A week in North Wales

We had a lovely week last week in North Wales, the scenery was just beautiful, and we had hot weather every single day, which I've never experienced any other time I have been there, no horrid humidity though, like you get in Essex.

Old watermill half way up to the cottage

My paternal grandmother, who passed away 13 years ago used to live in Blaenau Ffestiniog on a mountain, with waterfalls and streams, and at the top of her road  there are massive slate mountains which we would climb over and play beyond, in the ruins, the sheep were tame too, and we loved stroking them.

Stream on the hill

Dylan trying to find  a spot to fill water

There was a horse called Lona in the field directly opposite my nan's cottage, who was largely neglected by her owner, but my nan took care of her, made sure she had plenty of hay, and food, even though she was quite poor herself. I  adored that horse, and would stand out in the rain just being close to her , stroking her mane, if I couldn't see her I would call her and she would come galloping down from the hills, those were the days....I would have taken her home if I could.

Nan's old cottage

 Everything is the same there, but very overgrown, and neglected like no one cares about it anymore, the stream outside the cottage was so overgrown it was difficult to get a bottle down there to sample the fresh water.
 It seemed very strange doing the walk up the long road to the cottage with my children, I felt strangely possessive of it, as if it was my territory only, my childhood secret place, my  boys didn't seem too think it was anything special, this saddened me quite a bit, but teenagers these days have so much that just having somewhere to explore and play like that just isn't that 'Special' when you consider all the games on computer and all other gadgets etc. My little girl loved it though!

Boys climbing the slate mountain

We visited the harbour of Portmadog whish was nice, had some lovely shops with lots of the local Portmerion pottery.

My kind of shopping!

Snowman heaven! there was a Gruffalo section too...

Betws-y-Coed

The most beautiful place however was Betws-y- Coed, it's like a picture postcard, the kids played in the streams climbing the rocks, and we visited the little railway.

We stayed in Prestatyn, which was nothing special, but was a good site with fantastic swimming pools for the kids, and a lovely beach, our caravan was right beside the dunes, so nice views and sunsets. I didn't venture to the clubhouse ever, I don't do clubhouses. Vile. We had our I pod, and a fridge stocked up with booze, NICE.

Path outside the caravan to the dunes

Sand angel

I won't be venturing to Wales anytime soon though, it takes forever to get anywhere, and I don't like long car journeys, but always make exception when it's Cornwall, we are having a weeks break in September, can't wait!

Onion Bhajees and Mint sauce

These bhajees are so delicious and authentic, and very simple to make, I make these often.. and thought I would share.

For the bahjees you will need:

2-3  med onions
1 Tbsp red lentils pre soaked in water for 10 mins
11/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp methi leaves
1 Tbsp med curry powder
1tsp yellow colour(powder) not essential
1tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
1 Tbsp Pataks kashmiri paste
1large  egg
Handful chopped fresh coriander
Good pinch salt
Gram flour- 500g bag (you will need 1/4 of this)

Most Indian stores will stock all of the above ingredients very cheaply, you get a lot more for your money than in the supermarkets, just keep your bags of spices sealed in an airtight container, and they will keep for months.

You will need a deep fat fryer or a deep saucepan to cook the bhajees, and  a big bowl to mix all the ingredients.

First pre heat your fryer to 180.

Finely slice all the onion, then add all the other ingredients on top of the onions, minus the gram flour.

Mix everything together gently with your hand in a claw shape, being careful not to squeeze the onions, as it will make the mixture watery. ( The Chef from the restaurant told me this!)
Add 1/4  of the bag of the gram flour and combine in with your hands until it coats everything, your mix should feel thick and sticky.

 Pick up a small amount of mix into one hand and sit in the basket of the fryer, DO NOT squash them flat or they won't cook properly, they need air circulating inside. I can usually fit 3 in at a time, lower in and cook for a couple of minutes, then take out and place into a kitchen paper lined colander, repeat  again then drain.
Now go back to the first 3 that you cooked squash down into a slightly flatter shape and pop back into the fryer for 1 minute then drain again onto kitchen paper, and set aside into a flat baking tin lined with kitchen roll.

Slighty flattened into patty shape

Keep going until you have no mixture left.
You will be picking at them as you wait for the others to cook, they are very moreish!

These are really nice served with mint sauce, to make this you will need:

1/2 pot Natural yoghurt 500g ( I just use cheap lo fat brand)
2 tsp smooth mango chutney
 2 tsp jar mint sauce
2 tsp caster sugar or to taste
Pinch of yellow colour
Splash of milk

I usually make up a big bowl of this and freeze some that is remaining in little plastic pots or ramekins.
 Pour the yoghurt  into a biggish bowl and add all remaining ingredients, mix well with a fork, taste...you can add a bit more sugar if you prefer it on the sweet side. Lastly thin down with a splash of milk, the sauce should have the consistency of single cream.

