The party is over

We are not quite back to normal life yet as we have a visitor staying until Thursday. Then the three adults, Tim, Tom (who is officially an adult today) and I will head to Wagga Wagga for an interview at the university. It isn't his first choice of university but he is keeping his options open and we will find out for sure in a couple of weeks. The rain has passed and the sun is back out with a vengence . The path is so weedy after the rain. The cheeky cosmos and some rather stubborn parsley seedlings have emerged and it is times like this when spraying is very tempting. I'm not going to though. A couple of hours and the hopefully the path and garden will be back in order.

As you can see we had the dinner inside even though the sun started shining at around 2pm. We had about 200ml/8 inches of rain so it was much too soggy to be outdoors. The artichokes in the vases were quite a nice addition(once the ladybugs were relocated) especially for a dinner for a male.

I made Tom a simple mud cake for his birthday cake. The chocolate ganache icing, cherries and chocolate curls lifted it though and it was quite rich.

For my sister, Jody's 40th birthday cake, I made a little tower of patty cakes. Plain vanilla cakes with pretty icing. These were my pick of the three cakes.

I also made a cheesecake with a fruit topping. Not enough butter in the biscuit base meant it was a little crumbly but nice just the same.

Today for Tom's real birthday dinner, it is lasagne as always. It is his favourite and we have rarely missed a year. Just a humble cinnamon teacake to hold the birthday candles, we have indulged a little too much over the past couple of days.

Until dinner time though I will be busy replanting my tomatoes and pulling weeds while the ground is still giving.

Tracy