Lotsa cooking today

Here's Sarah putting the finishing touches on her birthday cake (we decided to make it today rather than yesterday, as yesterday was a pretty busy day) - there's still about half of it left, but I shouldn't think there will be at this time tomorrow...



And here's some chutney, made to use our many many green tomatoes - in a couple months' time, I'll let you know if it's any good or not!

I didn't take photos of the roast chicken, roast potatoes & cabbage we had for dinner - perhaps I should have!

11 years ago today - more or less

Not precisely, because this photo was taken at age 3 or 4 weeks, I think. I used it partly because it's cuter than the newborn ones anyway and partly because it was easily accessible, as it's on the wall in a frame. Many of the others of that era are in an album on a top shelf somewhere - yes, Sarah predates digital photography - as does Olivia, for that matter. The photos of Alex are all on the computer, or at least on disc somewhere...

Anyway, happy birthday to my eldest - oh, and please don't remind me how few years I have until she's a teenager!

Very busy

... and here are two of the reasons - having the hallway redecorated (luckily, I am not actually doing the work on that) - and a birthday girl - just got her ears pierced yesterday for the occasion (11 tomorrow). I'm looking forward to things settling down a bit. Maybe it will happen in October. Hah.

Garden visitors

Sarah snapped these chaps in the garden today - they hung around for quite a while. No ponds or anything particularly near us, so not too sure why they were here, but it was nice to see them!

A very quiet house...

Because the smalls are back to school today - here they are about to set off this morning. This will be the last first-day-of-school photo of them all in their matching green jumpers as next September, Sarah will be at a different school than the others. We don't know which school yet, but whichever one, it won't be the same as the other two.

A day at Knebworth

Here's a photo of us out today with my friend Margery - thought I'd share this one as it has me in it (which is something you don't get a lot of as I usually take the photos) and Sarah in it as well (she doesn't usually let me take her photo). This is in the centre of the maze in the garden at Knebworth House, where we went today with Margery, who lives up that way.

And here's my girls - the one who always likes having her photo taken and the one who doesn't...




Lots more photos over here.