Hello,
Happy 2025 – hope it brings all you dream of!
I’ve yet to make a vision board for the year ahead, but there’s some words or themes coming up around ease and pleasure.
A friend and I shared all the things we’d like to draw in this year when we did the Burning the Clock procession for Winter Solstice; there was a heavy focus on sensuality and pleasure!
It's a pleasure to be back today, writing this newsletter, sending love and a hope for deep rest from my nest to yours!
I had a wonderful festive season – there were pockets of lush connection with all the kids, some silliness, dancing and even a numbing sea swim on Boxing Day with my older daughter.
Here’s What I’ve Been Up To:
Planning 12th Night
It’s Epiphany on 6th Jan and we usually make a Galette des Rois to celebrate. We take all the Christmas decorations down on 5th - I still feel a bit superstitious about this! I hunt around the house and make sure that every festive reference is removed. Often we'll have a fire on this night so I can put bits in the fire too, to make way for the new.
Then we celebrate the end of the festive period with some sticky puff pastry! Here’s a recipe for a vegan version of the traditional Galette des Rois (or 3 Kings cake).
Take a sheet of vegan puff pastry and divide it in half. Roll each piece out to make a 25cm circle. Lay one of the circles on a piece of baking parchment on a baking tray and spread with 2 tbsp apricot jam. Leave 2cm uncovered, around the edge of the circle. Beat 100g vegan butter and 100g caster sugar together to make a paste. Add 100g ground almonds. Smooth this paste over the jam. Brush the edge of the puff with water and add the second circle on top. Brush the top of the pie with oat milk, and decorate with a herringbone pattern. You can scallop the edges too, using a knife held upright and pushed a little way in towards the centre all the way around the circle. Bake for 25 minutes at 200ºC, until golden and delicious!
Sometimes we'll insert a pound coin into the pie. Whoever gets the slice of pie with the coin becomes sovereign for the day! To clean the coin you can pop it in a small dish of ketchup or use some bicarbonate of soda an an old toothbrush.
Find out more about the history of the Galette des Rois and a chocolate/pear version here. The lovely picture above is Mary Berry's version for Good Food.
Working out our Home Ed Plan
I'm on a mission to keep things simple this term. I have a tendency to create a home education plan that encompasses everything and leaves very little free time and space. My older two kids would attest to this! What happens then is that we end up following it for a couple of weeks, and then abandon the whole plan because it’s unwieldy and overwhelming. This year I'm approaching things differently.
