Tuesday Ten: Pictures of spring

Well, I haven’t managed to do a Tuesday 10 for a while since I restarted, but here I am again.

My garden is a work in progress – long term readers will remember that we started re-landscaping last year. Since then, we were overtaken by work, pregnancy and needing to replace all the pipes in the house because water was coming through the ceilings. So the garden is, to put it mildly, not what I hoped for. The flower beds are either overgrown or dug over and covered to await replanting. The veg beds are no more – we removed the last lot and didn’t manage to build more. Hey ho. But despite that, there are still some signs of spring.

The primulas are out – including the ones I transplanted from the bed that was dug up. They have survived being transplanted at completely the wrong time of year and look marvellous:

And there are primroses everywhere – they’ve even spread into the lawn, which makes me very happy. I’m not someone who longs for an immaculate lawn (which is probably a good thing, all things considered…)

The daisies are up and out and being ruthlessly picked by Miss S&S the Elder:

There are lots of new leaves:

And lots of new lambs:

And my herb pots by the back door are showing signs of life – my parsley:

And my mint:

I shamefully ignored my strawberry plants last year. They’ve sat outside in all weathers, but I have a few flowers, which is more than I deserve!

The marvellous magnolia stellata is going over now, but here’s a picture I took a week or so ago:

And the cherry blossom is out in force:

Plenty to gladden the heart even without the flowerbeds … but next year will be better!

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The return of Tuesday Ten: Ten things I can do while feeding a baby

As previously mentioned, Littlest S&S is a hungry wee girl, and likes to eat a lot. She also likes being cuddled a lot, and will frequently wake up and scream if she’s put down, and need to be fed to relieve the trauma. So, I have been more adept at finding things I can do while feeding that aren’t reading and watching DVDs. I’m doing quite a bit of both of those, but the attraction fades after a while – yes, I can have too much reading time! Who’d have thought? I do find it frustrating sometimes, as having another person attached to you is quite limiting. My house is not at all how I’d like it, the garden is running rampant and I’ve not a seed sown, the children are watching more TV than I usually allow and my husband is usurping my role as cake baker (he’s annoyingly good at cakes already), so in true ‘counting my blessings’ style, here’s a list of the things I can do:

1. Daydreaming. I do a lot of this, especially during night feeds when it’s dark. So not really daydreaming, but still. At first it was frustrating to have to think rather than do, but after 4 weeks I have elevated daydreaming to an art form.

2. Talking on the phone. I now schedule my chats with my mum and my friends for the times I’m going to be feeding, as it feels like a waste of non-feeding time otherwise.

3. Crocheting. I can’t knit, but I’ve discovered that I can crochet. Reasonably quickly if Madam is dining on the left, more slowly if she’s eating on the right. I’ll show you what I’m crocheting later.

4. Reading to the older children. I can’t really play with them much, but I can read to them – as long as they fetch the books. And turn the pages.

Thanks to the sling (a babycarrier), there are some other things I can do – the sling gives me both hands free and allows me to move about, but I can’t do anything that involves a lot of leaning forward (so no hanging laundry or doing the dishwasher). But I can:

5. Vacuuming. I can’t sweep or mop, as bringing both hands across my body squishes the baby and causes protests, but can push the vacuum with one hand.This has the added bonus of being white noise, which the baby finds very soothing.

6. Walking the dog. The dog appreciates this, and getting out of the house for fresh air is very good for me, too.

7. Typing. I’m not actually feeding as I type, but I could!

8. Eating a meal sitting at the table. This is very useful as we’re trying to keep our routines and family meals are very important to us, and the sling means we can all eat together.

9. Important self maintenance: I can go to the loo and make a cup of tea, for example, or get some food. When the baby is 90 minutes into a 4 hour milk-bender, this is very important.

10. Nothing. I’m usually pretty keen to be doing something, so I’m surprised by how much time I spend doing nothing. Apart from gazing at my baby and stroking her petal-soft cheeks and nuzzling her silky hair. Sometimes she seems to know I’m looking and opens one eye. She really is alarmingly cute, and although the long feeds can be frustrating and exhausting, I look at my older children and it is clear how short this phase really is. Someone once said that when you have small children, the years are short and the days are long – and it is very, very true.

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Tuesday Ten: Ten pictures of the snow

We’ve had a somewhat unseasonal cold snap lately – a village near us was the coldest place in the UK one night – at minus 18 degrees C. Brrrr! The snow started falling a week past Friday, and it’s still there. We haven’t had any post since … a week past Thursday, and it has made the logistics a bit difficult. I am dreading the fuel bills, too.