Everybody I have made these for absolutely love them!

Enjoy!

Appreciation for Mr Parkinson....

Whilst catching a glimpse of  Topgear on Dave the other day, which eldest son was watching { I HATE THIS PROGRAMME- THESE 3 OVERGROWN CHILDREN REALLY GRATE ON ME!!!}  I noticed he was interviewing the one and only Michael Parkinson, my son didn't even know who he was.... sad.

It brought back loads of happy memories for me sitting up with my parents as a child watching all those truly great people being interviewed, the likes of Muhammad Ali 'You aint never going to tackle me!!',  Richard Burton, Bette Davis... These people 'deserved' to be called stars. I have re watched countless time aswell on Youtube.

Quite a difference from today's trashy celeb culture we live in.Talentless twats invading every channel, reality shite TV- I abhor it. Hence hardly ever watch TV. I have recently bought myself an Ipod and I LOVE LOVE it, I'm being transported back in time, memories reawoken... I'm very happy right now.:)

Back to parky, I posted this clip from Youtube on my Facebook this morning, how wonderful this is:

Just beautiful isn't it?

Summer Solstice

Litha is the first day of Summer. It is a festival that honours the Sun at its most powerful. It is a celebration of life but also acknowledges death.

The Lord of Light has fought the powers of darkness and is triumphant, ensuring the land to be fertile. However, in so doing so, He sows the seeds of His own death. The Wheel turns and the Dark God (also known as the Holly King) begins to wax in power as the Light God (also known as the Oak King) wanes.
The Goddess has left her Maiden form and has become the Mother.


 The Summer Solstice is a time to reflect on the growth of the season. Seeds planted in the Earth as well as are own seeds of our souls. A time of cleansing and renewal. A time of joyous Love and growth.

Some ways to celebrate Summer Solstice:

Gathering of magical plants and healing herbs, as they are at their most potent. Five common Celtic sacred plants associated with Midsummer are St. John’s Wort, Vervain, Yarrow, Fern, and Mugwort.

Gather with others creating a festival of common sharing and service.
Keep a sacred fire burning.
Burn your winter Yule wreath at the summer bonfire.
Exchange songs, stories, and poems with others.
Dance, drum
Make an agreement of something that you will do to improve life, bring light and love into this world in your own creative way and begin to carry it out
.
Bright Blessings

{Yes I have copied and pasted above form extracts.}

Summer Solstice
Brown earth lay blanketed beneath
the weight of white snow
People hold within their heart
the promise of light
Light that overcomes the night
Igniting fire
That burns a hole
all the way to the hot dry summer fields
The hope that the light holds in winter
becomes in summer
the knowing of the sun’s pathway back again
We poise on the edge of these great turnings
Balanced night and day
Ah for a moment……
By: Cheryl Ban © 1998

                                                                    

                                                                        

Let's celebrate the longest day!!!  :) What will you be up to?

After the fire... A new garden:)

On the 10th of May, B and I went to visit family, some 30 miles away,  my mum was staying at our house to look after the little one.

We got a  phone call at midnight from my mum:  distraught, to say  that we had a fire raging in our back garden, and that there were fireman  trying to put it out, all very scary, no harm came to my mum or daughter, luckily, PHEW! My mum had woken and come down to get a drink from the kitchen and noticed it, if she hadn't it would have spread to the house I'm sure.
.
The fireman suspect that someone who lived at the back of our property had flicked a cigarette butt over into the back alley, and it had caught some grass clippings, everything was so dry after the long dry spell we have had.

We arrived home the following morning to this:

My poor newly planted apple tree

It was just  AWFUL, In a way I'm glad we weren't here to witness it. It burned the entire contents of our shed{all replaceable though} We had spent weeks preparing the garden for summer, so all hard work down the drain...

 So on with the insurance claim, and swiftly on with clearing all the debris~was not fun cleaning up after it all being brought through the house~the joys of being in a mid terrace.

 New fencing was put up, and B had the job of rebuilding a new shed,{ done very well I may add ,he's not bad you know} had some help from my eldest son, to move things along quickly, and  some thoughtful planning at the garden centres{we were covered for plants too, which was real bonus} and I now have a better garden than before!

Progress-Men at work

So 6 weeks to the day after lots of back breaking work, and we are done! We have planted some massive Bamboos, Miscanthus, Acaia tree, and a mature evergreen Jasmine which smells heavenly. All for high screening, and effect of course. A stunning red Acer-Japenese maple, various grasses, roses, perennials, and another apple tree for opposite side of garden which is a grafted one with 3 varieties of eating apples. My other recently planted tree 'Miss Derby which looked dead after the fire has sprouted lots of new leaves so looks like she will be ok after all, minus the fruit, but there is always next year.

Click on pics to enlarge!

Done!

