Golden Day

Golden, bittersweet day.

Phew! What a scorcher!

UK sizzles in mini-heatwave.

Temperature records tumble

as Britain basks.

Wales hotter than Hawaii.

Sweltering spider takes siesta

as temperatures soar.

Aqua

Water Lane, Richmond,

living up to its name on this day of extremes.

A spring tide greeted us -

 an exceptionally high tide,

in exceptionally high temperatures

for the time of year.

And it was an exceptional mission

that brought me here.

A second opinion was sought about an exceptional purchase.

How appropriate then that aquamarines were involved.

Crèche des petits escargots

Although you cannot see them here:

or here:

the bronze fennel is infested

with baby snails.

I took them for a walk,

but I'm not sure if it was far enough.

Apparently they have

a homing instinct.

Gala

Now showing

on a wall near you.

The counting cow

0

1 

2

3

4

8

lots

And now for something completely different

Float valves in water storage tanks

at the allotments?

Or

Io. One of Jupiter's moons.

Rich harvest

at the allotments.

(Old camera)

Let them have cake

Emboldened by Mise's off-road baking this weekend,

I decided to abandon the recipe books

and see if I couldn't add a little to the culinary canon myself.

I had an idea for a new filling/ icing combo

which would startle and impress the blog world.

So - make a regular sponge cake mix and add plenty of

cocoa powder. I can't give you exact measurements

because I was feeling reckless.

Divide the mixture unequally between two tins.

I lined them out of habit but that was just my old careful id

breaking through. You don't have to.

Don't go smoothing the mixture out too carefully,

you're aiming for a marked slope on each cake half

when it comes out of the tin.

You'll see why later.

After the usual baking time at Gas mark 4

test with a skewer and feel none the wiser

about whether it has cooked all through.

Put it back in the oven for a few more minutes.

Leave to cool and while it cools

attend to the icing /filling.

This requires that you have a catering size tin

of condensed milk in the back of the fridge

and the remains of a jar of Nutella.

Beat the two together.

It froths and turns the colour of the inside of a Mars bar.

Spread a little of this on one cake half and now, 

this is the important bit -

line up your two cake halves

thin edge to thin edge

and pour the rest of the icing over the assembly.

The top half must slide a little

so that the icing can cascade over the side.

If you are doing this on a wire cooling tray

you will have to scoop the overflow back onto the cake.

Don't get any crumby bits into the icing,

you'll ruin the effect.

Et voilà

Cow Pat Cake.™

Tastes as good as it looks.

A little experiment

Old camera

Canon Power Shot S5IS

Newer camera

Lumix G2

Old camera.

Pros and cons for both but I wasn't imagining 

 the deeper colour saturation from the Canon 

and I do like the fact that the lens cap doesn't fall off.

I'm quite easy to please.

It's all about light and shade