There are discoveries galore in this week's Heyday Friday newsletter

About far off places, the animal kingdom, the minds of others and the taste of childhood

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Discovery One:

Rhinos have extremely poor eyesight, which they compensate for with with an incredibly acute sense of hearing and smell.

Discovery Two:

Warthogs have such terrible memories that although they run when they sense danger, they quickly forget why they’re running, so they stop, making them comically easy prey.

Discoveries Three to…..too many to count

can be found in this week’s blog, which is about a unique and truly unforgettable safari I went on in northern Kenya a few years ago (where I discovered those two fun facts and many others).

Find out why I’m writing about it now, and what all those other discoveries are (including why the brilliantly named go-away bird is so important to its animal chums) by CLICKING HERE

I can’t resist sharing one of the pictures from the trip with you here, just because….well, I think you can probably see why (there’s no photoshopping jiggery pokery involved, in case you were wondering)

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Here’s another discovery for you. The first woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize was from Kenya. Wangari Muta Maathai was an environmental, social, and political activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. So it seems only appropriate to share some of her still importantly pertinent

WORDS OF WISDOM

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Thanks to the fact that some of my dearest friends live there, Kenya is a country I have visited on many occasions. And a place that holds some of my most magical memories. THIS BLOG describes one of them. A once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list experience that was just as breathtaking as I imagined it would be.

Here’s a (not very subtle) clue about what it was

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Talking about memories, you know how there are some things - sights, smells, tastes - that catapult you right back to your childhood? Well this week’s recipe does just that for me. It’s not for anything particularly special, or, indeed, at all difficult, but it’s something that our family’s housekeeper used to bake as a treat for me and my siblings. I can’t say I ever understood her admonishment, as we devoured them with the icing barely set, that “if you eat them all now, there’ll be none left for later”. I mean, why would you want to save something so delicious when you could wolf down as many as possible the minute they’re ready? I’m betting you’ll feel the same

ICED CHOCOLATE CUP CAKES

These take 15-20 mins to prep and 20 mins to cook and the quantity will make 10 cupcakes.

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line 10 holes of a muffin tin with paper cases.

Whizz 300g dark chocolate broken into chunks (don’t use one with a high cocoa content) into small pieces in a food processor.

In the largest mixing bowl you have, tip in 200g self-raising flour sifted, 200g light muscovado sugar, 6 tbsp cocoa powder, 150ml sunflower oil, 100ml soured cream, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla and 100ml water. Whisk everything together with an electric whisk until smooth, then quickly stir in 100g of the whizzed-up chocolate bits.

Divide between the 10 cases, then bake for 20 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For the icing:

Put the remaining chocolate bits, 180ml soured cream and 3 tbsp light muscovado sugar in a small saucepan. Heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth icing. Chill in the fridge until firm enough to swirl on top of the cakes.

Then if you fancy eating them all yourself (maybe not in one go?), you’ll get no argument from me.

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THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN….. WATCHING

It’s an on-going frustration that society has a tendency to lump together everyone ‘Over 50’, or ‘Over 60’. After all, just as everyone of every age is an individual, so if you’ve met one person over 50, or 60….. you’ve met one person over 50. Or 60.

Imagine, then, how much more difficult it must be for anyone who is autistic and whose experience of daily life, as a result, can be not just slightly, but radically different from another person with the same neurodiversity, to be lumped together in one homologous group.

In this powerfully insightful and moving two-part BBC 2 series, Chris Packham, who has been open about his own autistic diagnosis for many years, not only challenges our perceptions of autism, but gives four autistic people the opportunity to, quite literally, show their family and friends, and us at the same time, what it’s like being inside their heads and how they experience the world around them.

Working with top film-makers, graphic designers, animators and musicians, Chris helps improv comedian Flo, 20 year old Murray, teaching assistant and trance DJ Anton and 18 year old student Ethan to create short films that viscerally illustrate just how different, difficult and isolating life can be when you have autism.

The completed two-minute films are all enormously impactful and poignant, particularly the one made by Murray who is non-verbal and who eloquently communicates his plea not to assume that just because he can’t speak doesn’t mean there isn’t anything going on inside his head, through his beautifully written words, spoken by an actor whose voice he chooses to be the one he’d most like to sound like if he could speak himself.

Inside Our Autistic Minds is a tremendous and frequently deeply emotional documentary. Once you have watched it, which I really really recommend you do, it will change your understanding of autism forever.

You can watch Inside Our Autistic Minds HERE and on BBC iPlayer

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It’s been a while since I’ve featured a

FRIDAY FUNNY

from the wonderful Rosie Made a Thing. So putting that right, right now.

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It’s Mother’s Day here in the UK on Sunday and Rosie has a terrific selection of Mother’s Day cards which will definitely put a smile on the face of any mum receiving one.

I’m looking forward to celebrating with my own magnificent (90 year old) mum, and to spending time with my two daughters, both of whom are now mums to two daughters of their own. There are a lorra lorra girls in my gang!

See you next week

Diane x