:00.006-02:00

The idea of me moving to Brazil surprised a lot of people: I'm not well known for my tolerance of the heat. I burn easily, never tan, and just generally hate the idea of sitting at the beach accumulating a thick film of sweat. I'm really very much a snow-girl at heart, and this is part of the reason I fell in love with Russia so much. One of the hardest things about living here is the realisation that I'm not going to be seeing a lot of snow unless I holiday abroad (as I will be doing this Winter - oh, please let it snow the three weeks I'm in England!).

We live in Southern Brazil, where it can snow (our state actually receives the most snowfall per year), but this is in the Western reaches of the state, on the border with Argentina - a good 12 hours or more away by road (further than São Paulo!). Perhaps in the Winter we can organise weekend trips to the mountains so Teo can throw snowballs and sled.

I have so many wonderful childhood memories of sledding down hill slopes with improvised sleds (mostly black bin bags filled with hay!); sucking on huge, riveted icicles; and snow days off school. One of the best was carving snow caverns from an enormous snow drift in a nearby field. All the children from our farm got together and built shallow tunnels large enough to crawl around in, while the adults supplied us with hot chocolate and chocolate biscuits. There's nothing quite like freezing cold fingers through wet woollen gloves, grasping at a warm mug of molten chocolate. I really want Teo to have memories like this when he is older, too.

I'm slowly getting used to the idea of Summer in December - though I haven't yet come to terms with Christmas in the sun! It's perhaps a good idea that we're spending Christmas in England this year. So instead of red and golden autumn days drifting into the calming blue of winter and snow, we're spending days at the beach, trying to cool down in the sea breeze.

(It looks overcast, but I can assure you, this was a pretty hot day! Also, we realised that it's possible to get sunburnt even when the skies are as clouded and grey as this!)

Of course, as much as I miss the snow, it's hard to complain while sitting out on my balcony, enjoying the warmth and the view over the glittering turquoise ocean!

Busy

2008-11-09T21:25:00.002-02:00

We've been very busy lately - looking for a place of our own. Finding apartments, to rent long-term, in Florianopolis is incredibly difficult. The island is a tourist destination for a lot of Europeans, South Americans and Brazilians from other states; everybody wants to rent an apartment for the summer months (up until the end of carnaval in March) and they're quite willing to pay astronomical amounts to do so. Why would a landlord rent a house or apartment by the month, when they can make the same amount of money by the week, or sometimes even day? It's a long story, but we got really lucky and found an incredible apartment - our condo is right next to the beach and our apartment balcony overlooks the bay, marina and over to the mainland. Our balcony has a built-in barbecue (quite common for apartments throughout Brazil) and the cutest kitchen-diner with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling glass doors leading out onto the balcony. Two large bedrooms and a reasonable bathroom. It really is perfect for us - although I've had to put the dream of a fruit-tree garden on hold and make do with potted herbs, chillis and tomatoes.

So, we've been packing our things again, for the fourth time in just over a year, and unpacking - but hopefully this will be the last for a while (aside from the 3-week trip that Teo and I are taking to England in less than a month). We're waiting for some appliances to arrive (laundry machine and microwave) and are scouting for others (air conditioning), so while that and rearranging furniture occupies most of our time, here are some more pictures from our travels around the island.

I have a love affair with fishing boats, it seems!

There are so many different types of birds here (Brazil has over 1700 species!), all very weird and wonderful.

Views North (of the Hercilio Luz Bridge) and South (towards the airport) from the Colombo Sales/Pedro Ivo bridges.

We found these floating in the pool one day (in fact, there were nine frogs in the pool that day!).

Red

2008-10-22T20:59:00.007-02:00

On our walk a few days ago, Teo and I discovered a heavily-laden pitanga (Surinam cherry) bush. While Teo watched, amused, I threw myself into the middle of the bush and tried to catch all the ripe berries that fell. We came home with quite a haul - which, afraid that someone might reprimand me for poaching berries from someone else's (deserted) land, I had stashed in the 'shopping basket' under Teo's pushchair.

The day after, I thought I would try making a pitanga pie. Google only threw up one or two recipes (mostly because I was searching in English rather than Portuguese) so I decided to play it by ear, using a basic shortcrust pastry recipe and treating the pitangas like ordinary cherries. What a mistake! I never even got to the pastry stage, as de-stoning the pitangas was far too difficult a task for me. Not only is it incredibly difficult to de-stone pitangas, but the smell is disgustingly toxic. I think I read somewhere that the stones contain toxic resins, but once the pitangas are de-stoned you can leave the flesh in the fridge for a few hours to allow the resins to escape. So while I was shedding the flesh from the stones, the smell of the resins really hit me and made me feel incredibly nauseated - I had to stop. I'm still keen to try, though! Perhaps I'll wear a face mask, or maybe there's an easier way to remove the stones - I should ask around.

The pitangas remind me that I've seen a lot of red since I've been here - maybe because Brazil itself is so vibrant and passionate, it shows through in nature and the colours that people choose.

Pitanga is not the only fruit we can pick freely here. Later on in the afternoon, we took a drive over to Praia do Forte and saw banana, papaya, peach, avocado and guava trees lining the steep embankment leading up to the fort; and at Daniela we saw lime and orange trees. However, the limes, bananas, peaches and coconuts are all still green and not yet ripe; the oranges had just gone slightly over and were a little withered; the others aren't in season at all yet. A few more months, when we hit the summer proper, and the trees should be sagging under the weight of fresh, ripe fruit. I can't wait to go out with Teo and a few little baskets to collect them!