Garden and a Tart

 Bit of a break from the relentless holiday posts! The rain and wind of the last couple of days seems to have encouraged the birds to fledge. We already had hordes of young starlings in the garden up to 50 on one count😱. I've limited them to 10 fat balls a day for financial reasons😱and because Margie is fed up with them pooping on the washing😀!! They have been joined by 3 Goldfinch young-uns and at least 3 baby House Sparrow, which are being fed by the parents! I've also seen some Blue Tits being chased by babies as well, but their visits have been fairly brief! Some pictures below! The ones taken today are through the window and it's very rainy so they ain't very good! that's my excuse anyway! 

Young Goldfinch

Young Goldfinch wondering whether it can get the Sparrow to feed it!

Some balance issues

Parent feeding young

Wanting more

Think this one has been in the garden a couple of days, amazing how quickly they master the feeders

Young House Sparrow, the camera deciding to focus on the metal pole rather than the bird

Adult Starling

Youngster

The now legendary Mr White-eye

Our Dog Rose is looking good!

Bath Time Carnage

On the Swift front they continue to frustrate, seen and heard them in the box on a few occasions, hopefully if the weather improves next week they will commit to breed!

In other news the Pond is absolutely loaded with Tadpoles, think Piranhas in a feeding frenzy and there are also a lot of shrimpy things, so looking hopeful to get some Froglets!

 With the weather bad, I decided to make to make an Apricot Frangipani Tart, using up a tin of apricots thats been loitering in the cupboard for a while and the leftover Ground Almonds from the marzipan frenzy at Christmas. All was going well til I realised I hadn't got any Apricot Jam, so improvised with half a jar of Passionfruit Curd! I also used a new recipe which had quantities for a 10" tin, unfortunately I only had a 9" or 11" option, so went with the 9" and used the rest of the mixture to make some individual ones !! You gotta think on ya feet around here!! The pastry was pretty simple to make using my home made Gluten Free flour mix, but this recipe had no blind baking so I was a bit concerned about soggy bottoms!! Once in the tin the pastry also had to be put in the freezer for half n hour which required a bit of a panicked last minute sort around to make room! Planning not really a stronge point this morning!

Ready to go in the oven

The three small tarts! They have a higher Apricot to Frangipani ratio so hoping that will offset the lack of jam!

Seem to come out quite well, we had two of the small ones for lunch, no soggy bottom, with a moist center and a slightly chewy top! Delicious!! We will attempt the big one this evening for pudding, might get some cream to go with!!!