If you go down to the woods today...

...you're likely to find snowdrops!


Today's trip was to Belsay Hall, in search of snowdrops, fairies and sunshine. We found all three! And a certain small person had her first ice cream of the year, which must be something of a record for February. It was lovely and warm in the Quarry Garden (even the rhododendrons were flowering), and we saw more snowdrops than you could shake a stick at.


We also did a fairy trail, which led to (a) an in-depth discussion on the merits of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and (b) a 'reward' of a chocolate bunny and a sticker. Not sure which was more educational...

Today's budget: £1 for an ice cream (we're English Heritage members, so saved the £16 it would have cost us to get in!)

Books and chairs

We made use of our local assets today - visiting Gateshead Central library and the Shipley Art Gallery, which are just round the corner from our house.

The library's always fun - especially now it's been completely refitted. The new children's section is huge, light and bright, and they seem to have also had an influx of new books. We had a whale of a time searching for books by Cressida Cowell (we watched How to Train Your Dragon recently, and M was very taken with the idea that there were a series of books behind it), and read far too many Julia Donaldsons.

The best bit, though, is the new self-service machines. They're so simple that a five-year-old can work them quite happily - and M was entranced by the fact they give you a printed list of what you've borrowed.

This afternoon we headed to the Shipley, to see their Sit Down exhibition, on tour from the V&A Museum of Childhood. It's all about chairs and seating for kids, with chairs of all ages and shapes - everything from an 18th century high chair to a beanbag. There's an interesting selection of items, but very few that you can actually sit on, which was rather disappointing. The 'interactive' bit was quite poor, in fact - a Goldilocks and the Three Bears-style table with chairs to try out suffered from not all the chairs being there. I get the feeling that the exhibition was probably considerably larger originally - it really didn't live up to expectations, and was certainly nowhere near as good as some of their previous efforts (the Supremes costumes and the Penguin covers spring to mind).

M did draw her idea of a great chair, though - I especially like the cat servant who caters to your every need:


Today's budget: £0 (Our library books weren't overdue!)

Cycling: bribery will get you a long way

Today involved a lovely lunch with friends, followed by a long cycle ride from Ryton along the Tyne to Wylam. It's about three miles along the river bank, I guess, on a fairly flat, wide path. This picture's slightly blurry as I was cycling along at the time, but you get the idea...

We saw lots of ducks floating downstream, huge clumps of snowdrops on the sandy banks, and a fair few golfers on the fairway. The main attraction, though, was the Boathouse in Wylam itself - we'd promised the kids crisps (and us beer) if we made it all the way there.

Rather pleasingly, the older ones and M wanted to ride home again - so we tackled the path in the gloom, before a long push up Station Bank in the dark.

Today's budget: £6.10 on beers, orange juices and crisps.

Castles, cheese and cake

We decided to have a trip up to Alnwick today, to go to Barter Books, which is one of the largest secondhand bookshops in the country. Its schtick (aside from the fact that it's located in the old railway station) is that you can take a bagful of books and they'll give you a value for them...which can then be spent on yet more books.

We're currently in credit, and were looking for all sorts of stuff today. There's a great children's section, more cookery books than you can shake a stick at, and everything from fiction to railways, maps or music books.

M came home with several new Paddington books, a Dick King-Smith, a book about pasta (that's my girl - start with the cookery books early!) and a Peter and Jane (3b - I remember them well). Orb's collecting Ian Fleming's Bond novels, and managed to find Goldfinger. My masterpiece was the delightful Make a Meal of Cheese, published in 1973 by the Cheese Information Service. It contains such gems as cheese roundabouts, cheddar curry and crunchy cheese bobs, illustrated with some lovely 1970s brown and orange photos. I have been politely requested not to make any of the recipes it contains...

Our other two missions in Alnwick were to find (a) tea and cake and (b) castles. The first was surprisingly difficult - there don't seem to be that many good teashops in Alnwick. We eventually found Grannies on Narrowgate, which did a pretty good selection.

Castles were easier. M's project for school this week is to do something to do with castles, whether it's making one, drawing one or whatever. We've been taking photos all week of anything castle-related, so Alnwick scored highly for having a real, live castle in all its damp, rain-soaked glory.

Budget for the day: £8 on coffee, hot chocolate and lots and lots of cake.

