Easter Baking...

 I really should not allow any programme from the British Bake Off stable to be shown in our house.  It always results in lots of lip smacking and subtle and not so subtle hints that I should be making some of that...  Last week was the Easter special, and even I was tempted by a couple of the recipes.  Perhaps if I had known just how long they took I would not have bothered!  The hot cross buns - don't they look delicious? - took about five hours in total.  Three sessions of proving for an hour each time, interspersed with kneading, adding fruit, kneading some more, cutting and shaping.  Yes they are indeed delicious, but were they worth the effort?  The jury is still out on that one...

The Simnel cake - quicker to mix, but two hours in the oven.  Quick trip round the garden to pick primroses and violets for some ham-fisted crystallization.  We don't know what this one tastes like yet - it can sit and look pretty for a couple of days!

So I feel very virtuous but also that I could have spent yesterday afternoon a little more productively!

Have a Happy Easter!

Rhapsody in Blue...

You know how it feels when a book you have been enjoying so much reaches the last page?  That's how I felt when putting the final touches to this watercolour - it had been such fun to do I didn't want it to end!

This is based on a reference photo we took at Fleet Pond - there are always a couple of cob swans posturing and beating up the other swans, and they always power through the water, wings akimbo, creating quite a wake.

I've used  very limited palette for this, just a couple of blues, a green and a brown, with a touch of orange for the beak.  Sometimes less is more.

Happy Easter by the way - my Simnel cake this year is a bit gooey as I thought it was a good idea to soak the fruit in tea first. No it wasn't.  However, it tastes delicious!

I Live In Hell, How About You?

Let's get the nice things done first shall we?  I've been very taken with this month's edition of Making magazine - lots in there that I wanted to try my hand at.  The first thing was these crochet Easter Eggs - very simple, the pattern was almost identical to most Amigurumi body patterns.  What makes them special is the addition of a few strands of blue embroidery thread - I'm very fond of blue and white together, reminds me of happier days when I used to live in Greece.

Then there was the tiny teaset made from Fimo - I had Fimo to hand so decided to give it a go yesterday while there was Armageddon going on outside.  I discovered that modelling is probably not my forte, especially as I currently have a trapped nerve in my shoulder which is making my right thumb numb - a bit like doing everything with a bandage on it.  I still have to put the little blue designs on the white pieces, then varnish them.  The magazine makes a charm bracelet out of them but I am not sure my cups would stand up to the wear and tear of being on a wrist.

I've bought a lot of scraps and fat quarters of gorgeous fabric lately but have no idea what to use them for.  I fancy making a little dress from some of the florals with lace trims, but first I have to make something to wear the dress.  So here's a half-finished bear!

I also have knitting to be getting on with and would love to do some painting, but let me explain the title of this post and you'll see why creativity is at an all time low this week.

Remember how my garden looked this time last week? Starting to grow and look pretty. Well, not for long it wasn't.

See the digger looming over the wall? And the fact that half our ivy has been cut away? Well, this is what happened yesterday...

First hole, plus the complete annihilation of my varigated shrub - 'Well, the way it was stuck to the wall, there was nothing we could do about it'.  Cheers mate, I specifically asked for that one to be saved.

All garages demolished and as a result, our garden open to the world.  The driver of this digger thought it appropriate to slam the head of the digger into the concrete flooring over and over again yesterday afternoon, causing our house to shake like an earthquake, glasses rattling on the shelves, the whole place vibrating from the ground up.

This is how we were left last night - at least they saw fit to give us a wire fence to keep the dog in and the local feral kids out.

Nice view, huh?  We have been promised a new fence today - let's hope it happens.  They turned up at 8a.m. this morning and have been banging and crashing nicely ever since, but as yet none of the foundation-rattling bangs.    So, yes, I am living in hell this week - the dog is off his food, my nerves are shot to pieces and my poor garden is a mess.  It's not always lovely in blogger land, sometimes reality bleeds through and crafting just isn't enough to block it out!

Easter Egg You Can't Eat!

They are having a little Easter egg decorating competition at work - it started just for the children, but now the staff have been asked to join in. This is my offering - it's hardboiled but to eat it you'd have to sacrifice the rabbit. 

Kalo Pasxa!

...or Happy Easter to those of you who don't speak Greek!
Just finished putting the icing on our Easter cake and am on the verge of a diabetic coma after licking out the bowl (no children around, can't let it go to waste...) and some of those chocolate eggs were definitely mis-shapen and had to be disposed of.......
Yesterday I made a batch of koulourekia (Easter butter cookies) which almost taste like the authentic ones - yum!


Guess who just had to put his nose in and have a whiff of that cake as soon as I left the room? "Who me? No, never, I wouldn't dream of it...."
In the past I have found the icing nibbled carefully off the sides of a cake left out on the side.......he's very delicate in his thievery! But not this time, the cake is unscathed....better go and put it away now!