And the dawn has come...

And the wine will run
And the song must be sung
And the flowers are melting
In the sun...

My insomnia wasn't quite so bad last night.  I fell asleep fairly quickly and didn't wake until 4.45am.  I could see the most amazing light sneaking round the edge of the window blind so got up and stuck my phone through the slats to capture this.  I then opened the blind fully and for half an hour watched the sky turning all shades of blue, pink, orange and yellow.  So beautiful.  What a joy to witness it.

Being wide awake by this point I almost got showered and dressed but didn't want to disturb D, so I watched some painting tutorials on You Tube instead.  

A couple of the tutorials were on botanical painting.  Absolutely fascinating to watch.  I have a friend who paints in this style (and teaches on the Certificate in Botanical Illustration at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) but I fear I lack the patience and fine motor skills to make even a half decent attempt at this.  

By 7.30am my eyes were getting heavy so as D got up, I muttered that I would lie on for another hour to try to catch up with some sleep....and woke again at 11am!!!  I hate missing the morning like that, especially when it's a lovely day, but I felt rested so was worth it.  

We had a leisurely lunch watching this episode of the Good Cook.  Simon Hopkinson is new to me and we watched the first episode last week and I was really impressed. The second episode was just as good and I have ordered his book that accompanies this series. One thing I have to thank lockdown for is rediscovering my love of cooking from scratch and I am already looking forward to making a number of dishes from the book.

With Ele and Kenny (and maybe my nieceJennifer) coming up tomorrow, I just had to make a cake to celebrate (first time we've seen them in four months! Not hugging will be so difficult!) I originally planned to make a Victoria sponge then I remembered how much we all love coconut, so in homage to school dinners, I have made a coconut pound cake, and before serving tomorrow I'll top it with a layer of seedless raspberry jam and yet more coconut.  

Happy days :-))