Merry times

Cookies by BigC using the kit she snagged at H/M's naughty Santa party

Santa brings dresses and a puppy

Keeping Busy

With the school getting set to shut down for the winter break, BigC brought home the guinea-pig and LilC would not stray away from it introducing everyone who came home to it and telling everyone about it. BigC is putting some of the bendaroos to use forming them into bugs, giraffes and cupcakes. She's knit an endless piece that Amma cleverly folded up and crocheted the sides to make into a bag for "Nisha". Nisha's one lucky doll with Amma also knitting her a winter dress/hat and making a silken dress. .

mehendi just in time for BigC's PKK dance

Deck the tree

Since BigC's 1st Christmas, it has been the norm to get a tree her height the week of thanksgiving and have her deck it up. The first couple of years were a trial with potted trees that we'd then plant in the garden and soon it struck that we'd have one too many conifers. Having made our peace with cut-trees, this year was the year to try cutting her own with Appa. Moi wanted a blue tree but, it was dark by the time they got there and me thinks they brought home the first tree they could find - a green bushy one complete with creepy-crawlies. LilC enjoyed her 1st tree arranging and re-arranging the lower half of the tree until it was time to take it out.

BigC's summer-camp also had a winter fused-glass session that we decided to try and ended up making some ornament give-aways.

Finally had enough people to try out the "Mechoui" at Marrakesh. Being a Monday, the restaurant was able to accomodate our last minute request. LilC got up on the low table and danced to the arabian music playing in the background - making up for the missing Belly-dancing element. Justice we did to the dish, as we only had a couple sandwiches worth of leftovers. The chef even accomodated a couple of vegetarians in the group!!  

in the garden - mandevilla blooming into November

September Cheer

September is the new August, it appears - blue skies, an ever-so-little nip in the evening air and the winds bringing down the pots. With the kids back in school, grandparents visiting are leaving in a hurry. Baked the cherry upside-down cake for the get-together and made punjabi-chole for dinner that was so tasty that i am still in doubt if its the tea when boiling the channa. S wanted to have some panna-cotta while the weather still allowed for it which answered the usual dessert dilemma. Sprouted mung and horsegram for a couple of new recipes - one for a refreshing salad with carrots and apples and another for curry from Amma. Not sure why it took me this long to try these! Better late than never!!

Attended back to back arangetrams from BigC's dance school while also squeezing in BigC's Fall piano recital. Exhilarating performances and choreography suiting the dancers' strengths by a dedicated teacher makes one hope that their kids will also be there one day. Came away from a canning class all set to jam/pickle as soon as i can buy some jars, that is. Planted some long-overdue trees around the yard and hoping they will take off. Ogled at a few beautiful private gardens around town and came away with a list of plants and ideas to implement - a rain-catcher into the lily-bowl being a top-pick.

in the garden - kniphofia

 

First Summer/vacation

 Although the calendar says its summer, as has been the norm around here, summer has been playing peekaboo. We have had the odd HOT day this month and that seems to be consolation enough. For LilC, this is the first real summer - no longer dashing off into the street as soon as someone opens the door. The trip to the berry patch was quite happening as it was figured one was allowed to eat stuff off the plants, getting some not so good berries and spitting them out and learning to say 'stawbewy'. Luckily, it was cloudy and I even broke a sweat being the sole picker for the tribe. Having always wanted to extend the life of the berries, tried my hand at jamming this year. Being a minimalist, the whole preserving process always felt like overkill. Its amazing how little jam 3 pounds of berries make! This recipe uses about a cup and half of sugar and 3tbsp of lemon juice. The berries are definitely the star - the most brilliant jam (color and taste) you'll ever happen upon!

For BigC, this is the first summer vacation - no waking up to alarms, no hurry to get anywhere, making daisy wreaths from those picked on a walk, icecream in the middle of the day. It was quite the eye-opener that even left to their own, they are up and ready to go roughly at the same time as school. A hectic week ensued due to poor scheduling but, all have made it through with energy to spare, enough for a engagement party at a new Indican restaurant-bollywood theater (best to keep to the street food selection) Drama camp has been a great outlet for BigC's stories and crafts (rose for Briar Rose as Twelfth fairy) - even narrating a skit BigC wrote while older kids enacted it. 

in the garden - heirloom roses, alliums, pink spanish lavender and heirloom gladiolus - the flowers have a light and feathery look than the much maligned hybrid staples in bouquets