Ardingly Reservoir

Sunday, Margie and I paid a visit to Ardingly Reservoir, we haven't been since before Lock Down. Last time we went it was half empty, this visit it was full to bursting!  Not a bad walk around, we saw several young birds with Siskins being fed and a lovely family of Marsh Tits, must have been at least 6 youngsters which is good to see from a bird that is in serious decline. Lot's of Great Crested Grebes, with a few nests spotted in the undergrowth, although only one lot had Humbugs and they were riding on their parents back at long distance. Plenty of Raptors about, didn't see the hoped for Hobby, but had good views of Peregrine, Red Kite, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel, a family of Ravens appeared and whilst watching a high up Red Kite, Margie spotted an even higher up White Stork, was way up high so couldn't get a picture but was probably one of the Knepp Birds!!

Some views of the Reservoir by Margie, we parked by the arm rather than the Dam.

Male Siskin couldn't get a pic of him feeding the youngsters.

Common Buzzard

Song Thrush with a beak full!

 

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Were several people fishing along the bank, but suspect they were after something bigger than this, possibly a Roach or Rudd was quite a big shoal in the margins

Serene Grebe

Egyptian Geese

Another Buzzard

Some more of Margie's pics below!

Damselfly

Typical Margie pic!😏

Some pics below of the adorable Marsh Tit youngsters, very tricky to get pics of as they flittered about in the waterside Willow!

Young Marsh Tit

Pretty sure this was a Peregrine was very brown on the upper side, so maybe a first summer Female, very stocky

Great Crested Grebe parent with a couple of Humbugs on it's back at least two young maybe more!

I had just remarked we'd seen no Terns when this flew by, Common Tern.

Sparrowhawk

Red Kite at least 3 present, came down low over the water a couple of times

Cormorant

Couple of the Ravens, presumably a family group

Think this was the same Song Thrush we saw on the way in, hopefully different worms!

Finally some pics of a Dog Rose taken on my phone! 

Was a very nice walk around, had cracking views of a Garden Warbler singing it's heart out having ID'd it using the Merlin App, also a cracking views of a  male Bullfinch calling well, that I had  ID'd myself from the call before I saw it!! Sadly I was too slow to get pics of either bird!!

Long awaited Cake post

 There have been some mutterings on social media, which yesterday broke out into outright comments, by some of the more unruly members of the readership concerning the lack  of cake posts in the blog, which admittedly is named "Of Birds and Cakes the Blog of Paul" To be honest I think this shows a lack of sensitivity to my new Gluten Free Status. I of course as a man of high integrity and honour would never give into this kind of pressure, so it is a complete coincidence that the very next day I have made a cake!!😂😆😲 

Demands for Lemon Drizzle have been ignored and I have headed down the classic  Coffee and Walnut route!!!

Tin preparation, my circle cutting abilities are somewhat questionable

Organic Walnut preparation

The creaming of the Sugar and Butter ( rumours that some of this mixture went missing are unfounded)

Addition of the eggs and Gluten Free flour, not forgetting the oh so important Xanthium Gum ! I also add one more egg than the recipe advises, I find this gives a better result!

Walnuts added, the chopped half anyway, good to go!

I was going to post the video of Margie licking the bowl, but this is a family friendly blog!!!

In the Tins ready for oven!

Half n hour at 160 Fan and Voila!!

Due to forgetting how many dollops I'd put in each tin one half turned out slightly bigger than the other, big half on the bottom!!

Think the following pics finally put to rest accusations from some quarters that my cleaning isn't up to standard😲!!! Don't get me started on packing the Dishwasher!! Literally when I die and they put me in the ground, she's going to tell them to take me out and put it back properly!!😱😂 (Edit: I left the washing up water in the bowl apparently!)

Sparkling

Gleaming!!

Ingredients for the Butter Cream, Coffee to be added

Coffee Buttercream, made in secret to save it from an early demise, from you know who!!

Ready for final construction

Construction Complete

Bit light on the cream, but we had less butter than I thought we did😢

Looking pretty good!

First Slice!

The verdict is in!! Comments include, hmmmmmm, delicious and you can't tell its Gluten Free!💗! Though as a connoisseur and eater of many, many cakes, I can tell😁!! But it was still very nice indeed and better than many of the ones I've had in cafes !!!! So a success !!!  I think the secret to GF baking is more liquid than the normal recipe, in this case add an extra egg and Xanthium Gum which really does make the difference!!!