And then there were five!

I had quite a busy day today starting with a quick trip to the shops this morning. Because the royal wedding was on from 8:30am there weren't too many people around and a lot of the shops weren't opening until 1pm but at least Tesco and Wilkinson's were open so I managed to get the shopping I needed.
When I got home I made some coffee and sat down just in time to see the bride arrive at Westminster Abbey and she did look stunning. I got on with a few other odds and ends and after lunch I managed to give the car a good clean.
After I had finished I made a cup of tea and stood in the kitchen watching the birds from the window. There was the usual gang of sparrows pinging about and a goldfinch came over onto the thistle seed feeder. I watched him for a minute or so when another one appeared and then another. I rushed into the front room to get my camera and when I got back there were four of them.
Of course, when you want to do something quickly you suddenly find you have five unco-ordinated thumbs and cannot do the simple thing you were aiming to achieve. I carefully moved the net curtain to one side so that I did not frighten them and I was about to take the picture when another goldfinch appeared. I felt so honoured and pleased because I had only seen two at the same time before today and now there were five. I was so engrossed that I forgot to press the button on the camera!
Oh well, I will have to make sure the camera is in the kitchen and when I get a good picture I will put it on my blog.

Jolly good show!

My clematis 'Nelly Moser' didn't do very well last year and I had intended to prune and feed her but somehow, never got round to it. With the extremely cold weather we had in December I was sure she wouldn't do at all this year especially as the clematis next to her died off after coming out in leaf. I think lack of rain was the last straw.

But look at her now! This is the best display she has ever given me and there are still plenty of buds to open.

A bold rescue!

Today Eden and I started to make some hot cross buns so I decided that I would use a recipe from one of my cookery books. The mixture was made to the recipe but as soon as I turned out the dough to start kneading I could feel that it wasn't quite right.
The dough was quite dense and I had used some dried yeast that was fairly newly opened but the recipe had required the addition of an egg. Anyway, I carried on with the kneading and the dough still felt a bit too dense but it did spring back when pressed so I continued kneading for about eight minutes and then put it to rise in an oiled bowl.
The dough was supposed to double in size in two hours so we made some Easter biscuits while we waited but after the two hours the dough had remained very much unchanged. Not wanting to waste good ingredients I decided to divide the dough into two and put in a couple of small loaf tins while I mad some more mixture from my own recipe.
The dough still didn't rise so I cooked the loaves along with the hot cross buns and believe it or not, we tried some spread with butter when we had a cup of tea and it was really good so we now have some hot cross buns and some spicy fruit loaves too!

Pear and Almond cake

If you like pears, if you like almonds and you like cake.......then you'll like this!

6oz butter or margarine - 6oz caster sugar - 3 eggs - 6oz self raising flour - 2oz cornflour

2oz ground almonds - 2 teaspoons almond essence - 3 medium pears cored and chopped into chunks (conference are good for this) - flaked almonds for the top of the cake

1 Line a 7inch (18cm) deep cake tin and heat the oven to 160C (325F) Gas mark 4

2 Cream the butter and sugar until soft then add the eggs one at a time and mix well.

3 Add the sieved flour and cornflour, the ground almonds and the almond essence.

4 Peel and core the pears then cut into chunks and stir into the mixture until combined.

5 Pour mixture into the cake tin and make a small well in the centre.

6 Scatter the flaked almonds liberally over the top and bake in the centre of the oven for about one and a half hours (or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean).

7 Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack, remove the paper and leave until completely cold.

Rhubarb, rhubarb!

