Vegan butter, vege stew, smoked chickpea and butternut filo pie (I forgot to buy the pastry so made noodles separately to serve with the pie filling).

How lovely, Judy.

Last year I had the same thing, but it was a wild bird and mother always flew away as soon as anyone came near ... to this day, I do not know what sort of bird it was.

Thanks for  your confirmation of the butter, Chookie.  Your poor neighbour, she must have had a totally horrendous time travelling home when she was that unwell.  I hope she recovers soon.

Busy weekend's cooking this weekend, an American pasta salad, Scottish flapjacks (more like a granola bar, no resemblance to what we think of as flapjacks), roast vege frittata, Broccoli and cauliflower bake and a "cheesy" pizza bean mixture (with loads of extra silverbeet loaded underneath as my garden has gone mad and I had to use some up before it bolted).

Did a sleep study last night - not a lot of fun, at least it was the last 'event' for a very busy few days.

Went to see Death of a Salesman last night at Her Majesty's Theatre.  A powerful performance with excellent acting by everyone.

It looks like  lot has been happening since I was last here. 

Mab, I hope everything is settling down for you following your procedure a week or so ago.

We arrived back home today after a wonderful 10 day holiday in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands (our first real holiday in c. 25, years since we started our business).  What a great place.  The speed limit is a very peaceful 40 kph, the locals were all lovely and very friendly.  I think they must have churches for just about every denomination under the sun (and perhaps a few more thrown into the mix as well) and the locals all seem very religious. 

So far, the "ferals" and "Bali bogans" have not discovered the Cooks (and I hope they never do) so it is very peaceful and laid back. 

The island is pretty well a circle (an extinct volcano) - about 34 kms driving from start to finish, yet they manage to have two bus routes - one called Clockwise, the second Anti-clockwise!! 

DH and I really did very little - just sat on the front deck reading books and relaxing. The house we were staying in was very quirky (to say the least), but that made the whole visit more interesting.  I couldn't get phone reception (I was too mean to buy a SIM) and we didn't have any luck with getting onto WiFi either so couldn't keep in touch with the shop ... how sad  ... I can't say I was upset about that, after a day or two being out of touch I didn't even think about work at all. 

Rarotonga is definitely on my list of places to return to in the future.

Pretty scarce cooking this weekend.  Stew and a vegan mushroom and potato dauphinoise (I strongly suspect that that is the incorrect spelling, sorry about that).