Presents from Granddad

A parcel arrived this morning from my Dad. It had three separate address labels on it. I guess he wanted to be sure it got here.


Whenever I received a parcel wrapped in brown paper I can hear Julie Andrews warbling away in my head. I think I have watched the ‘Sound of Music’ way to many times.



Inside the contents were securely wrapped in a second layer of paper; newspaper this time.


Madness does not run in my family.

Although I did give one of my friends a large plastic fish for her eighteenth birthday. She loved it together with its accompanying jar of rice wrapped in green velvet contact.

There was no note.

Did Julie Andrews sing the theme to Godzilla? Now all I can hear is Julie Andrews say ‘Godzilla, Godzilla,’ over and over with a lighter flame being waved in front of her eyes.

Thanks Dad for this gift that will keep on giving. Godzilla is currently soaking in a sink filled with hot water and very strong Detol. Sadly he smells as if he has been lurking in someone’s pond and if I am completely honest he looks a little like it to. B1 will no doubt claim him and I will never be rid of Godzilla’s smiling face until B1 moves out of home.

I’ll see if I can find a gift of such class for you too Dad….a garden gnome flashing his butt perhaps.

Love you Dad.

Madness does not run in my family ;P

What are sloes?

After my blackberry crumble post I have had a few ladies ask me what sloes are. Well let me enlighten you, sloe expert that I am, having never even heard of them myself until last year.


Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn bush. They are a dark blue/purple with greenish flesh. They have a seed at their centre and are very reminiscent of a small, very, very sour plum. They grow wild along the hedgerows in Guernsey in great numbers if you know where to look. I have found a fabulous ‘stash’ near the Reservoir which I hope will still be there when I go back in a few weeks time.

Now that I have picked and frozen some I have been doing a spot of research on the internet and have read quite varying reports about when to pick them. Quite a few people say that you should pick them after the first frost, yet others say that you can pick them before the first frost and freeze them to the same effect.

Well we have picked ours before the first frost and frozen them but I think I will collect some more after the first frost, cook both and see if there is a difference.

Some people also say that you need to prick them all over with a pin before using them but the ‘freezing’ group says that you do not need to do this step if you freeze them first, so we shall see.

I’ll post the results after the first frost. I’m making sloe gin and if I can collect enough i.e. if my helpers will aid in this endeavour, I will also make some sloe jam. I’ve never made jam before so this could be interesting.

PS. After writing the above I have just found more information which suggests that the fruit will not be ripe until the end of October, into November. I may just have to throw out our frozen sloes and call them a practice run, picking more later on in the season. Oh well, live and learn.

Pink Saturday - Rosey Trios

Welcome to Bumble Bee Cottage's Pink Saturday and thankyou to Beverly of How Sweet the Sound for hosting it. Here are a few of my ever growing collection of trios to share with you.

This is Paragon's 'Golden Emblem' pattern. Paragon China was introduced in 1903 by Star China Co. and continued until it became part of Royal Doulton in 1972. Royal Doulton continued to produce china under the name of Paragon until 1992. I have several Paragon trios and I find their patterns are a little bit different and unusual; I suppose this is why I like them so much.

This is Aynsley's 'June Rose' pattern. Aynsley China was started by a single potter, John Aynsley, in 1775. It was one of John Aynsley's descendants who founded Paragon China. My favourite colour is blue but I am very partial to roses so the lovely blue ribbons on this trio appealed to me greatly. I had never seen this pattern before as a trio, nor since, so I am pleased that I bought it straight away rather than my usual trick of 'thinking it over' only to go back and find that someone else has snapped it up.

This is Royal Albert's 'American Beauty' pattern. As with Aynsely China Royal Albert was started by one man, Thomas Wild, in 1896 in Stoke-on-Trent. Many people tend to think of Royal Albert china as somewhat over-the-top when it comes to their designs; but as they have produced thousands of different patterns over the years there really is one to suit everyone's taste. I also have several Royal Albert trios and all are so very different you would not link them in anyway until you turn over the china and read the base.

I hope you have been inspired by this brief look into the history of a few of my favourite china manufacturers. Please click on the links to find out more if your interest has been piqued and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Blackberry and Apple Crumble

It is Foodie Friday, so thankyou once again the the lovely Gollum for hosting it. Last Sunday we went blackberry picking. It was the second last day of the school Summer holidays and it was glorious. We wandered the lanes near the Reservoir for about an hour and a half with beach buckets in hand.

Between the five of us we managed to collect approximately one and a half kilograms of blackberries; which isn’t too bad really considering the amount of surreptitious sampling that was going on. B3 didn’t even bother trying to sneak them she just nabbed them as often as she could and jammed them into her mouth before they could be rescued and put back into the communal bucket.

