Slack jawed, and with my elbow cast at an odd angle, my eyelids creaked open. It seemed I had fallen asleep. These things happen sometimes. It’s  called the sneaky nap. Not a nap that you sneak in, more a nap that sneaks up on you.

There you are going about your business, and then suddenly… whooshka! You wake up slack jawed and no feeling in your arm. The sneaky nap as struck again.

Bleary eyed I staggered out to the lounge room only to find things were looking a little different. Very different. I couldn’t put my finger on it. The Monkeys were quiet and going about their monkey business, surprisingly not causing havoc at that particular moment. So it wasn’t them.

I continued looking about. Things looked clearer, clearer than they had for quite some time. I didn’t think I had napped for that long, so it can’t have been clarity of thought that had returned. I squinted… then it dawned on me, that was it. The fact that I was squinting. Squinting in my lounge room. Squinting in the afternoon autumnal sunlight. At that same moment Mr Chocolate cheerily walked in with a wad of newspaper in hand, and proceeded back to the windows. The light was different…

That was it. The windows were clean!

To celebrate the soft autumn light, and to use up some seasonal apples, Apple Oat Muffins it was.

Apple and Oat Muffins

150g softened butter

3/4 cup raw sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup of whole oats

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

2 beaten eggs

3 grated apples *

Cream butter and sugar together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Spoon mixture into lined muffin tray. Sprinkle with a little extra raw sugar. Bake at 190C for approximately 25 minutes.

*Apple season runs from January to May.