A number of friends have been asking me if I was going to take this up again, but I'd resisted because I've been rather busy. I've been busy with the kids, the house, hosting foreign language students (which has been a lot of fun!), running and training for a marathon to raise money for Quest4Change - I raised over £1000 for the Villa Maria school in Peru by taking part and completing the Brighton marathon in April. This is one of my proudest achievements and I am planning on taking it further by forging some links between the Villa Maria preschool, and one of the preschools in Swanage.
I am also studying to become a breastfeeding counsellor; and I am embarking on a new business venture which I will write about more when I have got to grips with it all! So to add a photographic blog on top of all this would have required nothing less than superhuman strength on my part to keep on top of everything! Having said that, I do find myself thinking, of an evening, how I should get back into the blogging world again and write about stuff. So here I go again - I don't think I'll manage a daily blog, and I definitely won't be able to provide good quality pics as I can't keep carrying my big camera around with me every day - my little boy is too active and too big for me to cart my DSLR around with me all the time - but I will hopefully write something interesting and occasionally raise a chortle out of you if possilbe! Above all, please enjoy, and come back!
My vegetarian friends may want to ignore this bit - my apologies to you!
I love cooking. I find it very good for working out problems, mulling over decisions, thinking about life in general - it's an almost meditative process for me at times (though bunging some frozen chips in the oven doesn't have the same effect), and one of the best things about cooking for me is listening to a bit of radio 4. Pat can't bear it, but I love it! For me, it's a chance to get a bit of "me time" as I go into my own little world whilst chopping, stirring, mixing or whisking.
Today I made a roast leg of lamb. I have learned how to make gravy, mostly through trial and error (lots of errors, some of which were traumatic for all involved). For me, one of the best things about making gravy is that it's the calm in the middle of the mayhem when cooking a roast. There's a relatively calm bit at the beginning when the meat is prepared and put in the oven, and the vegetables are peeled and chopped; then there is the mad bit where the timings have to be perfect or the whole thing goes badly wrong: but there is the calmness of gravy. My gravy-making involves me stirring and adding the starch water from the potatoes a splash at a time. As I stare at the bubbling liquid and absent-mindedly stir, I become contemplative, reflective. Some of my better ideas have been borne out of making gravy. In some way I view the making of gravy to be a little bit like life: all around there is chaos but to make the gravy is to have a piece of time with which to mull and plan the next step, a chance to be in touch with my Self and to feel the hunger, the desire to continue on my way in life.
Either that, or I need to get out more...!
Yay! Good to see you back (I skipped the gravy bit!)
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