Meet my lovely, crazy friend...

Ikue! and the first person to leave a comment on the blog, so those gloves will be on the way to Japan very soon! I hope she'll forgive me posting these pictures! Shirlei (her mother in law) was very concerned that Ikue should have some colour on her lips before we left for the city!

Ikue is pregnant at the moment and is expecting Boo's arrival towards the end of March..very exciting! I'm pretty glad that she will have had Boo before the weather turns really hot over there. I received a lovely email from her today with lots of news and it made me feel very close to her, she always has wise advice to give. Thankyou Iku...

Mum is on a 'knitting bags' workshop today at Purl & Co in town, I'll look forward to seeing her efforts later. It's been a fairly domestic morning for me, making poppyseed bread and leek and potato soup...and trying to stop myself from nibbling on the carrot cake made the other day from the Rose bakery book 'Breakfast, Lunch, Tea'. This book comes much recommended, not only for the fantastic photography which makes you want to nip over to Paris straight away but also for the pretty simple and straightforward recipes. We've had some success so far with date scones, shortbread biscuits, orange and choc ricotta tart and now the carrot cake. It is really moist and the icing not too sweet..yum.