Not a huge amount to write about. Last week was very quiet, and the most noteworthy thing I did was to set up a rudimentary Facebook presence. Link alongside. On Saturday I went to a workshop at Inkspot in the afternoon, on card making which I enjoyed very much. On Sunday, we went down to see Liz on the farm. A long overdue visit, since I hadn't seen her since before Christmas. Her new(ish) squeeze was there so it was nice to meet him. Sarah and Daniel were both around - Dan is now at the stage when he says everything is "gay" - could cheerfully have shot him. He now has a new crossbow but is worried about some bizarre thing he heard at school about summoning the devil - hmmmm. Apparently, you need to toss a coin while asking questions. Sounds more like a test of manual dexterity and multi-tasking to me. What is the capital of Ethiopia? What is the chemical symbol for Platinum? Go through the Past imperfect of the verb Etre in French? Explain Ohm's Law. Oh bugger, I dropped it. Oh, thank you, Mr Beelzebub,yes that's my coin. Any good at Glacial Landscapes? In a way, it's quite sweet that these strange sorts of urban myths/ghost stories still hang around at school. Some pics attached. Katie was away at a horse show. Sarah has a beautiful cat called Claudia who has recently had kittens - she is a lovely and very elegant silver grey tabby - a most striking colour.

Made some buns tonight - with lots of coconut milk and dessicated coconut. After I had finished putting them in the oven, my hands smelt wonderfully coconutty (is that a word?) and after I was stroking Andy for a bit, Andrew noticed that the smell had transferred to his fur. They came out of the oven hot around 9 and we enjoyed eating them, while watching a vintage CSI featuring the splendiferous Lady Heather. Any readers who are regular viewers will agree that she makes a far more interesting companion for G than the sour faced mule he usually associates with.

Well, hello world and today I am 43 years old. Many, many thanks for the beautiful cards, gifts and flowers received today - I am thrilled. For those of you who didn't send a card, gift or flowers, well what can I say, except to wish you large pustular boils on your bottom.

Of course today is also Andy's birthday, so it's been a joint celebration. Today he is four. After some thought, he added that worms would be a suitable punishment, and he also reminded me of a disease suffered by sheep called Licky End, which might be suitable for non-card senders. Not that I mind .......much.

Over the weekend we visited the shop of Swedish dreams, as we wanted to tidy up the spare bedroom, which doubles as the office/computer space and my crafting area. I wanted to better organise my cross stitch magazines and my various crafty bits, so we came home with a tall birch cupboard cum bookcase thing which has twelve different sections, each high enough to take magazine files. Gradually tidying up and moving things around and it already looks better, neater and more organised. Also got one of those little cork pinboards, to put various bits of paper on that I refer to regularly.

Other than that, not a lot to report, except did I mention that today is my birthday? And Andy's too? Andrew supplied a wonderful pink birthday cake with stars and a fairy, but no candles. You reach a point where no cake in the world is going to be big enough to have room for them all. All of us, including the dogs, enjoyed a slice earlier today, and it was extremely entertaining to see Booty doing her boa constrictor impression and trying to eat her slice in one. Not the best advertisement for greyhound table manners. Andrew's birthday presents were a DVD of This is Spinal Tap (appropriate since I've been getting in to Led Zeppelin!) along with CDs of Dolly's Greatest Hits Vol 2, the new REM one and a beautiful Palestrina Mass and motets, written around the time of the counter-Reformation. I am looking forward to listening to all of them, and will report back as I do so.

Sadly, Leila returned to Devon today. I attach a photo of her departure. It was lovely to see her and I'm particularly pleased by the fact she likes her quilt. I've been left a friendly commission by her - all her 40th birthday cards, to be transformed into a collage. Quite rightly, she didn't want to leave them in a box gathering dust, as so many of them are so pretty and stylish. I will probably buy a picture frame from Ikea and then work out a layout for them. If this works, which I hope it will, it might be a nice idea for other milestones. I still have for example all our wedding cards, and all the cards from my own 40th. I will update on this over at my craft blog.

For Easter, Andrew bought me a CD, Dolly's latest, called Backwoods Barbie.I've been listening to it quite a bit over the past few days. As usual, for I adore Miss P, it's very good, with a mix of her own compositions and some interesting covers. I particularly like her cover of "Love is like a butterfly" which used to be the theme for a very funny series called "Butterflies" back in the 80s, starring Wendy Craig and Geoffrey Palmer. The artwork on the sleeve is also gorgeous, featuring photos of the divine Miss D, in a "pimped" pick-up truck, with gorgeous pink trim, and wearing the most astoundingly trashy yet glorious pink dress. As Dolly herself says so wonderfully, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." I will attempt to download some artwork from the net to illustrate - haven't done this before so may not work.