I’ll be seventy tomorrow!
OMG!–I don’t believe it–you must be kidding…!
Three score years and ten–the biblical allowance.
(It gives me pause to think that twenty years ago I was 49 and twenty years before that I was 29 and in twenty years–with a bit of luck and a following wind–I’ll be 89!)
I remember not liking reaching 40–it felt like the end of something.
[Forty is the old age of youth–(Hosea Ballou)].
Seventy doesn’t seem so bad–paradoxically.
Could be that I’m enjoying this new found means of expression–more like a beginning than an ending.
It’s a lottery though and as the French say “on ne sait jamais!” [you never know].
My mother Molly died aged 68 and father Tony, eleven months later–the same age.
Brother Peter was only 58–Meredith’s brother Storm was 60, as was her mother, Dodie.
All of them with more to give, all of them too young.
I’m still here.
“Keep on keeping on…”
And resolve to follow Bob Dylan’s advice to try to–Stay Forever Young!–(at heart that is).
!
Robin Ellis 
Happy Birthday, Robin. Many, many more. I love your recipes. I am not diabetic but they are really delicioius.
Maggie Shappard
St. Louis, MO
Thanks, Maggie.
Best of birthday wishes to you! I will turn 62 in a few weeks, and I will always have very fond memories of your Poldark characterization. I also much enjoyed The Good Soldier (which, by the way, is available for streaming on Netflix).
Happy Birthday! and Many More!
Keep up this blog too. I look forward to it every day.
Thanks, James.
Wonderful clear-eyed baby in the photo. Must be you. Happy Birthday!
Thanks, Penny.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday… from one whose birthday is on January 5th. I think you are an example of the old adage, “you are only as old as you feel…” Perhaps it is partly due to your new form of expression, one that is appreciated and needed. Some of it is pure luck of the draw or whatever one wants to attribute it to… My Father had his first heart attack at 32 when I was 4… waaay back in’59.. I was raised always being told it was up to me to look after my Mother when he went… my Mother dies in 2003 and my Father will be 85 in March. My husband’s brother was killed in a car accident with a bear a month before his 19th birthday…
What is important is the quality of life..
and if Satre is to be believed (No Exit), immortality rests in being remembered. So whenever someone watches something you did as an actor, cracks open their copy of your cookbook, or even if their child, inheriting that cookbook, decides to try a something from it…
you will be immortal…
in the mean time.. Enjoy! It’s the only sure thing….
Good news, Jude!–thanks.
Have a wonderful birthday!!
Thanks, Cindy.
Hi Robin and a very Happy Birthday for tomorrow!
I stumbled across your pages last night having just purchased a reduced price guineafowl and was searching the internet to see how to spatchcock it! I’m now loving reading all of your pages and have every intention of attempting some of your recipes, especially as my other half also has Type 2 Diabetes. My husband and I both hit the grand age of 60 this year and I have such fond memories of Poldark way back in the 1970s! In my eyes there could never be another Ross!
All good wishes to you and your family for 2012
Marilyn Foyle
Trust the chicken turned out well, Marilyn! and thanks.
I was just thinking about the quick passage of time seriously yesterday. I wish you a very Happy Birthday, Robin. And so many more. I’m glad you take such good care of yourself. Have a beautiful celebration!
Thanks, Debra.
Pretty adorable child, I’d say!
Happy Happy Birthday! Living to 70 is an achievement that should be celebrated! Each and every year contributed to who you are today, and I believe the older you get, the richer you grow in wisdom and love. Just think, every single age you ever were – 5, 15, 25, 35 and on, are still alive and well inside you! You carry all those experiences in an integrated, whole human being. It’s really amazing if you think about the privilege of being able to experience the passage of time this way 😀
Have a Wonderful day tomoz. Ive only recently started to read your website & become a fan of it. Im not diabetic but find your recipes healthy & delicious. Happy Birthday Robin!
Happy Birthday Robin! I’m such a fan, it’s hard to think that Poldark was so long ago as it’s still very important to me. Love the baby pic! Hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow.
I’ll be 59 on Monday, and I still wonder what I’ll be when I grow up. Honestly, I hope I never do!
Best wishes for a very happy day and many more!
