Carrot bun anyone?

Hi, Thursday is the new bake off day in The Waffle household. Today I made these carrot buns. And they were quite nice except their bottoms were a bit greasy, sorry too many innuendos in this post already (!), I’ll start again.

Let’s just call them carrot cupcakes? Carrot muffins? Oh dear, this is just getting worse. I was better off with my spiced raisin squares of last week, and they were tastier too, not a greasy bottom in sight. The carrot cakes are quite nice but the thing that really makes a carrot cake I now realise is the contrast between the carrot cake and the cream cheese icing. I might have to mix up some icing for the remaining cakes.

Today is my Mum’s birthday so a big “Happy Birthday” 🍰🎂🎁🎉🎈🛍 to her. I think she’s OK, but not having a brilliant day or life at the moment due to the lockdown. She had some nice cards and hopefully she’ll have a good meal with my Dad and glass of wine or two tonight. I am going to see her on Saturday to deliver food shopping including belated birthday cake and birthday gift to the doorstep and to do a special birthday wave/dance in the street for her. Will we ever get used to how weird life has become? I guess in some ways we already have. I find it very hard to imagine myself in a busy pub jostling up against a bunch of strangers at the bar trying to get served. I think I’d probably rather just go off for a walk on my own instead and photograph a butterfly or something. Either I am getting very old or lockdown is changing me.

I seem to have a thing about tulips at the moment, I see them everywhere. Aren’t they lovely? The daffodils have gone over now and we are into the season of the tulips.

I guess we all have more time to observe nature at the moment, which is a plus. I am really enjoying watching the blue tits to-ing and fro-ing to their babies in our bird box. I don’t think I’ll manage to photograph the speedy little birds for you, but here is their home, in my home’s garden. I know the box has gone a bit lopsided but I don’t want to disturb them by straightening it up again.

I feel these little birds who come back year after year are almost part of my family and quite honestly they are no trouble at all. (Meanwhile my husband has been playing noisy guitar for most of the day…or it seems like it anyway).

Yesterday I found myself talking to a pretty goldfinch on the patio while my husband was upstairs. He heard me talking and asked if I was on the house phone. “I don’t think so”, I said, “I’m talking to a goldfinch and I don’t think he’s got one.” Have I gone mad? No worse than my friend Debs who sent me a lovely photo of a squirrel in the tree outside her window. She tells me she’s named him Rudolph. This is turning into some version of The Jungle Book where we are all at one with the animals. So have you started talking to them yet? Photographing them? Naming them? I’d love to hear about your new friends in the garden. I believe my sister has a friendly hedgehog in the Cotswolds, ah, that’s nice!