Easter

Well, Easter has come and gone and it is still cold and miserable here - we had sleet again this morning.  I’m wondering if spring will ever arrive.  

I did do a bit of baking for Easter - hot cross buns from Mary Berry’s recipe, which turned out great and were delicious.  Also, our favourite chocolate Easter cupcakes.

The weeks have passed by in a blur and I was surprised to find that I’ve only posted on my blog five times since January.  There has been a lot on my mind - more of which in the next post.

All is Calm, All is Bright

After more than a month with snow on the ground, we have an almost green Christmas.  Heavy rain late last week caused a sudden thaw.

The tree is twinkling in the corner of our living room and there is a certain peace after the hectic weeks at work.  

This reindeer is a new addition to our tree.  I made a set of felt ornaments and they look very festive.  

All that remains is to wish you all a very Happy Christmas.  

Hallowe’en

We ‘stopped for a bite’ last week on our way home from Charlottetown.  We found that we were in some interesting company.

The spiders were somewhat larger than any that I had seen before.

And some folks looked like they had been waiting for service for too long.

We counted ourselves lucky to have got out of there alive.

Happy Hallowe’en!

Birthday Wishes

  

Today is my birthday and I’ve been fortunate to receive birthday wishes from family and friends far and wide.  This is my card collection so far, though I know that there are others on their way.  Our post is very slow here - must have something to do with living on an island!

Mrs Tiggy Winkle put in an appearance - she is a birthday gift from Mr Candytuft.  Here she is enjoying a cup of tea.

 And as no birthday is complete without cake, we had chocolate cupcakes, which I had kept in the freezer (leftovers from Easter).

We went to Charlottetown today and enjoyed lunch at our favourite pub.  Sadly, the weather was not very spring-like, as we had snow this morning, but the sun was shining by the time we were on our way home and I’ve had a lovely day.

Winter Birthday Cake

Mr Candytuft celebrated his birthday yesterday, so I baked a cake.  I normally make variations on a chocolate theme but, this year, I decided to do something a little different.  I read about this fresh ginger cake, which was recommended by Mrs Tiggywinkle.

This recipe made the most delicious, yet light cake.  I’ve made ginger cakes before, but none this good.  I think that ginger is a perfect choice for a winter birthday, as it is warming and full of spice.  It went down really well with a cup of Yorkshire Gold tea.  Mr. Candytuft observed that it would have been even better with ice cream.

Canada Day ~ 150

Today is Canada Day, a time of national celebration, but this year the celebrations are even bigger as it marks Canada's sesquicentennial ~ it is one hundred and fifty years since four provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) became the new Dominion of Canada on 1st July 1867.

We decided to mark the occasion with a trip out and chose Cobourg as our destination.  Cobourg is located 95 kilometres east of Toronto, in Northumberland County.  We arrived late morning to find a cold, misty day, but everywhere we looked we saw a sea of red and white - the colours of the Canadian flag.  Crowds of people lined the main street where a parade was to take place and by the time we had walked along its length, stopping for refreshment along the way, the sky was clearing and the sun came out as we reached the harbour.  (I didn't take photos of the crowds because there was nothing happening at that stage and the sun wasn't out!)

 It is a few years since our last visit and today, the place was absolutely packed.  We saw many of the boats in the marina flying the Maple Leaf (officially the national flag, but often referred to as this).

Over on the beach there was this strange fog in the air, caused by the temperature difference between the hotter air temperature and the colder water - this is known as inversion fog.

The lighthouse marks the harbour entrance.  I have vivid memories of entering this harbour a few years ago by boat - we were out on the lake in thick fog and only found the harbour entrance because I heard the gulls roosting on the wall.  It looked a lot different today.

Closer to the beach and we saw the fog drifting inland.  The lifeguard station is on the right of the photo.

Over on the pier there was the midway (fair) which we did walk through, but didn't linger as it was extremely noisy!

On the opposite side of the harbour, a boat at anchor.

We spotted a family of ducklings - there were nine in total, but they moved so fast that I had difficulty capturing a photo of them - their proud mother was keeping a close eye on them as they dabbled in the shallows.

It was definitely more peaceful on this side of the habour and we enjoyed a seat on a bench in some shade before heading back.  Our visit included the Ecology Garden, which I will write about in a separate post.

Custard Creams

What can you make with a heart cutter and a corn holder?  Custard cream hearts, of course!  

This is a favourite Nigella recipe from Feast and very simple to make, though requiring a lot of patience to make all those holes!