It’s true, I felt the same when I reached 40. The end of youth, a feeling that I had to behave now, I wasn’t young anymore…… Now, I’ll be 46 next month, I know that’s rubbish, it’s only the outside that’s getting a bit older, on the inside I still can feel like an 18 year old, if I want to. And that goes for you too. You’ll never get old when you keep on doing the things you love.
So, have a very, very happy birthday, make it a day to remember and have fun!!
And in my language: Van harte gefeliciteerd met je 70e verjaardag, en dat er nog vele, vele jaren mogen volgen!!
Dieneke
Happy Birthday, Robin! May you have many, many more!
And a happy and healthy birthday wish to you, Robin. And, thanks for all you do.
Barbara
As a faceless fan of your acting, blog and cookbook…and I’m sure there are many…I wish you many more birthdays to come! Hope you and Meredith have a glorious day.
Robin, I hope you have a joyful birthday tomorrow! I love your cookbook (especially your soup recipes) even though I’m not diabetic. I hope you decide to publish a second cookbook soon.
Many blessings to you and Meredith.
Bonne anniversaire, Monsieur Ellis! 70 ’tis nothing, you are still a spring chicken in my eye.
Age is something I never follow, and It’s probably because my mother died suddenly at the age of 31. Maybe that’s why I take every year as a gift. I seriously have to do the math when a form asks me how old I am. In my eye we are all ageless and timeless….and always getting better and better….. though I still love to get cranky with those know-it-all twenty-somethings out there.
Here is my birthday present to you, if you and Meredith have not seen these already….wonderful animations on youtube, called “Simon’s Cat”.
This video is called Simon’s Cat In the Box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKvNqe8cKU4&feature=related
May the simple things still inspire and be beautiful to you in the coming year….
To health! To love! To life!
Stefanie
Happy Birthday Mr. Robin but you are still so young! I assure you that you look like a man who is only fifty.
Have a great Birthday!
Silver tongue!–but thanks anyway, Gaetana!
Happy birthday, Robin. Mark Twain wrote, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Best wishes!!
Lynn
Great quote–thanks, Lynn-Steven.
Happy Birthday Mr. Ellis, Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, Naomi.
Hope you have a very “Happy Birthday” Robin, and many more to come! Thank you for the joy and pleasure that you gave to us in Poldark all those years ago, and even now, it is a delight to watch! Thanks again, and have a great day tomorrow! Best Wishes, Pauline.
Bless you Pauline–thanks.
and a very Happy Birthday to you. I was born on the exact same day and year as you were and I echo some of your comments on age. I loved your comments about New Year – “…start each day like Beau!” I have adopted it as my New Years Resolution. I am pre-diabetic and am still managing to keep my A1C at 6 or below and FBS under 100. I was already following the Glycemic Index and had lost weight. Now I am enjoying your recipes to help me on this path. My mother was a good cook (she was not diabetic) and I have a lot of her handwritten recipes. It is wonderful to remember the dishes that she made although now I have to adapt some of them to fit my way of eating. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes and information.
A very happy birthday, Robin! I’ve just turned 60. My beloved nephew died unexpectedly last year at the age 40, and I vowed I wouldn’t waste a moment of the life I still have left because of the life he will never have now. It’s utterly heartbreaking to think of all the years he will not experience, the six year old son growing up without him being there is the most heartbreaking of all.
And I was reminded of this last week, realising Stephen Lawrence would be 36 years old now. He might well have become a successful architect, married with children, enjoying their relationships with their grandparents…
I guess I’m just trying to say, we owe it to the precious lives lost to bless our good fortune. (And remember them when we’re having a moan about the broadband going down, yet another roadworks or the plumber not turning up.)
First day of the rest of your life. So happy Birthday, already. x
Close your eyes.
Make a wish and
Celebrate!
Have the most wonderful year ahead. You are not getting older you are getting better and all your flavors and seasonings are blending.
Robin, you are timeless.
On a favonian wind,
kathy
Many congratulations Robin. I have lived longer than either of my parents, they died four years apart at the age of 61 and I was most surprised that I have got this far.
Happy Birthday Robin! You are every bit as attractive @ 70 as you were back in the days of Poldark! Some people just age like a fine wine! 🙂
OMG indeed !! i would never have believed it… you are a very young 70, Robin ! many congratulations and have a lovely birthday…
love + bises from Lucie
You share your birthdate with some impressive people, Robin – Shirley Bassey and Stephen Hawking among them.
