Birthdays and Babies

It's G's birthday today.  I decided to take a day of annual leave.  Not particularly because we had any plans, just to try and make the day feel a bit more special than the usual lockdown days.

I had to make do and adapt for birthday meals as we only get food every couple of weeks and even then access to bakking goods is really limited.  I managed though, I baked rolls so we could have bacon and egg sarnies for lunch, instead of the usual carrot cake, I tried a recipe we'd seen on one of Nadiya's shows, carrot cake pakoras with spiced icing dip.  They were AMAZING!  We had some silliness with a delivery (building a fort out of tissues and loo roll, did some more of our jigsaw, and I made hot water crust pastry for the first time and successfully made a Somosa Pie (again, Nadiya).

After dinner we went for a short wander, not our usual length as the cold air on my run on Monday morning had given me an asthma attack and my chest is still settling.  We went to the pond hoping to see the cygnets.  We were in luck, all 9 were out on the pond with mum and dad.  We also found a huge area of tadpoles.  We took a wander to see the swan nest and see if all the eggs had been successful.  We were in luck, we got to see the little ducklings I found the other day!  As we headed away we noticed a moorhen, then we noticed her two tiny chicks!  This one was getting really excited about getting fed and was waggling its teeny tiny wings about!

We also saw a baby robin really close and this adult Robin (see extras) gathering grubs for its young.  Hope for a quick whatsapp call with his parents then some bubbles and more cake.