The sloes were also out so we collected about one and a half kilograms of them as well. They are currently in the freezer in a bag as this apparently mimics the effect of first frost, which is when you are supposed to pick them. I’ve never cooked with sloes before so this should make for some strange experimental flavours I think. B2 and I both sampled one and I think it took about ten minutes for our lips to recover from the resulting pucker – that is one sour fruit.

I cooked the blackberries for about ten minutes over a low heat with just the few drops of water left on them from washing and three tablespoons of sugar.

B2 and I whipped up a quick crumble to topping:

Crumble Topping

¾ cup of Self Raising Flour
½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
80g of softened butter
½ cup of brown sugar.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and rub the butter through the dry ingredients until the mix resembles bread crumbs. This takes about ten minutes or so, or 15 with help from B2. Then sprinkle over the top of your fruit mix and bake in a 180*C oven for 30 minutes.

We combined the blackberries with some of the apple sauce from the freezer and we doubled the amount of crumble as it was a very large batch.

The timer went ‘ding’ but I was reading a few blogs in the study so the top came out a little darker than was intended but it still tasted lovely. Note to self - the timer goes 'ding' come immediately don't just read a few more pages or on your head be it. It is very tasty with home-made custard or cream or ice-cream, or all three in fact but I am trying to be ‘good’ so we just had it plain, hot from the oven. It came out of the oven at 3.30pm and was all eaten by 7.30pm, with dinner in between. There were three very full tummies that night.

Fifi the Poodle

This is Fifi the Poodle. She is the cake I entered in the North Show 'Decorated Children's Cake' competition. Sadly she did not win a place but she went to a good home as I donated her for the charity auction held on the last night of the show. I hope she earned them a few pounds.

The phone rang last Sunday week, a few days after the North Show had finished. Mr Bee answered.

Mr Bee: ‘Hello’
Lady: ‘Hello, I was wondering if I could speak to XXX’
Mr Bee: ‘Yes. Who may I say is calling?’
Lady: ‘Oh, she won’t know me.’
Mr Bee: ‘Oh. Um….I’ll just get her for you.’
Me: ‘Hello’
Lady: ‘Hello. My name is Louise. You don’t know me but are you the lady who made the poodle cake at the North Show?’
Me: ‘Yes, that’s me.’ (bewildered)
Lady: ‘You are probably wondering how I got your telephone number.’
Me: ‘Well yes I am actually.’ (To be honest this had not even occurred to me at this point.)
Lady: ‘Well I got your name from your entry card. It was half hidden under the cake board so I had to get one of the officials to come and move it for me so I could see your name and then I looked you up in the phone book. You have quite an unusual name so I thought that there would probably only be one person listed.’
Me: ‘Oh, well yes it is a bit of a long and unusual name.’ (Still wondering what on earth is going on.)
Lady: ‘My daughter fell in love with your poodle cake and has not stopped asking me to call you. Do sell birthday cakes?’
Me: ‘Uumm…no. I just make them for my kid’s parties really.’ (Now I am totally astounded that someone actually liked my cake enough to go to the bother of tracking me down.)

The long and the short of it, as the conversation went for about 15 minutes, is that this lady ended up asking me not once, not twice but four times if I was sure that I didn’t make cakes for children’s parties.

I must admit that I did waiver at one point and nearly gave in. I am glad I didn’t as I tend to worry A LOT when I make cakes for other people that they won’t turn out or they will taste terrible. So I told the lady which Women’s Weekly Cake book I made the cake from and where I bought all the sweets/lollies I used for the decorations (particular sweets can be quite difficult to find in Guernsey – I improvise a lot; but this time I managed to get the ones listed in the recipe book). I told her how very simple the cake was to make.

She kept telling me that I should open a business; that Guernsey needed a lady who made children’s party cakes and that I should be that lady. She even told me how much to charge; about £25 to £35 per cake. She kept asking and encouraging me to start my new found business right then and there on the phone.

I finally managed to get off the phone and told Mr Bee what had happened.

Mr Bee: ‘You DID NOT agree to do it did you?’
Me: ‘No, it would stress me out too much I think.’
Mr Bee: ‘Thank goodness for that.’
Me: ‘Why?’
Mr Bee: ‘Because in a place this size word would get around very quickly and you would end up being swamped with cake orders!’

