Flamethrowers and Umbrellas

We had a busy weekend of baking, baking, and more baking. First it was a second batch of red wine truffles - which I have yet to photo, argh - then a pair of souffles for our Saturday evening. I have photos of those, but they're being held back until after Katie's wedding, since they're a part of her present. Then there were the triple-salted caramel cupcakes (recipe courtesy of Sprinkle Bakes) on Sunday, which kept us up late. The photos for these, although also a part of her present, don't need to be kept back since we presented Katie with a cupcake of her own on Monday.

They were fun to make, although I burned myself on the hot caramel in a quite stupid manner. Lady actually has a full write-up of the experience over at Materials and Methods, her new blog. Go! Look! She just opened it this weekend and hopes to fill it with all the craftsy and bakesy things she likes to do, as well as a touch of the science.

We have a busy weekend coming up - visiting with the_verb and a potential photoshoot, then my grandmum and aunt will be in town. And in between need to finish up Katie's present. Phew!


We had a fledgling on the windowsill of our office Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. He chirped and chirped so much and it was rather amazing how enamored the office became of him. We watched him hop around on the sill, get fed by his mother, try and make friends with the reflection in the window, chirp dejectedly for hours, and squish himself into the corner all cold and alone. I was amazed no one tried to rescue him, and also grateful - as a fledgling, he needed to be left alone. Seeing his mum return occasionally helped with that a lot.

We were sad to see him the next morning, still there, a little ball of fluff. He must've been cold. It'd been raining all night. He perked up after a while, resumed his chirping. Then his parents came back mid-morning, fed him, and went to the roof. There was a massive amount of chirping, so a few of us got up to look. And just in time too, for ZOOOM, the fledgling was off! Hurtling across the space between buildings and almost, almost making it to the lip of the roof. But not quite, and he had to go back to another windowsill to recoup.

We went back to our desks, satisfied that he could fly now and would eventually get out. But then another coworker cried out a few minutes later, "he's stuck in the net!" There was a flurry of concern - would he get out? We'd seen other birds get stuck in the net that was supposed to hang across the top of that gap and keep them out entirely, but had been allowed to cave in halfway. Those birds were discovered too late. But this one was small, a little fledgling sparrow, and he could at least hop through the holes in the net. Yet he kept going further into its folds instead of out and kept growing more flustered.

Then two people went up on the roof and together unfolded the net. The fledgling took his opportunity and fled with his parents and a great cheer went up throughout the office. We had all been worried and I don't believe there was one person left unconcerned with the fledgling's plight. It was really quite adorable.