The Official Launch of Castle Hamster!

Today Lochwinnoch (well, my little part of it) was bathed in a pink glow as we celebrated the Official Launch of Castle Hamster and played the Toffee 'n Caramel Game for the very first time.

Here I am with Leah, my next-door neighbour, cutting the Castle Hamster cake (which my friend Moira and I made yesterday and which was trickier than Castle Hamster to make except it didn't take so long ...).

Leah was the overall winner of the First Toffee 'n Caramel Game, correctly predicting which hamster would emerge onto which drawbridge more often than anyone else.

As well as this remarkable achievement, Leah also won Special Commendation for bringing her own hamster (Pinky) with her, and for being generally the PINKEST party participant of all.

Castle Hamster is still not finished though. Its garden needs landscaped, and a way of protecting the whole outfit in transit still needs to be worked out. But, thanks to my patient party guests, I'm pretty happy with the way the game is working. Next stop - the Wigtown Book Festival!

And many many thanks to Moira (my Tower of Strength!), Linda, David (my trusty Technical Adviser and Right Hand Man), Aaron, Ellie, Katie, Leah, Kiera, Lewis, Tracey, Laura-Rose, Leslie, Christine, Amy, Scott and Tom for being brilliant guinea-pigs!