Happy Mothering Sunday

Mother's Day is on a different day in America, which has always puzzled me.  Why didn't the Pilgrim fathers take the date with them when they landed on Plymouth Rock?  It seems as though the two celebrations arise from different festivals.  In the UK, Mothering Sunday is the Sunday half-way through lent and was a celebration of Mary, mother of Jesus.  While, in America it started as tribute to Ann Jarvis, who founded a 'Mothers Day Work Club' to bring together the mothers of sons (from both sides) who had died during the Civil War.

 

In this country the celebration wasn't really about mothers, but much more about the Church.  The lent rules on eating were relaxed slightly and children who were in service (often from the age of 10) were allowed to go to their home church (their Mother Church) and take a Simnel Cake for their mother.  

(Ooh this is spooky.  I've just written this as Aled Jones repeats my words on Songs of Praise)

Simnel Cake has now become an Easter tradition although I have never made one before as I hate marzipan.

Today, I have been completely spoilt.  Chocolates, flowers, DVD, a lovely walk with my son and dog and lunch at the pub with my mother, grandmother and the rest of the family.  The best present was that children waited for a gap in my piano practice to come running in with their presents, shouting, "quick, quick, a gap, quick, a gap!" 

Mother's Day always reminds me of making cards in Infant and Junior school.  One year, in the infants, I was in the scruffy demountable  at lunchtime helping the teacher cut out shapes to make flowers on the mother's day cards.  I was chosen because I was a goody two-shoes and could be trusted to use a pair of scissors without stabbing myself.  Another teacher came in and the two adults completely forgot that I was in the room.  They were talking about a girl in my class and whether she should make a card, as she lived with her Dad.  Apparently, her Mum was a 'Huzzy' (a word that was mouthed, Les Dawson style).    It's quite amazing now that she was the only one.  I believe they decided that she could make a card for her Dad, as he was doing everything her Mum would do.

 

Remembering this, made me realise that the long-suffering husband is often Mum to this family too and as he adores marzipan I made him a Simnel Cake.  It is a light lemony fruit cake (4eggs, 8oz) with a disc of marzipan in the middle and decorated with 13 marzipan balls (to represent the apostles)

All at Sea

When I was studying homoeopathy a tutor told us that a person's environment reflects their health and so you should listen very carefully to a patient's experience.  You should ask them about the state of their house and their car.  This caused great hilarity at the time when a chap in the group said, "my gear knob comes off in my hand every time I touch it."

 

Last time I went swimming some water got into my ear and so I've had a few days of dizziness.  It feels as though I'm on a boat, as though I need to hold on just in case I go overboard.  Strangely this also ties in with how I feel about life at the moment being just one small step from the edge of the boat and drowning in a pile of un-learnt songs and paperwork. 

During yesterday's Friday assembly the band were playing as the classes were coming into the hall, for what felt like a VERY long time.  I turned to the headteacher and asked, "are they all in yet?"

Her reply was, "It's like the Titanic, just keep playing, dear!"

 

Then I went to a meeting about how our town is going to celebrate the Olympics.  I am proud to be part of this completely crazy idea.  Essex arts teams are celebrating the Olympics by hosting a game of the giant Olympics.  The project is called Sparks Will Fly  http://www.sparkswillfly.org.uk/  and consists of two giants, Boreas and Marina travelling around Essex to collect glass beads.  Boreas is windy and Marina is watery, so we get Marina visiting us.  The glass beads are to be filled with something that represents the town.  When we first discussed it we thought about filling ours with Beer, Salt and Mud but thought that wouldn't look beautiful enough.  Luckily, our bead has been designed by my very talented friend, who is going to make a Thames Barge sail on a sea of 200 glass bottles, filled with messages from the people of the town.  

 

The bead and bottles will go on display in the library over the Easter holidays. (Keeping libraries used and open - another great thing!)

When Marina The Mightier arrives in Maldon she will process down the High Street and go to the prom, where there will be a carnival atmosphere, with stalls and music and other things to get involved in.

Fire Queen from a Walk the Plank project - how Marina could look

Now, all I have to do is co-ordinate 10 primary schools to learn 10 National Anthems to play with the Maldon Youth Orchestra, after the children have processed down the High Street with the Giant.  Simple.  I'm not drowning - honest! 

Making room for more cake.

No one has ever described me as an athlete.  I was the child chosen last in PE;  the girl who was partnered with the bully teacher for hockey; the person no one ever threw a ball to in rounders but now that I'm a grown up I've found that my love of cake requires a certain level of physical exercise.  I tried the gym and put on half a stone.  I hated it so much that I would reward myself with chocolate after.  I tried dance classes but with two left feet and a dislike for competitive, shouty instructors made me want to punch someone.  I quite liked yoga classes but they made me pass wind, which was rather embarrassing and I was too good at the mediation bit at the end, often having to be woken up because of the snoring.  

 

Swimming is something I've always enjoyed.  I don't have to talk to anyone, I can go at my own speed and there is no sweaty body smell.  It's always so light and bright and blue in the pool that just stepping into the water cheers me up.

This lunchtime I swam 32 lengths, which is 1/2 a mile and should have burnt 290 calories. That should be enough for a small cake.

