I know, I know, I’m a bad person for not updating in so long. But now I’ve started my externship I have less to talk about, so I have to wait for enough news to build up.. and hope I can remember it all!

DmentD and I were given tickets to a Cowboy Mouth concert as a wedding present. They’re a band from New Orleans, and DmentD is a big fan of them, and he’s gotten me liking their stuff too. It was a fun evening, they give a very high energy performance and get the audience going too.

On the immigration front we’ve got the appointment through to go get my fingerprints taken, so the FBI can check them out and make sure I’m not a criminal! It’s in a couple weeks time, a whole lot sooner than we anticipated. We’re keeping everything crossed that everything else runs ahead of when we think it will!

The garden is growing well, we have enough beans for about one meal each! The peas seem to be dying off, a combination of things we think, we got about a half dozen peas off them, I don’t think we’ll bother with them next year. The garlic is going as strong as ever and the peppers have been moved into their final pots (aka buckets!) and are looking good. We’re getting to use some of our herbs now which is nice, some basil and parsley and rosemary. And the peanuts are doing their ‘thing’ which is interesting to see, they grow a flower and then the flower dies off and a shoot goes from where the flower was into the ground. That will then grow and produce the peanuts, currently we have some shoots heading for the ground now!

Some friends of ours got a new puppy that we just had to go and visit *grins* a French bulldog and so adorably cute!

My externship is going well. I’m enjoying the work (though I’m still getting tired as I’m not fully used to the schedule yet) and I seem to be progressing well. I’ve been allowed to cover a wedding cake in buttercream and it was deemed good enough that they didn’t need to go over it, and I’ve covered a grooms cake in gamache. I’ve done a couple of cakes for the cabinet for walk in orders as well. I get to make lots and lots of croissants (the sheeter is a miracle invention that makes this so much nicer than rolling it by hand), kolaches, cookies, muffins and lots of breads. I feel like I’m being treated as an equal which is nice (as opposed to the free labour/idiot extern!) and I’m progressing well, I’m at the point where they give me a recipe, we talk through it to make sure I’m okay with it (if it’s something I’ve not done a lot of) and then I’m left to myself to do it.

A while back I discovered a ‘woodland’ path near the house, it’s about a 2 mile circular path, fairly scenic to walk through, you wouldn’t realise you were two minutes from a busy road! I walked back from the bus that way the other day (in my experimentation to find the best route back to the house) and decided I’ll stick with that, it’s not the shortest, though not by much, but it’s definitely the shadiest which is a winner for me. It’s obviously where all the squirrels hide out, when they’re not trying to commit suicide under the wheels of a car.

Saturday, after lunch, we were told about a new cupcake place in town (which puts us at well over a half dozen cupcake shops in town now!) called Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop, so obviously, in the name of research, DmentD and I had to try them out. Given how unimpressed we were with Hey Cupcake (probably one of the better known places in town) we didn’t have high hopes, however some friends had given them a good review. The store itself was very pleasant, small, but light and airy with everything well displayed. Set specials everyday and a wide selection of ‘standards’ the server behind the counter was also very helpful. I tried the James Brown (chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream), and then from the specials DmentD had the Banana Puddin’ (banana cake, banana pastry cream, whipped cream, vanilla wafer) and I had the French Toast (maple cake, cinnamon cream cheese frosting). They were actually pretty good. The cake was for the most part fairly moist (though I found the chocolate cake a little bland), and while I’m sure the buttercream had at least a little shortening in it (to allow it to be stored at room temperature) it tasted good. The French Toast was really good, I liked that one, a little too much cream cheese for my tastes but tasty. DmentD liked the banana cake too. Definitely one of the better places we’ve tried, I’d recommend a visit.

I treated myself the other day with some baking, making scones and then some bara brith. For those not familiar, bara brith is a Welsh tea bread, texture wise similar to a fruit cake (the nice kind, not the American kind *grins*) or a quick bread. The raisins are soaked overnight in some strong tea with the sugar then the following day you add the rest of the ingredients and bake it in a loaf tin. I failed to take pictures, but eaten sliced with butter it’s gooood *grins*