Citrus.

My friend's parents grow a lot of fruit and I have been gifted with the spoils of their endeavours. I've got tonnes of citrus but what to cook with it all? Ideas? Suggestions?
If you're waiting on a thank you note from me don't panic. I've got about 30 to write and I'm working my way through them. Because presents keep arriving. I know. I'm shocked too.

It's been a bit rainy here, so I've been cosying it up

Have you heard the story about the Runaway Bride? Allegedly, Charlene (Prince Albert's fiance)did a runner to the airport and bought a one way ticket but then was stopped by the police. The Palace denies it and says the wedding will go ahead. She looks a bit like Grace Kelly I think.

Tomorrow Diana would have turned 50. I know. It's sad. I wonder what she'd be up to had she lived?

Linda C asked for the cream cheese icing mixture recipe. I use 125 g cream cheese, 50 g butter and about a cup and a half of icing sugar with some lemon juice and vanilla extract. Just mix it all together and adjust any of the amounts.

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Beach. Tippi Hedren. Treats.

Went to the beach. My 'do doesn't look like this anymore because I've had it cut. Love it how the sand is cold in winter.
Went to an Italian food festival.

Reminisced about Lady Thatcher when her Asprey bag was auctioned for charity.

Remember that interview when George Negus said that a lot of people didn't like her and she replied "Who are these people? Give me their names" So funny. Here she is wearing a power suit and tripping the light fantastic with her friend Ronald in the 80s

Embraced Navy.

Actioned a Kate Middleton hair flip

wore some Big Apple Red

Had a Tippi Hedren/Hitchcock Moment. Look at all these Birds:

This was a very confident swan. I saw Tippi in real life once at a screening of The Birds that I went to with my friend N in 2001. She spoke a lot about her work with Tigers and warned us not to have them as pets if we lived in the suburbs.

Valued member of the family (up there with Sleep Sheep) from my friend J. It sings and has flashing lights and says "weeee" The baby loves it 11/10

Linda in Chile sent me South American Vogue. In Spanish. So exciting. Reminds me of the time that Buphee sent me Spanish Hola!

Threw on this Top Shop coat that I bought in 2003 from the concession in Selfridges in London

who knew I'd still be wearing it 8 years on?

Been baking things with eggplant and bechamel

baked a hummingbird cake (pineapple, coconut, banana)

with cream cheese icing ( The Queen of Icing in my opinion)

and pancakes are always soothing in winter.

Lady Mary is annoying me on Downton Abbey. She'd better watch it or one of her sisters will see she gets her Comeuppance.

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Movies. Normans. Garden.

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm in the mood to Embrace Some Colour. I'm thinking that this Missoni cardy could look good with a sort of leopard print top. Because I like how it looks next to the cushion. I also like it cobbled together with ye olde faithful green Milly top.

But don't panic because I'm not turning my back on neutrals.

I experienced what could only be described as a Veritable Sewing Frenzy yesterday and sewed buttons back onto 4 different things. I'd put it off for so long. The end results made me feel like I'd scaled Everest. In fact I'm casting an eye round here looking for anything else that needs mending.

Someone told me that once you had a baby it was impossible to go to movies. Thank God they were wrong. The Baby has slept his way through lots of good movies with me lately. We enjoyed Catherine Deneuve in Potiche, we loved the documentary Babies and we thought Bill Murray and Robert Duvall were excellent in Get Low (Can I just say that I love Bill? Groundhog Day nevers loses its charm and I love watching him sing Bryan Ferry's More than This in Lost in Translation). Luckily for me the baby enjoys a limited release low budget subtitled French art house flick too, so yesterday we saw Tony and Angele. I loved it. It's set in Normandy. Has anyone else seen it? The ending was so sudden and so emotional. I've never taken the baby to a Babes in Arms movie session (you know the ones designed for mothers and babies so no one will get cross if there is Misbehaviour) but I'm open to the possibility.

Meanwhile I tried to recreate the honey soy and lime chicken with coconut risotto that never leaves the menu at the Continental Cafe. It wasn't a half bad attempt. And fortuitously, bok choy was on sale at Coles. 2 bunches for the price of 1! Run Don't Walk.

I have a new Obsession. Documentaries about the Normans. Those guys are fascinating. Maybe I'll make them the Official Conquerors of the Blog and stick a snap of them on the list to the right.

This is the view from Jersey to France that I took last year so you can get a visual of them surging across the ocean ready to conquer everything in their path.

The Normans had ferocious energy and ambition and fierce enthusiasm for everything they did. They also endorsed terror chaos and violence. (Not the sort of things you'd want to see on a Workplace Team Charter).

And they were prodigious fort builders too. The Channel islands are full of them and were one of my favourite things when I was tripping the light fantastic in Jersey at the end of 2010.

I do love a fort.

I'm not sure though if the Normans were Gardeners. But if they were you can just tell they would have given it their everything. And ordered a bunch of conquered peasants to keep it flourishing. Or else.

I action my own gardening without the assistance of serfs or peasants. Although I do have that nice whippersnapper mower man who helps out with the grass and pruning.

It's freezing here. Maybe I'll bake a cake.

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