date scones . baby eyes . don't look away

Occasionally he snags my eyes. I know his eye sight shifts in and out of focus but when a baby catches your eyes in his, a person cannot look away. You just can’t. No date scones for you, I say.

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I am finding it hard to write to you this morning. Even though things are calm and getting organized here, I don’t seem to be able to calm my mind into any kind of focus. I still have not made the date scones I have been promising us all week! My desk is piled with camera equipment (I bought an old second hand camera to replace Camera House) but what a mess. My mind continues to tumble through talking points. And startle with each new horror coming out of my adopted country - USA. The baby is sleeping longer each bedtime now that his feeding schedule has come into focus. He is back at birthweight and surpassed it. Putting on weight fast.

Occasionally he snags my eyes. I know his eye sight shifts in and out of focus but when a baby catches your eyes in his, a person cannot look away. You just can’t. He rears his head back to try and see my eyes, throwing his whole body off balance to find my eyes. His mother will speak from across the room and his eyes flick there, his head slowly following, tracking his person.

It feels like he only has control of his eyes, his body is furiously flying this way and that - jerking about, his hands out of control, his legs running in air, in oversized clothes but his eyes will stay on my face for long seconds at a time.

“What are you thinking.” I say to him. He blinks - his navy gaze steady.

At 10 days old, a baby can see mostly in black, white, and shades of gray, focusing best on objects about 8 to 10 inches away, such as a parent’s face, but their vision is still blurry. The periods of sharp vision becoming longer as they grow until they see in colour hopefully with clarity by about 4 months of age.

My best friend Donna who died way too young used to tell us that her older sisters would hold her face to the sun so she would shut her eyes and go to sleep faster. I am not sure that was wise but it was a funny story!

Human babies are like baby birds, sat in their nest waiting for food. It will be months before he can see clearly but due to their dependence on the more ambulatory members of their tribe clarity of vision takes an evolutionary back seat. Whereas piglets (the only other mammal I have closely studied) are up and walking within minutes of birth and though initially blurry, piglets see their environment better faster. Piglets are prey animals whereas humans are predators - it is a marked distinction.

At 10 days old, piglets have functional vision but their eyes are still immature, so their sight is not fully developed or perfectly sharp, though they can see and recognize their environment and social cues;

Pigs are generally nearsighted with approximately 310-degree vision and dichromatic color perception.

I talk more about pigs eyes right here if you are interested.

Mother and baby are still sleeping roundly. Dawn is always a good baby sleeping time so I am going to make our date scones. The oven will warm up the kitchen too.

Date Scones.

I have created a number of posts on scones before - here (there are cows in this post too) and here.

The recipe is about the same each time.

When making scones use your pastry brain. Go fast. Keep the butter chilled.

• 4oz butter (frozen and grated)

• 3 cups flour

• 3 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 heaped tablespoon sugar - to taste

• Pinch of salt

• 1 1/2 cups of cold milk

• Lots of dates

Tips:

• Take out a heaped tablespoon of flour and replace with a heaped tablespoon of cornflour.

• Chop the dates and toss in the flour so the dates don’t clump together.

• Grate in frozen butter.

• Substitute milk with milk and water.

• Mix until it all comes together into a shaggy ball.

Pat out to about an inch and a half deep. Cut into round shapes with cup.

Place in baking sheet close together to encourage a rise in the scones.

Mrs Northey from down the road who always cooked on a coal range told me (when I was a child) to bake the scones at 500f (260c) for 5 minutes. But 15 minutes at 450f (232c) works just fine.

Cooking times depend on your oven.

I tried to capture an image of the steam rising from these scones - failed🤣- so I got a cup of tea and buttered a scone and just ate it.

Best eaten warm.

Very sweetly at morning tea time, in the hospital where baby was born, the tea lady pushed her trolley through the wards giving out cups of tea and scones topped with raspberry jam and swirls of real whipped cream, to all the new mums.

I loved that little rural hospital with the great big sash windows open to the lemon trees in their garden and their scones and tea ladies.

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The pond in the country in summer.

The fish are getting bigger! Can you see them?

And we can see clearly that there are two ducks and a drake. Pure good luck.

Have a lovely day!

Celi