Today we have a holiday in celebration of the Queen’s birthday! Queen Elizabeth II of England that is. I have a lot of respect for our current Sovereign, she has been through a lot in her reign and still has so much dignity and grace, isn’t she beautiful in this picture of her youth? Although her actual birthday is April 21st, here in australia we celebrate it on different days in each state (its a strange custom I know) however, noone seems to complain about having the day off!

It is a beautiful day too, the weather is that perfect sunny but not hot, with a cool breeze that isn’t cold that seems to happen so often in spring here. I can’t express how much I love spring in perth, I think I feel more alive for these few months than the rest of the year together . This morning I picked some english lavender from our gardens, I am going to use it to make some little gifts for my overseas friends who are heading in to winter as summer comes closer here.

I had a bowl full of strawberries for breakfast! I love summer fruits and can’t wait for cherries to come in to season too. Every year around christmas I make fruit parfait, last year I did strawberry parfait and this year I want to do japanese style parfait with melon and all sorts of tropical fruit!

Its only 6 sleeps until my birthday!