Meg's friend; and a day out

This sweet little bird has been trying to get into our house all day. He started perching on the windows while I was having breakfast, much to Meg's surprise and excitement. Then I went out for a drive, came back, and he did the same again, except this time he was tapping on the window pane with his beak, as if he was knocking to come in! For now Meg is a little too sleepy for serious bird-chasing, so he lives!
When we first moved to Norfolk I would often get in the car and just drive in any direction to explore the area. I found many wonderful and interesting places this way. But in the last five or so years I haven't done any local exploring at all, so today I decided to drive to Aylsham, which is only 7 miles away, and walk around the town.

I knew there was a shop I was interested in seeing, but I couldn't remember what it was. I came across St Jude's almost immediately, and this was the shop. Unfortunately it's closed its doors to customers, but a sign in the window said it's opened another in Itteringham, so that can be my next excursion.

I love the prints and fabric of St Jude's.

It's my birthday on Tuesday, and tomorrow I'm hosting a little pre-birthday dinner, just me and two friends, and because I can't cook, I'm planning to make chicken fajitas for dinner followed by home-made meringues dipped in chocolate, sandwiched together with cream and strawberries. And we're going to watch the Jane Campion film The Piano, and of course, I shall have to give a little performance of the theme tune on my piano afterwards.

Then on Tuesday I'm meeting my friend in Cambridge for the day, and I'm very excited about that.

And on Wednesday, when I'm back to work, I've promised to make my colleagues Nigella's chocolate cloud cake, though I'm now thinking of making the above meringues instead, as meringues are less calorific, and I can also share them with our admin table, who so kindly shared their birthday cakes with us yesterday (I, of course, abstained).