Kaff’s been promising me some cake and ice cream for the past week, so I was overjoyed when she finally delivered and brought this little beauty home.

Coffee and Walnut cake.

Yum!

Now it might surprise you to know this (me being a squirrel and all) but I’m not a huge fan of walnuts. They’re a bit meh on the grand scale of nuts. I just don’t rate them on their own merit. However, when they’re paired with some grapes (preferably not red ones) they make a lovely afternoon snackette. But oh! when they’re sprinkled heavily on a cake with buttercream icing or on this splendid coffee concoction, those woeful walnuts come into their own and send my tastebuds soaring to the treetops – and it’s been a long time since any part of me last saw the top of a tree.

Now if you’ll excuse me, this cake needs my undivided attention… It’d go lovely with some ice cream, don’t you think? Wench, we-ennnnch.

Apart from my brief sojourn to the Scottish Highlands, I am mostly staycationing this year, so another beautiful Sunday afternoon found me out on the patio with a picnic and a terrific book, Like Bees to Honey by Caroline Smailes. (Lovely lady, if you’re reading this, any chance of a sequel, Like Squirrels to Nuts?)

Of course, just because I am only out on the patio, it doesn’t mean to say that standards need to drop. I hauled out my indoor hammock (no, Kaff still hasn’t got me a groovy outside one), picnic blanket, a hamper of nuts which was very heavy but happily, quite a bit lighter when I brought it back inside, and a lovely bottle of something cool and pale. I wish I could say it was the Cisk beer featured in Caroline’s book but it wasn’t. I had to settle for a bottle of Dalwhinnie instead.

My shades and sun hat are very important – I don’t want to end up a red squirrel, after all – so I made sure to take those with me on the first trip out to the patio. (I am only a little squirrel and had no help shifting everything, so it took a couple of trips.) However, when I finally had everything around me, I kicked off my sandals, and read for a while.

Caroline Smailes is a lovely, very clever lady and a top writer. I’ve been to a lot of islands but haven’t been to Malta, yet she described it so well that I feel as if I’ve been there this afternoon. I had taken my iPOD outside with me as well, but I didn’t need it, I was so engrossed in her book. If you want to find out more about it, Kaff did a review on her blog The Nut Press. (She should have been writing my book, The Adventures of Squizzey, but instead read Caroline’s and then wrote about it. I think that’s a little naughty but Caroline’s so lovely, I don’t mind too much, I suppose.)

All in all, it was one of those lovely, restful paws-up afternoons that a busy International celebrity squirrel like me doesn’t get very often. I enjoyed it immensely. How did you spend your weekend?

It was such a beautiful day today that I was desperate to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. Kaff has towers of TBR books (that stands for To-Be-Read, how well am I getting into this literary speak, eh?), so I clambered up, only knocking out a couple of volumes on my way, and filched this promising-looking book from the top of the pile. Without Alice is the debut novel of DJ Kirkby, one of Kaff’s Twitter pals. Having met the lovely lady in London in May, I wanted to read her book, especially as Kaff is promising to take me to the book’s London launch in October.

As soon as they got wind of me going outside, of course, the crew wanted to come, too. I managed to persuade the chipmunks to stay indoors and guard the nut stash but Fluffy, Patch, Squashy, Leo and Hotty all came out onto the patio with me.

As you can see, we all became engrossed in the story and enjoyed our time in the sun. It’s so much lovelier spending time outside with a good book than reading indoors, isn’t it? And Without Alice is certainly a good book. A very good book. I’m thoroughly enjoying it so far.

*Btw, just between you and me, I have to admit that I don’t think much of the cover model, so I have offered my services to Denyse for her next book.

You can find out more about Without Alice and buy it exclusively from the Punked Books website. It doesn’t go on general sale until October. You can also join in the discussion on the Without Alice FaceBook page . To find out more about DJ Kirkby, visit her Author Website or DJ Kirkby’s Blog .