Red Maple

The garden has been finished off with walls being painted in a calm shade of green, plum slate layed over concrete and a few white pepples, it looks really good now,  all that remains is to re turf, as lawn is all muddy.

We have some gorgeous lighting, solar fairy lights in the gazebo, and some spots which light everything up at night.

Sunny deck

suncatching mosiac mirror heart

I am looking foward to next weekend, sitting on my deck and relaxing for the first time in ages.... A well earned rest ;)

Rainbow birthday cake

It was my daughters 4th birthday last Thursday, and we had a Princess's and Pirates party  yesterday with traditional party games in my mums back garden, the sun was shining, and it it was lots of fun, the children wore  themselves out bouncing on my mums 10ft trampoline, I WANT ONE!

We had a facepainter, which made it for the children. My daughter had a butterfly face then wanted it rubbed off straight away!

I made Sadie a Rainbow cake, this was at her request. Nothing else would do. I have made my two sons they're birthday cakes year after year since they were born, I'm glad I get to keep doing it, it's priceless the look on there faces when I walk in with the cake to sing 'Happy Birthday'! My eldest son is 16 next month, and I've told him straight NO MORE cakes, he has just left school for goodness sake! Sometimes they don't want to grow up......

Ta Dah!!

This is how I made it:

I usually use a 6 x 6 cake mix

6oz  SF flour
6 oz caster sugar
6 oz butter
2 tsp baking powder
3 Large eggs
Milk to loosen mixture
1tsp vanilla extract

I used 14 x 14 so I had lots of cake mix



Sift the flour from a height into a large bowl, then add remaining ingredients else into a large bowl and whisk everything on high with an electric whisk, for a couple of minutes, add some milk in to loosen the mix up, it should drop off the spoon, fairly easily,It makes for a lighter sponge if the mix isn't to claggy and thick.

I then divided my mix into 7 plastic bowls, into which I added my gel colours, these are brilliant, more intense than the cheaper liquid types. I buy mine from a cake suppliers, you only need the basic primary colours as it's easy to make up other colours, by mixing them. You only use the tiniest smidge.

Gel colours

Spoon a very thin layer of  each colour of cake mix into a greased lined 6 inch cake tin, spread out as evenly as you can, and bake two at a time, or more if you have more cake tins, or a bigger oven at Gas 4 for 15 mins or so, take out when firm to the touch. Turn out carefully and cool on a wire rack.

You will end up with 7 cakes like this:

Stack

I made these a week in advance and cling filmed each one and froze, and took them out the day before decorating.

Decorating day:

I sliced the cakes down to make them a little thinner and even them up, or I would have ended up with a cake too tall! I took heed Sue ;) {fellow blogger}

I then started layering them up on a foil cake stand spreading each layer alternately with vanilla buttercream recipe and method  here and strawberry jam {I made a huge batch of buttercream and still had some left which I froze, it's always fine when you defrost, if you whip it well, it will all come good again.

A work in progress

Finally spread loads of buttercream onto your cake and try to get a smooth even layer all the way down to the sides, easier to achieve with a proper icing spatula, which I didn't have so used a normal cutlery knife.

Here is the end result!




I just finished it off with some sprinkles, silver balls and edible glitter. The most annoying thing is, you go to all this trouble and you can't see the result until you cut into it, which was an exciting moment for me, I was very pleased!

I decorated this the day before the party{ you do NOT want to be attempting this on the day of the party unless you are completely mad} and stored it in the fridge overnight, you will have to take a shelf out though, stored next to my wine ;)

Pass the parcel



Stick the tail on the donkey

The children all went home with smiley faces,  an animal balloon provided by the facepainter and a party bag with a slice of cake, a lollypop some bubbles and a balloon, I don't believe in buying gifts for loot bags.

Finally, my lovely little girly enjoying her cake:)

Sticky fingers

Portrait of Alice

This portrait  has been a long time coming....

My husband lost his mother when he was 12 years old, leaving him, and an elder brother and sister behind.
she lost her battle with cancer at quite a young age{42 I believe} All a very sad business.

We had a family get together with B's sister this week who is over from Australia, and presented her with the portrait,  in memory of her mother. She was thrilled! It was indeed a very emotional moment, and I for one am so glad she loved it,  as it has been one of those very' difficult 'ones to get right. Had me cursing and swearing a fair bit! But the challenge did me good, and it improves ones skills to have to keep persevering.

Ref pic of Alice

For one thing we didn't have any photographs of her to reference from except this one{above} where she is holding Bill the eldest brother, it is very  faint, and hard to make out her features properly, but it's the best  I had to  had work from, here are the stages of the painting. It is all done in oil.

Drawing

Blocking in  colours



 



Creating shadows



Building up layers of colour and definition



Almost there!



Final stage

It is such a  wonderful feeling being able to capture someones spirit in a painting.

I really love the sepia finish too.

So onto my next project now....:)