He soon found out when my husband turned it on to wash both our cars. Dougal retreated indoors to sleep on the upstairs landing until it stopped.
A warm and sunny day although overcast and threatening rain this afternoon.
Monthly Archives: August 2016
Gluten-free Banana Loaves
Mixing the Ingredients
Ready for the Oven
As we had several very overripe bananas, due to problems with my Ocado order last Friday, I decided to make a banana loaf. I have tried this in the past, with little success. However, today I used Mary Berry’s recipe from her Baking Bible, substituting normal self-raising flour for Dove’s Farm Gluten-free self-raising flour. The recipe was so easy that I made two loaves, using all of the overripe bananas. Mary Berry’s books always state that you should use the correct flour specified in the recipe, but as a Coeliac I have to experiment and this was quite a success. One cake turned out very well, the other one was a little crumbly so presumably some of the bananas were riper than the others making the texture different. I have included several pictures of the loaves from mixing to being removed from the tin.
The weather is hot and sunny again today, not quite the day for baking, but also much too hot for gardening.
Just out of the Oven
Finished loaf, just out of the tinE
Butterflies
It rained heavily yesterday evening and during the night, but by this morning it was bright and sunny again.
Everyday I have been checking the Water Mint flowers down by the large pond and I still have not seen Mint Moths this year. However, after getting several pictures of a white butterfly on the Water Mint, I moved to one of our Buddleja plants and found these two butterflies.
It is a Bank Holiday in England today and I have done various jobs. All of our animal and bird food is delivered every two months from Amazon (by using ‘Subscribe and Save’ it works out much cheaper than anywhere else,) so I have been sorting out the recent delivery, decanting it into large storage containers rather than keeping it in the cardboard boxes in which it arrives. I also did some housework, not much, just a little. Other than that I have not done much else except to take a walk around the garden looking for my picture. I am in the process of emptying, by eating the contents of the freezer, which is almost on its last legs, so profiteroles are defrosting for pudding this evening. Like many other things in this house, the freezer was chosen by someone else, so it is very old; it is time it was replaced. That will happen when the new kitchen is finally installed.
Dougal
Dougal says
“Here I am stuck up a tree and she takes a picture! It is Florence’s fault, she ran across the garden and went straight up this tree and I forgot that I am not supposed to climb trees, (because I cannot get down very well,) and I went after her. I began to panic that I could not get down and called loudly for Mum to come and rescue me; she took a picture instead. I did eventually manage to get down on my own although Mum was standing by to catch me if I fell”.
Dougal was upside-down in the tree although I could not get all of him in the picture. The weather has been warm and sunny, but we have also had intermittent rain showers. I have not done much all day except cook roast duck and watch the Formula One from Spa in Belgium.
Sybil and Polo
Sybil and Polo
We do not often feature in this journal, but our human Mummy and the family have gone somewhere hot. I ask you, has it not been hot here? It has been unbearable. Anyway I digress, we are Sybil and Polo and while our family are away, our human Grandma comes to look after us. She told us earlier in the week that we would have to have our picture taken for blip, but until today we have managed to avoid the camera.
Today, we were both out playing in the garden when she arrived to give us our supper. When we heard the conservatory door open we rushed towards the conservatory and there she was, she only got one usable picture, as in the only other one she took, Polo has her cross face on and I was running so fast that my feet were not in the picture.
We have been very good while our human Grandma has been looking after us, although I have not always eaten my medicine, so she puts it in my food. Does she not realise that I know what she is doing? I eat my supper anyway whether the medicine is in it or not; Polo has been good too.
Today’s picture shows me at the front and Polo on the top step, we do not pose like Dougal and Florence who are always happy to have their picture taken; they are posers and you can see them in the extra picture. Polo is my cat Mummy and Dougal and Florence’s cat Mummy, but I am the eldest and the biggest and Florence is the youngest and the smallest.
Dougal and Florence – Posers!
Bumblebee
Another very hot day, it was supposed to rain, not that I am complaining, although it is rather too hot to do very much, inside or out. The washing dried beautifully and the fans have done their best to keep us cool. Today’s picture, after a very quick walk around the garden, is of a Bumblebee on a Lavender flower.
I have spent much of the day fighting making some photographs do exactly what I want them to do; I am winning.
Ocado delivered this morning and it was not up to its usual standard; it seems to have been a week of various problems. Just after the driver left to turn his vehicle round I noticed that one of the bags was leaking. My husband stopped the driver who was not at all happy about being stopped. There were five sticky items in one of the bags, he said it was condensation. I do know the difference between condensation and a sticky deposit that stuck to my fingers and to my feet in the hall. After humming and haring he registered them for a refund as damaged goods. After washing the floor I then sorted out my shopping. The banana were loose in a bag, not ‘sell by’ date and no tag round the bag. Three were very bruised, the other four just overripe, but the bag looked as though it had been made up of oddments. One pack of yogurts had a short ‘sell by’ date, so I had to telephone Ocado who sorted out the problems and have reported the matter to the correct department.
Bees
It rained overnight, but has been quite hot for most of the day; there has also been some rain on more than one occasion.
I have spent much of the day trying to make photographs go where I want them to go, currently they are winning, but tomorrow I shall be moving them around and they will go where I want them too.
Today’s picture is of three bees on a Water Mint flower, so far this year I have not seen any Mint Moths; like the ladybirds and butterflies, they are not making much of an appearance in my garden.
Lunch
My husband had an Addenbrookes Hospital appointment today, but it was in the middle of the day, so it rather messed up the whole day. Once he had finished at Addenbrookes we went to Scotsdales for lunch and this is where today’s picture was taken.
I have to say the lunch was not as good as usual; we waited almost twenty-five minutes from ordering before it arrived at our table. My salad was much smaller than normal and warm and limp; it has been very hot all day, but I would not expect salad to be left out in this heat. My husband’s New York chicken tasted good, but his vegetables were very overcooked and I am not sure what they had done to the mashed potato; it was gloopy and looked as though it had either not been cooked properly and mashed before the starch had been broken down or it had been overworked when mashed.
It has been exceedingly hot again registering thirty degrees Celsius during the afternoon.
Birthday Cake
It is our daughter’s birthday today and as we will not see her today, (she is in Mexico) we decided to celebrate her birthday without her. We started in Bill’s in Cambridge and while my husband had a full English breakfast, I had gluten-free cake with strawberries and cream. We then spent the day walking around taking pictures with various stops for refreshments.
She was planning to have several cocktails this evening, so I had some alcoholic pink fizz to celebrate, she is six hours behind us, so we were asleep by the time she was celebrating.
Today’s picture is my cake in Bill’s Restaurant in Cambridge.
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly
This morning, within the space of about ten minutes, we had, rain, sunshine, high winds, it was cold and there was a rainbow. I was just about to go out to feed my other cats when I spotted a rainbow and drew my husband’s attention to it. I was going to blip it, but who needs a rainbow when they can have a butterfly.
My computer has spent most of the day backing up my several thousand photographs to a 2TB external hard drive. I now have to be brave enough to remove them from my computer, but will not do so until later in the week. My computer is almost pout of space and exceeding slow. Before I remove them I plan to try to fool ‘Dropbox’ into uploading them, by taking them from the external hard drive, rather than directly from my computer. I will then feel happy that they are all backed up properly. I have about 50,000 already backed up on Flickr; I am a ‘belt and braces’ kind of person!
Arkensiel 
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