This week at the farmers' market there were a couple of stalls selling this season's fresh rhubarb. I love it when it first comes in and because the weather was so warm last weekend the sticks were a beautiful bright red colour so I bought enough to make myself a rhubarb crumble. Yesterday I stewed the fruit to make the crumble but it was such a pretty flourescent pink colour that I decided to let it cool and I had some last night with a large dollop of creme fraiche and it was absolutely delicious. A lot of people don't like it because it is a bit sharp if not selected and cooked properly and they don't realise how versatile it is either. I love it stewed, in a crumble or pie, as a fool or made into jam. The man from Cheddar was there too with the first fresh strawberries which he grows under polythene and because they were picked the day before they were full of flavour. He said the outdoor plants would be fruiting in about four weeks and I can't wait for them. Now that the weather is warming up we will soon be seeing fresh salads, carrots and beans etc. and the local asparagus will be harvested in a week or so. Then Eden and I will be able to have some with some salmon, hollandaise sauce and local baby new potatoes because it's one of her favourite meals.

What will they think of next!

Today on the main news there was a piece about some bright spark who has come up with the idea of doing something for someone else to spread happiness and also to make yourself feel better. Things such as buying the person in the queue behind you a cup of coffee especially if you don't know them. Well, I've been doing things for people for most of my life because that's the sort of person I am but it usually gets thrown back in your face or people start to take advantage of you and the people you do the acts of kindness for are never anywhere around if you need a little help. Sadly, this is the way a lot of people have become these days, they are only interested in themselves and don't care about anyone else. I've learned the hard way but I'm still unable to change so no doubt I will continue to do things for others but if I ever need anything done I know there will be no one around.

A real taste of summer

I managed to get this picture of the goldfinches on Friday and I know it isn't brilliant but it was done very hastily before they flew away. They're very skittish at the moment but I hope they will get used to me in the kitchen.

We have had some really warm weather this weekend and all the plants have started putting on loads of growth. In fact, I think if I were to stand and watch I am sure I would actually see them growing!

They just don't get it do they

Well the cuts to the public purse have begun and the world and his brother are already moaning about it but you can bet your sweet life that those moaning loudest are the ones that are better off than most. The biggest problem with a lot of people in tihis country is they feel they have an 'entitlement' to a good and comprehensive health service, good education for their children combined with tax credits and benefits and then a darned good pension when they retire whether they have worked or not. But what they forget is that these goodies have to be paid for and they don't grow on trees! There are a lot of people who will never be able to work because of disabilities or illness and yes, we have to support these people because they did not choose their life to be like this and in many cases a lot of them would work if they could. On the other hand there are those who have skived all of their lives and claim they are unable to work for various reasons such as a 'bad back' which doctors are unable to disprove. Hopefully, the new tests will weed a lot of these people off benefits and onto jobseeker's allowance. These people will probably pay very little into the pot during their lifetime, living on benefits and getting their housing paid for but they will still expect a pension just the same as the person who has got up early every day and worked for the whole of their life, some even doing more than one job at a time just to pay the bills. Wake up everyone! If you want to enjoy a health service, policing, rubbish collections, free education, a good pension etc. then you've got to pay for it.

A visit to the 'slow food market'

Every Wednesday I shop for fresh vegetables, meat and eggs etc. at the local farmer's market but on the first Sunday of every month there is a 'slow food market' in the same place. All of the producers at this market come from within a 50 mile radius and quite a few of them are at the farmers' market too. I haven't been to the slow food market for some time but I went today because one of the fishmongers at the farmers market used to sell different kinds of wet fish such as wolf fish, coley and ling but as he hadn't caught these fish or done any preparation to them the managers of the market stopped him from selling these on a Wednesday. The other week when we were talking he said that they often have these kinds of wet fish at the slow food market so I thought I would go over to buy some to put in the freezer rather than use the supermarket as they don't always sell fish that has been ethically caught. The smells that assailed my nostrils and made my mouth water when I got there were quite out of this world. A lot of the stalls were cooking and selling their own produce and there was everything on sale from paella to organic bacon rolls and burgers and even Italian style meatballs in ciabatta. It's a fantastic opportunity to speak to the producers of the foods to find out where and how it's produced, just the same as at the farmers' market. I got some fish and also some sausages and bacon and I will certainly be going again next time. If there's a market like this near you it's certainly worth avisit and I think we should all support our local farmers and food producers.