busy busy busy

good grief it has been busy busy busy round here lately.

there have been ridiculous outfits, and severe expansion of comfort zones as I do new and scary things,

like singing on stage.............

there have been trips to distant railway stations to meet special people and wave flags.

there have  been ancient monuments to visit, the highlight of which was definitely the latrines - well for the youngest boy at least!

trips to the North Sea; big, blue and impossibly cold.

and there has plenty of feasting.

In truth it has been mostly about the feasting.

with the occasional wild animal sighting........

fancy a cuppa?

It has been significantly wet and grey this week. which has hindered me in taking the photos of things I wanted to show you. We did have a one morning of nice weather, but I that I used up in the garden, pulling up a multitude of weeds.....

oh and other time it was dry I was stuck inside a dusty gymnasium doing exam invigilating, I think I was even more frustrated to be there than the poor GSCE French students, and they looked pretty fed up I can tell you that......

the upside to being stuck in a lot is the opportunity to drink lots of tea,

and when a moment of photo frustration turned into a flash of inspiration to check my archives for unpublished posts I was thrilled to find these tea related pics,

taken at Beningbrough Hall Gardens.

I am inspired to make a make a mosaic for my garden, but I think it will have to be a little smaller......

dinner's ready

sometimes when you say "dinner's ready" you don't get quite who you expect at the dinner table......

rhubarb muffins

today I am introducing rhubarb muffins.

take the recipe for rhubarb and orange cake, realise you don't have ground almonds, and use some more flour instead.

I cooked the rhubarb a bit first as I didn't think the shorter cooking time for buns would cook the rhubarb properly, dollop the cake mix into bun cases, add a blob of rhubarb, cook for 15 mins, and then add the almond sugary topping, and cooked for a further ten minutes at the lower temperature.



they are Very good.

unfortunately the ones that looked the best got eaten first, without having a photo shoot, so only the sad slightly squished ones (they are very gooey!) were left.

but don't despair, pop on over to Flossie Teacakes, where there is a delightful pattern for a pinflower cake topper, make yourself one or two, and stick them in your cakes.

even squashed cakes look delightful with a pinflower in them!