Galette des rois, the Golden Compass and bargain dog toys.

Hello everyone. Canterbury has been drizzly and miserable lately. Despite the weather, Topaz and I went to the post office for posting this morning. The bowl with a rabbit was sold. It was a lovely one. Topaz loves walking to the post office. She is always tempted to walk into the green, but the ground has been so soggy that I stopped going there in autumn. But she still tries.

Yesterday Mike baked La galette des rois, a French pie traditionally eaten on the Twelfth night. He baked it last year as well. It was Raymond Blanc's recipe. It takes time, but it is easy to make (Mike's words).

Serve it warm.

It goes well with various drinks. My favouirte companion is desert wine, but we didn't have it, so had it with black coffee. Delicious almond cream is filled to the edge. We could eat the whole desert at one go, but we left a token slice for my treat for the next day. (We could not eat a full dinner after that)

While enjoying the galette. We watched The Golden Compass on TV. I caught a part of it last week, but wanted to watch it from the beginning  We both have enjoyed it. I would love to read the trilogy when I find time to read for pleasure, probably in the summer. In their world, humans have their daemons as animal shapes. The daemons are always at their humans' sides. So we imagined what animal would be our daemons. I said my mother's would be one of her many toy dogs, who circles around about 50 times whilst barking hysterically when he expects feeding time. Mike said mine would be our Scooter. African Timneh Grey parrot, sweet, strong willed and very talkative. I am convinced. I said Mike's would be Topaz. He fell into silence. I guess he was convinced but he didn't want to admit it!

Last Friday I walked to the studio after I got tired of waiting for the bus which didn't seem to come. On the High Street, I bought toys for our girls. They were £1.99 each. Bargains! Topaz is very happy with her red monster. But Pearl has ignored hers. She usually disembowels any toy within 10 minutes. But not this one. She gave it a glance and walked away. Mike said that Pearl likes furry ones; she often licks furry ones after shaking it. We imagine that she is making the skin soft by licking it so she could tear it open! It is a chilling sight.

Mine is a cute red monster. Topaz, Mike's daemon. 

Ughh, what does she think I am? Bee eater or honey bear? ( Pearl would be dish washer's daemon)

A very  unloved bee toy.