Today is Mr P’s birthday. He’s thirty something. He requested a baked cheesecake. I’d never made one before but remembered that Nigella was a bit of a cheesecake officionado. I raided her website and found this recipe. Fairly simple, but it fitted the bill. All went well and I sat down with a glass of wine to wait for it to bake. I was feeling proud about using a bain marie for the first time. Then a couple of things started to niggle and nag at me. Physics, fluid dynamics, things like that.  The foil I had wrapped the cake tin in was quite narrow. The bain marie water level was - you’ve guessed it, above the foil level. Nigella might say:

‘We plunged our shining candles into a vanilla-scented, lemon-spiked…..sad soggy omelette.’

Oh dear. Mr P has eaten some. He was very kind. I will not show you a photo. 

Still, it’s not all bad. I made these for him:

Silver cufflinks with the fingerprints of the Miss Ps on them. Happy Birthday magic lad, love me xxxx

I have not blogged for over two months. As some of you know there is good reason. A member of my immediate family had an accident. The original prognosis has been thoroughly defied and recovery is now occurring at such a rate that even medical experts are astonished. We have been blessed with such a positive and longed-for outcome.

Whilst all this was happening the women I have met and befriended through blogging have been an astonishing and extremely welcome source of comfort and support. Lucy, Lesley, Gina, Val, Trashy,  Wonderwoman, Celia, Kitty, Vicious Chicken, Jackie, Periwinkle you have helped more than you know. The whole pebble household has benefited because of your comments, emails, texts, phonecalls and thoughts. Saying ‘thankyou’ doesn’t really seem adequate, but a heartfelt thankyou anyway.

I met several of these lovely bloggers yesterday. Such a treat - you will have read about the London-based two-day meet up on several blogs. Miss P2 came with me - a big adventure for a tiny girl. It was wonderful to meet so many of you in person. 

I can’t promise my posts will be regular or frequent but I am back in the mysterious and wonderful land of blog and yes, I have been crafting, so will be demonstrating that this isn’t just a bunch of daft posts about monkeys.

Thankyou to all who encouraged me to continue with silverpebble. I nearly didn’t….