Anyone for cake?

A rare bit of baking, Nigella Lawson's Coca Cola Cake from How to be a domestic goddess.  Tastes rather good, even if I say so myself.



On the knitting front I'm a bit more than half way through my first London Underground sock and I am on the first front of my Double V cardigan, having done the back and one sleeve so far.  Both enjoyable knits, I love how effective the cardigan's lace pattern is for such a simple pattern.

Later: I went back to that "simple pattern" to find that I had gone wrong a number of rows back so I am only just now past where I was yesterday, having spent a considerable time unknitting (also known as "tinking" - knit backwards) and reknitting.  Hopefully it will go better from here on in, but that will teach me!

Sheep!

Of course, an important part of our visit to the farm was seeing the lambs while they were still little and we took endless photos.  At the start of the week the lambs were still very much at the tottering stage but by the time we left they were venturing further from their mothers and beginning to career around the field, jump and play.  Not much more to say, but here's a selection of photos, you can see the full set here on flickr.






I love how their tails wag when they feed.







Lastly not the greatest picture, but I feel it is very expressive.

More of our holiday

Despite all my best intentions I did not get any more blogging done while in Sussex, so here belatedly are a few highlights of our holiday.  I may split the posts up into subjects.

First some pictures of where we were staying and the view from our dining table:



And there was a lot of visiting wildlife including a very sweet rabbit and two strutting pheasants, watching a male pheasant run makes me laugh every time, there's something most Captain Mainwaring or Mr Pooter about a male pheasant.





There were well visited bird feeders on the trees fairly close to our dining table window, we saw a robin, blue and great tits, a nut hatch, greater spotted woodpecker, magpies (alas) and chaffinches.  While I thought we had problems keeping our feeders filled, there it was a several times a week job!  My sister got some great shots of the blue tits bickering and feeding - she has more great photographs on her flickr photostream.



The farmers are delightfully welcoming and encouraged us to walk around the farm as much as we liked, an invitation we took up eagerly.  This is one of my favourite views out across their land, looking vaguely north across the Low Weald.



Most evenings there were the most wonderful sunsets, it is truly a lovely, if windy (being on top of a rise in the landscape) spot, I was so sad to have to leave.  Next time: lambs!





For those who are interested, we stayed at Heath Farm near Plumpton Green, they are comfortable, spacious cottages and the farmers are lovely people, I would definitely recommend them.  They are quite disabled friendly, being on one floor with flat access and wet rooms.