Bananas

Looks like it's time for banana cake. 

The recipe will follow.....

Recipe for Peppermint Creams

Peppermint Creams - makes approximately 60

1. Sift 450g icing sugar into a large bowl.
2. Add 8 - 12 tablespoons of condensed milk and 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract (this is quite mild, if you prefer a stronger flavour add more to taste)
3. Mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together.
4. Turn out onto a clean work surface sprinkled with a little icing sugar.
5. Knead until smooth.
6. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 4mm.
7. With a small cutter, stamp out individual mints and place onto baking parchment.
8. Gather up and re-roll trimmings until all the dough is used.
9. Leave overnight to dry out.
10. Package up as required for gifts etc.

I pressed a milk chocolate chip into each mint before drying as time was short. Next time I'd like to half-coat in chocolate.

Exercise!

Sitting Pretty

after walking off Christmas Dinner.

Peppermint Creams

Home-made Peppermint Creams

have been

going down a storm

today

at our Boxing day buffet.

I've eaten quite a few!

Christmas Wishes

Ok, so there's no snow yet this year,  but I'll be ready!

Have a Lovely Christmas!

Christmas Smells of Gingerbread

The dough,..

...the cookie cutter...

...the baked gingerbread.

Now cooling on wire racks in the kitchen, I'll be decorating these cookies later. The smell pervades the house and is driving our dog to distraction. She wants to get into the kitchen and eat the gingerbread - but it's not for her!

Some other images of gingerbread - not baked by me! - but plenty of ideas for decoration.

Bring Back the 12 Days of Christmas!

What will you be doing on Boxing Day? Visiting friends or family? Shopping? Taking down the decorations? 

Some houses have been lit up since the beginning of December, major shopping has been going on all month - supermarket car parks have been full, traffic queues frustratingly long - and yet it amazes me that so many people short-change themselves when it come to the Christmas Season. Because that is what it is - a season! Not just two days. 

No wonder so many people feel flat when Christmas is 'over' - all that build up for one, or two days at most. 

There are 12 days of Christmas!!!  I know many of us have to go back to work during those 12 days but we can still keep up our decorations, have friends round and enjoy! Let's not allow commercial interests to cut short our celebrations or the media rush us helter-skelter into 2012. Let's enjoy every single day until 12th night.

Have yourself a merry BIG Christmas now.

What a Treat!

Ice Cream Sundae with Jelly Beans, Marshmallows and Toffee Sauce

It's a good thing this ice cream parlour is in another town - naughty but soooo nice!

Christmas Robin

Christmas Robin

So lovely to see robins during the winter months and even lovelier to hear them sing.

Pigeon Art

Pigeon Print

A pigeon flew into the closed kitchen window and left a dusty 'body-print' on the glass. I pressed a piece of black paper over the print and this was the result.

Pigeon Art?

Unusual Christmas Present

Taken at...

...the National...

...Seal Sanctuary...

...Gweek, Cornwall.

Why not 'Sponsor a Seal for Christmas'? 

An unusual present for those hard-to-buy-for-relatives/friends who have everything they need.

Trier Cathedral

Trier Cathedral (Dom St Peter) at Christmas.

I love the up-lit magnificence of the Cathedral; the sense of history and timelessness, that I am seeing something that has been seen by numerous other individuals down the centuries. I wonder about those individuals, how they lived, their hopes and fears and wonder at the humanity that links us all. But mostly I just wonder...

Stormy Weather

Storms are on the way. 

According to the forecast we need to 'batten down the hatches' for the next few days. 

Storms are quite enjoyable if you're tucked up warm inside

  -the rain against the window, the wind tossing the trees;

I can hear it now.

Not so great if you're homeless....

Pig's Ear

There's nothing our golden likes better than a pig's ear treat. It disappears in no time!

There's also nothing she wouldn't do to get one either - it's very funny.  When I get a pig's ear out of the cupboard, she tries to anticipate what will make me give it to her. She sits, lies down, stands, sits close; if she could, she'd stand on her nose! I usually use the opportunity for a little training - so she doesn't forget. 

And when she gets the ear, she has a special place on the grass where she goes to enjoy it - and enjoy it she does!

Frosty Weather

It's certainly getting...

...cold now.

Love the way the frost enhances these sage leaves.

Advent Wreath

Advent Wreath

I love my Advent wreath! The base is an old oval mirror that was literally gathering dust under a cupboard and the gourds were grown on my allotment this year. 

It's the second week of Advent so two candles are lit. This coming Sunday is Gaudete Sunday when I'll light the red (should be pink, really) candle. 

Waiting, anticipating -  is good.

Last Speakers' Club Meeting of 2011

We had our last speakers' club meeting before Christmas tonight - great fun with four prepared speeches and three rounds of 'Just a Minute'. The latter being even more challenging than Table Topics as we had to speak for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation - when I took a turn I was challenged several times as I hesitated and repeated, though I didn't deviate!

I also gave the fourth of the prepared speeches - a story of a Christmas Eve encounter with Father Christmas when I was three years old. I can still remember the horror of being wide-awake when Father Christmas entered the bedroom - and trying to pretend I was asleep so that he would leave me some presents!

A Good Use of Time

I've just spent a relaxing evening 

chatting with a very old friend 

beside a comforting fire. 

Is there any better way

 to spend your time? 

Watch out for Cows!

Highland Cattle

Why do they sleep on the road???

More pictures of highland cattle.

Christmas is Coming

Geese should be careful...

...at this time of year too!

There was Snow

This time...

...last year.

'Tis the Season

It's a...

...dangerous time...

...to be...

...a pheasant!

Christmas is coming...

A Thought

Even the earth has wrinkles!

Can't Stop!

Just can't stop...

...catching on film...

...lovely mushrooms!

More Fungi

Growing on fallen tree trunks...

...and old tree stumps.

It's lovely to see the variety of mushrooms in the autumn. I passed by a parasol the other day but didn't have my camera with me. I haven't spotted a fly agaric or any shaggy inkcaps yet.

High Tide

A jetty...

...and several benches were inundated by todays unusually high tide. 

We enjoyed a very windy walk along the river - blew a few cobwebs away and marvelled at the wonders of nature.

Home-Decorated Candles for Christmas

I had great fun decorating these candles, among others the other night. Craft work of any kind is so therapeutic. These will either grace my table over the Christmas season or will find their way into goody bags for some very lucky (!) people.

Determined Cyclamen

Surprise Cyclamen

I had totally forgotten about this plant! I put it away between the cucumber pots last spring so that it would get a sprinkling whenever I watered the cucumbers. Then it slipped my mind. 

A couple of days ago I noticed something red behind the larger pots. There was the cyclamen, blooming like mad but growing horizontally towards the light! I have rescued it and hope that it will soon recover and grow upright again. It's a marvellous splash of colour on these rather grey, late autumnal days.

Apple-Eating Dog

I know there's an apple in here somewhere.

Yaay! I found one!

Hmmm. It smells good...

...that's one tasty apple...

...no-one had better sneak up on me...

...swallow it down quickly...

...all gone! 

I'm sure there's an apple in here...