More Flowers

Yesterday I heard on the news that it had been snowing in the south of France and Spain. Snow?? In May?? Now, I would not be so surprised if it were here, after all, this is the Arctic Circle ( so now you see why I've kept saying the snow we still have here would probably be gone by June) but snowing in Southern Europe in what is basically summer there? Honestly, this is getting creepy. Then there's the storms in Nashville, earthquakes all over the world and clouds of volcanic ash stopping air travel again. My dear friend was coming from Ireland to visit her family and her flight was among those in the new batch of cancelled ones, luckily she managed to catch another by taking a serious detour but who knows when she will able to get back. I can not help but wonder about the apparent blindness and idiocy of the big players in this game who could do so much good for this planet by making just a few small decisions in favor of a more sustainable way of living. Obviously, every little effort made by every little person out here matters, and once again I find myself wondering about what more I myself could do.

Well, at least I trying my best to recycle. As there are of yet absolutely no flowers out, nor grass, I have been keeping busy making flowers not only for cakes but also to wear. Here are a couple of recent creations.

                                   

And in red and blue:

Yesterday I also had a that nice visitor from the local newspaper. She was lovely and the cake came out fine. Not perfect but ok. Later I found soooo many faults in it, but that's how it goes. I'll post pictures tomorrow. But no matter how many faults I might have found in the cake, it was nothing on the sheer terror I felt at being photographed myself. How I envy all those people who are just naturally photogenic. I am not. I talk far too much, which means most pictures of me have my mouth all twisted mid-sentence. And I just can not smile when asked to. Unless you count grimacing. Oh, I can bake a house full of cakes and sew a dozen of dresses but please, please do not ask me to pose for a photograph. Just can't do it.

Feel free to take a picture of the cookies though....

                

Cookies done using this sugar cookie recipe, again by Joy of Baking blog. For the icing I used a sort of royal icing, a mixture of egg whites, a teeny drop of water and confectioners sugar. As I've probably said before I prefer using this method rather than the Swiss Meringue powder because I just seem to be unable to mix the powder into a smooth enough consistency for it to come out of the smallest decorators tip without major problems.

And just to make myself and hopefully somebody else too feel more positive about life, the universe and everything, here's a little verse to round up the day. For the eternal little optimist in all of us.

I have seen flowers come out of stony places

And kind things done by men with ugly faces

And the Gold Cup won by the worst horse at the races

And so I trust too.

John Masefield