...singing a song for Sam

...celebrating Sam's 30th birthday.


The oh so talented Tom Rosenthal very kindly made me a song for Sam's 30th birthday.
Using my many emails filled with facts of Sam's likes and little quirks, Tom composed 'Song for Sam' and made me cry it was so good.

Luckily this was one of the criteria 'Would be good if we could make him cry a bit'
Well his eyes did well up so wonderful work, Mr Rosenthal.

The Museum Inn

I also whisked Sam and Badger off to the Museum Inn for his birthday night, where we were fed up like foie gras on the finest foods.

Badger in the Stables

My dippy egg with blue cheese soldiers was to die for and Sam's goats cheese and red pepper souffle was ridiculously good tasting. My steak was tender & juicy, but Sam had picked the winning dish; pork belly - so crispy Sam declared it was definitely not toothkind. All topped off with sticky toffee pudding and coffee...we ended the evening passed out Tinie Tempeh styley to try and digest it all.




This did not deter us from ordering the beautiful, big breakfast, (when in Farnham and all that!) the next morning to have a tiny taste of the black pudding.

Snowdrops

After a roam through the village in warm sunshine(!) we set off for The Fontmell, where we could only tackle a liquid lunch. I definitely won that round though, the crab soup was so delicious it totally trumped the leek and potato.

We headed home, full of North Dorset goodness to starve ourselves for a visit with our idiot club friends to the Larder House on the weekend. And James did not disappoint. His lamb shoulder, gave all the other restaurants the cold shoulder. So tender it obligingly fell off the bone and happily on to the fork to be eaten, and so much that we all got to have a mouthful.

An absinthe cold jasmin and peppermint tea cocktail finished the birthday celebrations off and nearly finished me off too. Fantastic.

Thanks to everyone who looked after us and helped me make Sam's birthday a special one xxx

...wishing my dad a very happy birthday

...singing along to the Beatles song:

"Will you still be sending me a Valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I'd been out till quarter to three, would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?"

My daddy is 64 today and I just wish so much that he was still here so I could sing it to him. He was the biggest Beatles fan and he loved telling us the story of, when he saw them live, how he shouted "Spit on me Johnny, I'm in the third row!" Much to my young disgust, why would you want his spit? I kind of get it now I'm older and aware of what a huge impact he had on the world. He had a pretty big impact on me just through my dad.

My daddy

My family at my older sister's wedding

This verse is so fitting, it includes Valentine's Day - my dad's birthday greetings and my dad loved red wine so we will be toasting him tonight for sure. I never thought while listening to that song as a little 'un that he wouldn't reach 64 - I was looking forward to singing it to him and seeing if it came true.


I love this photo that Sam took of the beautiful, sad sky on the evening that my dad left us.

Happy Birthday Ronnie.
All my love x