Birding on a Sunday Afternoon

Having spent all of last week trudging about under low, grey light, it was a delight to wake to clear blue skies, bright sunshine and most of the settled snow melted away. We kept our fingers crossed that it would last all day. And it did. We spent our afternoon at RSPB Old Moor nature reserve. The whole place was bathed in beautiful, golden light as the wind shook swathes of grass alongside the still partially frozen water. Bramblings, chaffinches and tree sparrows chattered in the hedgerows whilst teals, tufted ducks and widgeons paddled through the wetlands. Magic! 

The Weary World Rejoices

There is one word that seems to keep cropping up when I snatch moments to write my blog these days and that is, simplicity. It helps me to rest after even the most complicated days at work and it seems to make room for everything else. It is homemade food and singing old carols. It is the smell of our Christmas tree and the hum of my sewing machine. It is the bite of frost on my cheek and seeing my breath in the air. It is countryside walks and cosy pubs. It is my family, my friends and the time I get to spend with them. In short, it is everything I love about Christmas. Last Saturday, as we pulled-up outside our house, this song started playing on the radio. The Ginge silenced the engine, I rested my head on his shoulder and we sat in the darkness, listening. It is a song we have sung together for many years with our choir and it has a very special place in my heart. Once it was over, we went into the warm and decorated our tree. Christmas began in our little house; simply and beautifully.    

Green & Red with a White Fur Trim

A new dress, a borrowed robe, a sea of funny hats, applause-numbed hands, big grins, lip trembles. Strong family, the best of friends. Pride, joy, relief, sadness, anticipation. All in one afternoon. A whispered question as we arrived home, 'did you have a good day?'. The answer: 'the best'. I graduated. 

  

A Fancie Treat

Happy Jubilee! We have had a wonderful weekend, despite the weather, but more on that later. Last Friday, I had a lovely treat; a box of cakes from Sheffield-based cupcake company, Fancie. Contained within the beautifully-wrapped box was a perfect selection of cakes; a whoopie pie, two macarons and a Jubilee-themed cupcake. Each of them was utterly delicious; crisp macaroons with gooey middles and a summery strawberry cupcake with champagne icing. My personal favourite was the lemon and white chocolate whoopie pie, which was a gorgeous combination of light sponge, rich and sweet white chocolate buttercream and tart lemon curd. Yum! I have lovely memories of eating Fancie cakes; discovering them as a welcome treat whilst a first-year student living off hall-of-residence food, being given a whole box of them as a birthday present from my housemates in my third year and the many times spent lying out in the sun in the botanical gardens or wandering along Sharrow Vale Road with cake and friends. Before I found Fancie, I had only ever eaten chic cupcakes in London, at the likes of the Primrose Hill and Hummingbird Bakeries, but Fancie more than competes with them for taste and atmosphere and the best thing is that it is in Sheffield. Fancie has three shops in Sheffield and apparently, they do cake decorating parties with cocktails. Now that's an idea. 

Recent Antics

I was collared by a friend the other day who chastised me for not  having written on my blog 'since the 1st of May'! Well, consider my wrists suitably slapped. I just don't know what happened to the month of May - it has gone by so quickly. I have been 'shadowing' for the past three weeks, which basically means I have been practicing being a doctor, minus any official responsibility. It has been a welcome mix of fun and challenging, with lots of little reminders that I chose this career for good reason and that I really do love what I do. I have also been trying to spend as much time as possible with my friends as a few of them are soon to leave Sheffield for new and exciting shores. It's weird to think that people who have been so closely woven into the fabric of my life for the past six years will very soon be living elsewhere and occasionally realisation hits me with a pang of sadness and a smattering of tears. Mostly though, we are enjoying the few weeks we have left doing lots of lovely things together, such as making a croquembouche (and eating it), singing in bandstands with our choir and meeting Stormtroopers. I have also had some great opportunities to play with my new toy and though I haven't even scratched the surface of what it can do, I am loving finding out. In other news, we have a new favourite cafe - Tamper, home of the best flat whites in Sheffield and food to die for - and we are now the proud owners of beautiful Orla Kiely bedlinen. Yum. I have a few more things to share with you, but I will save those for another post. Thank you so much for all your amazing comments on my previous one. I love blogland and it's great to be back. 

A Very Treacle & Ginge Christmas

Seeing as it is very nearly twelfth night and all of our decorations will soon be packed up and put away for next year, I think it's about time that I finish off the last of my Christmas posts. As you know, the Ginge had to work over the Christmas period, so we had our own little celebration on the 29th. We got all dressed up and laid the table all special-like. His lovely mum sent him home with some of their leftover turkey and cranberry sauce, which with a few of my family's special hedgehog potatoes (so named by me and my sister when we were little, now an absolute requirement for any Christmas meal) and some veg made a very tasty supper indeed! The Ginge gave me some beautiful sheepskin mittens and a replacement bottle of the perfume he first bought me two years ago. I gave him The Ginger Pig meat book, very fitting for a ginger pig who loves meat, and a beautiful Stanley thermos flask, complete with a plan for a day of walking in the Peaks. We also opened presents from each other's parents: a super-smart shirt and tie for the Ginge and   Lucy Worsley's book about the history of the home signed especially for me (I literally shouted WOW! AMAZING! for five minutes when I opened it). The whole evening left us feeling very smug; with our gifts both given and received, our scrumptious dinner and, above all, with each other. Added to the wonderful time I spent at home with my family and our brilliant New Year with friends, I can honestly say that this Christmas was the best ever. What a lucky Treacle! 

Festivities

I know it's not really Christmas anymore, but I thought I'd share with you some of the highlights of the festive season. Laughing and crying at the beautiful wedding of Jay & Kimberley, Christmas peppermint and chocolate cupcake at Fancie, crisp strolls around my hometown: Bradford on Avon, singing folk carols in the pub with my Dad, Bath all dressed up for the season, the best sandwich in the world at Jika Jika, reminiscing over the memories invoked by our family tree decorations, dancing in the street with the Ginge to the music of Jazz-band elves, feeling ten years old again by making croissants from a can (finally they have brought these back to the UK), the perfect Christmas lunch (following a famous family incident, we have guinea fowl instead of turkey with 'hedgehog' potatoes, lots of veg and a big dollop of homemade bread sauce), Boxing Day Christmas with my second family, dressing up in my Christmas presents and feeling so pleased with myself that I actually managed (with difficulty) to have a nice photo taken. The Ginge and I had a separate Christmas, which I will post about separately (that will be the last, I promise). 

Pottering About

This weekend has been a bit of a slow one (or a 'sloe' one as I'm sure the Ginge would say). Unfortunately, I haven't been very well and the Ginge has been working nights, so I have just been bumbling around the house on my own for most of the time. I must say that I really hate it when he is on nights as I get so lonely and dislike being limited to seeing him for a rushed two hours per day. It is quite a good opportunity to get things done though. I have made sloe gin, cooked some tasty suppers and comforted myself by baking my mum's dropped scones. I didn't manage to get to any fireworks, but I poked my head out of the skylight and watched the multiple, distant displays exploding all over the city. Did you have more success with bonfire night?