But it is terribly pretty, so here are some pictures.

These were hanging outside the bathroom window:

And it’s not just outside. I saw some very pretty snowflake window stickers in a catalogue, but being too much of a skinflint thrifty to spend what they were asking, I made some snowflakes out of paper (you remember, the sort you make by folding paper and snipping it) and hung them in the window on lengths of cotton. I have done the living room and kitchen windows, and as they look so pretty from the outside, I plan to do the whole house in time for Christmas. I love the way they turn in the air currents – it gives a nice ‘snowfall’ effect.

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Tuesday Ten: Ten things I want to be doing instead of working…

Last week, I sent a big set of proofs back to the publisher and breathed a sigh of relief. The job was done and I had a whole week with no work booked in. I started thinking of all the things I would be able to do. And then, not two hours after the proofs had gone to the post office, the phone rang. Would I do a big web edit, starting next week?

I hate turning down work, especially big, well paid jobs. So, I’m working. I know, I know, I should be glad of the work, glad of the money in the run up to Christmas, all that. But I am still mourning my week ‘off’.

So, here’s what I’d rather be doing.

1. Sorting out the boxes of stuff in the store-room that are causing me guilt and heartsink, and which I suspect contain a few things I’ve been looking for.
2. Having some serious guilt-free knitting time.
3. Moving my office into the outbuilding so I have space to work properly.
4. Taking really long walks with the camera and the dog, rather than the quick ‘down the lane and back’ gallops.
5. Attacking the paperwork mountain in the kitchen.
6. Experimenting with some new wheat-free cake recipes.
7. Clearing the horror that is my flower bed.
8. Reading one of the proper ‘literary’ novels on the pile rather than the froth I read when I’ve been working all day.
9. Reading one of those novels in bed, in the afternoon, while the children are at nursery.
10. Making Christmas shopping lists. I love making lists, I love giving presents. Present lists are the very best.

Ah well. Another time.

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Tuesday Ten: Films I could watch again and again

It’s getting to that time of year again. We don’t have broadcast TV Chez Sowandsew – we have a set and a DVD player, though, and it’s during the colder months that it gets most use. So I have found myself thinking about curling up with a good film of an evening. Here are ten films that I could happily watch over and over again. They’re far from being the best films ever made (well, most of them are) and they’re possibly not all films I would pick if I were only allowed ten films for the rest of my life (although some of them are). They’re just films which I love, know almost backwards, and am always happy to watch. With one exception, they’re quite cosy films, like a warm jumper or a snuggly blanket. So, in no particular order:

Kind Hearts and Coronets
Because it’s clever and silly and touching and completely mental. Which is not something one can often say about a film concerned with serial murder, but there you are.

Dirty Dancing
Yes, it’s a cliche that all girls like Dirty Dancing. I don’t know if they do – but I do. Terrible script aside, it’s just brilliant. The music! The dancing! The villainous villain! The dramatic-yet-romantic denoument! Great stuff.

Amelie
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t seen this film. I love it. I love the ideas behind it, the attention to detail, the fact that it deals with real human truths yet takes itself not at all seriously. Also, it’s funny. And the kiss at the end is one of my favourites in all of cinema.

Galaxy Quest
I took some persuasion to see this as it looks like a sci-fi film and sci-fi isn’t really my thing. But Mr Sowandsew was convinced I’d like it and tried every tack. ‘It’s not really sci-fi!’. ‘You’ll like it, honestly!’ ‘Look, it’s got Alan Rickman in it!’ So I watched it. It’s very good, very funny, and yes, it has Alan Rickman in it and he steals the show. If you haven’t seen it, please watch it. It’s not really sci-fi. And it’s got Alan Rickman in it.

Casablanca
Need I explain? ‘We’ll always have Paris…’

Brief Encounter
Oh my Lord, Brief Encounter. I’m misting up just thinking about it. ‘I’ve been so foolish. I’ve fallen in love. I’m an ordinary woman. I didn’t think such violent things could happen to ordinary people.’ Sniffwailsob. So heartbreaking – high drama but so very, very English.

V for Vendetta
The odd one out – it’s not cosy or comforting. It’s dark and violent and dystopian and occasionally very nasty indeed. But it’s really clever and thought provoking and brilliantly written, and I’ll never get tired of it.

