Birthday outing

It was my birthday a few weeks ago, & my gorgeous buddies D & E took me to the beautiful Crystal Castle for lunch. It's such a lovely place to visit - chock full of crystals of every imaginable sort (obviously) & serene gardens to wander around in. We found lots of really interesting things to look at too - unusual flowers, spotty gravel on the paths (honestly! The gravel looked like it had the measles!!) & plants doing things I'd never seen before. I'm not much of a gardener (& know next to nothing about plants) but check out this leaf! We decided to turn our expedition into a 3D5S excursion (3 Dimensions 5 Senses) inspired my by friend T & her group in Melbourne. (Now we just have to decide what we do next!) We were very lucky with the weather too - it had been spotting rain on our journey there, but the clouds cleared & the sun came out whilst we wandered around the gardens. When we decided it was time for lunch, no sooner had we sat down in the covered (thankfully) cafe than the clouds returned & the heavens opened. It poured! I was also surprised with the most thoughtful gifts. Miss E gave me this shirt with my name on the back! And Miss D enabled me (read "gift voucher") to go a bit purchase mad at my favorite yarn shop. (Actually, I went quite a bit purchase mad, but those pics will have to wait) Thanks girls! I had so much fun! (& Miss E's lemon poppy seed birthday muffins were divine)