Gateshead Quays

It was another cold, dank February day today, but we had to get out of the house. We've been trying to cycle every weekend over the winter, in an attempt to give M some practice before we head to Denmark this summer - so far we've hit the Newburn-Wylam trail, Chopwell Woods, Hamsterley Forest, the river at Stockton on Tees, and Newcastle Quayside. Today it was Gateshead Quayside's turn. We've lived here in Newcastle or Gateshead for the last...ooh, far too long...and have never gone upstream along the river from the Tyne Bridge.


Today only M was on her bike - some days it's warmer for us to walk really really fast alongside her, rather than cycle very slowly.


We discovered that:

- the bridges don't half rattle alarmingly when a train or metro goes overhead
- there's a fair amount of seaweed along the path
- the new houses at Dunston staithes look rather nice (but that they're beaten hands down on architectural merit by the staithes themselves)


After an hour or so, we were cold and in need of cake. So we headed to IKEA, where you can get cinnamon buns and a cup of tea for 50p.

Today's budget: £1 for tea and buns. Bargain.

Despicably good

It's half-term. Hurrah!

Actually, it's probably one of the few times over the last few years that I've liked the fact it's half-term - before M went to school there was always much moaning about families cluttering up the place and the usual activities being cancelled.

All that's changed now, though. After two months back at school, it's nice to spend some time with her properly (and we're very lucky that we both work freelance, so can take a bit of time off).

So this week's going to be a bit of a mini-holiday. But a very Gateshead-based one. All our holiday cash is being saved up for Denmark in August (yes, we liked it so much we're going back again), so we have a minimal budget for the next nine days.

Today's treat, given that it was pouring down with rain/snow/sleet outside, was to head to the Saturday morning matinee. We like the Saturday morning kids films at the Empire. They're on at not a bad time (10.30am), it's £1 a ticket, and you can round off the experience with buns from the Chinese bakery round the corner. And we loved today's offering - Despicable Me. It's the story of how an evil supervillain called Gru finds his life changed by three orphan girls. He plans to use them in his plot to steal the moon - but is completely bowled over by them, and ends up becoming their dad.

There's lots of laughs (M loved the fart gun), and some delightfully witty dialogue for adults - especially when Gru's reading the three kittens book that the girls love. And there's quite a good plot too, with minimal nauseating American schmalz (quite remarkable, given there's three ballet-loving small girls at the heart of proceedings). Definitely one to watch (especially if you have a small girl yourself).

The buns were good too. I don't know how Bread Point do it. They produce rack after rack of gloriously pillowy, doughy bread buns for 60-90p a time, filled with things like spiced pork, char sui, curried beef and Thai chicken. Perfect stodge.

Today's budget: three tickets to the cinema £5.10 (it may be £1 per ticket, but there's a booking charge for lazy people like us who want to guarantee a seat, but not get out of bed too early)
lots of buns at the Chinese bakery: £4.90

Total: £10

Bah

And thrice bah. I'm ill with tonsilitis, stuck in the house and grumpy as hell. What I really want to be doing is pottering about in the sunshine in the garden, secateurs and trowel in hand. There's also the small matter of an allotment, which I may have not visited since about October (ahem).

Instead, I'm whiling away the hours feeling guilty about not working and listening to Radio 4. Now I love Radio 4 dearly, but I haven't half listened to some tat over the last few days. Melodramatic dramas. Pseudo-intellectual discussions (yes, most of those involved you, Mr Bragg). Incomprehensible (and unfunny) comedies.

Oddly enough, the best of the lot was You and Yours. Don't laugh. I know it's normally terrible. But yesterday they had an inspired segment on the PR stories they'd been sent which were tenuously linked to Valentines Day. It made me howl with laughter (quietly, of course).

Book review: Frank and Teddy make friends

My heart sank when this book arrived from the nice people at Random House. Yet another saccharine tale of how two cuddly toys learn the basics of friendship, I thought.

How wrong could I be? Yes, the title (Frank and Teddy make friends), although descriptive, isn't inspiring. But this is a wonderfully illustrated book, with non-nauseating text.

Professor Frank Mouse is a marvellous inventor - creating bicycles out of pencils and string, a fabulous set of wings, and in a moment of Dr Frankenstein-ness, Teddy. Teddy attempts to help him in his work...but makes a complete mess, and gets sent outside in disgrace. But when Professor Mouse sees Teddy helping others, and them in turn helping him, he realises the value of friendship and working together.

