This week I turned 35 and with it I thought I would write down 35 thoughts that have flitted by.

1/ Spending a weekend with loved family members that you don’t often see is a pretty wonderful way to kick start a birthday.

2/ Never underestimate the soul filling value of spending hours and hours talking to your brother in a busy cafe.

3/Coffee tastes better with great conversation.

4/ Actually, everything tastes better with great conversation.

5/ Nothing wrong what so ever in decorating your own dining area in a celebratory birthday kind of fashion the night before.

6/ Decorating said area, ensures that come birthday morning when there are school lunches to be made, washing to be put out and and nappies to be changed that this will not be just another ordinary day.

7/ Forget that, I don’t think there are any ordinary days…ever.

8/ Bunting really is well worth the effort.

9/ You don’t have to be a kid to get squealy happy, hand clapping on opening a birthday box.

10/ Husbands need big thank you kisses for giving squealy happy hand clapping birthday boxes.

11/ There is a lot of joy in seeing your eldest child finally shake off a hideous virus, just in time to eat a man size slice of blue cherry meringue tart.

12/ In following days, there is also a lot of joy in left over blue cherry meringue tart with a quiet coffee, a great book and a little quiet time.

13/ Said quiet time is brief these days, VERY brief.

14/ Italian meringue I never knew you were so good! I really didn’t. I scoffed at the seemingly kitchen faffing that you needed in order to get done- The faffing is so worth it though, and I will never do meringue the regular way again…promise.

15/ A good book…is truly wonderful.

16/ A good chiropractor is also wonderful.

17/ Jumping into the world of lenses, aperture, ISO, and bokeh are ridiculously exciting.

18/ Waking up and thinking about lenses as your first thought of the day… does that warrant geek status?

19/ …hopefully.

20/ Asparagus season, I do love you.

21/ Cherry season, I think I love you even more.

22/ Getting a book like Mend it Better is not a whim action, it’s an investment. Little Monkey wears out knees like…well, like a lot.

23/ This time of year makes me think of my grandfather a lot.

24/ It looks like I’m starting a meringue tradition for my birthday, Berry Meringue Tart and A Rather Tall Birthday Cake in the last two years before…I can deal with that. Especially as now I know about Italian Meringue.

25/ I really do like grey overcast days.

26/ I also really like the idea of owning an organic olive farm.

27/ I could sit on my verandah watching the sun set over my olive trees. Dusk cockatoos would fly over head, screeching to each other as they went to seek food elsewhere. (My trees would be carefully netted against said cockatoos- who said day dreams couldn’t be detailed.)

28/ I wasn’t sure how 35 would feel.

29/ Turns out it’s fine and feels remarkably like 34.

30/ Eating homemade sourdough for breakfast never gets old.

31/ The breakfast idea that is not the sourdough. Sourdough does get old and stale eventually, then it’s perfect for making bread crumbs. Supermarket bread goes mouldy, home-made bread just gets turned into something else (pangritata being my favourite at the moment.)

32/ Being able to read is truly a joyful experience, escaping into a book. A story that transports you…

33/ Or just reading about lenses…again.

34/ There are so many wonderful things to do in this world. Learn about, read up on, discover and enjoy. Precious moments that will never, ever be repeated again…

35/ In my 35th year, I’m not going waste one little one of them.

********

Blueberry Cherry Meringue Tart is adapted from this recipe. All I did was change the fruit around from Rhubarb and Raspberry, and made up the mixture in a pot rather than oven baked. After six months of planning to make it, and two days of putting it together, (instalments was easier) was it worth it?

Oh my sweet goodness, yes! Recipe here.