Oh yes indeedy - who needs silly old diamonds anyway? Now how to drop the hint to my class that I'd like to receive these lovely ones from Biscuiteers instead of a box of Roses at the end of term? Hmm...
tip off came from the lovely Greg
I am totally obsessed with these tents at the moment. I want one, pure and simple. And I don't think I'll shut up about it until I've got one. Hmph.
I meant to post about this a week or so ago, but things have been a little odd lately, y'know how it is. Anyway, over half term we went for camping for a few days at Fforest, near to Cardigan in Wales - and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Tents are well spaced out (no more than 8 tipis in one field, spaced around the edge), and include a wood-burning stove - making it definitely not coldatnight, as their url suggests. Additionally you get your own kitchen area, there's a Cedar Barrel Sauna in the woods, films shown at night, fresh breakfast is included... I could go on.
Anyway, as it was (kind of) for my birthday I had the additional bonus of an Ottolenghi meringue (thanks Tash!) to tuck into when I arrived. How smug am I?
Always good to get side-tracked productively, and with 28 school reports to write, who can blame me? I look forward to trying this jam later on :)
recipe available, if anyone's interested, let me know.
Ok Beddard, it's a while since you've had a rant, so here we go. Deep breath, I'm getting a good run up...
As a young child I was pretty interested in cooking. However. And it's a big however. My experience of cooking was this: making bread with a friend's mum (she volunteered) = awesome; designing a hot drink for 16 OAPs at 20p a head = big time suck; costing up my prize-winning brownies for a production line = bigger suck.
Why is it, that despite the whole 'obesity epidemic' the government just don't seem to get the fact that we're not educating kids to love and care about the food they eat. Somewhere along the line simple cooking turned into home economics, which then became 'food technology' in the 1990's.
If you supply kids with the following brief (as I was today in a teacher training session led by an LEA expert) all you will do is turn them off food for quite some time: Design a mid-day meal for 54 OAPs on a coach day-trip to Margate during a cold winter. It should be nutritious, and cost no more than 75p per head. There are no special dietary requirements.
Yipee. As an adult on the receiving end of this I could hardly even be bothered to work out the total budget, let alone argue the nutritional value of mash vs pasta. Is it just me, or is this exactly the kind of thing that puts you off cooking? I certainly received briefs like this during secondary school - and remember it shaping my attitude towards cooking and the food I ate. Until I was 18 and moved out of home, my entire cooking repertoire consisted of chocolate brownies and tuna pasta salad. Only, there isn't even any salad in TPS!
What's wrong with teaching kids how to cook? Things they like - for themselves! Surely you have to foster a love of cooking for themselves before you start worrying them with what a fucking coach-load of OAPs might want to eat for lunch, no?
Ok, big breath, rant over.
It's sad to learn that less than 10% of children get to play in natural places such as woodlands, as reported by the Field Studies Council.
I never got round to saying anything about it, but about a month ago I went on a school journey to stay at the Magdalen Project on the Dorset, Somerset border. It's an amazing place, "encouraging children and adults to learn new skills, enjoy new experiences and develop a greater understanding of the countryside and a more sustainable approach to life." Girls whom previously drew hearts on absolutely everything, suddenly became obsessed with jumping in 'squishy mud', preferably falling into it if at all possible. And many of them, I realised, had never experienced true darkness - something of an impossibility coming from inner London. It was a real eye-opener to say the least.
With all this in mind, I am more excited than ever to be moving back to Cornwall - where I'll get to camp out at the place pictured above as often as I like through the summer holidays. I hope that in my new school there will be ways to fit as much of the outdoors as possible into the National Curriculum. Fingers crossed.
Check out this cool book-making tutorial from the Small Object. I would be super excited to receive such a lovely box of books as a present - what a lucky nephew :)
