16th February

I can honestly say that this cold is taking an age to go away and currently John and I are sitting snotty together.  Hopefully with the recent improvement in the weather we will be able to get in some fresh air and banish away the bugs.

We have had several days of more settled weather with some long periods of sunshine and some actual real warmth in the sun which is great and a sure sign that Spring is on its way is the fact that the large early orchids are now clearly visible in the verges and fields nearby - this one is Himantoglossum Robertianum and because it is so easily visible one you manage to see one you can be reasonably certain that the habitat in which it is growing will be good for other orchids which come along later.

We are lucky that nearby there are fields with perfect conditions for both wild asparagus and orchids and last year I had two late-flowering orchids in the garden - I have no idea how they came to be there but can only assume that they were deposited there by birds at some point in the past.

I have to admit that since my episode the other year when I lost my glasses on a wild asparagus hunt I have been loathe to go back!!!  John doesn't like it much anyway but I do.

Anyway back to today and Mum was coming for lunch - we planned to sit in the conservatory first, which we did and at one point the temperature reached 29 degrees!!!!  I have to say thank the Lord for Lidl as we were having pork tenderloin which Mum had picked up as an absolute bargain in Lidl.

We had the pork cooked in a cream sauce with caramelised onion and apple with a bit of ginger and cinnamon for some flavour.

It was served with roasted hasselback potatoes, green beans with black pepper and lemon butter and honey roasted carrots.

We spent bloomin' ages in Paps yesterday trying to find little carrots that were all around the same length much to the annoyance of the woman waiting behind us but it was so worth it as they were absolutely delicious!!!  We also had, thanks to Mum and a trip to Lidl, some little individual apple pies with crumble topping which we had pimped up a bit and we had them warmed with cream - although Mum had cream with a bit of apple pie - her one weakness!!

After Mum had left I decided I would catch up on my blog and then have an early night - I still have the feeling that I have an elephant sitting on my chest which is a bit draining.

I was looking for some photographs and came across a post from 2013 when I met someone on one of Elena's foraging days who wanted to learn a bit about photography and I had offered to meet up with her at Pickni Forest with my two cameras to see how she got on.

Her name was Amita and we had a great day but for whatever reason we didn't see each other again until I came across a photograph on the internet and see that she is now a professional photographer who specialises in portrait photography!!!  I pinged her a quick email and reintroduced myself.  She thought we had left the island so is keen to meet back up again.

It was lovely to hear her say that thanks to our chance encounter and the day we spent at the forest she had found a passion in portraiture photography and went on to say "After your inspiration I invested in an Internet course, bought a Canon 5D III plus lenses, have a portraiture mentor in LA & now striving for International Portrait Masters. This would not have happened without your kindness. I often think about those days."

I cannot tell you how lovely it was to hear that - both John and I always try and help people as much as we can - it isn't always reciprocated and sometimes we wonder why we bother - but that makes me realise exactly why we do.   The mantra at the moment is "Be Kind"  (this comes after the untimely death of a TV presenter who took her own life the day before yesterday) so we shall continue to Be Kind because that is the sort of people we are.