Strictly Ballroom
Oh, this is fabulous. The acting is wobbly in places and the chemistry between the two leads is almost non-existent, but it’s still wonderful fun. Something is rotten at the heart of Australian Ballroom Dancing. Hilarious costumes, brilliant one-liners and some fantastic set-piece characters. And flashy, crowd-pleasing moves, of course.

Chocolat
OK, lots of the reason I like this is because I want to be Juliette Binoche and I wouldn’t turn Johnny Depp down. (Um, I mean, if I were still single, of course…) But it’s a lovely film. It has toned down a lot of the sting of the book, which makes it that bit fluffier, but also cosier and rainy-Sunday-afternoon-ish.

The Princess Bride
Pure silliness, but I defy anyone not to love this fairy tale. Brilliant cameos (including my favourite by Peter Cook) and eminently quotable lines.

I’m now really looking forward to snuggling down with a DVD one evening…

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Tuesday Ten: Ten things about Pilates

I started doing Pilates when my daughter was six weeks old. I actually had my six week check and my first Pilates class on the same day! My friend D had rhapsodised about Pilates and how good it was, and I loved it from the first class. So, as I approach my third Pilates anniversary, here are ten things about my experience of Pilates.

1. I like the fact that you go at your own pace. The teacher demonstrates the sequence, does the first set with us and then we’re able to work our way through it at our own pace and speed. This means I can really focus on what I’m doing as I don’t need to watch anyone else.

2. It really is cumulative. Some exercises seem impossible the first time you do them, but eventually they become manageable, and then finally quite straightforward. And the brilliant thing is, the exercises all link together. So you will do exercise A and it’ll be really hard. Then you may not do it again for a few weeks, but then you do exercise A again and it’s easier, because exercises B, C, D and E have made the muscles you need stronger.

3. I carried on going to class until I was 36 weeks pregnant with the Little Boy. Obviously, by the end I couldn’t do anything that involved lying on my front or my back, and I took everything very gently, but it was still brilliant to do the stretches and the standing and side lying exercises. I have no way of knowing whether the fact that I had an 80 minute labour and phenomenally quick recovery had anything to do with the Pilates, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

4. It’s fantastic for my back – this is one of the big plusses of Pilates. Strengthening the core muscles protects your back. It also dovetails well with osteopathy: for a long time I’d get early warning in class that things were stiffening up and it was time to see the osteopath, but a few months ago, my osteopath could tell I’d missed some Pilates classes just from the state of my back.

5. Although she’s very nice, I think our Pilates teacher has a small sadistic streak. ‘I expect you’d like this to be your last set, wouldn’t you?’ ‘Eight more, because I know how much you love these…’ She’ll count to eight for your planks and then initiate conversation between five and six until somebody howls, ‘Nobody talk to her!’ When I had the Little Boy, the girls from my class sent me a card. She wrote, ‘Congratulations! Zip up! Love Lucy xx’

6. It’s really easy to work to your level and within what your body can do. All exercises can be adapted to make them easier or more challenging. Our class has young dance teachers, people with injuries and women in their seventies, all tailoring the same exercises.

7. On the two days after a class I can usually feel the effects somewhere. Often it’s the abdominals (although less so as I’ve done it for longer) but the bottom, the thighs and the backs of the shoulders are other common hit points. If I’ve missed a few classes then after the first one back the ‘after effects’ are more noticeable – and often involve creaking and groaning.

8. I used to hate my upper arms. I don’t any more.

9. Our teacher always jokes about how we can practice at home, but recently I have started doing just that. Not big sessions, but five or ten minutes here or there. It’s quite a good way to see if I can manage a harder version before trying it out in class…

10. Even though I frequently feel like I’m dying during class, and ache for a couple of days afterwards, I do everything I can to avoid missing classes. I really love what Pilates does for me, what I find I can make my body do – and having an hour to concentrate on doing it. I can’t imagine ever giving it up.

Any other Pilates fans out there? Or do you love another form of exercise?

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Tuesday Ten: Marks out of ten…

So, last week’s Tuesday Ten was a list of things I wanted to do other than work, and I’m sure you’re all desperate to find out how I did, so here are ten things I did since last Tuesday.

1. Clear out the polytunnel – yes, achieved. I have cleared and composted and pruned and it’s now looking much better, plus the plants are all in the right places. The vine has had a good year (and now a haircut) and we have oodles of grapes.

