The regular reader will know that there is nothing that brings me much more joy than the gruesome twosome and their various antics.  Here they are in a bag….

And now they have a cousin.

This is Fleur my brother’s new Hungarian Viszler puppy.  I am proud to say that in good family tradition Fleur is named after a song (although not a Foo Fighters one).

Himself took a whole heap of pictures  when she came down to visit (including her holiday romance with a basset hound called Augustus) which you can see here.

Fleur has not yet met the gruesome twosome.  God knows what the outcome of that would be.  One suspects Fleur would come out worst.

I have a rare weekend off (more joy) and we are spending it in London avec Fleur.  There are bound to be more pictures soon.

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Rounding off the week with some blanks via Lauren.

1. I am currently obsessed with the new Foo album.  It’s not even been released yet !

2. Today I am tired because I am always tired. I am also irritated by the inability of anyone around here to be able to understand the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’.

3. The age I am is 36 and the age I feel is anywhere between about 6 and 502 depending upon health and responsibilities on any given day. Usually veering more towards 6 though.

4. My favourite place is my purple armchair. I’m in it right now, it’s starting to mould itself into the shape of my ass!

5. Something I have been procrastinating is finishing my Pilates training. I think I’ve found the place though. I think.

6. The last thing I purchased was acidophilis. Rock’n'roll.

7. The thing I love most about my home is… OK there are a million things I hate about this house, it’s miles from anywhere and is falling down around us but…the other day we saw a woodpecker in the garden (which we wouldn’t get if we lived in town) and we now have a new dishwasher at long last.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook will know that Aurora the cat was three last Sunday and Johnny Park otherwise known as the Cable Chewer was two on Thursday. I think we all know that my cats are pretty much the centre of my world and I don’t care who knows it. Named after Foo Fighters songs (another thing that is the centre of my world, but that’s another story), and a constant source of hilarity and trouble in equal measures, my cats have taught me so much, not least that it is impossible to have a perfectly clean and tidy house when they are shedding hair, kicking up cat litter and distributing stuffed (thankfully) mousies everywhere. So here they are, from kittenhood to moving-out-of-London day this time last year. Happy birthday felines!

My vet says they are both overweight. I suspect my vet to be in league with the diet cat food distributors because they don’t look that overweight. But they are indoor cats and sooo lazy. We try to play with them but they join in for twenty seconds and then lie down again. How do I make my lazy cats lose weight?

As you may or may not know there is a General Election going on in the UK at the moment.  Every Thursday night there is a Leadership Debate on the TV where the leaders of the three main parties belittle each other in front of a live studio audience.  Think Jerry Springer with more politics and less barechested fighting.  The Election isn’t until 6 May but I voted on Friday night.  Himself and I have postal votes because he is sometimes away for work and the forms arrived yesterday.  To be honest if I don’t do these things straight away I don’t do them at all so I have made my decision and no gameshows are going to change my mind.

To celebrate this event I drank wine (half a glass, I know how to live).  The wine was also to celebrate Himself finishing a big work project and another decision we made (clue: the wine’s Australian!)

Had a pedicure

Bathed the cats.  They hid from us

But there was no escape.  They stank.  And are moulting.  And had dandruff.  The time had come.  It was an ordeal.  One I cannot go into again.  Himself has some great wet cat pics here.

Himself built me a light box for my photographs (go here if you want to know how to do the same).

And I  made vegan peanut butter cookies.  What’s that you say?  You want cookies too?  OK, here’s how.

First, put 60z (175g) rolled oats in a bowl and seive in 8oz (225g) plain flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and a teaspoon of salt.

In another bowl mix together 6floz (175ml) vegetable oil, 4floz (125ml) vanilla soy milk (any milk alternative is fine but the vanilla flavoured ones work well), 12oz (350g) brown sugar (I know it’s a huge amount of sugar!!!!  but you really need it.  This does make 12 huge cookies or 24 normal cookies so you might want to half the mix actually – now I tell you ha ha!), and 60z (175g) crunchy peanut butter.

This is what happens when you mix soy milk and oil.  It is like giant frogspawn

This PB is from the healthfood store.  They have a sort of grinding machine and all that is in it is peanuts.  It takes a bit of getting used to actually.  My palette is used to the additions in ordinary PB.

Start to mix the wet ingredients into the dry a little at a time until you have cookie dough.

Who likes raw cookie dough?

Roll the dough into balls and place on a greased and lined baking sheet.  Squash the dough balls down to make cookie shapes.  Then bake.

Now here is the tricky bit. Bake them at 180*C/350*F/Gas Mark 4.  I would normally say for about 15 minutes but these took half an hour.  I think there is something fundamentally wrong with my oven (which is great), so perhaps check them after 15 minutes and then keep checking at 5 minute intervals until they are golden.

Allow to cool for a couple of minutes then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Yesterday was baking hot outside.  Today is cold and raining.  I wish I lived somewhere where the weather was more consistent.