Cobaea Scandens

Beautiful Flowers

Last year I discovered The Cobaea Scandens plant. These images will show you just what a delightful plant it is - it reminds me of all those lovely 'flower fairy' paintings. I saw it in full flower at Petersham Nurseries but was unable to find a plant anywhere. I sent for some seeds online from Chiltern Seeds, and gave some to two friends. Their seeds grew and flowered beautifully but mine did not. I planted it in the conservatory and it grew about eight feet tall but sadly no flowers at all. Their plants grew outside and totally outshone the original that I saw the year before and were covered in stunning blue flowers.

I told this story to my lovely grand-daughter and she found the plant online and painted me a beautiful painting for my birthday of this delightful plant. It is a stunning likeness and I so love it. Isn't she clever?







Cobaea Scandens by Poppy

This year my lovely friend, (thanks H), bought me some plugs from Sarah Raven. Today I am going to plant them in the garden by the pergola and hope for some beautiful flowers very soon. They are white, (the original was blue), and I am so looking forward to them.

Planted in sunny spot near base of the pergola

A better view

An even better view!

I shall keep you, (boringly), updated as to their progress!

Carrot And Pecan Cake

Little Variation On Carrot And Walnut Cake

I started to make a carrot cake. I was drooling over the Internet photos of carrot and walnut cake this morning until I discovered that I had no walnuts but plenty of pecans. So this is an experiment, which I hope will work. I shall top it with a cream cheese icing.

Ingredients:

6 oz. grated carrots
juice and zest of one orange
8oz olive oil
4 eggs
12 oz. self raising flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ginger
4oz (walnuts) pecan nuts - roughly chopped

Method:

Mix all together in a large bowl (I did not use the Kitchen Aid, merely a hand bowl and wooden spoon so as not to break up the nuts too much).

Put into a lined and greased cake tin, (8" diameter), and bake at 150 degrees for one hour. Test with a cocktail stick and remove from oven when it comes out dry. Cool in tin for a few minutes before placing on a cooling grid.

 

 

 

 

 

Now this is ready to pop into the oven.  I shall look at it again in an hour, although it could take just a little longer  - 1hour - 1 hour fifteen minutes. This is the finished cake...

Iced with cream cheese and icing sugar

It tasted very good although I did miss the walnuts - just a little.