Christmas cake

I fell in love with this recipe years ago and now I remember why!

125g shelled whole brazil nuts
125g shelled whole cashew nuts
125g shelled whole walnut halves
1/4 cup chopped dates
2 tbsp chopped mixed peel
60g glace cherries
125g dried pineapple, apricots or peaches
1/4 cup sultanas
1/4 cup seeded raisins
1/3 cup flour (or slightly more)
1/4 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp brandy (or sightly more)
2 beaten eggs

Combine the fruit and nuts
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt
Mix in the sugar and add the fried fruit and nuts
Add the vanilla and brandy to the eggs and then stir into the fruit
Mix well, yes, it's quite stiff

Line an 18cm ring pan or 22cm x 8cm loaf pan
Place the mixture into the pan, smooth and bake

140 C for 2.5 hours
Cover with foil after 1 hour if it's browning too quickly
Stand for 10 minutes before turning onto a cake rack

When cold wrap in foil and store in the fridge

Great served in fingers or slices with coffee.

Enjoy!

The Garden of Burning Sand

Have just finished reading this book-and loved it!

Zoe Fleming is an American attorney working with an NGO devoted to combatting child sexual assault in Lusaka, Zambia. When an adolescent girl is raped in the dark of night and delivered by strangers to the hospital, Zoe’s organization is called in to help

Working alongside Zambian police officer Joseph Kabuta, Zoe learns that the girl’s assailant was not a street kid or a pedophile but the son of a powerful industrialist with deep ties to the Zambian government. As the prosecution against him grinds forward, hampered by systemic corruption and bureaucratic inertia, Zoe and Joseph’s search for the truth takes them from Lusaka’s roughest neighborhoods to the wild waters of Victoria Falls, to the AIDS-ridden streets of Johannesburg and the splendour of Cape Town.

As the rape trial builds to a climax and sends shockwaves through Zambian society, Zoe must radically reshape her assumptions about love, loyalty, family—and, especially, the meaning of justice.

Lily of the Valley

Love this older image of Lily of the Valley which is a sweetly scented (and highly poisonous) woodland flowering plant.

Succulents

Loving these!

Succulents (Echeverias) are arguably the most attractive of all succulents, highly valued for their amazing colours and variation, with the stunning leaf colour of many varieties at its most brilliant in the cooler months. 
Their rosettes range in size from 2cm to 50cm in diameter. They generally flower in the warmer months with colours ranging from white to orange to pink to red.

Yellow poinciana

Yellow poinciana (Peltophorum pterocarpum)  is a species of Peltophorum, native to tropical southeastern Asia and a popularly ornamental tree grown around the world. 

There are two trees known to be in Bermuda, this one is by the Bermuda Aquarium. A stunning splash of yellow next to an orange/red poinciana.

Amazing scented blooms!

Frangipani (Plumeria) is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. 
It contains seven or eight species of mainly deciduous shrubs and small trees.

Here in Bermuda we have white, varying shades of pink and sometimes you see a deep orange pink with yellow centres.

There is nothing that compares to the beautiful perfume of these blooms!

Beneath the Marble Sky

My other favourite book ....

In 1632, the Emperor of Hindustan, Shah Jahan, overwhelmed with grief over the death of his beloved wife, Mumatz Mahal, commissioned the building of a grand mausoleum to symbolize the greatness of their love. The story surrounding the construction of the Taj Mahal occurs, however, against a scrim of fratricidal war, murderous rebellion, unimaginable wealth, and, not least of all, religious fundamentalism ruthlessly opposing tolerance and coexistence between the disparate peoples in the empire. At that time, Hindustan comprised all of modern Pakistan and Kashmir, most of eastern Afghanistan, and two-thirds of the Indian subcontinent (roughly north of Bombay to the Himalayas). "Beneath a Marble Sky," narrated by Princess Jahanara, eldest daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, recounts their story, and her own as well, a parallel tale of forbidden love enduring censure and extreme deprivations. "Beneath a Marble Sky" brims with action and intrigue befitting an epic era when, alongside continuous war, architecture and its attendant arts reached a pinnacle of perfection. 

Enjoy