The hot spring followed by lots of rain means that the fruit is plump and sweet. They are having to be rationed, not because of a shortage, but because of the effect excess grape consumption has on nappies…

2. Pot on my young trees – done. The silver birch was almost audibly sighing with relief.

3. Plant my Christmas bulbs – yes, all done. The cellar steps are now covered with pots of hyacinths, crocuses and anemones.

I was hunting around for suitable containers in the end, but found enough, and come Christmas we should, all being well, have lots of scented loveliness to cheer the house and to give away. The amaryllis and narcissus will be done in a few weeks – time to start scouring charity shops for bowls…

4. A box of oddments went to the nursery today and was greeted with rapture.

5. Finish reading ‘Wolf Hall’. Well, I hit a snag here. I went to renew my books (online) and found that one of them had been requested, so I had until Friday to read it. So I did. It was People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, and I heartily recommend it. So I am only two-thirds of the way through Wolf Hall. Half marks for that, I think!

6. I have my tax paperwork ready for my accountant. It was quite time consuming but I did feel virtuous – and also rewarded as I found that one of my invoices hadn’t been paid and chased it up.

7. I got out and took some photographs of the autumn colour:

8. I made not one cake, but two. One was an apple and cinnamon cake, the other a lemon drizzle (I use Mary Berry’s recipe – in as much as I follow any recipe without tweaking; I use far more lemon than she suggests – and it’s gorgeous). Yum yum.

9. I picked up the cardigan, and true to my prediction, I didn’t finish it. But I did finish the other front panel, joined the fronts to the back and have done a third of the collar. So that’s pretty good going and takes me closer to finishing.

10. Order has been restored to the bathroom cupboard – and I’ve found some things I thought had gone forever. And discovered that I shan’t need to buy soap for years.

9 and a half out of 10, I think!

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Tuesday Ten – things I am going to do this week

A bit of a cheat this week – I’m using the Tuesday Ten as a to-do list, in the hope that putting it on the blogosphere will prompt me to get these things crossed off my list. I have lots of work on, but this isn’t a work to-do list, it’s a work-life balance to-do list. Next Tuesday I shall post an update, so let’s hope I can do ten out of ten…

1. Clear out the polytunnel – there are some plants which I’ve nurtured and now they have reached a size that means they can come out, there are plants that are over and need to be composted, and I need to give the vine its late summer pruning, which is now rather overdue and the vine is looking rather Triffid-like.
2. Pot on my young trees – I have a silver birch that is looking a bit sad, and an acer which is looking reasonably happy but could do with more legroom.
3. Plant my Christmas bulbs – I have some bulbs to force for Christmas, and others to plant in pots for the spring, and this is supposed to happen in ‘August or September’ so I reckon if I do it this week, I’m safe.
4. Sort out the bits and bobs that my children’s nursery needs – old greetings cards, cardboard boxes, that sort of thing, which my decluttering has brought to light.
5. Finish reading ‘Wolf Hall’ which I have borrowed from the library. I am enjoying it but am so tired in the evenings I am barely managing more than a few pages, so I am going to set aside some reading time and finish it.
6. Get my tax paperwork ready for my accountant. Boring (and work related) but necessary, and I’ll feel all organised and virtuous when it’s done.
7. Take some photographs of the autumn colour – it’s starting to look fabulous and if I wait too long it’ll be all over.
8. Make a cake, because it’s been a long time since I did.
9. I hesitate to say I’m going to finish the Little Girl’s cardigan because I fear I’ll be setting myself up to fail. I have done the back, one front panel, both sleeves and half of the other front panel. All that remains is to finish the front panel, sew up and add the collar. Which isn’t much but I haven’t knitted a stitch of it for weeks. So no, in reality, I probably won’t finish it. But I will pick the wretched thing up and knit some of it.
10. Sort out the bathroom cupboard. At the moment it’s six shelves of utter mayhem and I can never find anything.

So, fingers crossed and let’s hope for a perfect 10 come next Tuesday…

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Tuesday Ten: My favourite books for cooking.

Note that this doesn’t say ‘my favourite cookery books’. This is because several of my favourite cookery books are ones I read rather than cook from. I adore Elizabeth David’s writing, and love the sound of the food she describes. I find that reading her books gives me ideas. But I very rarely follow her recipes (and when I do, they don’t always work – but then I know people who find her recipes very reliable, so who knows…?) So here, in no particular order and with my very subjective comments, are the ten books I actually use in the kitchen, rather than read in bed…

Home Baking by Carole Handslip.

This little book was given to me years ago by my mum’s godmother. I must have been twelve or thirteen. She was all kinds of crazy, by the way, but those are stories for another day… It is resplendent with late 80s-type styling, but it is wonderful. The recipes are lovely, and they all, without exception, work. I can bake something from this book for the first time and know, without a doubt, it will work. This is where ‘my’ apple and cinnamon cake recipe came from. And ‘my’ gingerbread recipe. Also the drum cake I did for the Little Boy’s birthday. Bless Carole. And bless mad Auntie M for giving me this book. It’s out of print but Amazon have copies for a penny plus postage.

The River Cottage Preserves Book
by Pam Corbin

My goodness, this book is wonderful. Jams, jellies and chutneys. Cordials and things made with lots of booze. Fruit ‘leathers’. Compotes. It’s wonderful. The recipes are clear and comprehensive, and for a country dweller, there are plenty of ideas for using things like rosehips, beech leaves and haws. But city dwellers needn’t panic – there’s strawberry jam and apple chutney and things like that. Although I do suspect that calling something ‘Saucy Haw Ketchup’ was an exercise in playing with homophones as a trap for the unwary. It also has a lovely binding and smells like a proper book. These things matter to me.

The New English Kitchen
by Rose Prince
I really like this book. Lots of recipes, but with an emphasis on using good quality produce, seasonal food, sustainable non-intensive meat, making the most of leftovers… it sounds terribly preachy and worthy, but it isn’t. At least, I don’t think so. I think it’s delightful. (Although her recipe for lemon curd is achingly sweet – cut down the sugar by a third…)

Tamarind and Saffron
by Claudia Roden

I love Claudia Roden’s books and have several – and want the rest. But this is my favourite. From the evocative title and the beautiful blue and yellow picture on the cover to the beautiful writing and the droolsome recipes, it’s a gem. Plus, the recipes are delicious. Claudia Roden’s Book of Jewish Food is also wonderful, but as yet is more of a bedroom cookery book than a kitchen one…

Feast
by Nigella Lawson

I have a love/hate thing for Nigella. I love her books and her writing. I cannot bear watching her on TV. The hair flicking and finger sucking and flirty looks at the camera drive me to teeth-grinding lunacy. But her books … well, I have several and was torn as to which to include. ‘How to Eat’ is great – it’s my go-to for the basics and for new ideas with staple ingredients. ‘How to Be A Domestic Goddess’ is a fantastic baking book, and I do like baking. But I chose this in the end. I love the idea of a book centred on seasonal feasts and the ritual of cooking. I love reading about the food of other traditions and seeing what is familiar and what is less so. And I love anyone who can include a recipe for ‘Blood Clots and Pus’. (It’s in the Hallowe’en section and when my children are older I am totally making this…)

I picked one Claudia Roden and one Nigella Lawson, but I couldn’t pick just one Nigel Slater. Nigel Slater is my favourite cookery writer, bar none. I love the way he revels in both the simplest dishes (roast chicken, a baked potato) and the more complex (fish with a beautiful sauce, a home made ice cream). So I have selected two of his books:

Real Food is a kitchen and a bedroom standby. It is a big squeezy warm hug of a book, with chapters devoted to a particular food: bread, potatoes, cheese, chocolate. It is comforting, it is delicious, it is inspiring and happy making. ‘Real food means big-flavoured, unpretentious cooking. Good ingredients made into something worth eating. Just nice, uncomplicated food,’ he says. Who could argue with that? It tends to come out more in the winter months, when my need for comfort food is highest, because nobody does comfort food like Nigel. No, not even you, Nigella.

And we also have Real Fast Food.

I used this lots when I worked in an office and had people home for dinner on weeknights. Proper tasty food, ready in half an hour or less from start to finish. And yummy.

Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache
by Harry Eastwood

This is a book I picked up on a whim at the library. I liked the name and I liked the cover. But I have a wheat allergy and the recipes are all wheat free, so that was wonderful. They also use vegetables in place of the fat. And they’re delicious. Really. Cake made with swede, courgette or sweet potato is moist and yummy and proper cake-like. Ms Eastwood does come over a bit dippy in places – all the cakes have little potted descriptions of their personalities – but it’s a fabulous book.

I like many of the River Cottage books, but this is the one we use most. The Family Cookbook
is brilliant for child-friendly recipes, and also explains why food does what it does – why we beat eggs and whip cream, why milk turns into butter, why things burn. It’s awesome. Plus, it has a top notch recipe for fudge, and is the place we go when we’ve forgotten how to make pancakes. This is coming into its own now my older child is getting interested in food, and I foresee a food-splattered future for it.

And for the basics, I turn to the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book.
It tells you, plainly and simply, how to cook pretty much anything. It was a present a couple of Christmasses ago and I have used it regularly since.

So, there we are. Here are my favouries. How about yours?

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Tuesday Ten: Things I like about autumn

I have (with permission) borrowed the idea for a ‘Tuesday Ten’ from Sally. She has made some really interesting lists and I fancied having a go.

I love spring and summer. I adore warm weather, the long evenings, all the things that happen in the garden. I love picnics and eating outside. I love going for a walk without taking a cardigan, much less a jacket. I love drying washing on the line. I love salads. So I often look on the end of summer as a sad thing, and watch the days getting shorter with some trepidation.

Over the last couple of weeks, autumn has gradually crept upon us. Even on warm, sunny days there’s been a crispness in the air. We’ve had misty mornings and dew on the spiders’ webs. Haws and rosehips have appeared in the hedgerows. And our cat Trixie, who spends every fine day and warm night outside, has started appearing in the house.

So, to make myself more reconciled to the passing of summer, I am going to think of ten things I like about autumn.

1. Making chutney. I like making jam, too – but making autumn preserves is nicer than boiling up jam in a hot kitchen that’s full of flies and wasps. There’s something really warming and autumnal about the smell of onions, apples, spices and vinegar that makes the kitchen smell really cosy.

2. Misty mornings. The effects of the light are more subtle in spring and autumn, and the weaker sunlight shining through early morning mist (and the catch I get in my throat when I go outside) is beautiful.

3. Buying bulbs. We have lots of plans for the garden over the next year or so (basically, we’re going to dig everything up and start again) so there’s not much scope for planting bulbs in the beds. But there are still pots and tubs. And there are still bulbs to force for Christmas. Our local supermarket had lots of bulbs on special offer, so I have species tulips, standard tulips, grape hyacinths, daffs and narcissus, anemones and crocuses. The daffs and narcissus are going to be planted in a drift by the path. The tulips and grape hyacinths are destined for tubs by the kitchen door. And the anemones and crocuses will be forced for Christmas. This week, I shall also order some of the big scented hyacinths (which I adore) and some Paperwhite narcissus. There is something lovely about planning for spring, and also about having pools of scented spring brightness in the house in the depth of winter.

4. Scarves. I like scarves and I have lots of them, and it’s nice to be able to get them out and wear them again. One of the things I like about knitting is being able to have scarves exactly as I want them. The first thing I ever knitted was a ribbed scarf that was quite narrow, but over six feet long, so it could wrap round and round my neck (so it wouldn’t slip off) without stifling me. I also have a very cute sparkly scarf I knitted last winter, and of course I have my new Wicked Witch scarf for this winter.

5. Butternut squash are in season. Yummy. I love butternut squash, especially roasted with chilli and garlic and made into soup.

6. I love the long summer evenings outside, but winter means evenings in front of the fire, and a chance to catch up on some knitting and make a dent in the stack of unwatched DVDs.

7. It’s the Little Girl’s birthday soon, which is quite exciting. The rest of the family have our birthdays in the first third of the year, so I’m quite looking forward having an excuse for an autumn celebration.

8. Looking through my books to decide what I’m going to make and cook for Christmas. I know it seems mad but you need to force bulbs early, and collect pine cones before they get wet (pine cones make fantastic kindling and smell divine). I also like borrowing Christmas craft books from the library – you know, the ones with instructions on how to make your own everything and loads of totally over the top bonkersness which would have you committed by your suffering family if you did it all – and weeding out the really good, simple ideas.

9. In a similar vein, I also enjoy the Christmas knitting magazines, and in particular, threatening to knit a festive sweater for Mr SowandSew and making him wear it. I never would actually knit one (I have precious little knitting time and I wouldn’t waste it). But waving the pictures of reindeer jumpers at him and watching the resulting horrified facial expression is an annual joy.

10. Satsumas. Both the children adore satsumas, and will choose them over any other treat. (We know, we’ve offered them a choice of satsumas or biscuits and the satsumas win every time.) I love them too, and can eat piles of them. And then I dry the skins on top of the woodburner, which makes the living room smell all warm and citrussy. And the skins make great firelighters.

And having written all that, I feel the need for a cup of hot chocolate.

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