1. A fragrant brown box (of the sort that usually contains a slice of cake) arrives with our vegetable delivery. I've been lucky enough to win a prize in Abel and Cole's elderflower tombola. I could have gone and picked some myself, thinking about it -- there are trees in both the car parks. But I fondly imagine that these are Organic and Picked by Professionals, and they were a Prize, which makes them all the sweeter. It doesn't take long to get them infusing in a bowl of syrup for cordial. To me they smell a little like I do on a hot day -- the sweet notes, I mean, not the musky part of the smell. I hope the NCT mums who came for coffee don't think it's me letting myself go. I meant to indicate that it was cordial, not me, under cover of a good show-off about my domesticity; but I never got round to it.
2. Nick is off work today, and he distracts Alec while I make meringues -- I've never done it before, and I am amazed that such pure white foam can come from a natural product like an egg.
3. Nick's sister brought us a cake stand made from three fashionably mis-matched and chintzy vintage plates. The other mothers admire it, and even more satisfyingly, the meringues. I feel like a domestic goddess -- a minor one, a Lares or a Penates, rather than Vesta herself. Actually, I'm quite glad I didn't explain the elderflowers -- it might have been taking it a bit far.
