Elephants and Roses~~~~~

It was amazing how quickly this week sailed by. I was busy every day.

Besides gardening, I was cleaning, searching through cookbooks, baking, soup making, flower arranging and shopping.  I entertained a special guest from South Africa………an interesting and exciting country which I've visited twice.  Susan is English but has lived near Johannesburg for many years, but not so long that between us we were soon able to recall so many English things, most of which were food and their often funny names.  We had the family youngsters laughing when we discussed bubble & squeak, spotted Dick, bread & dripping, differences between Bovril and Marmite, tripe and onions etc.

I baked a new cake - a Treacle & Spice Victoria. The guests liked it, I thought it too crumbly. It gave me a terrible time in the morning when refusing to dislodge from the spring form pan - which wouldn't 'spring' and I ended up pounding on the bottom with a hammer to get the darn thing out so I could decorate it with the fresh orange icing!

The lovely flowers, a great buy at Trader Joe's this week at just $3.99 a bunch - two bunches here, mixed roses and alstroemeria (Peruvian lily).  I'm hoping to dry the roses.

You must know by now that I am a great lover of elephants.  I had such wonderful safari experiences with African elephants, including an unforgettable, very cold, early morning ride on one in Botswana HERE, and riding an Asian elephant bareback in Thailand HERE and HERE,
Following those exciting times and to hold on to the memories, I just had to purchase the Pottery Barn elephant pillow shown above on the couch. Then to top it off, Susan brought me this fabulous elephant bag from South Africa - I'm using it now as my knitting bag and I'm really thrilled with it.  Thank you Susan, looking forward to when you return here later this year.