February fun and frolics

February started well – after a dry January, the 1st of February was always going to have just a little sparkle to it – a quiet night in on my own with a glass of pink champagne, homemade lemon cheesecake (without cheese) and my new favourite Netflix box set – Suits!  Back to the cheesecake – Madeleine Shaw’s cook book is fantastic and I cannot recommend the cheesecake highly enough – full of lemon, nuts, dates, honey and lovely raw things that are healthy and taste divine!

In amongst a hectic time at work we also had some birthday celebrations for Mr P – as is usual the 6 nations rugby takes up the daytime and we went back to the Black Bottle bar and Michelin * Black Rat restaurant in Winchester to toast another fine year.  Fantastic food and incredibly popular too, on a sunday night, in fact 4 other friends were there too!

Mr P got a Nutribullet for his birthday – if you don’t have one, you need to get one.  My fruit intake has gone up 10-fold, easily.  Such a healthy start to the day and probably the easiest kitchen activity I have come across.

We finally got to Anglesey to spend a weekend with friends, I am embarrassed the amount of times we have had to cancel due to work getting in the way so it was fantastic to have a weekend up there together and what a fine one it was – good company, good weather and some gorgeous views!

We finished the month sun-seeking in Tenerife.  The evening before we had a fab supper with two great friends, en route to the airport there was a reunion with my sailing chums, we waved off another friend at the airport and then went on our merry way to the sunshine.  Tenerife was a fantastic surprise…. a) that there are quiet corners and luxury hotels b) that it isn’t all like ‘Take Me Out’ if you find those quiet corners and c) that it is really rather full of beautiful volcanic scenery.  Oh – and the Cava bears my name and is disturbingly cheap! Tenerife got a thumbs up from us!

All in all a good February! It really is starting to show the signs of spring now, even if it is still mighty chilly!  There are however only 3 flowering daffodils in my garden so we still have a way to go… Very slow-starting this year! Hurry along!

Importantly we finally got our flights booked to Israel – roll on May!  I was particularly pleased that on the way back upgrading to first class cost only £30 for the 2 of us! A great result!  I’ve been doing my research – there is so much to see in our short time there, I’m very glad we will have local knowledge to help us see it all and enjoy the hidden bits!

I’m happy that it is March tomorrow – it’s my birthday month and it’s also a big few weeks at work that I’m looking forward to getting behind me!  We are getting ever closer to Easter and a lovely long 4-day weekend, we just need to decide whether we go to Cornwall, do a spot of yachting, maybe just sit back and relax at home, or perhaps book a last minute deal? Not done it before but we like the idea, watch this space!..