...an afternoon at Farmer Palmer's Farm Park

Can't work out which one Jesse loves more, his first dippy egg or Zia Carly?

On his birthday, we took him and his cousin Ted to Farmer Palmer's Farm Park. The goats there are pretty little kids and had a good nibble on little fingers.

Despite the cold all the boys had fun in the adventure playground. Jesse introduced Ted to the swings.

And he was flying!

There was lots of playtime with Daddy...

But the birthday boy's favourite bit was playing on the tractors. Boys and their toys. The little dude got a bit too comfortable and started taking his hands off the wheel. I guess you can get away with it when Mama is doing all the driving...

The website talks about kennels for dogs but we were glad we left Badger at home when we saw a couple of metal boxes in the car park, not exactly what he's used to.

...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

...reading the Daily Mirror - 48 Hours in Numbers

Daily Mirror journalist, Adrian Monti, very kindly sent through a press cutting of his 48 Hours in Numbers feature from Saturday's paper, which mentions our birthday and our trip to lovely Lime Wood. As we were camping in the New Forest, I didn't get the chance to pick up a copy, but here it is in all it's glory.
Thanks Adrian!

Looks like we're in good company, Noel Gallagher hey.

I reckon the real percentage of peeps behaving during the week but binging on the weekend is actually higher than that, is someone telling fibs?..

..being spoilt rotten with birthday treats

On my birthday morning, I woke up to a pile of owl-papered presents, peeping at me from my Sam.



After a breakfast of scrambled egg and smoked salmon on toast, I set to opening them with relish. Directed by Sam, I opened this first...

Forest Stagg ring

I had seen it on my friend Olivia at a skate jam and instantly fell in love, but never in a month of Sundays thought Sam would get it for me, as it's huge and spiky - all the reasons why I love it. Next I opened the other two little packages and found more treats fom Galibardy - a feather ring and matching bangle - to go some way to make up for my spoon bangle that has been alluding me (I'm sure the pixies will bring it back)- and it's gone some way indeed - thrilled with my boy.

Feather bangle and feather ring

And last but no means least, the ipulse.



I can't wait to try it out and let you know how I get on. I'm also trying some special creams which slow down hair regrowth, but not sure how much I can say about that as it's for the Daily Mirror, shhh. But if it's great I'll be shouting it from the rooftops.

Then it was fun and frolics at Lime Wood hotel.

I must say a huge big thank you to Kate and all the lovely staff at Lime Wood Hotel who looked after us and little Badger, all afternoon in their stunning Courtyard. They were so accommodating and nothing was too much trouble, which makes all the difference. I usually find that the more successful the place is the less intimidating the staff are...I guess it's not rocket science, nice staff=successful business.

I can't wait to check out it's baby sister hotel The Pig next weekend. My old school friend James Golding is head chef there and he's promised me a snoop around. I really love the foraging sentiment behind The Pig, so am looking forward to finding out more.

The swing in the grounds at Lime Wood Hotel

Wishing you all a happy Tuesday x

...celebrating my birthday

So my birthday weekend starts now! So excited and being a twin only makes me twice as excited as I have two birthdays to celebrate.

I adore my twin sister, Carly. If we were in the film Twins, she would almost definitely have all the good bits from our egg.

When I'm swirling around , flitting about the place, my twin is the one that helps to ground me, dust me off and launch me off on my way again. She's simply priceless to me.



In return, I take all the stress out of planning our birthday for her. All she has to do is show up! Tonight we are going to our favourite thai restaurant, Salathai in Southbourne with my family and close friends.

Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for sunshine tomorrow... For our actual birthday, we are going to Lime Wood Hotel for a bbq, with more friends, Badger and puppy Roscoe. Then puppy Roscoe will experience his first camping trip in the New Forest. I'm hoping that he doesn't follow Badger's lead... on his first camping trip, Badger rolled in fox poo and tried to sleep on my head in our tiny two-man pop-up tent. That's one birthday present I can do without, pooey!

It will also be the virgin camping trip for our new tent - a 3-man pop up tent with Da-Dah: A second skin (inner-skin, double-skin?). After too many trips with a damp tent I finally put my foot down - enough is enough - and this will seem like a palace in comparison.

Im also pretty excited about my new outfit to wear on Saturday - a present from my Mama - a cobalt blue, lace dress from Topshop, reduced in the sale (a day early after haggling from my fiesty Mama) from £50 to £30, so I managed to get a pair of wedges too, which we also discovered were reduced from £60 to £30 at the till. The God of birthday luck was smiling down on me in Topshop, I can tell you.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend too with all your weekend festivities.
x