It was the best of times, it was the worst of times - this month has ended with endings. My aunt's funeral was on Friday; she died a couple of weeks ago, unexpectedly, after a short illness. Quite a few of the wider family, nephews and nieces, a few close friends, managed to be there, along with my uncle and the immediate family. I didn't go - I wish I had, but I'm still shielding and It is going to take more than one vaccination dose before I am ready to join the rest of society.
I was grateful for the beautiful weather this weekend for my aunt's funeral at their local cemetery. It is a hard time, but eased by sun and a feeling of freshness, of Spring, of better days ahead, weather-wise at least.
I wondered whether or not to say anything about this in the blog - I try and focus on the cheerful and positive, but to ignore all unpleasant, painful, negative experiences would be less honest. Life isn't always a bowl of roses or a bed of cherries, no, that doesn't sound quite right...
The buds on the camellia are taking their time, slowly, slowly growing fatter and fatter. There is just a touch of red showing through the protective covering of the petals. I am keeping an eye on them, hoping to catch the first flowers.
Buds on the lilac! Look at these! If the warm weather continues there will soon be some leaves!
Now, this is an experimental cake. A Magic Milk Cake. It is sitting on the parchment paper I used to line the baking tin ( and it is a very god thing that I did line the tin as the cake is extremely soft). You combine eggs and egg yolks, melted butter, not very much flour, rather a lot of milk, and stiffly-whipped egg whites, tip the slightly unpromising mixture into the lined tin and bake.
Somehow is separates into a base layer, egg custard mixture and a sponge on top. We had some of it while it was still warm as a desert, and the rest later n the day. All gone. I followed this recipe . There are lemon and chocolate versions on that website (Jo Cooks) and now I have sent off for a book;
I made half quantities - just as well, as I suspect that the two of us would have eaten all of however much I made.
I think that a slightly smaller baking tin would have worked better, because then the layers would have been a bit thicker.
I whisked the egg whites in a separate bowl first, so that I could use the same beater for the rest of the mixing.
It would be a really good idea if I had made sure to stir the egg yolk and sugar together before setting the beater going - that might have avoided spraying caster sugar all over the worktop!
I had finished knitting the teapot motif of the tea cosy. Now I will repeat the pink design, and then decrease for the top. It is incredibly addictive to knit round and round and see the patterns appear.
There appear to be thousands of them; partly because I am reusing my godmother's scraps of wool, and scraps they have turned out to be. Still, this is a 'process' project, not a 'product' project. Just as well, as I am not that keen on the colours, and the cosy is going to be for a LARGE teapot. It has a 'vintage' look to it; but then the wool is probably around fifty years old. It look to me like something that would turn up in a sale of work in aid of the church hymnal fund'. Some (un)lucky person is going to end up with a family-sized tea-cosy...
We went for a walk today; the first time I have ventured 'out' out, as opposed to just in the garden, for quite a while. We took the O2 machine, and I walked 2 km, or 1 1/4 miles without needing to pause for breath in spite of several gradients. I'm feeling very satisfied with myself.
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