Monday, June 30, 2014

Tea With Me...




Hello, come in. Huddle close to the heater. I've the candles lit. (Clootie Dumpling candles anyone? - I've found a gorgeous place in Scotland that makes the most nostalgia-inducing, instantly cosy-fying candles.)

What would you like? Tea, coffee, hot chocolate?

With the start of the school holidays I've been making the kids decadent thick hot chocolate that verges on chocolate custard. You're welcome to some. (I'd be glad of the excuse to put another saucepan full on… the secret is the cornflour and constant stirring.) However there's also teas and coffee. (Although our coffee machine is broken - at the moment we're boiling the coffee in our copper teapot. It doesn't quite taste the same, but after our sleepless nights with the wee one it's caffeinated and that's what matters!)

Now, sit yourself down. (I don't think there's any play-doh on the seat, but do check! We made eucalyptus scented play-doh today and the kids have been re-creating themes from Frozen. Play-doh is scattered haphazardly throughout the house) There's a blanket for your knees if you're still a bit cold.

Do admire the little one - eight weeks this week, but she's needing a feed. (She's always needing a feed, and growing so quickly, the clever, guzzling one.)

 Oddly enough, with a newborn to savour and two little ones to run herd on, I decided to do a blogging course. It's run by the lovely Pip over at Meet me at Mikes. And strangely, it has all seemed to work well. Seeing everyone else in the course doing amazing things inspired me to make the change I've been meaning to make for awhile - find a real focus for my blog and redesign the layout … and change the name! Goodbye Mischief, Magic & Mayhem, hello A Wilder Magic.

Joining with the Meet me at Mikes cup of tea with me Linky… here are five things I'm loving

My Littlest one - out of hospital, smiling and well. She came down with bronchiolitis and there was a fraught week - but she has recovered so quickly into her sunny, chubby self that no one could guess she was ill so recently. She is lying on my chest now, her feed finished. She stretched her little milk-drunk self and cuddled up in a warm little bundle, her mittened hands tucked under her chin, her sleeping face at just the right place to drop kisses on.

My wonderful sister-in-law is visiting from Queensland. It's so lovely to catch up, to see how much the kids enjoy her company. We're drinking copious amounts of rose and vanilla tea and have already gone on our first op-shopping expedition. We're talking about our up-coming trip to Europe and so many exciting future plans…

Sometimes, just sometimes I catch a tantalising scent of blossom in the air. I breath it in greedily. I always forget how much I love the smell, and then each year it strikes me anew. Now, in the midst of winter it's sweetness is such a gift.

My bulbs are coming up. The jonquils have speared the earth and each day I admire their growth - eager to see the first buds. It always strikes me as wonderful that little lumps of brown shoot greenery and then such sweet smelling flowers.

Winter inspiration - there's something about the brisk air of winter, the sound of the rain upon the roof, the mist surrounding, that seems to nourish writing ideas. Images and scenes for my more wintry manuscripts are rapidly growing. I just need to steal the time away to write them down…

And you - what are you loving?






4 comments:

  1. Such a gorgeous post Kirsty! And I'd love your recipe for hot chocolate if you'd care to share?

    I love hearing that you've done Pip's course. She's an online friend, I love her lots. And just last week I finally jumped in & started my own blog & promotly enrolled in the course. I'm really excited!

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    1. I'll try to get the hot chocolate recipe up soon - I tend to guesstimate amounts so it might take me awhile to work it out! Pip's course was fantastic - but I'm going to have to do it again, I was a little distracted by stuff at the time! So glad you've started a blog - I was so hoping you would!

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  2. Oh your wee one in hospital would have been hard. My almost 3 year old had 3 stints in hospital earlier this year. It's so tough when you have other kids too.

    I have a constant feeder too. He's getting a little bit more predictable now he is almost 6 months.

    I'll have a hot chocolate thanks, they sound amazing. Thanks for sharing Jo xx

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    1. The hot chocolate is amazing! I know I'll look back nostalgically at the constant feeding, and I do love it, but it's hard seeing everything go undone and the house fall apart around me while it happens! O it would be so hard to have so many stints in hospital. I hope your little ones alright - it is so hard worrying about the other kids when you're in with one - such a conflicted heart - it helps knowing others have been there though and get it. Thank you!

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