Scottish Rose.

Arrived home this evening to find that, seemingly overnight, the roses in my gorgeous bunch of flowers from the other day had died. The other flowers seem to be doing fine though! There was something quite lovely about the way the light shone through the papery petals of the rose, so I took a couple of quick photos before my guests arrived for dinner tonight.

A and S arrived first, with their baby F. I can hardly call him a baby any more; at 9 months he is practically walking and is looking more and more like a little boy every day. He arrived in a gorgeous outfit of navy cords, a blue hoody and proper little-boy shoes, and as soon as I popped him on the floor, he was over to the electrical extension cables that snake all over the house at the minute, while we wait on the final internal electrical hook-ups (not to worry, they' weren't live)! A and I attempted to feed F Thai curry, but he was far more interested in grapes and bananas, so he had those for tea with a slice of bread instead.

Later, A's brother, brother's fiancee and brother's fiancee's sister arrived, and M came home from work, so I started on tea (a little late, as it turns out). I made two lasagnes; one veggie for the girls, made using sheets of leek instead of pasta, and a white sauce made with cornflour and skimmed milk rather than a traditional roux (although I did add a fair amount of low-fat cheese). It was adapted from the Hairy Biker's recipe here, with lots of nice veggie ratatouille rather than meat for the layers. It actually tasted amazing; I was so impressed - and it was very healthy. I did, however, make the boys a very traditional lasagne, with meat and proper pasta. It all seemed to go down really well with garlic bread and pea-shoot salad, so I'll count that as a success.

We all settled on the sofa afterwards with fruit, meringues and chocolate sauce (nom nom) to watch My Tattoo Addiction. WHAT a program. It really did make you wince, from the blazing drunk 16-year-olds on a girls' holiday to Aiya Napa getting some horrendous tattoos to the man with 17 Miley Cyrus tattoos (and counting), not forgetting the man with two ginormous scorpions on his face.

We had a great evening and all my lovely guests helped me tidy up afterwards so the kitchen looked spotless before bed - what stars. I do love our gorgeous new big house for having people over and cooking huge meals. Happy Friday's Eve, everyone - holidays for M and I soooon!