A Dis-arrr-ster (and hoorah for scones)

We have had ivy growing on the Victorian wall which separates our garden from our neighbours' garden for many years.  The owner of the house now rents it out and although he tried to cut back some of the ivy, it really needed a serious amount of controlling.  It was a wonderful food source for insects and birds and provided handy roosting and nesting areas for the birds too, so I didn't want to lose it all, just cut it back, as it overhung our raised bed and all the plants were straining to get some light.  We also thought it needed reducing in height by at least half, so that was the plan.
With our neighbour's help, we attempted to cut some of it away from the house.  Unfortunately, quite a large amount of the ivy came away and a couple of the top stones came off the wall too.  Deciding this was not a good thing, we stopped and got a tree surgeon in to tackle the rest.  Well, the ivy has been cut back...in fact, it had to go altogether, as the wall decided it had had enough and collapsed, right the way down the garden.  The ivy trunks were huge and had pushed the wall out in a couple of places - but possibly it was also helping to hold the wall up.  Some of the wall fell into the neighbour's garden, (which has no plants in it) but unfortunately, some fell into ours, damaging various pots and plants and making a big mess.  On a positive note, no-one was injured and it could have fallen at any time.  So, quite a lot of clearing up took place, and lots of damage limitation pruning.  I had to replace a couple of pots which had been smashed. I was a bit depressed about all the damaged plants, even though Chris did a great salvage job.
We are now waiting for a wall and fencing firm to look at the remains of the wall and give us some advice about replacing it with a new wall, or fence.  As the raised bed in our garden is built against the wall, it could mean a complete re-design of the garden, which could be a great opportunity...but I would have to lose lots of plants.  We shall know more once the wall/fencing firm has visited.
I am sorry to have lost the wall as it provided a lovely backdrop for my plants and stored heat during the day, helping to keep the plants sheltered.

 In other news, we went to our local cake shop to have some cream cakes as a treat, only to find it was too late and they had none left.  Undeterred, I remembered we had some cream in the fridge, so when I got back home, I made a batch of scones.

They were delicious topped with raspberry jam and cream. Hoorah for treats which make us feel just that little bit better!

"By George, I think she's got it!"

My third meringue - ever!  Fresh eggs, whisking until the egg whites are able to withstand being upside down over your head, baking parchment, really low heat (Gas mark half), baking for an hour and then turning off the oven and leaving it in overnight.  Following these guidelines, I managed to create a second successful pavlova as a 'welcome to the team' celebration for a colleague at work.

The meringue was crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle and again, I added a spoon of natural yogurt to the double cream (which made the cream so much healthier - well, I think it did!).  The raspberries were from a supermarket as mine hadn't produced enough, although the four I picked that morning were added to the top (slightly bigger and a bit darker in colour, if you'd like to play the fascinating game of 'hunt the home-grown raspberries').  The pavlova was very well received , so yes, in the words of Professor Higgins, "by George, I think she's got it!"

Addition:

Here's the recipe I used:
Serves 6
Ingredients:
3 large fresh egg whites
6 oz/175g caster sugar
Topping:
Small pot whipping or double cream (the recipe says 10 fl oz/275ml), whipped
Fruits of your choice
a little icing sugar to dust the top

Pre-heat the oven to Gas 2/300 degrees F, 150 degrees C.
Lightly oil a baking sheet and line with baking parchment (silicone paper)
1. Place the egg whites in a large clean bowl and have the sugar measured out ready.  Whisk the egg whites until they form peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down without them sliding out. (This is the secret to success I think!) However, it is important not to over whisk the egg whites as they may start to collapse.
2.  Whisk in the sugar, a tablespoon at a time.  The meringue should look shiny at this stage.  Spoon the meringue using a metal tablespoon onto the baking sheet, forming an 8 inch/20 cm diameter circle.  (This is where I added some piping around the edge, just to raise the edge up). You can spoon extra blobs around the edge or make the centre slightly lower than the edge.  Turn down the oven to Gas 1/275 degrees F/140 degrees C and leave to cook for one hour.  (I had to turn my oven down to gas mark a half - my oven is old and has no fan assisting or anything! I also needed to put the meringue on the bottom shelf.)
3.  Turn the heat right off but leave the pavlova inside the oven until completely cold.  It can be left in the turned off oven overnight so that it dries out completely.
4.  To serve, lift the meringue from the baking sheet and place it on a serving dish.  Just before serving, spread the cream on the top and arrange the fruit on top of the cream.  Sprinkle some icing sugar on the top if required.  Enjoy!

If it doesn't work quite as you hope the first time, I can recommend Eton Mess (crumbled up meringue, cream and fruit).  That's what I did with my first attempt!

Home made jam

It all started when Chris asked why I didn't eat his blackberry jam.  I replied that I wasn't that keen on blackberries, except in a crumble, but if he made some raspberry jam, I would definitely eat that as it is my favourite.  While visiting Mum and Dad on Sunday, we picked some raspberries and apples.  The raspberries and two apples were destined to become jam.
The jam was duly made and had the most lovely colour.  Chris added the apples as we didn't have quite enough raspberries for the recipe.

 The jam had a lovely rich jewel-like colour - I was very excited about tasting it.  It reached setting point very quickly (Chris used jam sugar which has added pectin, and no doubt the apples helped too).

 Last night, I had the very good idea of making scones and getting some cream, which is what I did today.

It is amazing to think that the raspberries and apples were still on the plant/tree just two days ago.  The jam is delicious and has an extremely good set on it too.  Yum!