We woke to the sound of rain absolutely pouring down this morning. It was nice to know we could stay in bed and listen to it. The rain eventually cleared and the one thing that really struck me this morning was the quietness. I could hear a few birds and that was about all. After the rain had stopped everything was very still. The water, the wind and the noise. I guess you get used to living with road noise or just the general city living noises and you don't tend to notice them too much after a while but when it's completely quiet - that's when you notice. It was very interesting.

Ok....so as a follow up to my muffins. Well....I would like to say they were absolutely fabulous and tasted divine and they were THE best white choc and raspberry muffins you could possibly taste! However, I discovered, after I had made the mixture and put them into the muffin tray and was putting them into the oven - that the oven didn't work, just the griller! So, I thought, that's ok! I will give it a go anyway! So after about 10 mins I opened up and the tops of my muffins were nice and brown and perfectly cooked but the insides were still mushy and soft. So I covered the top with foil. Yep - didn't do a whole lot more! So Jon suggested I try to create the heat within the foil by adding foil around the whole tray which I was sure was going to work because I am sure in theory it should have! After being in the oven for about 50 minutes, we pulled them to discover we had the best tasting (and cooked) muffin tops! So we had those and the rest....well the rest ended up in the bin! So I will have to figure out another way to make muffins!

I am happy to announce though, that today I made, quite successfully I might add, Ginger and Dark Chocolate Slice! A recipe I got from Auntie Jan (thank you!) and I am very pleased to say that it did not require any cooking at all apart from melting the chocolate! Absolutely simple and divine! There was no possible way I could get that wrong so that made me feel better after my muffin bottom disaster! I can't say muffin as that would include the tops and the muffin tops were perfect!

So after my 'baking' today we wandered back into town for a look around and a haircut (Jon not me!) and came back home to relax. A nice easy day today. Hard to remember that it's Friday when it's not usually this quiet! Hope your Friday was just as happy. Even if it wasn't a great day...can't be all bad now that it's the weekend!!!

Have a wonderful and restful weekend.

Love

Claris

"To the question, "When were your spirits at the lowest ebb?" the obvious answer seemed to be, "When the gin gave out."   Sir Francis Chichester