Fruit Cake and Cheese

I arrived back in Germany yesterday,

to an extremely wet and blustery day.

The weather has been the same today.

So how better to spend it than

sitting inside,

where it's warm,

catching up?

And to accompany us,

a piece of

fruit cake and cheese.

One of the cheeses is

Wenslydale,

one of our favourites,

and one of our favourite places.

The other is

White Stilton with Cranberry and Orange Whirl.

Very nice!

It's the kind of cheese we don't see in Germany,

so it's a real treat.

I brought it back in my suitcase.

The fruit cake is the Christmas Cake

I made the day before I went to the UK.

I sliced the top off ready for icing

which allowed us to try it.  

Mmmmmm....



Gardener's World, or Spot the Presenter

Watching Gardener's World Friday evening on the TV, I was reminded that I had some photos from last year that I have not shared with you. (In fact I have quite a number of photos that have not made it to this blog)!
Gardener's World is a long running BBC programme. During the summer Gardener's World and BBC Good Food programmes combine to present an exhibition at Birmingham's NEC Centre. Last year I won two VIP ticket's for it. So my sister and I went along. We had a fabulous time. The VIP tickets gave us access to a lounge where we could sit and rest our feet, and drink endless cups of tea, any time we felt in need. We had a wonderful time. I really should have told you all about it when I got back- sorry.
Well the show has been taking place these last few days, so I got my photos out from last year. A nice reminder of a wonderful day out last year. So I'll share them with you now.

With so much to see, and so many people, I was eager to make a start. We began with the show gardens. The textiles caught my eye in these first two photos.

A garden for football fans.

A garden for wildlife.

A garden for sitting in and enjoying the plants close up.

In the pink.

The next garden shows a neat way to keep your vegetable garden tidy. It was used by the BBC for the presenters to meet the public and answer questions about gardening.

Above you can see Joe Swift being presented, and below Carol Klein.

I was particularly interested to see the Good Food Halls.

 Above, Andi Peters, below, James Martin.

With the VIP tickets, I got two tickets (on the front row) for Masterchef.

Above John Torode and below, Gregg Wallace.

I've included a second photo of Joe Swift, just because I like it.

Despite being so keen to see eveything to do with food, and incidentally winning the tickets through Good Food, the plants were the stars of the show for me.
Below is a garden based on Alice in Wonderland.

But the best bit was the plant hall. After seeing everything, that is where we spent most time.
Can you blame us?...

My sister bought some lovely rose bushes. I had to content myself with some Lily corms. That's all I could get in my case. They're due to flower soon.

Passing the Lake District on the way back to my sister's, there was the most fabulous, memorable sunset.
But guess what, my camera was in the boot of the car, and we were on a motorway, so no stopping.
What a beautiful end to a great day out.

Bananas

Danny returned to the UK yesterday so we were back to doing the usual things needed to keep a home ticking over. It was Mike's turn to do the shopping. We take turns, sort of. I like bananas with my breakfast cereal and asked Mike to get some. He noticed that we were wasting some bananas. Well as you can see from the photo above, they were looking pretty manky, and I certainly wouldn't be using them on my cereal.
So while Mike went shopping I got busy in the kitchen, which meant someone got sneaking up on a chair.
Can you see a nose?

Still hiding.

Now you can see her. Jewel lying on a comfy chair, in the sunshine. She loves her comfort.

I left her in the sunshine, and went off to finish making the Banana Bread.

A Quiet Saturday

Mike and I took a drive to a neighbouring village today.
We left the Pups with Danny.
He came with a cold and today he wasn't feeling too good.
A bit like the house above!
But isn't it lovely?
And the Autumnal decorations on the steps.



Kurbis, as they are called here,
are used to decorate the outside of houses.
I think the collection here looks particularly nice.


And of course I'm always photographing the window boxes.
They are everywhere.
The house below also has some rather nice wooden, carved, painted flowers.
Can you see them just below the window box on the left?


And after a stroll
we stopped and took a glass of Flederweiss

which is like a glass of wine,

but it is cloudy.

We're not sure what it is

but intend to find out.

The literal translation is feather white I believe.

And Zweibel Kuchen which is an onion cake.

More to Mike's taste than mine.

We just got back to the house when the heavens opened
and I got quite wet although I was only in the rain for a brief moment.
Mike later took the Pups out
and the same thing happened.
A great big black cloud came and sat overhead.
So instead of going for a walk
they took shelter under a tree.
Later Mike was feeling ill, but fortunately
he's feeling a bit better now.
So all in all
it's been a bit of a funny day.
Not at all what we planned.