Garden Colours for Summer 2011

Time to start some serious gardening now the warm weather is here.The window boxes outside the smart buildings in London like the Pall Mall clubs seem to have gone for a white, purple and green theme this year.
I keep some variagated ivy, shrubs and mini conifers in my window boxes permanently.Last seasons plants can be removed and with the addition of some new compost and slow release fertiliser, new ones for the summer can be put in.

This year I have added white geraniums and purple surfinia petunias.This looks fresh and elegant against the green background.

Plenty of watering will be needed to help them establish and covering at night if a late frost is forecast.

Life Drawing and Erotic Style

Erotic Line is the title of next weeks life drawing class with Derek Batty in Cambridge UK. This will be using examples of work by Egon Schiele  and August Rodin. Can hardly wait.
It is good to be back with this group after the spring break and thinking about using water colours during the summer.Sketching people on vacation when they are sitting around is good practice.

                                                 Swimming Pool  Excelsior Vittoria , Sorrento, Italy

Fascinators, Top Hats ,Genealogy

Fascinators

Many people have  liked the fascinator hats worn by guests at the Royal Wedding.If you like hats there is a wonderful shop in St James Street , London.They will make you a hat to order. Although this is quite expensive you will have  the  hat of a lifetime.I had one made for my daughter's wedding 10 years ago.If you are visiting London see this shop.
The window  display of this shop is quite small but exquisite- both for ladies and men.
If you are going to a wedding, Royal Ascot (see the Top hats for men) or meeting the Queen this is the shop for you.This is link where you can see them online.
You may  just want to dream like most of us.-- you know what they say
If you want to get ahead get a hat


http://www.lockhatters.co.uk/

The Society of Genealogoists Conference was held in London on Saturday. This society is 100 years old today.Particulary interesting speakers at the conference were Alec Tritin on blogging for family historians and Elsie Churchill on more advanced ways of finding out about your ancestors.
If you have English ancestors this is a good place to search for information, they have copies of parish registers and a library full of interesting information such as trade directories with lists of people and their occupations. I have found several of my ancestors listed along with the trades that they followed or the names of the farms where they lived.

Chocolate Biscuit Wedding Cake for Kate and William

Prince William requested a chocolate biscuit cake for the Royal Wedding Party, it is a childhood favourite of his.A huge version of this recipe was made for the wedding by McVities the biscuit manufacturer.
This is a nice recipe for Grandmas to make with children, there is no baking, it goes in the fridge.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

200g plain biscuits such as Rich Tea, Digestive,Marie
100 g butter cut into cubes
70 g (1/4 cup) golden syrup
300g good quality chocolate

Method

1. Line a shallow 20cm tin (square) with cling film or parchment paper leaving plent hanging over the edge .
2. Put the biscuits in a plastic bag  and crush then with a rolling pin until they are the about the size of 10p ,(quarters) pieces.
3. Melt the butter and golden syrup in a large bowl placed over a pan of simmering water.Add the chocolate. Everything should be melted and smooth but NOT boiling.
4. Remove from the heat and gently stir in the biscuits until they are well coated with the chocolate mixture.
5. Put into the prepared tin pressing the mixture down with  the back of a spoon and smoothing it out.
6. When cool cover with the flaps of cling film and place in the fridge for at least three hours.
7. Turn out the cake gently, (wrap in a warm tea towel if it sticks) remove the cling film.
8. Trim off the edges to show the inside. Cut into small squares.
9. Keep in an airtight tin in the fridge

note : 25 grams =1oz
       a handful of raisins or chopped pecans can be added if liked.

Table Top Computer

Today Grandma saw a very desirable new thing-- a table top computer. This was being used in some research conducted by the Open University in Cambridge on ways of recording information found externally ( in this case a grave yard) and relaying it via ipads and phone cameras to  the computer inside .
The table top computer made it easy for a group of people to look at the information we had recorded- much easier than all staring up at a screen.