old as dirt

I turned 47 today and you can bet I was feeling pretty darn old when I woke up in our guest room this morning after only 5 hours of sleep. You see, our waterbed mattress decided to spring a leak at about 10:45 p.m. last night. Luckily we weren't in bed at the time. I'm sure you would have enjoyed the frantic scrambling to pump 800 litres of ancient waterbed water out of the mattress, over the balcony and onto the lawn. So much fun. A new mattress has been ordered and in a mere ten days(!) we will once again be enjoying a super waveless slumber. Until then we're making do with the crappy old sofa bed aka Instrument of Torture that we've been meaning to replace for ages. I apologize to all guests who have had to sleep on that thing.

Anway, it turned out to be a good day after all. How could you not smile after being greeted by this




or this


lily-of-the-valley (Maiglöckchen) - my birthday flower and also one of my absolute favourites


or this


salad bouquet from our funny neighbour who never forgets our birthdays



My sweet boys gave me this pretty planter with a gorgeous hydrangea in it.


Don't be fooled - that tea cup is as big as your head!



And of course there was cake!



lemon roll



apricot cranberry cake




chocolate pound cake


(There was also Chinese take-out but I'm sure you don't want to see pictures of that. It got kind of messy.)