A very happy birthday and have a wonderful time tomorrow. I hope Meredith is now fully recovered to help you celebrate.
p.s. i just read that Stephen Hawking is also celebrating his 70th birthday tomorrow… great minds and all that !! x L
Happy 70! and who is cooking tomorrow?
I hope you will have a very nice day. Enjoy it.
Big kiss from the Netherlands,
from Caroline P.
Many Happy returns for tomorrow – you are in good company as my Mum was 70 yesterday and my Aunt (Dad’s sister) today. I also hope Meredith is feeling better now too.
All our very best wishes on your 70th, Robin! Keep on cookin’ and enjoying life to the full! (And come and see us some time!!).
Love, Conner, Glenn & the kids
Happy Birthday Robin! What you’re doing is great and the most important thing is to have “une raison d’être”. I love all your recipes and little stories, written so warmly and from the heart. Keep it up and you’ll live a very long time. By the way, I turned 70 last year and couldn’t believe it but after all, it’s all in the head as one isn’t any different just because you add another day or year. Even though we all hate the idea of getting “older” I recently read “getting older is better than dying young”. So here’s to you tomorrow dear Capricorn, enjoy the day and every one thereafter and keep those wonderful commentaries and recipes coming!
Leonid
Congratulations Robin. Tomorrow is a very important day in your family.
The best of birthday wishes to you, and i hope it will be quite an enjoyable celebration.
You are still here. Give Thanks.and keep on keeping on…..
Leoni from Florida
Wishing you a very Happy Birthday tomorrow! I am re-watching the Poldark series with my husband and enjoying it so much that I looked you up online. So nice to read about you and now I must get your cookbook too! Best Wishes from Sandy in Canada
Happy Birthday Robin! Celebrate as this is an anniversary of your day of birth! Good health to you.
Mary
Happy Birthday, Robin! You are right. 70 is special. To be seventy implies a full measure of maturity and wisdom – whether true or not. The time ahead feels like a bonus. So enjoy many more, good sir.
Walt
Have a fabulous birthday! Enjoy every minute!
I will be 60 in a couple of months, and I can’t believe it either.
Best wishes and congratulations!
Genie Pohl
Happy Brthday Robin. Love your blog.
See what healthy eating can do for you???!!!
Wishing you a very happy birthday! I hope it’s everything that you wish for. As for being 70, you still look as good as the day you arrived back to Nampara. 🙂 Best wishes…
Happy Birthday Robin. 70! My how time flies. To my wife and I you are still that young man traveling to Truro on a rattling coach
On my 30th birthday, I took the boyfriend to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Company to celebrate. On my 40th birthday I wanted to have a party, but all my friends were breaking up with each other! 50 was difficult. 60 was weird. I kept reliving my past. 70 is some years ahead.
Have a wonderful birthday! And keep writing!
Robin, you are a “young” looking 70 year old. It just goes to show that with your healthy lifestyle, age is just a number. Have a wonderful birthday. Charlotte Wallace
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN!
From your friends in San Diego, California
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBIN! WISHING YOU MANY, MANY MORE!
Love your recipes!
From your friends in San Diego, California
Happy Birthday….. Robin
Will be 62 in a week. Can’t believe the number of years behind me.
Have appreciated you as an actor and am glad I found your site.
I so greatly enjoy seeing your emails popping up on my screen as I know I am in for a treat as I can slip away for a while.
All The Best
Lorry Flowers Dinsel
What a cute little boy!! Your eyes were just as bright in 1978 & you’ve kept your great, dashing smile all these years (blush)!! You must be doing something right!!
As traditional Polish birthday wishes proclaim, “Sto lat!–may you live 100 years!” We’d sing it ourselves if we could, but I guess you’ll have to cut & paste this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGdytuGZhj4 Perfect picture, too!!
Cheers & lottsa hugs this day!!
Love, Dianne & Gene
Happy Birthday, Robin & many, many more!!
A very happy birthday today dear Robin !!!!!By the way you still looking very good, like wine getting better each year.
Enjoy and hope you have nice weather dear Capricorn in beautiful La douce France there still many years to come !!!!!
Big hughs xxxxxxxx, Chantal.
Kia Ora Robin
Wishing you a FANTASTIC day on this your very special birthday.
May it be full of family, friends (including the furry variety of course!), fun and fantastic food.
Many, many happy returns.
