Frosty bracken

Backblipping again, as yesterday's birthday celebrations occupied all the available time! After a relatively leisurely start Pete and I popped to Sainsbury's to buy a few missing ingredients for the celebration meal. We then picked up Chris and Lizzy and went for a birthday walk round Holme Fen, where the water levels were lower than normal as they're currently slubbing out ditches.

It was one of those perfect crisp winter days, the vegetation edged with perfectly formed crystals of frost, glittering in a brief burst of glory as the sun hit them, before melting away.The ground was hard, the bare peat almost like tarmac, which made a very pleasant change from the slippery mud which seems to be everywhere else at the moment.

We didn't walk for too long as Lizzy had a horrible cold and was feeling rotten, and I had an afternoon of cooking ahead. Chris relaxed while I prepared a birthday feast based around his favourite foods: antipasti with home-baked rosemary and garlic focaccia; guinea fowl braised in port and red wine with chestnuts served with celeriac and stilton gratin and seasonal vegetables; mulled wine sorbet; orange, pistachio and honey cake; cheese and biscuits.

It was a very happy occasion - I love it when my three sons are together as they have such a quirky sense of humour and the conversation always ends up being totally surreal. I have the feeling that they could co-write the script of a bizarre black comedy...perhaps one day!!