We thoroughly enjoy watching our resident squirrel who posed for a moment on a post this morning and the lovely Mr S just managed to catch it on camera for me. 
We’ve been doing the RSPB Big Birdwatch this weekend and had ten different birds visiting. Today we could add the wren to the list but it’s too late to be counted.
Wren
I do love the early flowers of the tiny Iris Reticulata. This one is called Harmony.
Iris Reticulata Harmony
It’s National Compliment Day and this delightful one made my day, a quotation from Maurice Sendak, author of the wonderful children’s book, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’.
On #NationalComplimentDay, an all-time anecdote from a 1986 interview with NPR’s Terry Gross
The following is, I hope, a piece of knitting that will appeal to the cat lovers out there. I wish I had made it!
Sorry, don’t know the designer
Another piece of loveliness that came my way today, another piece I wish I had the skill to make!
Frida – Made by Tara Williamson
Because the lovely Mr S will be in hospital on his birthday next week (getting the best ever birthday present of a new knee) we have celebrated his birthday today with a croissant breakfast (family tradition), cards, presents and phone calls from family and a special dinner this evening. We first met Confit Duck with Lentils in a tiny restaurant in Tournon D’Agenais where we had rented a gite. It has become our go-to meal for celebrations.
The confit duck comes in a tin and just needs reheating and today I added a marmalade sauce and served it with Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Lentils, a Raymond Blanc recipe that I found in this week’s Radio Times. Delicious!
Our dessert is our favourite, Lime and Ginger Cheesecake, recipe to be found here.
The raindrops are on the flowers. I love the way that drops hover around the edges catching the light and becoming nature’s jewels..
Crocus
Iris Reticulata
The stem on the Iris Reticulata was broken so I have brought it in and put in Mum’s green glass.
I’ve set up my glass workshop again now that we won’t be needing the dining room for a while and I’ve cut a couple of pieces today ready for Valentine’s Day.
Blue glass from the Victorian window
Using off-cut glass
There are periwinkles in flower in the front garden.
Today’s poem is “If This Is A Man” by Primo Levi on this Holocaust Memorial Day.
“The following words were written by Primo Levi, a Jew who suffered, during World War II, in the Nazi work camp known as Monowitz, aka Auschwitz III.
“If this is a man”.
You who live safe
In your warm houses,
You who find, returning in the evening,
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider if this is a man
Who works in the mud
Who does not know peace
Who fights for a scrap of bread
Who dies because of a yes or a no.
Consider if this is a woman,
Without hair and without name
With no more strength to remember,
Her eyes empty and her womb cold
Like a frog in winter.
Meditate that this came about:
I commend these words to you.
Carve them in your hearts
At home, in the street,
Going to bed, rising;
Repeat them to your children,
Or may your house fall apart,
May illness impede you,
May your children turn their faces from you.
These beautiful things are known as “Ghost Apples” They are created when freezing rain coats rotting apples, and when the mushy rotten apple falls out, it leaves a shell of ice. I don’t know who to credit with the photos.
Lots of hope springing in the garden. Here are some Nigella seedlings on their way and a new shoot of Anemone Blanda.
Wendy Cope always says the right thing!
Our Royal Mail has published some remarkable stamps to commemorate the Rolling Stones, The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World! We have bought two sets to send to our favourite people over the next year or two. Today we have posted two birthday cards with Stones’ stamps on them.
I have made more Eccles Cakes so that I could photograph all the processes for my recipe pages. (I’ll make that page soon. The lovely Mr S is going to be away for a few days next week having a new knee fitted so I will be looking for things to to do!) The last instruction is to sprinkle sugar over the tops and I used my Granny’s antique sugar spoon which we have used on pancake day since I was a little girl. 
We said goodbye to my very dear friend, Angie, today. Her daughters had asked that people wear a splash of colour, particularly the colours of sand and sea as she so loved being by the sea. Despite my not being able to be there, (I watched online) I wore my best sea colours in a velvet jacket that Angie would have recognised.
Afterward the very moving ceremony, we walked a walk that Angie joined us on during one of her visits and, in the words of the Humanist Celebrant, “rejoiced that she had lived, delighted in our friendship and were glad that we had walked some of her path with her.”
View of Carn Brea over some gorse
Daffodils flowering on the verge on the last part of our walkOur lovely neighbour has brought us a big bunch of Cornish daffodils, just as she did on the day we arrived in 2008 and has done on the anniversary ever since. Thank you so much, S.
I have shared this poem before but as it was in 2014 when I had far fewer followers, I thought it worth sharing again. It really speaks to me and , I hope, to you.
The following very sweet film came my way today and I thought my Dear Readers would appreciate it too. Just click on the red link.
Commentator Award
