Breathing out....

Letting go...of fears, of change, of fear of the unknown, the future...
looking at the past and now...this is it...living the last few moments and then they have gone
so here we are already in the future...and all is well....breathing in...and out
connect to the Cosmo and open your heart to possibilities, accepting the change and letting go ...
see how, see how life flows....just flows....


The last few days at school have been full of laughter and joy but also tears...so many leaving...moving away...it is hard to stay positive and accept things....

But we had festivals and lovely days where we came together in various ways...one of these was the multicultural festival. We prepared and cooked rice stuffed baked tomatoes- pomodori al riso.
This is Morgana helping with the preparations and the cooking.

cutting the 'hats'

then...scooping the inside of the tomatoes...

then making the sauce with garlic and parsley

then stirring the tomatoes with rice

normally beef tomatoes are used but we used smaller ones this time

it is quite hard the scooping takes long as you

















must not break the tomatoes!


then put them upside-down to drain

then we filled them with the rice/tomato/herb and garlic mix and put the hats back on

in between each tomato we put a wedge of potato, then a bit of water in the roasting pan, sea salt and olive oil...
baked in the oven for around one hour or so...

until nice and golden!

yum!

so we took them to the festival and this is what others brought too...yum yum..!

Aubergine Parmesane

potatoe salad

caramelised onion and goat cheese tart

various sweets

and sweet little people!

we had fun, song, music, dance and drumming and much more!
here are some special moments...

my puppet play was really nice! a simple story we tell the 0 to 3 years old at parent and Child sessions.

putting the dot in the right place on the map!

felting bracelets

my little flying creatures made of wool and nature findings

a few days later in the week we had the pleasure to see the festival of work in which all the lower school children performed for the parents...some moments very moving for various reasons. ...

the cellos of the school orchestra

class 4  performing an encore for us parents at Woodlands..they made the piece up themselves and put together this little show

they sang 'So long, farewell...' from The Sound of Music 

There , one by one they say goodbye...
Goodbye J.

goodbye....

Goodbye F.

So long, farewell...

Goodbye E.

oh well just my Morgana and L. left !

our class 5  next year!

oh well...

Sun and Moon dance - on rhythm and repetition

The Dance of Life
The Dance of Sun  and Moon
Of the Day and the Night
The dance of Life
Of the four Seasons
And of brighter light
The dancing Sun
Shining, lighting the way Summer  fire  all  around us,

And within us

The rhythm of the heart

The pulse of Life

Breathing in and out

With the Universe

The importance of Rhythm and Repetition

Rhythm means repetition with variation, and it is vital and healthy for living organisms. Our bodies dance to the tune of many rhythms, all of which harmonise into one vast symphony when we are healthy. Our internal organs have a rhythm of their own but we are all in tune with our environment, the elements and the natural rhythms of life.

Children need a healthy rhythm in their lives in order to maintain their own inner rhythms.

Daily routines create in the child a sense of security and belonging; children thrive on rhythm in their lives. A rhythmic home life in the years of childhood and rhythms in their life of learning will give them something of inestimable value for life. From the basic first rhythms such as eating and sleeping to daily patterns, centring around meal times and bed times; as long as the rhythm is a familiar one, the child feels relaxed, confident and secure. Also, the transition from one activity to the other has to be gentle and slow so not to cause a sudden change.

Like the seasons, we breathe in and out and children live at the same pace and more in tune with nature than us adults. Children need to experience the qualities of the natural rhythms to build a stronger connection with nature and with themselves as individuals.

So let the child experience each waking hour of the day and the sleeping time, and the buzzing activities and the quiet times, and the day and the night, and the days of the week and the months and the seasons and the years…let the child flow between these and live and play in freedom; let the child remember and learn; let’s enrich the children’s souls.

Let the children feel safe and let them trust themselves. This will bring self confidence and support learning.

And in Life's noisiest hour,
There whispers still the ceaseless Love of Thee,
The heart's Self-solace and soliloquy.

You mould my Hopes, you fashion me within;
And to the leading Love-throb in the Heart
Thro' all my Being, thro' my pulse's beat;
You lie in all my many Thoughts, like Light,
Like the fair light of Dawn, or summer Eve
On rippling Stream, or cloud-reflecting Lake.

And looking to the Heaven, that bends above you,
How oft! I bless the Lot that made me love you.

The Presence of Love
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Sun and Moon dance - on rhythm and repetition

The Dance of Life
The Dance of Sun  and Moon
Of the Day and the Night
The dance of Life
Of the four Seasons
And of brighter light
The dancing Sun
Shining, lighting the way Summer  fire  all  around us,

And within us

The rhythm of the heart

The pulse of Life

Breathing in and out

With the Universe

The importance of Rhythm and Repetition

Rhythm means repetition with variation, and it is vital and healthy for living organisms. Our bodies dance to the tune of many rhythms, all of which harmonise into one vast symphony when we are healthy. Our internal organs have a rhythm of their own but we are all in tune with our environment, the elements and the natural rhythms of life.

Children need a healthy rhythm in their lives in order to maintain their own inner rhythms.

Daily routines create in the child a sense of security and belonging; children thrive on rhythm in their lives. A rhythmic home life in the years of childhood and rhythms in their life of learning will give them something of inestimable value for life. From the basic first rhythms such as eating and sleeping to daily patterns, centring around meal times and bed times; as long as the rhythm is a familiar one, the child feels relaxed, confident and secure. Also, the transition from one activity to the other has to be gentle and slow so not to cause a sudden change.

