Angel Jem's City Cottage

Today is gone. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one. Everyday from here to there Funny things are everywhere. Dr Seuss

Back to travelling teaching again. I am enjoying the freedom of supply again; a new school every week, returning to old favourites where the children smile and say hello, the attack and go approach of no paper work, no advanced planning, no records or assessment. Just stand, teach and run. But I feel my toes itching for more. More freedom, more of the bits I like, more fun and friends. More making a difference one child at a time. I have no tutees this year and I am missing that hour a week to really improve one child's attitude or confidence or ability. Perhaps I really do need to get an advert out and find one. Or think of a way to make my daily grind suit that side of my character.

At last.... a month too late and with chronic timing, considering all the travelling DH has to do next week... Snow! The kids enjoyed it. I enjoyed the panoramic views over towards Prescot and around Childwall woods. We built a snowman, 15 cms tall But we had to make him look bigger!

I've never done one of these posts before, probably because I've never had a bag I love so much nor had such an edited life stuffed within. I used to be Akela at a cub pack and I like to Be Prepared, so basically I have always had a Big Bag and everything inside. Headache? Here's a pill. Need scissors? Here! Pen/pencil/stapler/hole punch? All here! But last October we went to London and I bought a small Cath Kidston satchel in the Bicester outlet shop and used it all that week. What a revelation! Small bags are cracking; you don't get given everyone else's 'stuff' to carry and you have to be sure that everything inside your bag earns its place. I used my CK satchel until December, when I had saved enough to get a 'posh' small bag. This is a Bailey and Quinn from Debenhams, bought heavily reduced in the sale, along with its little matching purse . Matching is cute. Princess gave me an Eiffel Tower charm to put on because (I quote) "The p...

The approach of a man's life out of the past is history, and the approach of time out of the future is mystery. Their meeting is the present, and it is consciousness, the only time life is alive. The endless wonder of this meeting is what causes the mind, in its inward liberty of a frozen morning, to turn back and question and remember. The world is full of places. Why is it that I am here?

When last we talked Filofax I was in a crimson Malden . I was loving my red, I had my one and only, my OTF. OK.  I went through an A5 Malden in purple phase . If it had been red, perhaps I would still be there. *sigh* Or if my Chameleon A5 were a Malden perhaps I would justify the size. *sigh* But life is life, yes? And common sense says that A5 is LOVELY to write on but just TOO DARNED HEAVY AND BULKY to carry around. Sorry for shouting. I am back in a crimson Malden. But not my personal size. Matt Malden is resting at the moment. I am using (and loving) Matty Malden, his little brother. Yes, my pocket Malden has surfaced again and I am loving using a pocket Malden as my out and about Malden. But you want set up posts, don't you?  My flyleaf is awaiting a photo of my three best people, yet to print out from this Christmas. Until then it's a Mary Engelbreit  picture cut from an old calendar.  The first section holds shopping lists; a household s...

Mummy it says grease and line a tin that measures.... well, that one looks big enough but might be smaller. Get my favourite pink bowl. Mummy, you got this for me from when Woolies was still open and I  was a little toddler and now you tell me stories of how great they used to be for anything house ish. Put it on top of the scale. Take it off and try again. What does oz mean? Press that button. Mummy aren't the words on the scale funny? Like Oz. Like the Wizard. And what is a tare? Get the ingredients for the brownie out. 275g butter. Do we have butter, Mum, or will Butterlicious do? I made butter at school once. 375g sugar. It says caster sugar. Oops. I put in 380g. Will that matter? 4 large eggs. When I did some cooking at school I put some shell in but the teacher said it would only make the cake crunchy. I don't want crunchy so I'll pick that big bit out... wait... yes, got it.. no. Oh well, never mind. It's only small. 75g cocoa powder. Will...

Today I almost sent my daughter off to school all alone. No, seriously, she would have been the only child there with a staffroom of teachers. I misread the letter and wrote the date wrong on the calendar. Fortunately SHE said it looked very quiet for a school day so I rang and checked. Please don't tell anyone. oops. In my defence it was 8.30 and I wasn't awake. We crept into the house and she crept upstairs and back into her pyjamas. It's now 10.14 and I am awake. But at least we know her uniform is ready. Shoes shone, shirt clean and tie in a place she can find. Thanks to Anne we have a brownie recipe to try out. That was seriously the Princess posting yesterday. She seems very struck by the idea of lots of blogmates. She thinks the idea she can ask for a recipe and get one THAT NIGHT is awesome!!!! So this afternoon's treat will be chocolate brownies. Lovely.

I am the Princess. I am 10 but my birthday is 44 days away. I like to play with my Sylvanian Families and especially  liked it when we went to London  where we had to go to the Sylvanian Families shop. Mum will put some pictures on later. I like to bake and do crafts. Iwould most like to make squidgy chocolate brownies but mum can't find a recipe that will work.

My children have always associated Christmas with snow. They were lucky enough to have snow at or around Christmas during their most formative years (about 3 until 7 for the Princess) and although the past few years have been disappointing, they still dream that White goes with Christmas.  Ultimate dream? Snow tonight so hard that there is a snow day off school tomorrow and Tuesday but not hard enough to keep them in all day. Dream on, children, dream on. But it does mean that red skies are greeted with 'Will it snow?' Hmm. My living room has grown in size again. I swear there is something almost Carrollian in the way my room shrinks at Christmas time, almost as though the tree and assorted decorations have the same power as that small bottle Alice drank, so that either we grow larger or the room itself shrinks and suddenly we feel hemmed in and trip over each other. Today it is quite the opposite. The space is positively overwhelming. And not just space. A goo...

And I have to tiptoe through the Sylvanians. Oops.

 Jack and Mabel are homesteaders out in Alaska who are failing to make a go of their small farm. It's cold and getting colder, their marriage is cold and getting colder and on so many levels they are losing each other. The day the first snow falls, the two of them go outside and make a snow girl, with scarf and hat. Jack shapes its face, they stroke and kiss it and go inside. In the morning the scarf and hat are gone, and so is the snow girl. Footsteps lead away from the spot where she was built but none lead to, and the mystery begins. When later on they see a girl in the woods, hiding, creeping close but staying away from shyness or caution, they don't know what to think.Is it their snow girl brought to life, or a lost child? The story unfolds, with their relationship with each other and the people around them growing in importance as it goes on. Mabel sees a link between their life and a Russian fairy story of a snow child who comes to an elderly childless couple, with...

A cup of Chai tea. I love it, it's so warming and spicy. And Princess likes it too. I'm blogging about the happiness in my daily cuppa over on Happy Angel . Please pop over!

It's the 6th on Sunday, but we'll be out at church and then out for a walk. Saturday I'll be up and helping my mother to take down her Christmas decorations. Friday I've promised them one last trip out for the holidays so today.... Today is the day to say farewell to Father Christmas to the tree with all the decorations, bought and made over the years to the fireplace with its berry garland and trees that are (ahem) over 40 years old to the nativity scene that has made me smile everytime I look at it to the fireplace with a stocking for all to the Christmas tray in the kitchen.... no, wait. That stays there all year And so does the simple wooden nativity on my windowsill.  A year long reminder of the warmest season of the year. The season that makes me smile and want to live by Scrooge's words,    "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirit...