FLOWER STORIES



The public flower displays in our area are always marvellous but this year has been exceptional. The designers seem to have made a big effort to introduce different and unusual plants as well as the more usual ones like pelagoniums and trailing petunias. I took the photos today so it is really at the end of the season, they will all be changed to the autumn displays at the beginning of October, but I think they still look great. These photos were taken at at a small town just a couple of kilometres away from our village. It's population is only about 5500 and yet it is full of displays.


These leads me to a story about flowers when we first lived in France many years ago. At the supermarket which I use a lot, there appeared in the carpark a large marquee. When it had been erected, there then appeared a big banner saying " The chrysanthamums are coming" (This took place about the 22/23 October. I was completely mystified by this and later that evening, told my husband about it but he couldn't come up with any possible explanation. A couple of days later, I found that the marquee was full of hundreds of chrysanthamum plants, all colours and absolutely covered in flowers. They were not expensive and I think I bought a white plant to have indoors. We found out a week later that the 1st of November is a big holiday in France, called Toussaint (allsaints day in UK) and everybody buys the plants to put on their relatives graves on that day. They do not have the plants indoors, especially the white ones as they are put on children's graves.

HONEYCOMB ICE CREAM

Every year when various grandchildren come to stay, there are always certain things that they want to do or places to visit. It becomes an annual ritual. For my grand daughters who have just been staying here, they always have to visit a local honey farm and stock up on honey and honey sweets. There is a small departmental store in our nearest town where they like to go and stock up on pencils, pens, rubbers etc.etc. for going back to school. I know they can buy all these things at home and probably cheaper this year with the exchange rate as it is but again, it is a ritual! And we have to make honeycomb ice cream! I make it once a year because I know it must have lots of calories! I have had the recipe so long that I do not know where it came from! It's delicious, once a year!

5 tbsp white sugar

2 tbsp golden sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

500ml/1 pint whipping cream

1 tin condensed milk

Start by making the honeycomb. Place the sugar and syrup in a saucepan and cook over a low heat until the sugar melts. Boil rapidly until the caramel is a mid-gold in colour. Remove from heat and sift the bicarb over it. Stir the frothy mixture then pour on to a greased baking sheet. Allow to cool then break into smallish chunks.

Whip the cream until floppy then beat in the condensed milk. Continue beating until the mixture is quite stiff. Fold in the honeycomb and any crumbs. put into a freezer proof container and freeze for about 8 hours or overnight. It does not require any stirring.