Travel Photographer of the Year

I really enjoyed this slideshow from the BBC website of travel photographs which won prizes in the Royal Geographical Society's Travel Photographer of the Year awards. The world is so amazingly rich and vibrant.

First crop of the year

Yesterday we ate salad leaves harvested from our garden. They were so easy to grow (pot plus compost plus seeds plus water equals salad), and tasted so much more flavoursome and less watery than those bags of mixed salad leaves from supermarkets.

Currently my tomato, chilli, sweet pepper, spinach, basil and lettuce seedlings are doing very well, but butternut squash, purple sprouting broccoli and dianthus (pinks) are floudering a bit. I have also sown chard, carrots, artichokes, thyme and runner beans, but they haven't made their appearance yet.

Our Cornish holiday

We recently had a week long holiday in beautiful Cornwall. We spent most days outdoors, walking and looking at lovely coastal scenery. One day was very wet and windy but for most of the week it was dry and we even enjoyed quite a few warm and sunny days. We stayed halfway between Land's End and Penzance in a cottage, where the evenings were rather chilly and therefore involved watching DVDs and eating nice food while snuggled under blankets! It was a much-needed week of rest and relaxation.

I used to go to the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall every year with my family, so it was very special to me to revisit many of the places of my childhood. 

Here is a little slideshow of some of our pictures.

Pavlova, painting, and chicken en croute

This weekend, I achieved Goal #29: Make a perfect pavlova (perfection is hard to define, but I thought it was really, really good). Having attempted twice before to make a fluffy, marshmallowy meringue that does not go all gloopy and flat when cooked, this time I managed to get it just right. Here's how.

Pavlova - serves 6-8
3 large eggs, very fresh and at room temperature
160g caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 dessertspoon vinegar (white or malt)
300ml whipped cream
A bit of custard or yoghurt (optional)
Fresh fruit

Preheat oven to 180C.
Separate the eggs (use the yolks for creme brulee, custard, or lemon curd).
Using an electric handwhisk, whisk the eggs on the fastest speed for 5 minutes.
With the whisk still running, add the sugar a teaspoon at a time for a marshmallowy texture, or all at once for a hard meringue.
Reduce the whisk speed to the slowest setting. Add the vinegar and sift in the cornflour, and gently whisk in.
On a tray lined with greaseproof paper, blob the meringue mixture into a large circle, oblong, or individual shapes. Make a dip in the middle to hold the cream filling.
Put the meringue in the oven and reduce the temperature to 130C. Bake for one hour. Turn off the oven but leave the meringue inside until completely cool.
Just before serving, top the meringue with whipped cream mixed with a bit of custard or yoghurt if you like, and fresh fruit.

My other completed task this weekend was painting the radiators in our hallway and kitchen (#49). They look much better now. Once I've finished painting the woodwork in our hallway, it will finally be finished!

I made a new recipe as part of Goal #32: chicken en croute. It wasn't that tasty though. I think it would be nicer to stuff the chicken with boursin or herby cream cheese or goats cheese mixed with sun-dried tomatoes. We used left-over stuffing as a topping for baked chicken breasts the next day, and added some marjoram which improved the flavour. Using corn-fed chicken and/or seasoning the chicken really well would probably make a real difference too.

My plant wishlist

I love my garden. The trouble is, it doesn't have that many plants in it at the moment. The previous owner let everything in the garden grow enormous and so when we decided to do something with the garden (which you can see in this slideshow) we had to get rid of most things. We were left with a few trees, four roses, an archway with honeysuckle and a few other climbers, and masses of Spanish bluebells, which apparently are considered a weed as they are so prolific. Anyway, I am hoping that over the coming months and years I will be able to add to the garden bit by bit, planting shrubs and bulbs that will make it cohesive and beautiful. So I decided to start a plant wishlist, so I can keep track of all the lovely things I'd like to see in my garden.

• At least one peony bush
• Cherry tree
• Clematis Montana 'Elizabeth'
• A climbing rose on the shady wall next to the twisted hazel e.g. Rosa 'Madame Alfred Carriere'
• Hostas
• Lots of tulips
• Giant alliums 
• Dicentra Spectabilis 'Bleeding Heart'
• Geraniums in pots

Seen at a National Trust plant shop:

• Hosta 'Sum and substance' - £7.50 for a 3 litre pot
• Hosta 'Cherry berry' - £7.50 for a 3 litre pot
• Scilla 'Peruvian' - £6.50 for a 2 litre pot

I'll keep adding to this as new ideas come into my head!