Poppies

A beautiful sunny day today, fingers crossed it stays like this all weekend! My poppies are now blooming, and I am pleased to see that there are more appearing each year. The first year squirrels ate most of the bulbs and then the snails got the flowers....this year there are many buds waiting to burst open. This was focus stacked to ensure sharpness throughout the complex structure of the flower.

Our new kitchen dining chairs arrived this morning and they are lovely, a good choice! I received the full refund from the chairs that were sent back which is good (as they said they could hold back some of the refund is there were any marks on the chairs, and I worried that in transport anything could happen). The company these were bought from and who delivered them were just so pleasant to deal with, they even took away all the packaging as they said they have their own recycling program so they take it away to ensure it is recycled correctly.

We have a very busy weekend ahead of us. Going in reverse, on Sunday we are all going to Glyndebourne - it's an annual family treat. So today I went to get all the food to make the picnic dinner. In the past I have ordered picnics there, or even been to one of their restaurants - but we much prefer our own picnic so I can make food that caters for all the dietary requirements - gluten and lactose intolerant, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian...the men eat everything! So tomorrow I will be busy preparing all the food to take on Sunday.

Tomorrow the boys and girlfriends come home as we have a chef dinner at home tomorrow night. Last year at a charity function Gavin bid for (and won) a home dinner cooked by a chef for 10 people. It will only be the 8 of us as we just wanted a family meal. Apparently they cook, serve and clean up - sounds all right to me! 

Then tonight Gavin and I are going out with friends for supper at a pub in Wimbledon, it will be good to catch up with them again.