On Saturday the rain finally ceased long enough for us to take a family walk and get the chance to splash in some puddles. Fortified by home-made scones and jam for breakfast we headed to Cootehill in Co. Cavan with the boys and dogs for a squelchy tramp through the trees.

On Sunday the sun almost shone so I took this as a sign: 'Thou must visit the beach on an almost sunny day' (The never-mentioned eleventh commandment) so we packed up a picnic in our ever trusty picnic bag and after getting hopelessly lost arrived at the beach- Irish style beach I hasten to mention, hence the grey threatening clouds and whippy wind...

Sigh. The weather really hasn't got any better. But the postman brought Joel Henriques' fantastic book Made to Play so we've spent some time making fun things from paper and loo rolls. Sure, why not.

Mide making a giraffe...honestly it's child's play

Might look weird but these slotting paper circles are a challenge

Then we read...

Swotting up on dinosaur names

And checked if it was still raining (it was)

And then finally gave up and made cake- coffee and walnut cake so hey, life's not that bad!

The recipe is from Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet and is really awfully yummy- in fact a bit too yummy as it's nearly all gone and it was only made this morning. The rain and the calories. It's all too much.

This is the June bank holiday weekend. The sun should be shining, children should be paddling, dogs should be panting and mums and dads should be quaffing white wine. Alas, someone forgot to tell the guy who is in charge of the sun and by heck it's a cold 10 degrees here. In fact Hugo was off at a three day Scout Camp  (along with 2,000 others-gulp) which got cancelled on day one -and- a- half due to the 'inclement' weather. Ahem. It rained so hard they were sleeping in puddles and it blew so hard their loo tent flew away. So they were whisked home and we decided it was the sort of day to visit the Dinosaur Exhibition at the Ulster Museum  in Belfast. It featured Real. Moving. Dinosaurs. Mide had to hold onto Kevin's neck very, very tightly just in case! The boys loved it, needless to say...

it's behind you...

Will wants to be a palaeontologist when he grows up 

Today I packed up a small something for Lucy and Ryan in New Zealand. I had a lot of fun making the bits for them. The chicken on a wheel was inspired by Joel Henrigues. He is soooo cool. Love it.

Bird Mobile

Squishy Fishy

Slightly Bonkers Chicken on a Wheel

In the garden.

We try to spend as much time in the garden as possible and we've just had some very nice, hot weather but this morning we got up to rain, which for the plants is no bad thing. But we've our fingers crossed for a drier day tomorrow as it's Hugo and Will's school sports day...

And finally some buns- Jenny and her girls dropped over and we enjoyed some buttery buns with little pics of crowns and flags and boats.

If you feel the urge to bake buns here is a simple and quick recipe:
Makes 12

125g butter, very soft

125g caster sugar

125g self raising flour

2 large eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Good splash full fat milk

1.      Preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6. Line a bun tray with paper or silicone cases.

2.      Get a mixing bowl and weigh out the very soft butter and caster sugar and cream together until really well combined.

3.      Add the flour, the vanilla extract and the eggs. Add the good splash of milk. Give this all a good mix making sure it is smooth and lump free.

4.      Using a spatula scrape the mixture into each bun case trying to fill them evenly.

5.      Put the bun tray into the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes. The buns will be golden and risen slightly. Wait until they cool a little before lifting them from the tray.

6.      Try not to scoff them all in one go. 

On our walk this morning Belle, Pippin and myself came across two fox cubs playing in the sun. There was a surprised yelp from Mama Fox but no sign of her. The cubs were very nearly the size of Pip and they melted into the bushes in an instant. It was so lovely to catch a fleeting glimpse of them and they deserve their Irish name 'Madra Rua' or red dog as they were both red heads! I wonder will they grow up to be as fine a fellow as this chap? This lithograph is by Mark Hearld. Another person I sigh over... I recently came across some of his paper birds and now they're fluttering around my kitchen.

Uh, oh have just fallen in love...

I have loved Emily Sutton's work for quite some time and have the gorgeous Zillah Bell hanging in my kitchen but St. Judes Prints are in London and Emily has some fabulous new paintings and I want one... or five.Wail! It's just not fair. I came across her work in the World of Interiors magazine and totally love her style. It reminds me of Eric Ravilious and 'High Street ' which, by happy coincidence, arrived in the post last week. It's all too nice.

Woo hoo!! We had a day of sun!! For one glorious day we had proper summer weather (well, okay that's going a bit far but it scraped up to about 20C) so of course I lit the barbecue and we celebrated with sausages in the sunshine...

Kevin and I have just come back from a great and busy weekend in Norfolk with some good friends where we visited some lovely houses- first stop was Blickling Hall...

...then we moved onto Norwich Cathedral...

...and finally we ate here ... (which was yum!)
Looking at the millions of photos I took I am beginning to realise how utterly useless I am at taking pictures. You are seeing the best ones. Believe me. If you can stand the excitement I'll post more in the next day or two but now I need a Little Lie Down.