Weekly bird in the hand

Here is this week's list of things I'm grateful for - my "bird in the hand"

Angie!

• My friend Angie who's birthday it was yesterday! Happy birthday sweetie.
• My new cookbook "Plenty" by Ottolenghi. I cooked 4 dishes from it for a dinner party this week and each one came out well and tasted yummy. It's a vegetarian book and no one misses meat when you use these recipes.
• October.  I love this month.  Getting ready for warmer clothes, and putting the aga on.....
• The hot sunny days this week that have been ripening our grapes.
• Having time to get to know people better.
• Passing exams! I passed one yesterday..more on that another day.
• The new technique I learned to get pomegranate seeds out of pomegranates! Works so perfectly. Cut the pom in half horizontally.  Hold one half in your hand, cut side down to your palm.  Use a rolling pin to hit the back of the pom and all the seeds just pop out through your fingers and into the bowl. No splash, no mess, no yucky white bits to pull out.
• Tasting perfectly ripe juicy pears, like these below that we harvested from our tree a few weeks ago and left to ripen in the wine cellar:

Hope your week has been bountiful like ours.