It has to be trifle

Posted on June 23, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Blancmange, Cherries, Childhood, Cream, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1976, Jelly, Memories, Port, sherry, Trifle2 Comments

Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

Christmas and Easter, we always had trifle.

It was a concoction of jelly (strawberry or raspberry) in the base with trifle sponges, hard fingers of dry sugary sponge that swelled up and absorbed the jelly. This made it firm when it set for the next layer. This was always blancmange, not custard. A raspberry, strawberry or chocolate layer made with blancmange powder, sugar and boiled in with a pint of milk. Then the top was double cream whipped to stiff peaks.

Mom used to decorate the top with silver coloured balls and hundreds and thousands (coloured sprinkles), or maybe some tinned peach slices or glacé cherries? When I was young we didn’t have strawberries or raspberries or blackberries in the winter or spring. Fruit was more seasonal than it is now. It was usually grown here, so it just wasn’t available.

Memories like this are great. Whenever I think of comfort food it has to be trifle. Mom’s secret ingredient as we got a bit older was sherry added to the jelly. Nowadays I prefer a small amount of port. I don’t use sponge fingers as they are full of sugar. I use sugar free jelly and sweetner in the blancmange (which is getting hard to source). It’s still full fat cream though. I usually put blueberries in the jelly, unheard of in my childhood days.

Maybe I could try pomegranate seeds in one? I like blackberries, maybe blackcurrants? And I’ve even considered making my own jelly with sheets of gelatine. However I make it, it still brings back good childhood memories.

Home grown

Posted on August 17, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged apples, Blueberries, Cherries, elderberries, Food, Fruit, Gardening, Gooseberries, Life, Pears, Plants, Raspberries, redcurrants, Tomatoes, town garden, walnuts, WindfallsLeave a comment

Basically windfalls, five rough pears, two apples, three green walnuts and a single green tomato. The wind must have been blowing.

For the first time we have a good crop of apples on the main tree, the pear tree is bent over with pears that are growing slowly larger. The walnuts are being stolen by squirrels who bury them and the tomatoes are growing in a hanging basket and in a grow bag surrounded by other plants. They are all having to take their chances while there is less rain, but they are well established plants and I think the fruit trees have deep roots. We plan to do some pruning of the garden. The blueberries are gradually ripening, the gooseberries have all been eaten as have the raspberries. I saw no strawberries this year, but I think they have been shaded out by other plants. We even have redcurrants although I misidentified them as woody nightshade (not a good idea). Earlier in the year we had a small crop of cherries and we might get a few elderberries. So all in all not a bad year of fruit and veg.

Hot

Posted on July 18, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Colours, Gin and tonic, Glass, Hot, Photo, Poem, Poetry, sliced limeLeave a comment

A gin and tonc

With sliced lime

And added cherries

Cheered me up

It was good to sip!

Cold and icy

Nice and spicy

A dash of gin

And loads of tonic

To drown myself in!

Too hot

Posted on June 22, 2022June 22, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bird, Blackbird, Cherries, Cream, Food, high tea, Hot, Humid, Poem, Poetry, Tea, TiredLeave a comment

Hot and humid

I have to sit in the shade

UV’s too high

Pollen count too

Had cherries and cream

For high tea today

Now I need a cuppa tea

To make me feel cool.

Blackbird is singing

In the garden today

Water to drink

In an old shallow tray.

Overgrown

Posted on August 30, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged cabbage, Cherries, Fun, Garden, Gardening, Green, Growing, Holly, Pears, Plants, Too much, Trees, YardLeave a comment

Too many plants in our garden. A lot of shrubs. There are probably bears in there (not), maybe hedgehogs and the squirrels are back and have started eating the walnuts from our tree which must be sixty foot high now.

A massive two trunked laurel Bush /tree robs a lot of the light, and holy bushes and a small eucalyptus are dotted about. The cherry trees are getting big and we have had to prop up the pear tree which is now laden with fruit. The wisteria is tangled up with the ivy on our kitchen and bathroom extention and a fig tree is growing there too. A few small olives appeared on the olive tree this year but didn’t grow big enough to crop.

Too much shade in the main garden so we are growing flowers in the back yard and on the pavement. We even (weirdly) have a couple of cabbages growing at the front!

No cherries yet!

Posted on July 6, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Damp, Food, Gardening, not ripe, Plants, Rain, Red, Tasty, Umbrella, Weather, WetLeave a comment

Sadly today we just have a few green cherries on our tree. They are not ripening because of the cool wet weather. Apparently we are on the north side of the jet stream and so low pressure systems are being drawn down from scandanavia towards the UK.

So we sit and wait. If I manage to pick any of this years crop I will post pictures of it. At the moment I’m using our umbrella for its correct use. Not for catching cherries.

Yummy #bandofsketchers

Posted on April 11, 2021April 11, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Cake, Cherries, Colours, Drawing, Food, Fun, glacè, Poem, Poetry, SketchingLeave a comment

Oh, #band of sketchers

it meant I had to eat

Cherry cake!

The prompt was yummy.

This was very

Tasty and sweet

Glace Cherries

In a madiera

Cake base!

Cherries

Posted on October 25, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Challenge, Cherries, Digital drawing, Fun, Life, Moderating, Sketch, Sketchfu2 Comments

Digital ddrawing of cherries I did at the sketchfu website years ago. As you probably know I used to draw there a lot before it closed down. This was one of the challenges we did. Different artists would draw from a photo someone would have posted for us to work from. It helped get me used to drawing digitally. I wish it was still going although as a moderator there it was sometimes hard to cope with some of the things people wrote and drew!

June sketch

Posted on September 7, 2020 Posted in Cat, SketchingTagged Birds, Cherries, Drawing, June, Life, Sketch, Trees, View, WindowLeave a comment

June, before all the leaves had grown on the trees. View out the kitchen window over the main garden. Usually there is a cat in the way but not on this day. The bird feeder on the window didn’t get used. I guess being stared at by an interested looking cat isn’t a good thing when all you want to do is peacefully eat some sunflower seed kernels. This view showed the ripening cherries on the tree, gone and eaten a month later. X

Spring again

Posted on July 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged apples, Blackberries, Blossom, Bushes, Cherries, Exercise, Fruit, Garden, Gardening, Gooseberries, Pears, Plants, Spring, TreesLeave a comment

IMG_20200412_200739

Blossom on the trees turned into leaves and a wonderful crop of cherries.

We also have a lot of pears growing and a few apples. The elderberry Bush is starting to fill with fruit and the blackberries are ripening on their bushes. The only thing I miss is gooseberries. My hubby has eaten them all fresh off the plant!

Yes spring was good this year. Good to think of something other than a virus!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Cherries