First week of the new year

Wishing everyone a very happy 2012, and hope to see you all at some point!

We had a brilliant New Year’s Eve with Luke’s friend Josh and his parents Kate and Mark. However we had to cancel the fireworks, which we had planned for 5 pm, and instead just had some sparklers on the village green in the pouring rain….to make up for this we decided to invite some of Luke’s friends and their parents for a fireworks party on the evening of Jan 2. I made fish fingers for the kids and parsnip and ginger soup, with Martin’s home made bread, for the grown-ups. Good evening!

We’ve been on a few walks…Luke particularly loved this one on the side of Thirlmere, where he was the intrepid explorer clearing the way for me and Martin. Afterwards he even said; “Thanks, guys, for taking me on this walk, I loved it.”

On Friday, we celebrated Uncle Alastair’s (Jacob’s Godfather) 40th. Martin and I cooked starter and main course, and then it was time for Matthew’s cake…

…which was an anatomically correct representation of a human brain, made from correctly coloured sponge cake – pinkish (though Luke pointed out: “I think my brain is purple”). The cake even had the anatomical terms written all around; temporal lobe, and so on…

The boys did brilliantly; and absolutely scoffed the food (cured duck breast with melon, pickled cucumber and soya dressing and seabass cooked in salt with potatoes, green beans, asparagus and samphire and an olive oil, lemon and herb dressing (though they skipped the latter)).

This morning we found my old calligraphy pens and played around with them. This is Luke’s first attempt:

Martin has now gone off to take Josh back to University (Cardiff), and will be back tomorrow. It’s been great hanging out with Josh over the holidays – and we’ll miss him while he’s gone! Not least Luke.

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