Friday Skywatch

Today's sky

for Friday Skywatch.

Yorkshire in the rain

We've just returned from a week in the Dales having a catch-up with friends before closing our bolt hole down for the winter, turning off the electricity and draining down the system so that we don't have to worry unduly about any storm damage. Our property borders a beck.

In the summer we open the sitting room windows and listen to the sound of the water as it falls over a small outcrop of stones.

But there was no need to open windows on this trip, the water was roaring down!

There's a small waterfall further upstream,

swollen to more than twice it's usual size.

Everywhere was dripping wet.

Water was thundering under the bridge at Aysgarth. We didn't stop to walk along the river side and look at the falls because it was treacherous underfoot.

It kindly stopped raining for one short morning during our week away, giving me the chance to plant some tulip bulbs in the front garden.

Gardeners always look forward!

Skywatch Friday

November sunrise

for

Skywatch Friday

Pears

We've had a couple of days of fog, it has been floating past the windows and hanging in the trees like smoke, virtually the whole country is blanketed under the stuff. This afternoon the mist rolled away for a short while so I went out with my camera. The farrier has put his goats on the overgrown bank beside the footpath, they are friendly little animals and are doing a good job of clearing the slope.

Perhaps the stag thought that the mist would hide him.

The fallen leaves have lost their crispness now

and are forming a soft mash and meld of colour under my boots.

Just the right sort of weather for fungi.

The damp air seeps into me.

It's good to get back to the warmth of the kitchen.

We picked our crop of pears a couple of weeks ago when they were still hard and put most of them in the cool so that they would ripen slowly. A basket was put in the kitchen to be ready earlier. That was the theory! But it would seem that pears don't do as they're told, they're not as accommodating as apples, pears always ripen at the same time whatever I try and once ripe they soon spoil. I made a tray bake but it didn't use as many fruits as I would have liked, I should have crammed them over the entire surface.

It's a fat-free recipe.

INGREDIENTS

8oz self-raising flour

3oz soft light-brown sugar

2oz semolina

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons clear honey

2 tablespoons malt extract

4 tablespoons milk

4 tablespoons sunflower oil

teaspoon vanilla essence

2 eggs.

Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder and semolina. Separate eggs and whisk whites until stiff.Add egg yolks and other ingredients to the flour mixture and combine until smooth. Fold in the egg whites and pour into a 7x11inch greased baking tray. Add pear slices and cook at 325F for half an hour.

Once the cake has cooled sprinkle with icing sugar. It will melt on the moist pears but stay on the cake.

Enjoy!