Pretty amazing

We had a party on Sunday to celebrate my Mum's birthday - it was a great day - she loves being surrounded by her family. This blog is a tribute to my Mum who is amazing. At 74 she looks fantastic and she's the kindest most caring person. She's always there for us and the grandchildren and we love her. I think her secret is that she's never grown up - I hope I'm following in her footsteps.

Stop and stare 4

We went to Brighton last night to see Nouvelle Vague and there opposite the Pavilion, was a huge upside down purple cow. It's a 396 seater venue being used for some of the Brighton Festival events and was initially launched at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006. It's becoming quite famous - understandably so - it's not everyday you come across such a spectacular purple sight - that's the height of 7.5 elephants, 4 double decker buses or 14 cows standing on top of each other. I wonder what little purple cow will make of it.

Hunter gatherer

This weekend I went picking elderflowers with the intention of making elderflower cordial. It was pouring with rain and the countryside was such a bright intense green and so was the smell (if you know what I mean!). I found plenty of flowers and returned home to make it. It's turned out pretty well so I'll add the recipe:

2 lemons - rind grated & then sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

1 - 1.5kg sugar depending upon taste

20 elderflower heads

1.5 litres of boiling water

Put the sugar in a large bowl, pour on the boiling water and stir until dissolved.

Add lemon rind, slices, juice and the elderflower heads.

Leave for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.

Sieve through muslin and pour into clean wine bottles with a screw lid.

(I seem to have plenty of these!)

Refrigerate & use diluted with sparkling water or freeze in plastic bottles for later use.

I couldn't resist drawing the flowers and making labels for the bottles. I'm in my element when doing this kind of thing - it's amazing how much food you can find for free. I pick wild mushrooms, giant puffballs & inkcaps which are great cooked with garlic and are easy to identify, wild strawberries, raspberries from the woods and blackberries from the cemetery. A couple of weeks ago I made nettle soup for the first time - just using the young shoots of the stinging nettle - it always makes me feel incredibly healthy eating such fresh food and there's something good about knowing where it's come from.

So that's the gathering bit - not too sure about the hunting though.

How it really is

I love it that Dove are starting to tell it like it really is, in their advertising. Using real women, raising children's self esteem, campaigning for real beauty, launching a new product called pro-age and celebrating the beauty of older women. Hopefully this is the start of things to come in the advertising industry.

My lovely shoes

This is very trivial I know but I've just bought some shoes that I love and that doesn't happen very often. What I love about them is - they're unusual, pretty, comfy and they make me feel good! Made in Spain by The Art Company each one is hand finished - the insides have a flowery design too - so does the tissue paper they're wrapped in. It's great to see individual design creeping back into the high street after years of blandness.