cupcakes and sweet things...

Hey there folks! It's been a while....I've been spurred on to write by the news that my friends Ikue and Nei have had a little baby boy called Kaito on March 28th. She sent me some photos yesterday and he is truly a beautiful little boy, you just know that he's going to make them both so happy...so congratulations to you both..Just one more reason to start saving again for a Japanese visit!

The weathers been lovely the last week and I've been forced to make a detour on the usual morning walks with Nas due to the farmer ploughing his fields. This is probably a good thing as it's meant we've seen a different route and daft as it sounds I'm often wondering if Nas is 'bovvered or bored' by the same old walk every day..I'd like to venture further afield on the routes that Dad uses, he seems to know all the public footpaths round here, but when I'm on my own I guess I'm more cautious..

These tulips were my donation to Mother's day although that seems a long time ago now, but they looked bright and cheerful for a while. Tulips may well be my favourite flower.

Since last posting, I've made a few batches of cupcakes from Nigella's recipe. They seem to have turned out quite well and taste quite light. For Easter I'd made some pretty rich chocolate butter cream and put mini eggs on...yum! Yesterday, there was a lime that needed using so the juice of this and some poppyseeds went into the mixture and then royal icing on top, after photographing these I couldn't resist one!

It's been an odd few weeks, lots of things seemed to have happened or not happened. I've still not been able to start the job due to a reference not being received yet...but have been in Oxfam twice a week and enjoying that...mum came down with a nasty D & V bug which laid her up in bed for a while...Dad's been aching all over the place and sold his beloved AJS motorbike as he doesn't have the strength to kick start it anymore. My sister Jo came down for a couple of days last week, and a lovely cardy for my birthday, and I met up with Liv after a long while and we saw a film and caught up with life, the universe, and everything... She's about 6 months pregnant now and finding it tiring to walk , bless her.

On my birthday we saw the film 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' adapted from the book dictated through blinking after the author had a massive stroke and lived with 'locked-in syndrome'. Set in a rehab hospital on the coast of Calais, it really showed his perspective and the frustrations he felt, and the extraordinary task he took on of writing the book through his only form of communication, blinking with one eye. After a while he found some kind of consolation within him that he could now do anything with his imagination and could live through this if not through his body. It was a really inventive and beautifully shot film, and nearly had me on the verge several times. Sadly, the author died several days after the book was published. I'm just reading it now and is very readable.