Friday 30 September 2011

Golden Day





Golden, bittersweet day.

Thursday 29 September 2011

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.




Wednesday 28 September 2011

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.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

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

Monday 26 September 2011

Gala


Now showing


on a wall near you.

Sunday 25 September 2011

Thursday 22 September 2011

And now for something completely different





Float valves in water storage tanks
at the allotments?

Or


Io. One of Jupiter's moons.


Wednesday 21 September 2011

Rich harvest


at the allotments.

















(Old camera)

Monday 19 September 2011

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.

Friday 16 September 2011

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.


Thursday 15 September 2011