Home-made

... not by me. I'm not usually up for Facebook group events, but I was feeling bored one day and signed up for afternoon tea with E, who runs a B&B in a very magnificent maison de maître. Running a table d'hôte got her interested in baking, and one thing led to another ... she ended up training at the excellent local apprentice centre and getting an official pâtisserie qualification (the kind you need to run a pâtisserie). Her creations were magnificent -- this is her fraisier. She'd also made a beautiful light as air cheesecake, and some macarons, plus several other cakes, including dairy-free ones for the lactose intolerant person present.

I must admit that although I love making cakes (not as fancy as this), since I cut down on sugar I found an entirely cake-based tea a bit much -- some sandwiches would have been welcome! I did have small pieces of three of them, plus a couple of macarons and they were utterly delicious, but I soon had to admit defeat to avoid feeling queasy. It was nice to get out of the house on a dull, overcast day and meet some new people as well as a couple of familiar faces that I've met in the past but rarely see. When I got home I went out for a brief digestive walk to clear my head!

Sadly the weather forecast is dismal for the next few days. S rang just now to tell me how he'd been enjoying 21C sunshine and blue sky in Yorkshire ...