Today's swim had the added bonus of making me laugh, which is my favourite pastime.  I think there is a disabled swimming group that swims on a Tuesday lunchtime and today there were 4 young men with Downs Syndrome in the pool, having a fantastic time.  They  make me smile every week because they just enjoy every moment of life.  Today one of the lads decided he was going to jump the length of the pool.  Not in one long jump but in separate bounces.  This was fine when he was within his depth but there was a collective holding of breath and sigh of relief as he jumped down to the bottom and sprang back up again out of the water.  He continued until he reached the end of the pool and swam back to meet his friends.  They were so impressed that all four decided to try it.  It was a very funny sight, as they made a line of bouncing human bombs. Singing the Dam Busters march in my head provided the perfect soundrack. The lifeguard wasn't quite sure whether to be worried or not but he was laughing so hard there were tears leaking from his eyes.  

 

When life gives you rhubarb and sprouts

Having an allotment makes you want to eat everything you grow.  The time and effort of digging, weeding, mulching, composting makes you appreciate every plant that reaches a point where you can eat it.

This is my favourite time of year on the allotment.  It's all about promise, planning and planting.  There is no thought of failure.  Every year I plant a row of peas and every year they are a huge disappointment.  This year will be different.  I've tried planting them in a drainpipe (as suggested in the Delia Smith book) but they were almost impossible to transfer into the ground,

Last year one of the old boys told me that the mice were probably eating the seeds and that I needed to ignore the packet and sow the seeds thickly.

That worked really well.  The peas germinated but then the birds pecked that seedlings to death before the seedlings were barely poking their heads through.  This year I've put sticks in the ground to protect the peas from the pecking pests.  When they grow a bit bigger I will protect them with net.

My seeds have been ordered, my potatoes are chitting and the onion sets are sitting on my kitchen table waiting to be planted. 

But the food coming off the allotment is a bit scarce.  The carrots and parsnips have now all gone.  The leeks are still a bit small.  But I have plenty of Brussel sprouts and the rhubarb has just got to point where it can be cut.

Going out for dinner with a carrier bag containing a stalk of sprouts seems a little strange but they don't freeze well and have to be shared.

When life gives you sprouts you should give away as many as possible but when life gives you rhubarb it's time to bake.  The Great British Bake Off cookbook had a recipe for a baked rhubarb and ginger cheesecake.  

I don't remember the episode in which it featured but I'm sure it couldn't have been quite that ugly.  Still, it tasted fine.

First Aid

For twelve years the youth orchestra First Aid box has remained unopened.

It is filled with bandages, tape and plasters.  It could cope with any break or cut and it is a marvel that we have never had to use it.  Especially, when break times are usually spent playing furious games of 'it' (the children not me!)  There have been some injuries over the years, someone usually bashes their instrument into their mouth and makes their lip bleed.  We've had a few nosebleeds, an occasional bruised knee and a bee sting.  We even had a scary moment when a child got his finger stuck up the end of his flute.

Last night we had a serious accident.  The first aid kit was opened and disaster was averted.

Broken Timpani Stick

Trill Seeker

"Miss, what are these little button for?"

The joy of teaching the flute when a pupil discovers the trill keys is indescribable. The smart children try to use them all the time, especially to go from a C to D, which is tricky and the annoying children just love alternating between notes as quickly as they can.  This is then repeated ad nauseum. 

A colleague once told me that a pupil had arrived at the lesson ready to burst.  "I know what these buttons are called," she squeeled. "Do you?" he asked.  "Yes, they're THRILL keys."

Composers love to write trills for woodwind instruments.  It's just laziness really.  They should write out the notes that they want you to play but they just write one note with the symbol tr.... over the top.

Tonight, my friend said, "I haven't got a trill inside my clarinet this evening."

When I replied with a single word, "birdseed.", she just agreed. 

 After a little while she started to worry.  Maybe she has sat next to me for too long.  We were even wearing matching scarves!

The Family Business

Could you work with your brother, sister, father or mother?  For many of us that seems like a terrible idea but it wasn't too long ago that most people followed their parents into the family business and took their siblings with them.  This might be a purely middle class phenomenon, families with a trade would pass their skills onto their children.  The rich pass their money onto their children and the poor pass an ability to 'just keep swimming' to their children.

Maybe my heritage explains my lack of ability to settle to anything.  There were no skills from a trade to pass down.  My father left school at 14 and worked in a garage, then he worked at the airport and finally got lucky and landed a job with the Post Office.  Before anyone gets nostalgic and says, 'those were the days', I must point out that it was a horrible experience for him.  Yes, he's turned out fine but it wouldn't have been his choice. My Grandparents had hundreds of jobs just to keep the family afloat.

Robert Sherman died on Monday.  He and his brother wrote hundreds of tunes, the most famous, when they were working for Disney.  He was the man responsible for It's a Small World.  The song that'll get on your nerves if you ever visit a Disney park.


Robert Sherman singing It's a Small World on You tube


 You can forgive him this when you realise that he is also responsible for Mary Poppins, Aristocrats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Winnie the Pooh and Jungle Book.

Me Ol Bamboo