Lana
N.Z
Happy birthday, Robin! May happiness, good health and success be yours. Thank you for all your insightful articles about life. I turned 50 a few months ago, and like you I thought of close family members who had passed away. I missed their presence but was comforted by their being so much in my thoughts on the day.
Thank you for the blog. Food for thought in so many ways. Have a wonderful day!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBIN! WISHING YOU MANY, MANY MORE!
Love your blog and recipes!
From your friends in San Diego, California
Happy birthday and all the best to you, Robin !
True to the motto: Do what you love, love what you do
with best wishes
Martina from Munich
Muchas felicidas Robin en sus 70 cumpleaños. Que pase un gran día junto a Meredith y todos los suyos y le deseo todo lo mejor para este año que acaba de comenzar.
Robin descubrí su blog un día hablando con mis hijos la cual era mi serie favorita cuando era adolescente y les dije que mi serie era Poldark me llevé una gran alegría al encontrarle en las redes sociales. Muchos saludos para usted y su esposa desde Madrid, España.
Have a lovely birthday.
Jan from Sheffield
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN,
What an adorable little boy you were. I am so happy you are enjoying this time in your life so much…I certainly enjoy your new interests.
Hugs and kisses and have a wonderful day and year!
Love, Francia
Hope you have a smashing Birthday 🙂 from a ship of a gal ( I used to be a slip of gal 😉 in Ohio.
ps. I used to have a dog called Beau, and LOVED that name, so fun to see you have a cat called that.
Happy Birthday Robin, hope it has been a good day.
With love
Pam x
I hope you’re thoroughly enjoying the celebrations. many happy returns of the day!
Have a wonderful Birthday!! Best wishes.
Happy Birthday!!
Happy Birthday Robin. I celebrated you birthday by watching my DVD of Poldark. Enjoy your day.
Happy birthday from rural Pennsylvania!
Congratulations and wishes for a great celebration. Tomorrow, back to work!
Happy Birthday and many, many more! You know, none of us are a day over 29! 🙂
Hope you’ve had a great birthday Robin!
Bron in Adelaide, South Australia
x
Happy 70th birthday Robin, hope you had a lovely day. Ipswich sends its regards to one of its sons!
carol worster, ipswich suffolk uk
Happy Birthday, Robin!
Happy birthday to youuuuu♫•*♥♪¨*•.¸¸♥♪ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫happy birthday to youuuuu ♪♫•*¨♥♪*•.¸¸ ¸¸.•*¨happy biiiiiirthday to Roooooobin•♫♪♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ ♥♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Happy birthday to youuuuu!¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ With my best wishes of happiness and good health for you and your wife…. and wishing you to reach more than 100! God bless you!
happy birthday mate enjoying your blog and recipes as I have just become type 2 finding them very interesting keep up the good work. best regards fred maynard
Happy birthday robin!, funny you should mention 49!, myself,and my twin are 49 on weds 11th jan! lol were all capricorns!
This calls for a celebration! haaaa best wishes maurice
Another one…. Happy Bday: well, I am sure you are the Highlander! ;))
Best wishes for a happy and healthy year! Think how young this will look when you ARE 89! Happy Birthday!
Best wishes for many more. I wouldn’t worry about the fact that your parents died early. Mine died at age 77 and here I am at 91 and still going strong. They probably are up there wondering what happened to me- like did I make it?
I am living ina beautiful retirement complex in SW Florida. We have many here who are in their 90’s and a few over 100. I think a good healthy diet and social contacts add to living longer.
And many more years of wonderful meals for you. Thank you so much for all you have done! Best wishes to you for a wonderful 2012.
Hello Robin & Happy Belated Birthday.
I just finished watching your Poldark series -Great job of acting- making me wish, I could have met the ‘real’ Ross Poldark-
Many happy years for you to come-
Robin you still look amazing! What cities will you be doing on your American book tour? Any other cities in California besides LA? I’m hoping you make it up to Northern California because I’ve always wanted to meet you! I’m so looking forward to reading your wonderful cookbook. So many of my family members and friends have type II diabetes. Thank you!
Kind Regards,
Morwenna in Sacramento, CA
In San Francisco I’ll be doing an event at The Booksmith
1644 Haight Street (Haight-Ashbury) on Thursday, March 22nd 7.30pm.
Your name brings back memories Morwenna!
A very happy birthday Robin enjoy this great day xx !
Thank you, Chantal!