“Tact is the art of making guests feel at home...

...when that's really where you wish they were.” That's not at all true, but our small house is our own again today after a visit by my brother, P, and his family. I wish we lived closer to each other and it's always lovely to see them, particularly this little sweetie,



but I'm really tired now and need a lazy day pottering about. So here I am messing about with some of our digital images and listening to some music on iTunes. As someone who grew up with the 'mix tape' providing the soundtrack to most of my experiences and journeys I love playlists. They are so revealing of mood and taste. This one has Kate Bush, Katie Melua, G4, Cat Stevens, Colin Blunstone, Dave Matthews, George Jones & Tammy Wynnette, Jethro Tull, Gordon Lightfoot and Richard Thompson. What does that give away about me?

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We visited Harlow Carr yesterday - the Royal Horticultural Society's Yorkshire outpost, in Harrogate. I adore Harrogate; there are some amazing houses, shops, and open areas. It's so posh Yorkshire. Harlow Carr is a lovely garden. We've been watching it being overhauled on Gardener's World and thought it might be a nice place to visit as a family (well, almost, as j wouldn't come, having done museum visiting and beach walking duty the previous day.), especially as P is getting into gardening now.
We were there 10ish years ago and there have been lots of changes, notably the addition of two Betty's establishments and the rennovation of the old rose beds.



A whicker whale swimming through a wildflower meadow.



A burgeoning gardener.




I relinquished the camera to allow J to take a rare photo of me. (Actually, it was an excuse to sit down and rest my aching ankles in this lovely recreation of a 19th century garden seat.)



My little brother.



It's a shame that this isn't video as a still cannot capture the beautiful movement of the grasses behind the echinacea.

My brother started to remember cakes from our childhood as we sat having lunch.  His favourite was a rice cake our nana used to make. She died suddenly, when she was only 63 and I didn't ever get chance to learn that recipe (Mum didn't know it either). I have most of nana's significant recipe books and love to find annotations in the margins, but despite all my best attempts I have never managed to recreate the moistness and solidity of her rice cake. All my efforts have been too dry, too light or too grainy.

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I intend to put my feet up for the rest of the weekend and catch up with some knitting. Time to get J's sweater underway...Whooppee!!!