Sheepgate (and other stories)

Spring is now here and we are up to 25 degrees during the day. Although the nights are clear they are not too cold and so we have forgotten about heating and are beginning to look out our summer clothes (not much different to the winter clothes but just have shorter sleeves!)

Last week Ian celebrated his half century, which required me to make a few mad cakes. Here are the results.

The tractor was all they had in the gift shop that was appropriate. It is made in China!

Cup cakes with chocolate and vanilla butter icing decorated with licorice allsorts

Gremlin the naughty cattle dog is slowly calming down at times. His main difficulties (or should I say our main difficulties) are his over exitement at anything remotely different. To that end we are trying to increase his disciplined exercise and I am trying to run with him (trying because I can't keep up) whereas Ian is trying to get him used to running after the mountain bike without attacking it. We have been having some success although he still runs off unpredictably after an interesting smell or a flapping duck, taking the bike or me with him.

Yesterday Ian took him round the field and I waited on the terrace for them to return. I glanced down towards Herman's field and noticed his sheep running around in all directions. After a while I could just about make out another animal with them. Closer inspection showed a red dog, causing havoc! I concluded the worse; that Gremlin had escaped from Ian and was having a good time on his own. I put on some shoes and made to go across the field, when I saw Ian and Gremlin trotting up together.  Further investigation revealed that Herman's dog had got out of his dog house and was rounding up  the sheep in Herman's absence (only not very gently!). A rescue party was launched consisting of me, Ian and a neighbour. When we arrived we heard the dog in the distance. After calling him a few times he sheepishly appeared (punn intended) and we were able to put him away. Now to look at the damage! There were sheep all over the place; several in the stream, some in different fields, many with big bite marks in their flesh. Ian and the neighbour set about trying to drag the wet sheep from the river and tend to the wounded. It took about and hour of pulling, coaxing, lugging, calling and falling in the stream to get them all accounted for. One lamb was dead and one sheep looked close to death. Herman returned at this point and surveyed the damage. We were amazed to see this morning that all the surviving sheep were still alive and grazing in their field.

Drought is anticipated this year. We walked around the lake with Gremlin this weekend. It should be full at this time of the year but it is less than half full.

As we were walking round the lake a couple warned us that further round there was an 'incident' and we might be turned back. They thought someone may have collapsed (maybe died) as there were Gendarme all around. When we got there it was mid-day and the incident had just been cleared in time for the Gendarme to go for lunch.

Today there was a funeral in the village. I don't know who it was but there were well over 100 people there. It is the third funeral in the village that we have seen and they all have been well attended!

You can have your cake and eat it

This was my farewell bespoke cake, made for me by another of my talented colleagues who, as well as having a full time job as a lecturer, two children to look after, studying for her PhD, also runs her own cake business! Thank you Tania!

Birthdays and cats

This weekend it was Ian's birthday and I made him a mad cake. The picture on the top was an edible version of one of my photos! Actually his birthday is not until tomorrow!

We are still without a kitchen at Ian's but work is progressing!

Norma the cat is enjoying a new lease of life since starting on her medication! However, getting the tablet down her throat is getting harder now she is getting fitter!

Dark weekends in November

The weather has continued to be exceptionally wet and windy for the past three weeks with only the occasional short lived respite when the sun has poked through for a matter of minutes. The rain is heavy; bordering on the torrential and the winds here blow it against the side of the house. Now to make it worse it is getting cold! This time of year has got to be the most depressing, with the days getting shorter and shorter up until Christmas. At least once January arrives, although it is often cold, you get a sense of spring coming as the days get slowly longer. Ian cycles 11 miles to work every day and after a week of battling the wind and rain he was tired and I am still recovering from the inevitable winter cold so we had another quiet weekend.


I am now the proud owner of a very nice camcorder! Ian bought it for me for birthday/Christmas and so I spent a while playing with it. Watch this space for my first attempts at movie making! I am also now working on a new computer made from the left- overs of Ian’s computers and a few new parts! We are now planning our IT system for France and as we both may need computer access for any work we do we decided that we need one each! It is a bit of an extravagance but then these things will be more difficult to justify when we don’t have a regular salary!

News from France is that despite our array of drains the cellar has flooded again. We are not sure why but it seems that the pump had become disconnected. A spare pump and generator seem to be essential. There have been a few sunny days by the land and the builders finally returned to finish moving the downpipes. The next stage (hopefully) will be the rendering although that will require a few dry and mild days. Unfortunately Warren has not reappeared to finish the septic tank!

Talking of my birthday, I made myself a birthday cake as I really can’t expect Ian to make me one! This was a dark chocolate cake with a dark chocolate ganache topping. It took me two goes to get the topping right and even then I wasn’t that pleased with it. Note to self for next time; it needs very good quality chocolate and careful handling and tastes much better if paired with cherries of some sort!

All in a weekend's work

The weekend at home was just in time and mostly spent cleaning and oiling the decking in the garden and painting the shed roof. We did however manage a little a break as my brother and his wife came down on Saturday and stayed the night. We went out for dinner to the Cricketers Arms in Berwick. It is a nice pub which does a great selection of the local Harvey's beer and has an OK menu. The visit was a nice respite from work!

On Sunday we did more of the same. I discovered that it was my neighbours daughter's eighteenth birthday today and decided to impose one of my mad cakes on her. It was a rather hurried job making use of anything I could find locally but I enjoyed creating it!

An omission

One thing the check-in girl at P&O didn't ask us was whether we were carrying any incendiary devices or fireworks! I hadn't thought at the time, but I had made a cake for Mike as it was his 50th Birthday on the Saturday and we wanted to surprise him with a lunchtime treat. I had heard about these cake fountains or candles that are rather like an indoor firework and so hunted one out to go on the top. The cake was a sponge with white icing, which I dusted in gold and decorated in my own eccentric style as you can see below. Even Mike was impressed with the flame thrower effect of the cake fountain!

Valentine's cake

This weekend valentines day fell on a Saturday. Ian cooked dinner and I made a valentines day cake. The base was chocolate (soaked in cherries and cassis-next time I would use a stronger alcohol). The top was a white chocolate ganache. It was my first attempt and worked reasonably well except that next time I would use a slightly better chocolate. I had originally planned to decorate the top with white malteser chocolates but unfortunately they all got eaten before I made the cake!

Christmas is coming

Christmas is on its way and much to Ian's annoyance I put up my Christmas tree this weekend. It is a pretty poor specimen of a plastic tree and a few lights but I couldn't cope with the idea of pine needles all over the floor and it was easier to go up into the loft than to go out and buy and tree.

I also iced my Christmas cake. I mentioned before that I am cultivating the art of mad and eccentric cakes and this counts as one of them!

Mad Cakes

I have decided to start a new label called 'mad cakes'. I quite enjoy making cakes, especially for friends and family and special occasions. Unfortunately I have never been that good at getting them right. They are always a bit wonky, with the decoration being a bit odd and mad and, in essence they are rather eccentric. I have just made one for my mother for her birthday. Here is a picture of it.

I know; it is mad but I like it. In my case I don't think I will get better with practice!