Nat and Emily's cake

Nat and Emily's cake in front of the new storage jars we bought yesterday , to conceal biscuits , crackers and the like from a marauding greyhound .

Yesterday whilst we were out buying them , and some dog walking boots for D , she helped herself to a packet of Special K ( without red berries ) . Its not clear whether she had eaten any , or done more than stuck her snout into the packet , as she seems to colllect food items and line them up near her chair / bed " just in case " starvation sets in later perhaps . Though in the case of the sixteen flapjacks snaffled earlier in the week , they had moved up a notch from the Standby slot and were Gone by the time we were back . Only a plastic tub remained . But she looks so sweet and remorseful when you catch her out hat its impossible to be anything but amused ( and blame yourself for leaving goodies within reach ) . We just didnt realise quite how long her reach was ......and bingo , a packet of Golden Linseeds is added to the mix .

Winter Salad Kitchen

Just to make a change from clutter clearing ( there 's still under the king sized bed to do , as the water bed has no space under it for storage . I couldnt quite bring myself to bend down and look under the bed though today . I know the scene under there is going to be characterised by dust , fluff , assorted cat debris and old suitcases full of forgotten sundries. So I decided to get into the kitchen instead ) D picked all gthe green tomatoes , I went to town in search of storage jars , and he bought all the other ingredients ( apart from the green tomatoes that is ) to make Winter Salad . I've never made this before so had to ring my mother for her recipe to be e mailed , with various bits of advice to go alongside . The picture denotes about a third of the quantity that resulted and we still have about the same amount of tomatoes all over again .

Then , whilst we were winter salading and D was cooking the Sunday Dinner Nat went to Emily's and they made three chocolate cakes , complete with eight eggs .

One of these is pictured somewhere too .

the chest of drawers is perfectly tidy inside each individual drawer ( thanks to D and his organisational skills . I take everything out of each drawer , stare at it a bit , then put it back hurriedly so its as well Im not in charge . ) Soon the room too will be clear . No more piles of stuff on top ( now all gone , it was piled high ) , piles of spare chairs to the side , books in a stack and waiting to be moved on , picnic baskets to the fore . By next weekend maybe ? But hang on all the extra stuff hasnt arrived yet ???

This is the house only half full .

Order restored ....the cats are back

Jessie at least back at the helm

, last night's clearing of the chest of drawers was too much for her , and later , as we surveyed the scene after we were done , and every

drawer was back in place , she couldnt resist climbing back up to the desk where pre Alice she and Kitty fought over the best position at the desk .

Later , despite Alice sharing the sofa with D and me , Pearl came in and settled for the first time on Jess ( teenager not cat this time ) as the most comfortable person to share a chair with .....

Nice to have some of the cats downstairs with us again though .....