Spring has Sprung!

My daffodils from Poundland!

Primroses grow wild in my garden

Rather large Bumble Bee taking a stroll in the garden!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

Got up early in hope of catching up on the washing and ironing and gardening! No such luck! I washed the washing, hung it on the line, then fetched the loppers from the shed, then the heavens opened. Rain, wind, you name it we had it in the matter of five minutes so that put paid the that! So to the kitchen to make cake! I thought I would try and make perfect cakes with perfect decorations.Being one of those sort of days, the icing bag took on a life of its own and split down the side! After cleaning my hands and rescuing the remainder of the icing, the results are in the picture! Marks out of 10?

RECIPE
6 oz carrots

1 oz chopped nuts
4oz Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoons of cinnamon
½teaspoon ground ginger
¼teaspoon nutmeg
4 fl oz vegetable oil
3 oz soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoons’ golden syrup

TOPPING
5 oz cream cheese
1 oz softened unsalted butter
2 oz sifted icing sugar
Orange essence

Orange Food colouring (optional)

*************************************

Grate the carrots. Put to one side.

Whisk together

vegetable oil, sugar, eggs and golden syrup.

(Heat the spoon first and the syrup will slide off easily.)

Till light beige and smooth

Sieve together Flour with

cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg.
Fold into mixture.

Stir in the carrots and nuts.

(Should look like a batter mix - quite runny)

Fill cake cases to ¾ way up

cook at 160 degreesC about 15 to 20 minutes until cooked.

(Keep an eye on them)

Allow the cakes to cool and then add the topping

For the topping,

mix cream cheese, softened unsalted butter,

sifted icing sugar

and essence colouring until smooth.

Pipe or just spread on top of the cakes

Added Decoration

In a saucepan put

2fl oz Water

3 dessertspoons Sugar

Bring to boil and add grated carrot

and simmer for about 2 minutes

allow to get quite cold drain well

and use on the cakes

I haven't done much!

I see I haven't posted for a fortnight.

I lead a very boring life!

I get up, breakfast, go to work, home by 12.30,

do housework then time to get dinner, then television!

My friend Jan sent me these old patterns, now I need

extra hours in my day....

Saturday went off to Taunton, we were wondering what was

established in 1775? It is now a disused pub!

Found these two items in a charity shop

both came to less than £5

Paid £1each for these in the local Poundland


..........and a £1 each for these in the same shop!

Sunday morning
spotted the Primroses arising from their winters rest

Chopped the tops of the Welsh Leek

which seems to have taken over the garden!

We'll dig the bulb bit up as we plant shrubs which will

smother the Welsh Leeks hopefully instead

of the other way round!

First of the many garden creatures

I wonder what this will grow into..........?

This afternoon I made these cards for shop display.

These three cards were made from one peel-off.

What a difference a week makes!

This time last week the most of the country was covered in snow.

Some places was quite deep. This weekend it was if it never

even existed. Quite a warm day for February 9 degrees centigrade!

Decided it was time to prune the shrubs!

I have been trying to get into the garden since Christmas

but it has been quite cold up until now.

The pruned branches and twigs

This is the remains of the dreaded Bindweed.

It seems to have worked (see 10 June o8 posting last year)

I seem to have eradicated it from the front garden, even in

a place I didn't treat which goes to show how far it can spread

and I also eradicated it from the neighbours garden too!

I'll let you know if it returns!

Ready to be taken to the recycling centre, a cup of tea first!

Happy Valentines Day

Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.
The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.
Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.
The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feast. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.

They say there may be more............

Friday morning us here in Minehead

woke up to a very white morning!
It was surprising because we were not

meant to have much more snow!
I took the pictures of my bushes, trees

and shrubs at about 8 am

On the way to work about 8.45 am the snow fell again

It was only a five minute drive from home to town

the snow on trees looked quite spectacular.

By Saturday morning the snow was defrosting.

The sun tried to shine!

Driving towards home on Saturday

Drawing up outside our house in the same road as the previous photograph
We live at the top of a hill so things take longer to defrost!

The back garden on Sunday morning

And the view at the bottom of the road - Sunday

So all weekend we sat by the fire and kept warm! I made what can only be described as "rustic" jam tarts.

Too much jam!

After waiting.............

.............after everybody else got theirs, we got our snow - it hasn't snowed properly here since 1990! It only lasted a couple of hours though perhaps its because we are coastal. There wasn't enough to even build a snowman! It was gone by five this evening.

It is rather cold so I made Rice Pudding!

This is my grandmother's recipe.

Everyone seems to have one!

4oz Pudding Rice, 1pint Milk,

2 eggs, 3 dessert spoons of Sugar.

Put the rice into a bowl and sprinkle with sugar

Beat the eggs into the milk and pour onto the rice

Grate Nutmeg on the top (optional)

put into the oven for about 50minutes - 180degrees

or until the rice is cooked thoroughly ovens can be different

This is what is looks like when it leaves the oven

I know you are suppose to like the skin - I DON'T!

A bowl full with Raspberry Jam

My husbands bowl - I don't like that either!