It’s nice he likes my cakes that much :)

North Show and the Battle of the Flowers

The North Show and Battle of the Flowers were on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th of August. There are three shows held in Guernsey each year; the South Show, which is held in a hall, the West Show, which is held in a field and the North Show, which is held in Saumarez Park. As their names suggest, you need to live in a particular region of Guernsey in order to enter and I believe they are quite strict about the boundary lines for each show too. The South show is an opportunity for people to enter their cakes, jams, craft etc. but there are no other attractions. Both the North and West Shows have rides, side-show alley, stalls, large animals, small animals and demonstrations. I find it quite amazing that a place the size of Guernsey can support three separate shows but they seem to attract the crowds, none the less.

The West Show competition tent.

The ‘carni’ people come over from England in their caravans and set up shop in the West Show, the Donkey Races (which we were unable to attend this year), the North Show and then during the weekend which follows the North Show they are still at Saumarez Park for anyone who has not had enough stomach churning, spinning on the rides already.

I suppose they need to make it worth their while to cart all their equipment across the Channel so they hold all these events during a two week period. This makes for an action packed end to the summer break; but a rather expensive one!

The North Show Tomato competition.

We attended both the North and West Shows. The kids absolutely love them. In Brisbane they have a show which is affectionately called the 'Ekka', short for Exhibition. It is 20 or more times larger than the Guernsey shows but I used to love it when I was a child; an enthusiasm which has continued through to adulthood. My own children have attended the Ekka every year since they were born. B1 was just four months old when we first took him.

One of the few sheep in Guernsey.

He was not the prize winning ram but a most obliging photographic subject.

During our first August in Guernsey in 2007 the children were very sad indeed not to be attending the Ekka. I was so relieved and pleased that they would be able to attend the Guernsey Shows instead; to sort of continue the tradition. The Guernsey shows may not be as large but they still contain all the ingredients for a fabulous day out.

The French Markets came to the North Show this year.

We live in the 'catchment' for the North Show. The children were very keen to enter this year as last year they missed out as we were away on the weekend they accept entry forms. Between B1, B2, B3 and myself we entered 21 categories. I do not know WHAT I was thinking!! Thank goodness my Mum was here to help me organise all their entries.

I will have to try some anchovies next time the markets come.

In order to enter the competition you are required to join the Society. By joining you receive 'free' entry into the show both days. It is a great idea really as it keeps the show financially viable and it is much cheaper to buy your tickets this way than paying both days. We went with friends on Wednesday to see if we had won anything.

The French sweet seller stall is always a popular stop for our kids. The sweet available here are not found elsewhere on the Island. Yes, the lolly Papa Smurf was here again. OOHH, all those hypercolours!

This year there was a charity painting being done. It was free; you just chose a square and copied the picture they provided of the square. Sorry, I didn't get a photo of the finished product. What a fabulous way to get young and old alike to participate and promote your charity.

B2 won second prize with her collage.

None of our painted pebbles won a prize but the kids had a lovely time doing them.

B1 and B3 entered the '25 Blackberries on a Plate'. I picked these ones from the car park at my gym. They were from a wild, unloved, tangled and quite vicious mess of brambles but judging by the size of some of the winning entries quite a few of the cultivated and fertilised variety made their way onto plates.

B2 won a second prize for her 'Edible Necklace'. The kids assembled their necklaces on a plate and then Nan and I sewed them together for them. It is not easy to sew sticky sweets I can tell you!

All three kids entered in the 'Animals made from Fruit or Vegetables'. B3 made the Cat (with a little help from Nan; it was Nan's original design with some helpful instruction from B3), B2 made the Turtle (I made the mistake of printing some ideas off the internet, the turtle being one of them. There were four other turtles entered - but of course B2's was the best ;). B1 won a third prize for his rabbit; he designed it himself. Next year we will definitely not be looking for inspiration anywhere other than the kids imaginations.

At my Mum's insistence I entered a bunch of Dahlias and inconceivably won third prize. When I went to drop off all our entries on Tuesday night I was amazed at the lengths people were going to with their flower entries. There were about eight competitors in my category.

They had florist foam with was cut to fit into the competition vases. There were buckets (I mean buckets and buckets and buckets) of flowers with competitors painstakingly selecting their best blooms and examining each one before carefully placing it artfully in the florists foam. I had quickly picked what I thought were our five best blooms just half an hour before we were due to take the entries in. I stripped the stems of leaves (I thought I was supposed to do this but after seeing some of the other entries I think it didn't matter either way) and most importantly I washed all the bugs off the stems! We were under siege by a black fly plague at the time and I hadn't gotten around to spraying them yet.

