Happy Birthday, Thomas and Jonathan

Happy birthday to the new 15 year olds! This is the cake I made. It was exhausting. Not to make, that was easy, but eating your way through a whole sliver, whoa, that required a nap and a walk around the block in the middle!

Kit Kat cake, look it up, it's a big hit with people that think they can take large amounts of chocolate.

And here's Thomas (left) and Jonathan (right) with their new ... um, whatever they are. Catriona put a lot of work into sewing them some very cool Pokemon characters. I could see that she represented them very accurately. Apart from that,  I have no idea if this is a good thing. The guys liked them a lot though!

And since we all like science here, here's a scientific mystery to solve. When left to itself in the fridge, how does it happen than the Kit Kats dissolve away from the cake so comprehensively? The M&Ms, also, were showing signs of evaporating. I finally finished the last sliver of cake today, which, as luck would have it, was completely confectionery free.

The 2013 tomato harvest

Some of this year's tomato harvest. The box at the bottom were all harvested today!

My lunch is tomato, basil and pasta salad tomorrow.

Cos it turns out I'm awesome at growing basil too. This year, anyway.

OtterQuest 2013 part 4

Nothing an otter appreciates more than a couple of cheesy corn chips after an eventful outing.

OtterQuest 2013 part 3

The otter has popped by Brandsmart and done a spot of shopping. What a tired otter!

OtterQuest 2013 part 2

Otter checks out the bike shop (my bike has two broken spokes).

OtterQuest 2013

You know that fun thing people do, go on a holiday or trip, and take a cute toy? Then they photograph the toy everywhere they go? Jeff and I thought we might do that on a Sunday outing. You know, to let the kids feel more involved with our trip, even though they were saying home.

We proposed that the ideal toys to take would be both the Xbox controllers. Interestingly, the boys suggested that might not be as much fun as we thought. They proposed we take THE OTTER instead.

Here is Jeff in the car with the otter.

Purple paint is weird - scientific proof

I have a big set of Prismacolor pencils in my craft room. They sit in three cups, sorted into warm, cool and neutrals.

I also have a big skylight in that room. the room is very bright, if you leave anything printed there, it fades rapidly!

I noticed today that the pencils are fading! Well, not the pencils, just the paint on the casings of the pencils. And not all of them, just these few. All of the affected pencils are pinky-purple shades.

Since taking the photo, I've reviewed the whole set of 144. The ones that have faded are 929 rose, 931 dark purple, 956 lilac, 934 lavender, 993 hot pink, 994 process red, 1007 imperial violet, 1009 Parma violet, 1017 clay rose, 1029 mahogany red, 1038 neon pink.

I noticed 932 violet and 996 black grape are fine. As are all the other colors!

Just thought I'd record it here to see if anyone else is interested.