It’s a refreshing change of scenery for me to lounge around my house all day. With a toddler, it’s hard to stay put. They get bored, you get frustrated and before you know it, you couldn’t care less about the scribbling on the walls, if it means getting two minutes of peace and quiet. The mall and park has always been my answer to moments like these. But over the three months we’ve been in our new home, Georgie and I have developed a new pattern. We rarely leave our little corner of the world and spend hours potting around the garden, cooking, baking and painting. I even managed to put together a little bit of art in the form of stamped triangles. Also, I made a salad with fresh rocket from our vegetable garden. Pat on the back for me because up until three months ago, the only plant that survived in my hands was a cactus. I feel I have a lot to be proud of, especially my little dude who is talking up a storm these days and learning to appreciate days filled with music and Sunday afternoon burgers with the family.
The Victoria Sponge cake or Sandwich cake has to be one of my favourite ‘white’ cakes ever. My dear friend, Alexia makes one of the best I have tasted. I sorely miss her now she’s living in London but I must admit I miss her baking just the same. My version, which I whipped up last Friday afternoon while Georgie was with his grandparents, was taken from The Great British Book of Baking, a gift from my mum. Excellent but made even better thanks to my sister’s homemade strawberry and blackberry jam.
With plenty of paints in my bag and an abundance of flowers, leaves, sticks and stones found in the mountains, Georgie and I spent some time creating. Sometimes, a little help from nature is all you need.
Easter in Cyprus is very much about traditions so there really isn’t any better place to celebrate this time of year than up in the mountains at Georgie’s grandparents summer house in the village. Families come together, many beers and kilos of meat are consumed and little cousins play in the back of pappou’s pickup truck. Of course I doubt anything could compare to the day he sat on a horse for the first time.
The global concept that is the Harlem Shake.