The language is simple and effective (M, who's five, and starting to read for herself was able to read some of it), and the story is set off beautifully by Louise Yates' lovely illustrations. We particularly liked Professor Mouse's experiments, diagrams and doodles set out as if on graph paper, complete with some simple sums.

The verdict: go and buy or borrow from the library. You'll enjoy it. On the strength of this one, we're going on a mission to the library this week to track down one of Louise's previous books, Dog Loves Books, which also looks excellent.

A trip into town

I walked into Newcastle from home earlier on in the week, which is not something I often have time for (it takes about 40 minutes). I'd forgotten just how magnificent the High Level Bridge over the Tyne is...

Ready, steady, go!

Those of you who follow me on twitter might remember that I got rather excited a couple of weeks ago when a cool bag of food arrived from Little Dish for M to try out.

I'm really not one for ready meals, it has to be said. I prefer making my family's food from scratch, day in, day out - that way I know *exactly* what's going in to them. We make our own bread, cakes, biscuits, yoghurt - yeah, I know, muesli-knitting stereotype here we come...

But there are occasions when you just don't have access to your own kitchen - when you're camping, for instance - so I thought it would be interesting to try a ready meal on M, especially as she's never really eaten them. So we tested the Little Dish Beef and Spinach cannelloni (£2.29).

Firstly, the pros: she ate the lot (we had to fight her for a couple of mouthfuls to taste) and said that it tasted pretty good (we also liked the fact that it didn't shy away from using spices like cinnamon). There's no added salt or sugar - and the ingredients are pretty much what you'd use at home. It was quick-ish to heat up (if you use the microwave, much longer in the oven), and more than enough for a 5-6 year-old, with a little bit of salad on the side.

The cons: the plastic film on the packet is very awkward to tear off - I can imagine it being supremely annoying if you don't have scissors or a very sharp knife handy. But I think the main con for us is that we all eat together - so I'd be unlikely to buy a single, child-sized portion of anything (especially at £2.29). Maybe Little Dish should branch out into family-sized meals?

The verdict: as an emergency food to stash in the freezer, or to take away on a camping trip, pretty good. But I don't think I've been converted to ready meals on a regular basis...

Lady Marmalade

I may have got a bit carried away with the marmalade making yesterday. 3kg of Seville oranges is rather a lot to chop up - here's what they looked like after simmering for a couple of hours.

The pan is a rather fabulous Le Creuset jam pot which is on loan from my mum. It weighs an absolute ton (especially when it's got 3kg of oranges in it) but is marvellous. The cat certainly thinks so - she's desperate to sit in it most of the time, so it has to be defended with a cardboard lid on top.


Anyway, several hours later, I am now the proud owner of 12 (count 'em) pots of marmalade. At the current rate of scoffage, that should last us for the rest of the year, just about.

Fridge art

This is M's latest creation that we've just added to IKEA's fridge art page on Flickr, called Your Fridge Door.


I'd not really thought about it before, but a virtual fridge door is a great idea. Ours is completely cluttered up with pictures, which have to be culled on a regular basis. I should really start photographing more of them - it would be a great way to document some of the more transient artworks that could then be gently transported to the recycling!

Anyway, the benefit of uploading to the IKEA page is that you get entered into a competition to win lots of art materials. Given the amount we get through, here's hoping we win...

Sushi!

M has a lovely book called Sushi for Kids by Kaoru Ono, which is designed to introduce kids to sushi by following the story of Atsushi and his cat. It's full of beautiful illustrations, and has some really easy recipes at the end.

So at the weekend, we had a go at making nigirizushi and norimaki, which were great fun. We

• cooked some sushi rice, making sure it was on the al dente side
• made a vinegar dressing to sprinkle over the top (with rice vinegar, sugar and salt)
• sliced up some smoked salmon and cucumber

Here's the results. First of all, the nigirizushi. These were dead easy to make - although the rice does have a tendency to stick to your hands.


Then we had a go at the norimaki - sushi wrapped in a seaweed roll. We found the seaweed wrappers in Sainsbury's (I suspect they will be cheaper in some of the supermarkets in Chinatown in Newcastle).

M enjoyed layering up the rice and fillings. We don't have a rolling mat, but found that greaseproof paper works just as well. Here's the finished product:


M took the leftovers to school yesterday for her packed lunch, which flummoxed the dinner ladies somewhat...

Maker Faire here we come

We had a fabulous time at the Maker Faire event at the Centre for Life last year - constructing drawing robots, baking lollipop pies, and generally playing around with all sorts of technology.