Like the seasons, we breathe in and out and children live at the same pace and more in tune with nature than us adults. Children need to experience the qualities of the natural rhythms to build a stronger connection with nature and with themselves as individuals.

So let the child experience each waking hour of the day and the sleeping time, and the buzzing activities and the quiet times, and the day and the night, and the days of the week and the months and the seasons and the years…let the child flow between these and live and play in freedom; let the child remember and learn; let’s enrich the children’s souls.

Let the children feel safe and let them trust themselves. This will bring self confidence and support learning.

And in Life's noisiest hour,
There whispers still the ceaseless Love of Thee,
The heart's Self-solace and soliloquy.

You mould my Hopes, you fashion me within;
And to the leading Love-throb in the Heart
Thro' all my Being, thro' my pulse's beat;
You lie in all my many Thoughts, like Light,
Like the fair light of Dawn, or summer Eve
On rippling Stream, or cloud-reflecting Lake.

And looking to the Heaven, that bends above you,
How oft! I bless the Lot that made me love you.

The Presence of Love
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

going to the market!

Going to the market is fun.

A multi sensorial experience!

Colours, smells, people...
Inspiration and much more

Craft Market Greenwich

Indeed wild about food and food markets! ( Blackheath Farmer's market)

yummy!!!

Olga, Russian lady married to a Maltese man have this wonderful little stall and they have a passion for wild and locally grown and picked herbs and use it for their delicious food, this pie was really good. I had a lovely elderflower cordial too! A nice touch on a very warm days!

I was inspired by these super colourful tomatoes for my Greek salad last Sunday

Full of sunshine!

These lovely purple cauliflowers were so attractive! Got to back tomorrow to get some!

I hope to see you at the farmers market in Blackheath! Sunday 10th

To market , to market...

Market atmosphere is just so great, with busy, buzzy people, selling and the browsers looking ; the regulars, who know all the stalls and the best produce, the ones looking for good bargains, the simply curious, the tourists...I go for the simple reason that I just love hanging around markets and in the past I had the pleasure to work at a shop which had a stall in front of it, in the middle of super trendy and alternative Spitalfields Market...it was still not as popular as now, never as busy as Camden Market...but more relaxed and original: that was in 1998!

Markets have a vibrant positive energy, a gathering energy, which I simply adore!

I go to different markets on different days and locations; on Sundays I go to the Blackheath Farmer's market: there I usually get some salad, greens, like kale or sprouting broccoli, I sometimes get flowers or a little plant for my front porch, I always get focaccia bread and pretzel and cheese straws, all from different bakeries! Sometimes I get apples and apple juice. So Monday Morgana gets pretty much the same lunch!

On Wednesdays I go to Greenwich Market; there I go always to this lovely lady who sells fresh vegetables from Kent. She also sells lovely households and kitchen objects such as knitted animals, tea towels, cups and vases, mainly from friend's houses or home made patchwork rugs and cushions, baskets, etc...I always go to Steve's shop, the health food shop, to get little bits that I can't get with my weekly supermarket delivery - a bit like a top-up shopping.
I usually sit down to have lunch in the middle of the market at a table near the little coffee van, I sometimes get a cup of tea from there; my lunch is sometimes brown rice and vegetable curry from the heath food shop, or veggie sushi, or I bring my own hummous and crudites from home...

On Saturdays I go to various markets and not as regularly...it kind of depends on my mood! So sometimes I choos Borough Market, sometimes Greenwich market, both of which I need to go very early to or otherwise will be 'crushed' by people! Occasionally I visit Dulwich Farmer's Market, which is on the 4th Sunday of each month. Occasionally I go to Manor House Park to their Farmer's Market each first Saturday of the month.

On my last visit to Dulwich I met EvaGreek and had the most amazing stuffed baked tomato with rice and herbs and potatoes and these biscuits which were the closest thing to the sesame biscuits my Auntie makes in Italy, it is a Sicilian recipe, surely similar to the Greek one! So I felt at home!



More info on Dulwich market here:

http://www.weareccfm.com/Dulwich.html



What a choice out there! What a delight!

So now enjoy my snaps that I took from time to time as a market journal!







It was the hottest day of the year in Blackheath, London, and these chillies inspired me to make a salsa for tortilla chips!

sometimes I go by bike and sometimes I walk to the market!

today was too hot for bikes!

fresh herbs are essential in my cooking, my favourite is coriander, but I have basil on my mozzarella and tomato salad and rosemary on my oven potatoes, oregano on my greek salad and parsley on my potatoe salad with chives...yum

This is where I get my salads...they are so fresh...Morgana loves munching on sorrel as we walk amongst the stalls...

My favourite of the month!

And this is the lovely wild herb man!

today they sold edible flowers too!

which I put a few hours later in my salad at Svetlana's house, for all the guests to have!

How pretty ( and how delicious!)

Then we got some apples...

Morgana's favourite apple juice!

Then off to Exeter Street Bakery stall...for authentic taste of Italian bread...

If I don't go early, focaccia will be all gone!

O che bei fiori!

Morgana's crying Mummy pleeeeeeeease can I have a pretzel?!

And of course I have to get two, one for eating on the way back home, and one for her lunch at school in the morning!

This is Sunday's Blackheath market...for the other markets I will edit a new post!

It is Sunday now and it is 10.20 and I am getting slightly worried about missing the focaccia, so off to market now!

Hope to meet you there!

Susannah