Woodland Wander

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Happy Thursday!

Casper and I took a wander in the forest today, he’s such a mud magnet.

There is a clearing halfway down one of the less used tracks, under a cluster of monkey puzzle trees.

It looks like a coven of witches have segregated the ground for worship and dancing, the whole clearing has a mystical, eerie feel to it. But it is also peaceful and beautiful.

What I suspect the area has actually been used for, is a forest school.

https://www.hiddenwiltshire.com/post/robin-hood-s-bower

But who knows? Perhaps it is a deeper, darker, secret place.

Parsnip!

It’s root vegetable season! Hurah!

After shopping Monday I assessed the previous weeks left over veggies and found I had a bag of rather sweaty parsnips loitering in the back of the fridge. I do love a Parsnip soup. So this is what I did with them – my personal recipes are a bit hit and miss on amounts so sorry if its a big vague for those of you that follow instructions to the max, cooking is a creative activity in my house, usually just creating a mess!

Spicy Parsnip Soup

1 portion

5 or 6 Parsnip (mine were medium sized young ones)
2 carrots
1 onion
Oil for roasting
½ stock cube (of your choice, I used a Kallo Vegetable low salt)
Cumin )
Coriander ) or spices to your taste
Ginger )
Ground pepper
Water to your desired consistency

Method

Top, Tail and Peel Vegetables, remove all squishy bits. Cut into chunks and lightly oil, roast in a roasting tray at 200 degrees C until starting to soften and brown.
Heat about ¼ pint of water in a thick bottomed pan and dissolve stock cube, add spices to taste and a little pepper. Put roasted veggies in the water and add boiling water until they are covered. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes then blend with a hand blender, adding water until you are happy with the consistency. Allow to warm through until bubbling whilst stirring.
Serve and enjoy.

I do find stock cubes are over salty, even the kallo low salt are to salty for me, this is personal choice however so adjust the amount of stock cube to your taste too.

And then there was the past and the future.

Every so often I come back, to this space, my little bloggy space with so much of our history and I revel in the fact it exists. Although badly neglected in recent years I have never had the strength of will to delete it.

April 2010 I started this blog, purely as a place to empty my head; somewhere to share the constraints, frustrations, victories and joy of my life. I was losing sight of myself, approaching my 40th birthday, drowning in routines and what to cook for dinner. Here I had an outlet, although it often seemed I had nothing worth saying, on occasions just saying “I have nothing to say!” was good enough.

I recall that I struggled to find a voice, to fit in with the crowd, the bloggers and the tweeters, the status updaters, the sharers and the social commentators. After re reading most of that first year, 10 years ago, I really shouldn’t of worried so much about that: After continuously blogging now for 10 years, (although elsewhere in a different way,) I think I’ve come to understand myself and my need to be heard is not one that is concerned about being popular or being followed. It’s always lovely to be read and receive wonderful comments, to connect with someone however briefly in the exchange of words. Its the clarity it gives my mind and the pure enjoyment of knowing my head is in a ‘good space’, because I need my head in that ‘good space’ in order to write. It doesn’t matter what comes out, be it poems or rants or self depreciating satire, the joy is in the words and the words come when my head is clear.

So what now Julie? Well lovely reader… good question.

I found it hard to continue after 2017, when the smalls had both decided they no longer wanted to be on the blog. As I said then, I respect that choice. I do think however in the future there is a place for me here, still things to say about life, happiness, bloody teens (probably), things of interest. So, yet again I’m thinking, blow the dust off the keyboard and have another go… Definitely older, certainly no wiser, just as scatty, a little less worn out but more frayed at the edges. Have another go….

So, lets see what happens, shall we?

Climbing off the shelf

Life is all about change, we strive to get the balance right at each and every twist in the road. It will twist and turn because as we evolve personally the path we walk changes too.

I was having a discussion with a friend yesterday and we briefly touched on the parenting journey and the choices I and Mr.K took to begin that journey. It took a while to fall pregnant but we decided that if we were going to embark on this rollercoaster journey we would do it all in, which to us was a full time parent and a worker. I still can’t believe how fortunate we were to be able to pursue this path, more luck than judgement certainly!

I’m not sure anyone really knows beforehand just how intensive being a stay at home mum actually is; especially with two or more children close in age. For the first 10 years of their lives, yours is secondary, there are no breaks or holidays, you are ‘mum’ 24/7 with, if you can wangle it, the odd gap of 24 hours thanks to the occasional sleep over, even during that time you don’t stop thinking about them. I can only speak from my own experience of course, for eleven years every thought, consideration, plan and decision has put them first. And, you know that’s fine, I spent 36 years before they arrived being ‘me’ or ‘us’ I knew who I was, I remember her well and I can honestly say I’d put ‘me’ on the shelf again to concentrate on being ‘mum’ if I had to re-do it all.

Now, as we are on the brink of our next life chapter, with the amazing daughter about to move into secondary school and the little man entering into year 6 and trying to grasp the concept of his first ever year at school without his big sister, it falls on me to consider that in the last three years I have been slowly easing off the mummy shelf and finding small ways to be me again.

Obviously, we still have quite a journey ahead of us, the countdown to independence as they go through teen age and spread their wings. But I’m very aware that in this time of showing them how to care for themselves and function in the world I must look toward my place and what that means to me, to us now, moving forwards.

 

Connections and Webs.

Isn’t it funny how life just seems to put people in our paths for reasons? Reasons we may never fully understand.

An odd co-incidence happened this week. I think I mentioned in my last post that my daughter is about to leave her Primary education and move up to secondary school. It has, so far been a very smooth transition, she is very happy about it all and looking forward to this new stage in her life.

I met her from her first induction day after an extra sports event in the evening, we walked home the two miles because the family car was elsewhere and she told me all about her day and the new things she had learned about her up and coming life at secondary school. A couple of things really struck me but the biggest one of all has a bit of a back story, please bear with me…

When Mr.K and I decided to be an item we were living 100 miles apart, give or take a few feet. So after a short while we stuck a pin in the map in between our two locations and rented a bungalow to see if we might rub along without killing each other. (Almost 21 years later, he’s not dead yet.) We were in the bungalow 2 years and during this time Mr.K had to hire a new ‘mate’ to work with him. Let’s call him Mr.I…  Mr. I and Mr. K became firm friends and through the years and many changes they still are. We went to each other’s weddings, saw five children come along between the families, when they left the country for a bit we visited them abroad and got caught half way up a mountain in a monsoon. Although we have never been in each other’s pockets, especially with the children attended different schools, we muddle along well together and I’ve always enjoyed Mrs. I’s company.

So, the daughters school… 250 children in her year 7 – approximately, divided between 6 ‘houses’ which is split into half so each house has 2 timetables, then split further into tutor groups that contain children from each year… 3 year 7’s  including her. One of which is Mr. I’s second son… Totally random; But amazing none the less. Yes, it’s a co-incidence but the two families just keep getting further and further intertwined.

Also in her half of her house is a young man who we met when she was just weeks old because they were born on the same day. Not such a close connection but still, a half of a sixth of 250 is pretty amazing even if I’m too thick to work out the odds! And to think I was pleased when our closest friends son was in the same house as her!

So, that had my little brain reeling. I’ve always maintained that no one ever crosses your path without a reason, sometimes the reason is so small as to go unnoticed, some people are sent to hurt you, some to make you stronger, some to love you, some to make you wake the hell up… It’s all a web of intricate bonds.