So my first thought on waking was not (as it should have been) 'Rise and shine, Laurie Graham, shake a leg and get to your place of work.' Instead it was, 'We have banana bread for breakfast.'
A gift from a friend who came to dinner. And what banana bread. The best. Now I have to find out if her friendship stretches to giving me the recipe. In full. You know, sometimes people hold back a little something from the list of ingredients? Can't fool me though. We're going to need bananas.

And talking of ingredients, there was the fallout from last week's ill-advised substitution of farro for bulgour in a Turkish pilau. Personally I thought it worked but Mr F tossed and turned all night. He said he felt like he swallowed Stromboli. I was just about to drop the recipe from my Worth a Second Go list when a friend blew in from North Carolina with guess what in her luggage. I tell you, no greater love hath a friend than that she finds time, on the fraught eve of departure, to read my dumb blog and then to throw a pack of bulgour in her suitcase. Friendship, thy name is Lesley.

I have a lot of reasons to feel grateful this week. Not least the kind friends who are already helping me and the thoughtful ones who are offering to help as my mother's life slowly closes down, like lights being turned off, one by one. Thanks, dear buds. You know who you are.