i will be eating the best blackberry & coconut squares

So yesterday I made these.  They are the best.  I love them, my son loves them (which is something in itself) and my husband loves them. 

Since trying to be more mindful about what we eat, I've worked out that it's much better to make sweet snacks yourself instead of buying shop bought stuff.  My thinking on this is because if you make cakes and biscuits and all that stuff yourself, you'll appreciate it more when you eat it and therefore won't mind numbingly stuff your face with it. 

Also, shop bought stuff is full of *bad* things.  Things to keep it fresh, keep it looking nice and keep it tasting like you always want more.  I think trans fats are the worst, but as I don't know too much about it all, this article explains it much better.

So, there are now no blackberry and coconut squares left.  The boy took one to school in his lunch box, I had one for eleven-sis, and we all had them again for dessert.
That's the only problem with home baked stuff - gone far, far too quickly.

i will be playing in the snow

When we woke up this morning it looked like a winter wonderland.  It had been snowing really hard in the night whilst we had been sleeping, which always feels a little like magic.  Everything was white, even our messy garden and the grey road and driveway, like all the rubbish had been swept under a big white rug and everything was all fresh and untouched and bright. 

It was good, we played snow ball fights and built a snowman.  I did take pictures of the snowman, which we stuck a Dracula mask onto that was still hanging around from Halloween, but it didn't turn out so good.  Our snow-Dracula is out there now, on the driveway guarding the house.  Along the street, the neighbors have been building all day.  There's three snowmen out there in front of their house, two biggies and little'un.  A little snow family but it got dark before I could take a pick. 

Then, when we got cold and our fingers went numb, we came inside and had sandwiches and warm drinks and got out the huge lego set.  Building by the side of the window to the sound of people crunching along in the snow. It was nice, I would've like to go back out and maybe find a huge hill and go sledging, but with a little baby kicking inside I didn't think it was such a good idea so I settled for lego building instead.

I think this will be the last time is snows this year.  It's already started to melt and the forecast is rain for tomorrow.  I did plan to do more writing today, to cook some blackberry and coconut pie and to perhaps do some sketching, but that was before I saw the snow and all plans went out the window.  But that can happen on a weekend and I'm glad it did. 

eating cherries

I forgot how wonderful cherries can be.

In fact, the bowl I had today lasted about two minutes.  I loved them, so juicy and lovely, and they are now a regular on my shopping list.  I also found out that they are pretty good for you. They're a great source of antioxidants,  are rich in two kinds of flavoniods, which slow down the aging process (which is always a good thing in my book) and they help you sleep.  Which for me, is important right now.  It's three months until I welcome my little baby into this world and I know that I'm going to need all the sleep and rest I can get before then.  So cherries have become my new favorite snack.

I wrote a big scene in my young adult book today and the cherries helped me along.  I would normally have sweets or a bag of crisps by the side of me as I write, but today cherries did the trick. So yes, I'm converted.  Before this week was out I found and loved cherries.