This year, we're taking part in the pinhole sunrise camera project. We have to put the camera (handily disguised as a beer can) outside for three months to capture the path of the sun across the sky as spring arrives, and then develop it at the event in March. Can you spot it below?



We'll post the results when we develop them!

Christmas Day in Saltwell Park

Christmas Eve

It's become a tradition on Christmas Eve to set up some landing lights (tea lights in glass jars) down the front path, so Father Christmas can see where he's going. We also scatter some glittery reindeer food...

...and inside there's also a glass of whisky and a mince pie, to reward Father Christmas for coming down our non-existent chimney. He really is rather good at getting past the gas flue and the chipboard.

Christmas!

As is traditional, we've made our gingerbread house (when I say made, I don't mean I made the whole thing - I cheated and bought the sides/roof/chimney in IKEA). We used royal icing to stick it together, and then attached a whole load of sweeties to the roof. The girl liked that bit very much.

It does seem to be listing slightly, and a week on, the smarties on the roof have turned suspiciously white. I suspect the cat, who has a record of previous offences.

In other news, M's also written a letter to Santa. Apparently she wants some shoes for her (Barbie-sized) riders. Bless.

On breakfast

Breakfast in our house tends to be a speedy affair, sandwiched in between waking up, slinging on some clothes and heading out on the school run. At the weekend we're a bit more leisurely, but most of the time it's a hit-and-run.

I've tried making breakfast exciting, with offers of eggs on toast, baked beans or porridge, but what the troops really seem to want is cereal, muesli and yoghurt or toast and something. (Actually, what they really want is croissants, chocolate muesli or pain au chocolat, but that's strictly a weekend treat).

The toast-and-something tastes are clear:

Orb: peanut butter, marmalade, honey
Me: homemade jam (currently working my way through a jar of blackberry and apple), Marmite, marmalade
M: Marmite, marmalade, strawberry jam or Nutella

Usually, it's never the twain shall meet. I don't go near peanut butter, Orb wouldn't dream of letting Marmite touch his knife. None of us have ever tried peanut butter and jelly. I suggested it, but the chorus of boos was overwhelming.

This week, however, we've had a bit of a taste test. The nice people at Whole Earth sent us a couple of jars of peanut butter - crunchy and smooth. So we thought we'd give them a go. Orb's been spreading it on his toast with wild abandon as you'd expect, and M has nicked several bits of his slices, which I think means the crunchy stuff has been a hit. I had a go...but for breakfast, it just wasn't me. Too sticky. However, in a sandwich with either cheese or banana for lunch - now you're talking.

As we say in our house, "two thumbs up good".

The Collings go to Denmark

You might remember back in August we disappeared off to Denmark for a holiday - as guinea pigs for VisitDenmark. Here's a video we made about our trip!



If you want to follow what happened in more detail, here's the links to the blogposts we wrote at the time:

12 August 2010: The packing begins
15 August 2010: Ferry-tastic
15 August 2010: Denmark! (Grenaa Strand campsite)
16 August 2010: Denmark day 2 (Grenaa)
17 August 2010: Denmark day 3 (Kattegatcentret)
18 August 2010: Denmark day 4 (Dansk Landbrugsmuseum)
19 August 2010: Denmark day 5 (Jambo Feriepark)
20 August 2010: Denmark day 6 (Saltum Strand, Aalborg)
21 August 2010: Denmark day 7 (Aalborg Zoo)
22 August 2010: Denmark day 8 (Faarup Sommerland)
26 August 2010: Denmark - the verdict

Too much snow

I may have had enough of the snow now. I've got Christmas cards to write, presents to wrap, and a small girl to shoehorn into a costume for next week's nativity play at school. Enough with the snowflakes!

Other things I haven't had chance to do yet (mostly food-related):

• an exciting peanut butter taste text (the nice people over at Whole Earth have sent us some to review...but the sledging has kind of got in the way a bit)
• make our Christmas cake (I'm going back to the 2008 version)
• build the annual IKEA gingerbread house (learning from previous years, we won't be putting smarties on the roof, as the cat likes to lick them!)
• make mince pies (we did the mincemeat on stir up Sunday)
• make some crafty crackers (although this year, we'll be using tissue paper - it took superhuman levels of strength to pull last year's lot)

Eek. That's quite a lot to get done over the next couple of weeks...