Thoughts from the Shower #10

I'm wondering how the subject of vaccinations has become so controversial given that for so long they were considered, without question, to be life saving.

Perhaps it's down to the involvement of pharmaceutical companies (many now so large that they are considered global, rather than national) - no-one is ever going to believe that they have our health and best interests at heart as long as they are looking at their profit margins.

Carrot Cake Confusion - Averted

Thank you to all of the people who shared recipes and advice with me, very much appreciated. 

I have made two practice cakes; the first one with vanilla cream cheese frosting and the second with half vanilla/half orange cream cheese frosting.

Here are a few photos of my first ever carrot cake:

I was very encouraged by June's reaction to this cake as she was very anti a cake with vegetables in and she asked for seconds :)

After the taste test tomorrow the cake/frosting combo with the most points (out of 10) will be the one I make for the competition this weekend.

Carrot Cake Confusion

Hello!

I'm in the middle of a meltdown. A few months ago June and December sent off entry forms for a local Horticultural Show's fun competition for kids and I thought, 'What fun! I shall have a go too', and ticked the homemade jam and carrot cake boxes for the not-for-fun adult competition.

Roll forward a few months and here I am in my kitchen, with an increasing sense of urgency, searching through recipe books and scanning pages brought to me by Google.

You see, I've got a confession to make. I have never, in my entire life, made a carrot cake.

Let that sink in for a few moments.

Yes, I - a total carrot cake novice - have chosen a competition to be the first time I make one. Argh.

Apparently carrot cake is a simple recipe. Or not. In my research over the last few weeks I have been told to, 'keep it simple' (meaning only carrots, cinnamon and walnuts); 'make it tropical' (meaning swap walnuts for pecans and add pineapple - and possibly rum); 'make it vegan' (the meaning of this so overheated my brain that I had to sit down. How can a cake that is meant to be smothered with cream cheese frosting become vegan?).

Also, carrot cake can be loaf shaped; single tier; two tier - or more. Top iced only. Split and filled and iced on top. Or split and filled and completely smothered in cream cheese frosting. Sometimes with sparklers on top, too.

Anyway, I think you can all see why my brain is in a whirl over this.

So, if any of you lovely people who read my blog have any recipes to recommend, preferably ones that you know taste great, please share with me by next Wednesday (5th October).

Please.

Historic Costumes and Heirloom Sweetpeas

During a visit to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton today we were lucky enough to stumble (almost literally in my case) over a small exhibition of historic clothing.

These have all been made by hand by the museum's needlework group.



I particularly like these outfits in the photo below, which would have been worn in the 14th Century.

Also of interest was the display of the changes in women's underwear and corsetry covering a timespan of approximately 250 years.

June and December found a rail of clothes to one side and had great fun trying on lots of items from the different centuries, creating some interesting looking combinations such as a Victorian smock with Tudor waistcoat and mediaeval peasant hat!

After this we went to explore Whitaker's Cottages, one of the girls favourite exhibits and on the way out through the garden we noticed these beautiful and unusual sweetpeas:

Travels with a Trailer Tent #1

After several years of deliberations and discussions about the easiest (and cheapest) way for us to travel around the UK to visit friends, events and places of interest our new-to-us Conway Trailer Tent arrived in early July this year (with a lot of help from two friends - thanks Alex and Jay).

Freshly water-proofed trailer tent drying in very hot sun.

There were a few hiccups along the path to our maiden voyage, the first being the fitting of a towbar to my car. I had not expected this to be an issue, however on researching companies and costs it turned out that they were considerably more expensive than I had budgeted for and there could be a wait of over 3 weeks for fitting.

So it was a relief when, in mid- July, I found a company that promised to have my car ready to tow by the end of the 2nd week in August. Unfortunately, the company they contracted to carry out the work appeared to have other ideas when they called me a week after the towbar arrived at my home. According to them, they would not be able to do anything before the end of August. This was very worrying as we were due to leave by the 18th for our holiday, so I immediately contacted the supplying company who, much to my relief, found another more reliable contractor and so it was that the job was done on the 10th August.

This gave me a week to practice towing, which was a new experience for me, as well as ensure that the electrics on the trailer and car were compatible (they were); buy and fit a numberplate for the trailer (easy, thankfully); buy and fit a bulb for one of the brake lights on the trailer (very easy, thanks to the help of a nice young man at Halfords) and get the car and trailer loaded up.

Just two days before we were due to leave our eldest daughter decided that she now wanted to come with us, which meant we had to put a call out for a tent to borrow as we had lent ours to a friend! Another friend (thanks, Sharon) very kindly helped out and, after rearranging the back of the car to fit the three girls, we were off!

Silent Sunset

30 Days Wild in June Challenge (continued) - Bees, Voles, Ducks and Moles

I visited the Arundel Wetland Centre on a lovely sunny Friday last week.

As soon as I got out of the car I noticed the bees on the wild flowers in the beds approaching the entrance:

In particular, there was one bee with an impressive amount of pollen on her back legs which I managed to capture on film:

Once we were past the entrance desk we headed for the hide nearest the World Wetlands area. I was relieved to find that i could access it easily with my frame and that there were very comfortable chairs to sit in at the viewing windows. Fortunately we had brought a couple of pairs of binoculars with us, as there was only one pair in the hide.

We spotted:

Canada Geese
Coots
Pochard ducks
Black-headed Gulls
Mute Swans
Mallards - both Ducks and Drakes, all the Drakes were in their eclipse plumage
Tufted Duck and her duckling

June and December were rather anxious about the Tufted Duck duckling as there were lots of Black-headed Gulls nearby, as we had heard about ducklings being taken by Gulls from a post during the 30 Days Wild in June Challenge. Fortunately, the duckling wasn't nabbed whilst we were there and when we researched it more later we discovered that the culprit had been a Herring Gull and that Black-headed Gulls eat fish, carrion and insects (amongst other things) but NOT ducklings!

As we left the centre over the footbridge June called out that she could see something under the leaves of the water lilies. It turned out to be a very content Water Vole having an early evening snack - much to our surprise and delight it seemed to be completely unaware of us and so I was able to take several photos:

Later that evening (about 10pm), as I was watering the plants, I heard a rather desperate sounding squeak coming from further down the garden and as I turned my torch in the direction of the sound I saw the telltale glints of light reflecting from the eyes of a couple of cats and decided that I had better investigate. They didn't want to shift as I approached so I had to vigorously shoo them away (the only thing injured in this process was their pride at losing their prey). Once I was sure that they had scarpered I looked around and discovered a mole quivering in the flower bed, surrounded by juicy slugs. Eventually December and Daddy managed to coax him into the bushes and we all very much hope that he made it to safety.