Living in the UK again

A new marbled cake, with a Ganache topping. You make one lot of batter, divide it in two, add cocoa powder to one of them, then pour both into a tin and with a skewer, lightly mix them, but not too much else the marbled effect will be lost! The cake was really nice.  A friend of mine, she and her husband grow all sorts of tomatoes, I can imagine  them poring over seed catalogs in the winter! I gave her some seeds my Ukrainian family gave me, including a tomato seed packet. She has given me a plant from those seeds I gave her. The other two plants are  Chocolate  cherry and Rose de Berne! They are in the greenhouse at home. In the greenhouse I had a Cape Gooseberry, again given to me by that friend. People will remember these, being used to garnish meals in fancy restaurants years ago. Well that  plant died and I forgot about it. But in the other big flower pot, a new plant appeared, and I have tasted two fruit off it already.  Last photo is for two stories....

Myself and a friend visited another friend of ours, she isn’t having an easy time of it, so as she likes lemon meringue pie, I decided to make one for her. I followed the guidelines after chilling the pastry, I cooked the base and the sides shrunk by at least fifty percent! I tried to carry on but it was hopeless. So it went into the food waste in. Thankfully my friend also  likes Battenburg cake so I made one of those which turned out ok. I have been to the allotment, a couple of times and it’s still dry, no rain still so more watering needed. I sowed a few more seeds, I will need to keep those drills moist to have any chance of germination. Nothing has been eaten, the peas are now climbing up the supports I have put in. A bit more bindweed has appeared but nothing compared to what was there a year ago. The rhubarb I have up there, it’s in a raised bed, and it’s bolted which means it’s under drought stress, I have another at home to move up to the allotment in a shady place soon. ...

It’s been a while since I posted, so a very quick update. I made a ginger cake with stem ginger, it’s a nice cake but I put in more stem ginger in the cake mix than last time and I did not cut it so finely , so there were some nice pieces of it that you came across as you ate it which made it very enjoyable. I did another blood plasma donation after a short break, due to my low iron levels in my blood. However as I am having a blood test for something else, I now am suspended from going until the blood test results and actions are known. It is frustrating but I understand the reasons why. Last Saturday I met some old work colleagues in the Brewdog place by Waterloo station, said hello to Paddington Bear at his station, and had another look at graffiti alley near Waterloo. It is our local Horticultural Association’s 70th anniversary and we have had this display made for us. The plan is to have little plants in each pot, but we will have two sets of pots, one in situ on the display, fitt...

My last sit of the six week long marathon was this little miniature schnauzer. Very nice dog, but for me to have a dog of this size I would want one to be a bit more lively! But she is quite a character, steals things left lying around like tv remotes and so on. She wasn’t keen on crossing the road to the nearby recreation ground, a reluctant walker perhaps, a bit like the St Bernard. The house was near the centre of the village and was very nice inside.  When that sit finished, I went home enjoyed sleeping  in our bed, and felt very chilled. I was busy the next day, and this lovely weather, meant a trip to the allotment was needed. Next year I plan to grow my own plants to put in it, this year there hasn’t been time. The cage is going to be a boon soon, no birds or butterflies like cabbage white can get to the plants and fruit. There was a question about the merits of a cage or netting as it does stop bird eating insects meaning things like whitefly can be worse in a cage tha...