Earth Hour - 10th Anniversary

This year is the 10th anniversary since Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007. Now it is a global community action event, where participants switch off their lights for one hour to show their care for our world's environment and concern about climate change.

This year Earth Hour is taking place tonight, 25th March, starting at 8.30pm GMT. Our Earth Hour is never just 60 minutes long - it usually stretches until bedtime (which the girls insist on having later and later each year) so, this year, we'll probably have an Earth Hour lasting at least 180 minutes!

We've been taking part in Earth Hour every year since 2010, which was the fourth year it took place. December was just 4 years old and has very fond memories of gazing up at the Full Moon through our conservatory roof. 

As she (and June) have grown our - or rather, their - plans have become more detailed. This year, after sunset, December wants to have a go at viewing the Orion Nebula before we eat our made-at-home fish and chip supper (cooked before 'lights out') and play Star Wars Monopoly by candlelight. I'm planning on us eating before we sit down to play, as I'm quite sure that my darling husband would not want greasy marks on Yoda or the Milennium Falcon!

It's really easy to join in and doesn't have to cost you a single penny - see the link further up this page. 

Carrot Cake Confusion - Conclusion

I've been meaning to post about the outcome of my first entry in a cake competition since last October, many apologies for the delay - I hope that the wait has been worth it!

On the morning of the competition I decided to make the competition cake gluten free and then spent a nervous 30 minutes wishing I'd cleaned the glass of the oven door more recently. This is because the cake batter ended up considerably more runny than my practice non-gluten free batter and I was worried that it might drip out of the loose-bottomed cake tins.

This also gave me insight into how the competitors feel on The Great British Bake Off when they're watching their cakes bake. I'd always thought, 'I'd never do that', except there I was anxiously peering through the glass of my oven door, trying to see if my cakes were behaving.

I also made a slight change to the cream cheese frosting by adding orange zest as I thought the frosting flavoured with just vanilla extract a little plain.

Here's what my competition cake looked like without the frosting:

and here it is ready to go:

Here's how the Judges saw it displayed:

I was convinced that this cake would win, as I loved the original presentation:

 After wandering around the showground for a couple of hours whilst all the judging took place in the marquee, I made a tentative return and spent a good 30 minutes looking at everything EXCEPT the cake table - I was really nervous about the outcome. Here's what I saw when I finally got the courage to look:

Woohoo! Yay!! As far as I was concerned, I was the champion!! The relief I felt was intense and I had a huge, silly grin on my face. A couple of total strangers had tasted my baking and not only liked it but awarded me a rosette. Awesome :)

A Duck a Day #15 First and Last . . .

. . . the original Dusty Duck designed by Aardman and brought to life by Specialist Models.

Dusty has been created to help celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the  WWT at Slimbridge in November​ 1946.

I hope you've all enjoyed discovering the 14 different celebrity Dusty Ducks as much as we did and, if you'd like to see them in real life, I'd recommend checking the WWT website for their current location. From 1st April 2017 they will be at WWT London for a few weeks.

Thoughts from the Shower #11

Snowflake

I've seen this term used in a derogatory way over the last few weeks, both in the media and social media.

It confuses me a little, given that snowflakes are complex, beautiful creations of nature. At their centre, a tiny mote of dust, around which gather ice crystals in infinitely different patterns.

Each snowflake is unique and will never be repeated.

When gathered together in their hundreds of thousands (millions, I expect) they cause huge delight to the young and young of heart.

So, how can these attributes be taken as negative? 

A Duck a Day #14 Tiger Dusty

. . . designed by Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes aka Snark, presenters of programmes such as CBBC'S Big Friday Wind Up and Copycats.

This chap has been included as a nod to the Bengal Tigers of India and Bangladesh, who live in a huge wetland area called UNESCO WHC Sundarbans Reserve Forest.

A Duck a Day #13 Diving Dusty . . .

. . . by Miranda Krestornikoff, TV presenter of programmes including 
BBC's Coast.

We discovered that the length of time a duck dives for varies from species to species and can range from 10-30 seconds up to 3 minutes.

Rowers can 'catch a crab' if they row badly, this duck has caught an octopus!

A Duck a Day #12 Pirate Justy Dusty . . .

. . . designed by Justin Fletcher, star of several cbeebies programmes including Gigglebiz and Something Special as well as providing the voice for another much loved TV (and film) star Shaun the Sheep!

As you can see from this photo, poor Pirate Justy is suffering terribly from scurvy - look at the state of his teeth! He obviously hasn't seen a dentist in some time, either.

We got quite excited when we saw the 'X' marking the spot for buried treasure on the map aaaarrrrrr! Unfortunately, as there wasn't any firm clue as to which island we should head to, we decided to leave the spoils to Pirate Justy. Given the state of his teeth, we think he needs the loot more than we do!!

A Duck a Day #11 Patsy Dusty . .

. . . designed by the gorgeous Joanna Lumley, OBE 

As it's a Friday, I thought that Patsy Dusty would be the ideal Dusty Duck to shake a tail feather and break open a bottle of champagne to get the weekend off to a good start, just like Patsy Stone, the character Joanna Lumley played in the awesome show, Absolutely Fabulous :)

A Duck a Day #10 Monster Onesie Dusty . .

. . . designed by Barney Hardwood, Blue Peter presenter.

The Monster Onesie Dusty Duck made us all think of the film Monsters Inc.

A Duck a Day #9 Camo Dusty

. . .  designed by Kate Humble, who, as well as being an adventurer, is also a WWT Vice President

This design reflects what happens to Mallard drakes in the summer when they moult, losing their bright mating plumage. During this moult they also lose their flight feathers, so it is important that they are well camouflaged to try to keep safe from predators. Once their flight feathers have regrown (which can take anything from a few weeks to a few months) they go through another, less extreme, moult where they regain their bright colours. The moult colouring is called 'eclipse plumage'.