Hummingbird Tea Party

It was a gorgeous afternoon for a girlie tea party in the garden with some friends from St Nic's. We were also celebrating the imminent arrival of Baby Edwards but despite much discussion still didn't settle on a name! Sugar overload was the order of the afternoon with me trying out many recipes from the Hummingbird Bakery cook book that I was given at Christmas. After lemon drizzle cake, cup cakes and chocolate brownies we overdosed on the new cupcake phenomena, "Whoopies". Try one and I bet you can't eat more than two! Originating from the Amish community in America they get their name from the cries of delight, "Whoopie", when lunch boxes were opened and the cake spied. Place your orders now, selling out fast!

Elderflowers Galore!

The elderflower season has begun as you can see from the full basket I collected for Elderflower Cordial. It is absolutely delicious and was so easy to make once I had hunted down the citric acid that I needed. This morning have also made rhubarb and elderflower jam which has the delicate scent and taste of the elderflower pollen.

Top tips for gathering elderflowers. First always harvest after a couple of days of sunshine when the pollen is dry and high, you get a better flavour that way. Secondly according to folklore each elder tree has a resident witch from whom you should ask permission to gather the flowers before you do. Whoops, forgot that bit but doesn't seem to have impaired the flavour! Have received my first commission for cordial for a friend's wedding so going into production again this week!

Fox Cubs and Rhubarb!

Finally the rhubarb is beginning to thicken up but not enough to make anything of any great quantity. So for rhubarb jam I had to resort to other sources, namely Aldi! Request your jar soon, limited stock available!

Got a surprise this afternoon when I looked out into the garden and saw a fox sniffing around the onions. Even better she was being followed by one small cub who was really enjoying frolicking around in the grass which needs cutting. The vixen looked quite scruffy as she is in the middle of her moult and the cub must have been over 6 weeks old as they don't leave the earth until then. They hung around for a few minutes but not long enough to get a photo. Hope they come back again.

First Harvest 2010

Can't believe how much the garden has grown while we were away. We celebrated the first harvest last night with a meal using homegrown lettuce, pak choi, spinach and an onion. Only just enough for two but with all this rain and some warmer weather we should soon be harvesting in abundance!

Castella Castle

Castella is our nearest local town with a population of 7000 people. The castle has recently been restored but not been up to the top yet, you can only take the car part of the way! The hills all around can look lovely at sunset when the sun hits the rock at a certain angle for a brief period of time. Beautiful weekend again this weekend but a bit shocked we are returning home to rain according to the forecast. Seems like the tan is starting to fade already!

Drive to Denia

Drove to Denia which is in the north of the province of Alicante,(population 44,500).
Guess who has swallowed the guide book?! Beautiful beaches with rocky coves are overlooked by the castle that rises in the middle of the town. However your eye is drawn higher to Mount Montgo in the background, 753m high.

After having lunch in one of the 300 restaurants in the town we took the road up to Montgo. Driving was a bit hairy at times on the narrow hair pin bends but Mark wasn't gripping the door handle too tightly! Though he did lose concentration and we got a bit lost. Ended up doing a huge circle back to where we started rather than to the motorway!

Spanish Haircut

Was brave enough to get my hair cut by a local hairdresser with no English and I have no Spanish. The word for enough, enough in Spanish is "Basta, basta". Should have said it a bit "Fasta, fasta!!" Hey ho it'll grow!