When I went to place my entry in the vase I excused myself as I pushed through the crowd of flower arrangers and plonked my flowers into their vase. So there you go, if you have a bug plague, don't know what on earth you are doing and are totally unprepared for the reality of flower shows then just have a go and you never know what may happen ;)

I entered a cake in the 'Decorated Children's' cake section but failed to get a prize. There is a bit of a story there which deserves its own post so I will blog about that tomorrow.

I loved this Bear float. You can just see the salmon they are fishing for swimming up the front and the side of the 'water'.

We went to the Battle of the Flowers on the Thursday afternoon. I had prepaid for seats in the front row. When we arrived only two of our seats were in the front row with the remaining three being one row back and five seats to the left, so we couldn't even talk to each other. I was not impressed to say the very least. The kids decided that they would prefer to sit on the grass in front of the front row so I moved down to sit with my Mum but the other front row seat was broken!! I ended up squatting on the grass with the kids. After two hours of having a small child perched in my lap I was lucky I was able to walk. I must be getting old and crotchety.

But regardless of our less than ideal seating arrangements we had a lovely time and the floats were absolutely fabulous.

There are different categories of floats; decorated bicycles, decorated trolleys, decorated motorised floats (ie. lawn mowers, kids powered cars, small earth-moving equipment - no I am not joking!), trailers pulled by cars, decorated cars, I think there are a few more but I can not find the program to list all the categories. The parade lasted for two hours. There were also a few fancy dress categories, some marching bands and the majorettes (marching girls who twirl batons and pompoms. They have quite a large club here in Guernsey).

Some floats are decorated with fresh flowers and some are decorated with paper flowers. It is true that Jersey's Battle of the Flowers is far bigger, more glamorous and spectacular (we went last year) but Guernsey's Battle of the Flowers has a homey and more family friendly feeling. Both certainly have their place; Jersey's is a major tourist attraction whilst Guernsey's is more about the people who live on the Island. Well that is just how I see them, not actually being from either Island.

This was a fun float and it played the theme music from Dr Who as they drove around the arena.

B3 was very excited to see the 'In the Night Garden' characters. She was calling out to all of them, Makka Pakka, Uppsie Daisy and Iggle Piggle. She was waving so hard I thought her arm might fly off at any moment.

As the floats go around the arena you have a voting form for each category. Kids come around with collection baskets during the course of the parade and the votes are counted. I voted for this Star Wars float. There were a group of Storm Troopers and Darth Maul following along behind.

Even Yoda came with his Mummy.

This was the Spec Savers float.

If you are in Guernsey during show time I can highly recommended all of them. They are a wonderful family day out. There is enough to see to keep even the busiest little people occupied whilst the crowds are not so huge (as they can be at the Ekka) that you are in a constant state of anxiety about loosing one of the kids amongst the throngs of people. It was a reasonably priced day out; which we will no doubt attend and enter each and every year for as along as we call Guernsey home.

Apple Tree Saviour

Well hello dear bloggers! It has certainly been a busy time at Bumble Bee Cottage of late. Where did the holidays go? We spent the first week mooching at home, then two weeks in the Isle of Man, a few more days at home (spending a lot more time reacquainting myself with both the washing machine and the iron than I would like), then my Mum arrived from Australia for a three week visit; now all of a sudden the seven week Summer break is over. The kids only have one more day until it is back to uniforms, books and the weekly barrage of activities.


While my Mum was here she championed the apple tree. I had said that if it didn’t produce a good crop this year after all the extra love and attention it had received then it was going to be replaced with a more productive fruit tree.

Well it certainly produced a bumper crop. One day we went into the garden after some strong winds and a fair amount of fruit was wind fallen. B2 and I collected all the fruit in our white laundry basket and then decided that we may as well pick the remainder of the fruit on the tree at the same time.

We ended up with about 12 or so kilograms of apples. We spent the next hour and a half peeling, chopping, coring and chatting. This of course fanned the flames of my romantic fantasies about those big family get-togethers where everyone chips in to make huge quantities of jam or tomato sauce from home grown or local produce; like you see in TV cooking specials where they discuss a particular region’s food. I just wish my sister and Aussie girlfriends could have been there too. I think it will be a memory of her Nan that B2 will cherish when she is older.

After the addition of three lemons worth of juice, to stop the fruit browning and approximately ½ a cup of castor sugar my Mum cooked the apples for about an hour and we ended up with about 6 litres of apple sauce!

We have had one apple crumble so far and have frozen the rest but as the Bumble Bee’rs know that it is there, lurking in the freezer, calling to them, I doubt it will take long to use it all up.

So the tree gets a reprieve thanks to Nan. I doubt if I would be allowed to remove it now even if I wanted too – the kids know how many desserts wait on its branches :)