birthday greetings, bottle of wine

Thank you all.  I had a lovely birthday.  In fact I stretched it from St Patrick's Day to Sunday because I could.

Saturday morning I had breakfast in the sun and opened my cards and prezzies.  What a fabulous stash.  Thank you soooooo much.  Despite having these lovely new books, I indulged in one I got at the Pop Up Book Sale the weekend before.

Only Georgia will fully understand.  It proved, as promised, a hugely enjoyable book - perfect way to spend 3 days.

Not that I spent the whole time reading.  I've had this idea to paint this fence with engine oil.  On Friday I had my car serviced and the lovely Barrie not only saved the oil but gave me 2 lovely containers for future use.

And this is the result.  I can't see any difference either!  But perhaps after a few more coats it will have that creosotey look that I love.  One effect is that the area smells like a garage and reminds me of my first job working at the Shell service station in Klemzig.  One of my duties was to fill the oil bottles.  And feed the dinosaurs.
Steve cooked me lemon chicken and we had a bottle of wine with a cork!