Eat your heart out, Nigella! This is really tasty

TASTY: Nigella at a book-signing
Wikipedia

MARY Berry, Paul Hollywood, Nigella Lawson ... eat your hearts out. My missus would win the Great British Bake-off hands down every time, as far as I am concerned. In fact, not just me. My work colleagues think her light Victoria Sponge and luscious Lemon Drizzle have made her worthy of the title, Queen of Cakes (Saturdays).
 This weekend, the boys and girls in London had to go without. Ah, how sad. My wife decided not to give away her delicious cake to the hungry rabble at my office.
 Instead, she turned her attention to muffins with various sweet-tasting centres cleverly inserted. And all in a good cause. She and several friends sold their home-made goodies to raise money for the Addenbrookes Oncology Unit in Cambridge because one of her colleagues mum's has recently been diagnosed with the dreaded Big C. This was a way of raising awareness and valuable funds. The cakes, as you would expect, all went down a treat. And you can see exactly why. Now, where did she put that cake tin? I'm feeling ever so slightly peckish. Can't think why.
PS: The event raised more than £300.
NB: Please remember that by clicking on any adverts that may appear you are helping to make a valuable contribution towards Alzheimer's research (see previous posts). So get clicking folks ...

Dove survives after Sweep's clean swoop!

WHAT DID I DO WRONG? Sweep puts on the angelic face.
 This photo was taken some time ago, but he hasn't changed!

SWEEP, our speedy Spaniel, swept up on a slouch of a collared dove strutting about on the lawn early in the morning just as I was about to let the animals out and give them breakfast. The feathers were flying ... but not the bird. Fortunately, the Sweepster responded to anxious shouts from me and my wife and immediately dropped the dove. The true instincts of a gun dog.
Battered, dazed and probably in a state of shock, the bird hardly moved until I carefully picked it up, relieved that it was still alive. The bird soon stopped flapping and calmed down so I took it down the garden and placed it on the ground in a paddock next to a fence in the early morning sun.
When I carried my afternoon check on the menagerie I decided to see if our friend had survived. He was sitting on the fence, rather than on the ground, recognisable because he was minus a quite few tail feathers. Yet as I approached he deftly flew up to an overhead wire, showing no signs of his earlier encounter. These doves are a common sight, particularly in this part of the world, and make their nests in the strangest of places, and do not show the same fear of humans seen in other birds. And they certainly seem very hardy, especially in this lucky blighter's case. Strange to think, then, that before the 1950s they did not even breed in Britain.

COLLARED: A bird such as one of these was caught by Sweep. They are a very common sight ... even with a lively Sweep on the prowl                        Wikipedia

PS: The rain brings about some strange sights in the ornithological world. A group of wood pigeons were sitting on one of our fences, all lifting one wing up in the air so that the angled rain could get get to their bodies, presumably so they could have a bit of a freshen-up. Make sure you wash your armpits! Weird sight. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera.