Miss P's pillow

It's ever so sweet.

I spy

Squirrel, bird, Mr M?

Hope you had a lovely weekend! Mine was less about fashion and all about food. Roast chicken, salad and sourdough. Toad in the hole and purple kale. Yum. Yum. Yum.

C is for carrot cake

After a herumphy moment at Bill's yesterday, when I realised I couldn't have a slice of their delicious walnut cake with my coffee due to the rather odd ingredient of orange juice, I concluded that some baking was in order on my return home. Having rediscovered Pret's carrot cake (made with pineapple juice) last week, I decided to have a go myself. I've made Nigella's carrot cupcakes before, but never a large cake. As I'm slowly working my way through Home Baking, I thought I'd have a go at Eric's version. It's always odd making a cake with oil rather than butter - it just feels wrong, but it really does mean that you get a fantastically moist* cake. I opted for Nigella's cream cheese icing which seemed to be one of the few that didn't require butter. It was in the oven for an extra 20 minutes, and is absolutely delicious. Even Miss P agrees - ahem - a certain someone discovered that she too likes carrot cake with cream cheese icing. An extended face washing was deemed necessary. Little monkey.

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

*Utterly juvenile but this word still makes me giggle.

Hot water bottle Miss P style.

Look at this little monkey. 

All curled up on Mum's lap. 

This is a very rare thing indeed. 

Miss P does not fall into the lap cat category. 

She is very particular. 

If she sits on your lap you are very privileged. 

And you don't move. 

At all.

Sticks

Miss P is very keen on sticks. Size, shape or type do not matter, but she most definitely does not share. At all. Which is unfortunate because our neighbours cat, Scamp, likes sticks almost as much as Miss P. We believe Scamp has special stick playing hearing.
A big ball of fluff, she will come hurtling out of nowhere intent on catching the stick, forgetting about the consequences and the sharpness of Miss P's claws. Often Scamp is removed from the stick session by being held whilst the game continues or by being popped on top of the shed. She is not a particular fan of either. There have been occasions when we have resorted to 2 sticks and many more when Miss P has got plain sulky and the moment of stick play has passed.
Yesterday, Miss P and I had 10 minutes of uninterrupted stick play before Scamp arrived. Miss P was in heaven.

Blustery-gustery-wind

Miss P and I are really rather bored of the gusts that are whipping up a frenzy outside. The giant London Plane and Lime trees that line the garden are merrily depositing their leaves and branches all over the place whilst the Crocosmia is looking positively seasick.
Miss P has taken to sleeping inside, paw over head to block out the noise, as I work on the laptop and warm my hands on a mug of coffee. I'm so pleased that I picked up the ingredients for dinner early this morning before the wind had gained pace, as it really does make you want to hunker down and draw the bolt on the front door.

Come rain or shine, we're going to our local farmers market tomorrow morning to stock up on Giggly Pig sausages and catching up with an old friend. Mr M is champing at the bit to go on a bicycle ride on Sunday - I'm not so keen if it's going to be soggy...

What have you got planned?