Trying.

I'm trying new things. After seeing Jane's blog this week with its beautiful big pictures, I thought I'd have a go at growing my images. Like many things it is not as easy as it looks. I'll practise a bit and who knows what wonders will appear. Or not.  Don't panic if the blog changes a couple of times, I'm not the most technical of souls and it might take a while for things to work.


                         
I found this knitting pattern last time I was in the shop. With all the chatter in the UK about Royal Weddings it might be time to bring this one back out. I love the note at the bottom which says adaptable to your own romance. You can adapt romance? What an odd thought.

 In other news, this weekend is the annual RSPB Birdwatch where volunteers sit for an hour watching their gardens and counting how many visitors fly in. I found myself at the kitchen window with a cup of coffee and a small friend for company. So I took a picture, which it got me thinking - imagine what would happen if Amazon sold birds and Magnus got to make a wishlist.......

The joy of eggs.

I often have big plans to write wonderful insightful blog posts. This week I've been thinking about mudita which as far as I can make out is the Buddhist practise of  finding joy in the joy of others. Sort of an antidote to envy.  Mudita would have come in handy this weekend when I found myself under the duvet instead of around a friend's table. My first cancellation of 2011. Thankfully my chums delivered a large piece of chocolate cake ( and the accompanying orange ) to me later on, so I didn't miss out completely.

 

As usual, I strayed onto smaller but no less satifying things. This morning I learned how to tell if an egg was fresh. Somehow we had built up quite a collection of eggs in the fridge and there was a box of six which was older than it should be. All I needed was a bowl of water - fresh eggs sink and the ones you really don't want to use float to the top. My dodgy half dozen all sat at the bottom of the bowl and despite being at least a week past their sell by date shed their shells and became a tortilla which I'm planning to have for my dinner along with the bread I made this afternoon. I had a lovely peaceful time watching the birds from my kitchen window while I waited for the dough to rise.  There was a cake too, really simple and filled with apricots and nuts. I based it on a recipe from Jon and Sarah.  Hopefully it will bring some joy to everyone who gets a slice.

edited to add an answer to Michelle's question - the bird in the reflection is my cut out bird that I've stuck on the window to stop the real ones bashing into the glass!