A Special Memorandum Monday

Sian, over at From High in the Sky is giving us a wave as we celebrate another Memorandum Monday.  'Celebrate?'  I hear you ask.  'It's Monday, what could there be to celebrate?' 

Well, it's a birthday Monday here. We had a gathering of the clans yesterday and had a fab family day.  Our daughter and her fiancé came round and our son and his girlfriend visited and took over my kitchen - they are both very keen cooks and dished up an amazing feast of slow cooked shoulder of lamb with pomegranate, salsa verde, roasted spiced potatoes,  broccoli, green beans and tahini butternut squash.  After a brief interlude we sat in the conservatory enjoying the sunshine, enjoying dessert of lemon posset with homemade shortcake biscuits and fresh raspberries, along with a glass of prosecco.  My ideal dinner, I was in 7th heaven; not only was someone else cooking but it was all of my favourite things. So, nothing there that I experienced for the first time, these were tried and tested favourites.  But, as Marie Antoinette always said -

Let them eat cake!

 

  It was my son's birthday last weekend but he was in Edinburgh visiting friends so we had a belated birthday celebration for him here on Saturday.  He loves a bit of chocolate cake (who doesn't?) and I tried a new recipe from my newest favouritest baker - good old Mary Berry.  Malted Chocolate cake.  It was fab.  Even fabber than our previous favourite chocolate birthday cake recipe.

 

And it was thanks to our trusty and reliable Coco to find me something else that was new.  After so much food, we needed to walk off a few calories and there's always one member of the family who is up for a bit of exercise, any time, any day, come rain or shine.  Fortunately it was a day for 'shine' and we set off for the local Country Park.  Where we found that the new bridge that crosses from one side of the lake to the other is  finally open to the public. 

 

Now, in no way can it compare to the Oresund bridge that was the focus of the recent TV programme; it certainly isn't as long!  (And hopefully unlike that one, there will be no dead bodies found half way across it)

 

So that's it from me.  I guess the biggest new thing that I've done since I last blogged is get another year older.  Oh, and whilst I'd love you to pop round and have a birthday cuppa with me, I'm afraid there are only crumbs left from the cake!