National Baking Week

First celebrated June 1 - 7 2020

National Baking Week was run by Rose.

Last Wednesday (well in advance to make sure we had all the ingredients) Rose sent us all an ingredient list for a secret recipe:

• Unsalted butter
• Semi-Sweet chocolate bar, coarsely chopped*
• Granulated Sugar
• 3 Eggs, room temperature
• Pure Vanilla Extract
• Unsweetened Natural or Dutch-Process Cocoa Powder
• All-Purpose Flour
• Salt
• Optional: Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

On Day 1 we had to guess what we thought the secret recipe was and tell Rose what our favourite sweet  treat is.

Guesses for the secret recipe:

• Cookies
• Brownies

Favourite sweet treat:

• Cookies
• Ice cream
• Eton mess
• Really squidgy, fudgy chocolate cake with a bit of raspberry jam or coulis in it and whipped cream
• Lime cheese cake

On Day 2 we discussed our favourite chocolate.  White chocolate and any chocolate were mentioned but most people's fave is 70% cocoa solids, organic and expensive.

On Day 3 us oldies tried to educate the youth of today with talk of vintage sweets:

• Kali
• Sherbert fountains
  
• Swizzles double dip
  
• Pear drops
• Cola cubes
• Chewy nuts
• Rainbow drops

On Day 4 we shared our favourite places to eat cake:

• Betty's of York where Tam's favourite treat is a fat rascal or two.
  
• Gillams Tearoom where mum likes to have a kid's afternoon tea 😉
  
• Lisboa bakery and grill in Kitchener where you can get a fabulous Portuguese cake or two
  
• Nougat bakery and deli where I bought my birthday cake this year
  

On Day five the recipe for chocolate brownies was revealed.  You will find it here courtesy of Sally's Baking Addiction.  We made it on Friday night and it was delicious and highly recommended, I took a very bad photo and it was eaten before I got around to any attempt at styling it.

National Gardening Week

First Celebrated May 25 - 31 2020

First of all you’ll notice that I’ve acknowledged the change in the way we are celebrating our themes as weeks and not specific days.  So although you could say that National Gardening Day was May 31 it was celebrated all week.

Each day there was a task and an alternative question/activity for non-outsiding people.

Propagation Day

Rose sowed Zinnia, candytuft and lupin seeds in her raised bed which she is planting up with cut flowers and tomatoes this year.

Jacob sowed sweetcorn seeds in toilet roll tubes ready for head start planting in June, we didn’t take a photo.

Mum sent in a picture of some of her seedlings and cuttings.

I sowed some kale seeds in newspaper pots.

The Big Question; Monty or Titch? Do you dare to have a favourite and if so who and why?

Monty won this one (sorry Titch, you’ll need braces, dogs and a mediaeval jerkin to get ahead)  Honourable mentions went to:

Percy Thrower

Geoff Hamilton

Joe Swift, because it was his birthday

Mick from Acorn Bank

Weeding Day

This was a day that didn’t go down well with kids, too boring I think.  I weeded under the bass tree at the end of the garden and planted up the space with astilbes that I moved from the front garden where they were sulking, and campanulas that I bought for 98c each at the end of last summer.

Tam weeded the path from the cabin to her parking space, here is a before and after shot.  Nice job.

Before

After

And finally we had some unexpected visitors to the improvised bin lid bird bath/pond.

Today’s inside activity was to watch a virtual Chelsea video.  I watched Raymond Blanc who always makes me smile and Monty feeding his hens.

Watering Day

In Canada we all watered our various flower and vegetable gardens, especially the new and moved little things.  It's been 30 degrees so it's definitely necessary.

Today's question was: What's your favourite flower?  Here's the nominations:

• Cone flower
• Carnations/Pinks
• Convulvulous
• Perennial Geraniums

Do Something for Wildlife Day

It poured with rain here in Canada so mostly we stayed indoors and left the wildlife to it.  I mowed the lawns in the morning which isn't very wildlife friendly but I did miss out big chunks in order to see what it would look like with gardens there.  I'm also considering the creation of the accidental duck pond as something for wildlife as it has been very popular with the local bird population.

Pruning Day

Pruning day was devised to make me go out in the garden and sort out the bedraggled Forsythia before it's too late.  I'm afraid I failed due to rubbish weather 😢 To be honest, it's in such a state that so long as I do something with it at some point this summer it will most likely be an improvement.

Tamsin 'pruned' the grass and weeds around her car parking space, before and after again:

And in honour of floral Friday today's alternative activity was to pick some flowers and put them in your house.  Here's mine:

And here's the little flower that Tam left alone during her grass pruning: