The MOST delicious chocolate cake It's been a while!  I have been thinking, you could probably hear the noise from where you are . . My birthday was last week and I hosted a lunch for 12. It was more a celebration of me moving to Ireland and into this amazing house 8 years ago. A small group of friends and neighbours who have helped me settle so well into this great community. My sister was here for a week which really helped. Lynda got the housekeeping and cleaning gene that seems to have passed me by!!! She was godsend. An absolute star and I love her dearly. (not just because she cleans!!) Pavlova with fruit decoration - one I prepared earlier! I don't entertain a lot at home, the house is usually too messy - anyone who makes will understand. But I do love feeding my friends, so it was wonderful to cook and create a big spread for my guests. I had such a great time, I didn't take ANY photos . . very rare for me.  There was some chocolate cake and trifle left and some of

  A cake and flowers for my birthday.   . . . and then another cake . . . !!! We are now over halfway through Experimental Textiles, this session was the sixth of nine. I have only ever taught one group at a time before, this year we are running two groups - a Thursday/Friday and a Saturday/Sunday. We will be doing the same next year. It is very interesting teaching the two groups side by side - they are both strong and are producing some excellent work. One thing that I hadn't considered was the air of competition creeping in between the groups. It is light hearted - but very definitely there!!! One of the benefits of having two groups - when the tutor has a birthday - you get two cakes!!!  When we are all settled with coffee (and cake) first thing on day one of the session - we look at what has been done for home work produced to reinforce what did on the session before. On the previous session we had looked at constructed textiles - felt, knit and weave, and how