The Good Old Days

With all our talk of getting older over the past couple of days, we thought we'd continue the theme and share this little gem with you.....

Oh, how very true!!

Baking Challenge

Baking a cake for Colin's birthday was not without its problems. He is following a low fat diet, I have coeliac disease - so no wheat flour, barley, rye, or their derivatives - and it had to suit Colin's grandchildren.

I went for a Fat-free Sponge Cake courtesy of BBC's GoodFood website. The recipe is very straightforward with few ingredients; you can find it here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7229/.

I adapted it slightly, using gluten free self raising flour instead of plain flour, and omitting the baking powder. I also added a few drops of vanilla extract.

Ready for the oven

The recipe makes two 20cm round cakes, which can be sandwiched together with jam, cream or your choice of filling.

Twenty minutes later, it's baked to a turn!

I used a little seedless raspberry jam to sandwich the cakes and served it with whipped cream - for those who could indulge! The result was an incredibly light cake which suited everyone.

Colin, with his mum and grand-daughter

Hopefully I rose to the challenge and luckily the cake did, too!

And if you're wondering about the light bulb, let's just say it was easier to use Watts than arrange and light all those candles!

May 15th

Colin's mother informs us that on this date many years ago, the weather was glorious....

Ah well! That was all those years ago....

COLIN!

xxxxxx

Hearty artichoke

This is the artichoke we thought we had lost in the winter frosts....

The cup in the foreground gives an idea of scale..

We were obviously wrong about the frosts!

The old and the new!

This is a great old statue in the mairie courtyard at Angles sur l'Anglin.

We think it is a statue of Saint Joseph with a child. 

What we found such a shame was the new backdrop of concrete blocks!

Photos of Angles sur l'Anglin

As we mentioned the other evening, we went with Jim and Pauline to the picturesque village of Angles sur l'Anglin, set in the Vallee de l'Anglin. Despite the, at times, indifferent weather, the charm of the place couldn't fail to captivate.

We'll let this random selection of images, taken as we walked around the village, do the talking..

The Chateau..

Overlooking the Vallee de l'Anglin

One way down to the Ville basse...

The water mill and weir..

The winding streets of the village, with an amazing assortment of properties, some beautifully restored and some left to go to ruin..

Taken from a vantage point looking across to the chateau. They certainly knew where to locate the important buildings in those days!

Looking down from the Ville haute to the Ville basse..

The Mairie...

And, finally, as we got back to where we had parked, I couldn't resist this shot of the church with the wonderful chestnut "candles" in their full glory..

If you've never been, it is well worth a visit... To find out more about Angles, see here

Interesting bird nesting box.

We came across this interesting and simple bird box design the other day and thought it worth sharing with you.

After I had taken the photograph I began to ponder on how the pot had been secured to the wooden base...

A quick zoom in and all was revealed...

The pot had been drilled and wired to the back board. Simple!

What a great idea and I will certainly be giving it a go for next spring...