love those cupcakes

Decisions

Should I make a start on the mountain of laundry?

Should I  clean the bathroom? 

Should I vacuum and dust the living room?

Should I de-clutter the hall cupboard?

Should I blitz the bedrooms?

Should I settle down with the new magazines and a mint chocolate cupcake?

I've decided.

 

Have a good weekend, whatever you decide to do.

The Story of the New Kitchen (or Away With the Fairies)

Once upon a time, a woman living a mostly happy life in the north east of England decided she needed to make changes to the place she called home.  "That kitchen", she said one morning to her husband of many years (who, it has to be said, usually turned an impressively deaf ear to her seemingly endless improvement plans) "has to go".   She had an idea of what she wanted the little space in which she enjoyed creating sweet and sparkly confections to look like and,in due course ( after plying her husband with the sweetest, sparkliest, most buttery little cakes she could muster) the work to transform the old, no longer loved, kitchen began. 

Just as the husband had predicted (with words spoken only in his head, you understand), the woman soon began to have regrets about the chain of events that had been set in motion by the simple writing of a signature on a dotted line. She hadn't fully comprehended what life would be like, albeit in the short term,  without the (by now not always reliable) electrical gadgetry she had come to take for granted - the washing machine, the cooker, the dishwasher, the sink with the waste disposal, the fridge and the freezer.   

The jolly kitchen fitters, fuelled with gallons of Tetley tea and mountains of McVitie's digestives, tried their best to make her smile as they beavered away to the incessant strains of Century Radio.  But,  with the wrong sink being fitted, a mix-up with the handles being delivered and the granite worktop being dropped, the woman found she had lost her sense of humour. 

The weeks passed and she relied more and more on a couple of  old friends to provide sustenance of the ready meal variety.  As November turned into December, she had nightmarish visions of having to defrost a spinach and ricotta lasagne for Christmas lunch instead of serving her traditional home cooked Cashew Nut Roast With A Delicious Chestnut Stuffing Layer And Pinenut Topping (which even her non-vegetarian, and most definitely non-pasta eating, elderly Aunt relished). 

To cut a rather long fairy story short, there was, you will no doubt be relieved to hear, a happy ending.  The jolly fitters eventually departed to work their magic on kitchens elsewhere and, on Christmas Eve, the husband rolled up his sleeves to put a final shine on the beautiful new granite worktops and sleek cupboard doors, and to carefully position the old scales which the woman's dear dad had used to weigh sweets in his shop many years ago. 

And the woman smiled.            

The End.  

Home from home

Staying in our little house in Spain means different plants to check on

                                

different windows to pass on the stairs

                                  

different snacks to enjoy

                                

in different settings

                                

different favourites to visit

                                  

different treats

                                  

a different town to mooch around

                                  

different views to snap

                                  

Our home away from home.  Not necessarily better.  Just different.

Where I live

It's been a glorious day here today with constant sunshine.  I decided to be a bit more adventurous with the camera and here are the results of some "snapping" of the views near home on the way back from work.

                      

                     

For this one I took Vanessa's advice, looked down and spotted this.

                      

Then I got a bit carried away and looked for interesting "material" in our neglected little garden, inspired by the fabulous photography I see on other people's blogs.

                     

                     

                      

This next one is a bird bath (though you can't actually see the bath part).

                      

And this is part of a fish pond.

                      

I thought I was being artistic.  The Boy thinks I've gone doolally tap.