Birthdays are a good excuse to eat cake

My father always says to me that you only have one Birthday and the rest are all anniversaries, I think he took this on board when he didn’t want anyone to know how old he was. Well I have just had a birthday and it was very special, it was made special by having my family with me, my lovely mum and dad and my sister and her husband. The celebrations started by going to a Jazz festival in Christchurch Hampshire, lovely lunch in my sisters garden and then finishing with a picnic on the beach. She made me the most lovely cake and I was woken up with a lovely cupcake with a candle in it!! Sadly my sons weren’t with me but I had lots of lovely pressies from them.

It has been very quite where we live, it is very rural so the seasons are well marked by what is happening on the Farms nearby, Sometimes the tractors work well on to midnight and then you get these lovely peaceful times when all you hear are the calves in the nearby shed, the wind and on Sunday the church bells, it is I know idyllic but can also feel a little cut off from civilasation, I am about 50 miles away from the nearest city so no café culture for me.

I have also noticed in the hedgerow blackberries, and these little calves were very interested in what I was doing near their hedge!!!

so off we went there wasn’t too many but after a lot of scratches and stings (blackberries always seem to be by stinging nettles) I managed to pick enough for my crumble. If I had had longer arms then I might have had enough to make jam the best blackberries are always out of reach. So with apples from the garden

I made my favourite crumble recipe with added oats and almonds plus a little cassis to add some omph to the fruit. I meant to take a photo of the crumble but too late is has all gone, TOH is rubbing his tummy.