Definitely worth the effort for Valentine's Day.

Merry Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us and another year is drawing to a close.  It is time to send you all my very best wishes for peace and joy this Christmas season.  Have a very Merry Christmas!

Guy Fawkes' Night

'Brightness falls from the air...'

Thomas Nashe (1597-1601)

Hallowe'en

Growing up at a time when Hallowe'en wasn't celebrated, I am still surprised by how big an event it is on this side of 'the pond'.  It is not just children who get dressed up either.  There are plenty of adults who participate too (with or without children).

Some of the neighbours have been decorating their homes and gardens in preparation for the evening's high jinx.  As we are not in an area where we can expect to have any little visitors this year, we will be staying quietly at home.

I thought that I would plan a little Hallowe'en supper for a change ~ on tonight's menu, ribs (what else?), followed by chocolate meringue pie ~ on the dark side and quite delicious!  As you can see, a little taste test involved quite a large slice disappearing (and I'm not the guilty party!)

Happy Hallowe'en!

Michaelmas

The feast of St Michael and All Angels is known as Michaelmas and falls on 29th September.  Traditionally, Michaelmas was celebrated with the Michaelmas goose, but it was also considered the last day when blackberries should be picked.

Each year, I think about the tradition of serving blackberries on this day, but I struggle to find any worth buying, as the commercial ones lack flavour and are often not nice to eat.  This year, I had an idea and searched the Crofter's website, where I discovered a recipe using their Blackberry spread.

I tweaked the recipe a bit, but followed most of it, omitting the nuts and the ground cloves, adding sultanas in place of raisins, using milk instead of buttermilk (and less of it) and adding extra baking powder, as I mixed this cake in the food processor.  The result is a beautifully moist and delicious Blackberry Cake and you can find the basic recipe here.

The icing of the cake was my decision and I opted for vanilla buttercream.  I've received compliments on my baking in the past, but none like these - it was described as my best cake ever!  I can only add that this cake is the perfect flavour for autumn with the combination of seasonal fruit, spices and vanilla.  It tastes great with a cup of tea!

For Queen and Country

As most of you know, today is the Queen's official 90th birthday (although her actual birthday was in April).  I know that many street parties have been organised for today and although I'm far from home, I wanted an excuse to get my bunting out again.

 The easy part of this plan was hanging the bunting and finding a cloth for the table.  I don't have my china tea set, as it is still boxed and inaccessible, but I do have a couple of nice china plates.  The baking took a while, but it was nice to be in the kitchen and making something, as the past few weeks have been too hot for such activity.  I made a swiss roll and put far too much cream in it, so it was difficult to cut, but tasted delicious with an Austrian rhubarb and raspberry jam.  I also made Empire biscuits and traditional finger sandwiches (with the crusts cut off).

  It didn't quite turn out to be the leisurely afternoon tea that I had envisaged, as the European Cup is on and a certain person didn't want to miss the action, though he did compliment me on the tasty sandwiches and had a second helping of swiss roll.  The Empire biscuits went down a treat with a cup of tea later in the afternoon.

A Celebration of Shakespeare's Life and Works 1616-2016

Earlier this week we visited the exhibition 'So Long Lives This': A Celebration of Shakespeare's Life and Works 1616-2016.  The venue for this exhibition is the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

This was also our first visit to the library, which is very impressive with a huge collection of rare books.  We were informed that there are even more rare books in the archives (not on display) and that the library is open to everyone.

We particularly wanted to see the only Canadian copy of Shakespeare's First Folio (above).  The First Folio was published in 1623; seven years after Shakespeare's death.  It is the first collected edition of his plays.

There were many books on display, but it was difficult to get good photographs due to the lighting and the glass cabinets.  This colourful edition of Shakespeare's Household Words showed off new techniques for colour printing and dates from Victorian times (1859).

A bust of Shakespeare.

Many beautiful editions of his published works were on display.

Another Victorian gift edition: this one of A Winter's Tale, dating from 1865.

These tiny books are nine volumes of Shakespeare's plays and are known as Diamond Classics.  They were certainly compact and portable, if rather a challenge to read.  A reviewer in 1853 quipped that their format 'seems exclusively for sale in the kingdom of Lilliput, or for the benefit of opticians in general.'

This is a beautiful collection of rare books and we are so glad that we were able to visit this exhibition. It was an opportunity to see a First Folio, in addition to many other rare Shakespeare editions, some of which were on loan from private collections.