Life & Death

On Monday I lost the most wonderful rabbit I've ever had.  He was a lilac Lionhead cross, his name was Rasputin and he was the gentlest, sweetest, funniest animal you could ever hope to meet.  He loved to watch crime shows (CSI Vegas was his favourite), eat crunchy carrot bakes and terrorise our cats by barking and growling at them like a dog and occasionally flipped them over his back when he was younger.  He loved to read the paper that lined his house while eating his muesli and always demanded to see the identification and paperwork of any workmen that came to the door.  Although he had a good long life (nearly 13 years old!) I will miss him so very much.

Rasputin

 He was brought home on Thursday in his own special urn* which has his name engraved.  He now lives on the window ledge where he can keep one eye the world and one on the TV like he always did - plus he still manages to constantly annoy the cats!

oOo

Today however, is my Mom's birthday, and as neither of us really felt up to going out to celebrate like we were planning, I made her some blueberry pancakes for breakfast and some blueberry muffins (her favourite) later on.

Birthdayberry Muffins

I was a bit lazy and used the box mix I'd used for the pancakes, however I did add some extras - packed brown sugar, nutmeg, vanilla and almond extract - to make them super yummy!   After I spooned the mixture into the muffin cases, I sprinkled some demerara sugar, and pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg on top of each one before putting them in the oven.  As you can see, this gave them a gorgeous sweet crusty top, while leaving the insides nice and fluffy.

So this week has basically been a blur of death and birth for me.  At least I know I'm not back in that death spiral, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make the pancakes or muffins.

*'Putin's cremation and urn was all taken care of by the wonderful people at Green Pastures Pet Crematorium.  For an extra fee, they came and picked up his body and they also donate any extra money they get to the PDSA.  So if you live in the Staffordshire area and have need of their services, I highly recommend them. :)