Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday on Sunday. We went to a ball on Saturday night for Sam's Uncle's 50th birthday so I kind of knew the day would pretty much be a right-off (and it was). Sam took me to an amazing restaurant in Brighton called The Chilli Pickle, an Indian restaurant which specialises in yummy regional street food. Eating there took me back to our time in India nearly 4 years ago. On Monday, I took the day off work and we went to Middle Farm, a lovely farm and shop with a nature trail and lots of cute animals to look at. We had a spot of lunch there and bought some yummy cider and gooseberry wine. I also treated myself to the metal trug you can see at the back of the picture.

I was very spoiled with presents this year and the theme was USEFUL. Sam, my Dad and my big brother all chipped in to get me a brilliant new camera (Nikon Coolpix 500) so that my blog photos will no longer be fuzzy iPhone pictures.

Sam's family and some of our friends all chipped in to buy me a new polytunnel to replace my greenhouse after the Great Greenhouse Disaster - we started putting it up on Monday but I am holding off putting the cover on until the weather is a bit more settled.

Sam's Mum bought be the 3 baking books you can see in the bottom of the picture, I haven't made any of the recipes yet but they all look yummy.

Sam also bought me 2 books:

• The Spade as Mighty as the Sword by Daniel Smith is the story of the wartime Dig For Victory campaign. I'm about a third of the way through and I just love all the little facts that pop up as I read, like how people used to grow cabbages and tomatoes on top of Anderson shelters. Just the sheer amount of food grown by the British public during the war amazes me.
• and while we're on the topic: Dig On For Victory by C.H. Middleton. Know as Mr Middleton, he had a wartime gardening radio programme on the BBC and wrote this book as a guide for growers. This is the second wartime book he wrote and I have just ordered the first book, Digging for Victory.

I also got a bottle of gin from my lovely work colleagues, they know me so well!

 All in all a lovely birthday haul. I love having presents that aren't just immediate (maybe apart from the gin anyway), the camera I will have to learn how to use properly, the polytunnel will need to be put up and the books will take me a while to get through.