Family Archives - Page 7 of 12 - Conversations through the middle

Leaving school, growing up, moving on

July 20, 2012

It’s Dot’s last day at primary school today. This morning we attended the year six leavers’ assembly and all of the children, mums and dads were affected by the emotional atmosphere in our little village church.

Each child had a part to play – Dot and her friend sang a duet and they did it beautifully; there were readings, a hymn, presentations, a song from The Tempest (their school play) and tears…

There will be a lot more tears to come I’m sure as after leaving the church all of the year six pupils were headed back to class to gather friends’ autographs and have their shirts and t-shirts signed by everybody in the school. Then, tonight, they have their leavers’ disco – dancing, sweets, running around and more tears…

I don’t know where the past six and a half years have gone! Only yesterday I was dropping her off in the reception class for her first day. Only the day before that my mam was dropping me off at infant school for my first day – I can still remember so clearly the moment she left me in the classroom with the rest of my class and my teacher; my name was called for the register and I just sat there silent, refusing to answer I was so shy…

I’ve just been to school to collect Dot and amazingly, no tears! They all seemed happy – covered in pen of course from signing each others’ shirts – and excited about the disco tonight.

I mentioned the school play a moment ago. It was The Tempest and it took place outside last week – in a tempest. The first time I saw a teacher push the rain off the makeshift stage roof with a mop, I thought it was part of the play. It wasn’t, it was the weather. We all sat and watched, and the kids performed during a downpour that lasted the entire 90 minutes. We must be mad. Dot was a star sailor and here she is, back home afterwards, happy to be warm again.

Baking class – strawberry and cream scones

July 14, 2012

This recipe comes from the Be-Ro Book again, which was a staple in our house when I was growing up as baking was a regular event – pies, tarts, cakes and scones were all homemade, never bought from shops. This was one of my favourites and still is, but rather than just butter I thought I would add a touch of summer (seeing as there’s precious little evidence of it outside) with strawberries and cream. I have used double cream but go with whatever you prefer, whipping cream is an alternative, or if you’re feeling really indulgent there’s always clotted…

I will upload images for this tomorrow hopefully as I’m unable to make the scones today – I’m off to see The Boss at Hyde Park so I’m cultivating my Rock Chic persona rather than my Baking Chic one. I’ve got my pac-a-mac at the ready and my brolly is in my bag. Sexy.

Ingredients
225g Self raising flour
Pinch salt
50g Butter
25g Caster sugar
50g Sultanas
1 Medium egg (beaten with milk to make up to 150ml liquid)

Method

Heat the oven to 220°C/ 200°C fan/ gas mark .7

Grease a large baking tray.

Sieve the flour and salt together, rub in the butter until it resembles small breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar and sultanas.

Add the egg and milk mixture, keep a little back for brushing the tops of the scones. Use your hands to mix the ingredients together until they form a dough.

Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and knead lightly (do not over knead the dough or you will end up with hard biscuits rather than scones). Roll out the dough until it is around 1cm thick then using a scone cutter or something round – the top of a mug or cup works well – cut out circles of dough.

Gather up the remaining pastry, roll out again and cut out more circles. Place them on the baking sheet – you should have around eight scones.

Brush the top of the scones with the remainder of the egg/milk mixture and bake them in the over for around 10 minutes.

Turn the scones out to cool on a wire rack. When cool, cut them in half and fill with cream, topped with strawberries, then a little more cream and sandwich together. Yummy!

Olympic torch comes to Colchester

July 6, 2012

We had a bit of a historic moment in Colchester today – the Olympic torch passed through the town on the way to London. We braved the rain at 7am this morning to travel down to see it – and we weren’t disappointed. The route was packed but from our vantage point on Ipswich Road we had a brilliant view. More by luck than by judgement and in spite of the fact there must have been thousands of people there, we ended up right at the spot where the relay handover happens! One torchbearer ended her run and the next one took up the challenge – my friend described the moment as the kissing (not sure if that’s what it’s called or just something she thought of).

To be honest, I hadn’t been that fussed about going to see the torch, but Dot wanted to see it. I changed my mind when we arrived though – the atmosphere was fantastic. Everybody was in a great mood and even the police motorcycle convoy joined in, chatting to the kids, shaking hands and tooting their horns. The cheers when the torch arrived were massive and there honestly was a party vibe going on – even though it was only breakfast time.

The entire country is getting in the mood for the Olympics now. We were very lucky in the ticket draw and have tickets to the eventing at Greenwich at the end of July, however, we only have two of them, so it’s just me and Dot going. Obviously I’m overjoyed about that but Dot, who actually wanted to watch the swimming and volleyball, is not so impressed.