Summer is definitely here. The temperatures in Ye Olde London Town have been soaring into the high 20s and I daresay they've reached the low 30s too. The tube has been crammed full of short skirts and water bottles, and there are more sunglasses for sale than ever before. The flowers are out in bloom and people are being Very Cheery Indeed. 

I love peanut butter. It's a particularly indulgent treat here at Bakercourt. Mostly because when I do indulge in a piece of buttery toast with 'peanutter', it's a rare Saturday morning when the sun is shining outside and I just felt like a bit of a pick-me-up of the culinary variety. Otherwise, it is likely to be encased in a tell-tale orange wrapper with the brand 'Reese's' blazoned across the front. Oh, I do like me some Reese's Cups when I've had a bad week and I feel like a nutty treat.

So, when I spied a recipe for Peanut Butter Brownies in the Australian Women's Weekly biscuits, brownies & biscotti, well, the next step was logical.

















I got baking. This is a slightly unusual brownie recipe because you do it over the stove, rather than in a mixer. But, the end result was delicious.

















I changed the recipe slightly because I didn't have enough chocolate to whip through the mix after the initial 150g that you melt in with the butter. To compensate, I added a very generous helping of chopped hazelnuts to the top. I also baked my brownies in a larger pan which made them thinner, but still delicious.

















And here you go. Peanut butter brownies swirled with extra salted peanut butter and served with a side of crunchy peanut butter ice-cream. Because, really, you can't get better than that.

















Here's a look at the underside of the brownie. I took the peanut butter straight out of the fridge before dolloping it in to the mix so it stayed together really well for little peanut butter bite-sized surprises in each brownie.

And, because I know you can't possibly wait to try this yourself, here's a copy of the recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly website. You can thank me later.


Ingredients:

180g unsalted butter, chopped
150g dark chocolate, chopped
1¾ cups (385g) caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup (110g) plain flour
2 tablespoons self-raising flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder
50g dark chocolate, chopped, extra
1/3 cup (95g) crunchy peanut butter

NOTE: This recipe can be made a week ahead; store in an airtight container.

Method: 

Preheat the oven to moderately slow (160°C). Grease a 20cm x 30cm lamington pan, line the base and two opposite sides with baking paper.

Combine butter and chocolate in medium saucepan, stir over a low heat until smooth; transfer to a large bowl. Stir in sugar, eggs and essence, then sifted flours, cocoa and extra chocolate.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Drop small spoons of peanut butter into the chocolate mixture and swirl through the chocolate with a knife.

Bake in a moderately slow oven for about 50 minutes or until firm; cool in pan.

Cooked brownies suitable to freeze. Butter mixture and chocolate suitable to microwave.

This weekend I took a break from working on Sunday and headed down to Spitalfields City Farm for the Sheep Shearing Fayre.

Why yes, I did say 'city farm'.

Right in the middle of the city is a lovely little green haven, set aside for animals and sustainable plant-growing. It was quite an experience trying to get to the city farm, though. Thanks to London's amazing route-planning service I figured out which bus I had to catch, which stop I had to find, and which direction I had to walk to get there on time for The Sheep Shearing.

But, the bus driver decided that Today Was Not His Day. And so, he didn't go the route planned. I hadn't noticed, not having taken that bus before, but the rest of the passengers were less than impressed and ushered me off with them. Stranded in Bethnal Green, I ummed and aahhed about which was The Right Way until two very lovely Irish gentlemen from the bus offered to escort me part of the way. They were on their way to the rugby, you see, and they knew the way to the bus stop I was looking for.






















We went down many side-streets and along a bridge, but we got there. All the while, my Lovely Irish Escorts insisted that there was no such thing as a city farm in Bethnal Green, but they were wrong. You don't get more 'city farm' than this picture, do you? London calling!




















Spitalfields City Farm is a beautiful place, and you can see that a lot of love has gone into it. With little features like these (above), with pretty picnic tables and chairs, and a whole lot of bunting, it's a rather charming little city escape.

















It has oh-so-chic accents too, which make for lovely photographs. That's a very sensible use of a wheelbarrow, methinks.






















And then, the Sheep Shearing. There is a sheep under all of that, can you imagine it? It was sheared just in time, too - we've had the most blistering hot weather this week with lots of people suffering from sunburn and sunstroke. Good thing the sheep has its woolly coat removed!

















There were other lovely animals too. Here's a lamb that made me feel guilty about eating preferences (of the meat variety).

















... and a particularly greedy goat who thought it best to sit in the trough than to gently and gracefully nibble.

















... and a giant piggywig! This oinker was enormous and made a really nice snuffling sound.






















In a random spot of garden up a set of steps along a random pathway, I stumbled across a brightly-painted table and chair that was ideal for sitting down and having a cup of tea. Luckily, there were plenty of stalls around from the weekly eco-chic market selling tea, cakes and yarn; a very sensible collection indeed.

















It just goes to show: there is a city farm just a short stroll from Bethnal Green Station. And, it's not packed with city pigeons and foxes, Thank You Very Much.

Nothing quite cures a headache like a bit of outdoors, and I've learnt this weekend that London has its fair share of outdoors! I've also learnt this week that:

1) Bus drivers are really grumpy when the weather is particularly bad
2) There are many wonderful wide-open spaces in London waiting to be discovered
3) Working until 11pm every night is Very Bad Indeed
4) A little cake goes a long way to lifting the spirits
5) I've really gone off TV in a big way.

But back to Kew.

Who would have thought that you'd find something as wonderful as this in London Town? Yes, the skies were a bit grey, but just look! I've been reading a lot of gardening theory lately as I work on my essay proposal for university purposes (a work in progress that I've been doing on and off these last few years in England) and it was really lovely to finally make the trek across town to Kew Gardens.

















But first: Let Them Eat Cake. I made the trip with the EEWI ladies as this month we did something rather different for our coffee morning. By the by, that's a chocolate banana cake. Doesn't it look decadent?

















I chose a rather delicious chocolate and pear muffin (which I couldn't finish) and we sipped on coffee and discussed quilting (as you do) at the Orange Tree. The Orange Tree is a sort of canteen-style dining area, but it's much nicer as you have the option to sit outside and admire the surrounds as you fill up on energy for the long walk around.

















And so, once fuelled and ready to go, we gathered our forces and split ways to explore the lovely Kew Gardens. Karin was an exceptional guide as she took us from greenhouse to greenhouse, along paths and through walks. The plant above is claimed to be the oldest living pot plant in the world (it made its way to Kew in 1770) - and it's from home, South Africa.

















Doesn't it have the most wonderful texture?

















I particularly wanted to see the waterlillies that were 'so big a child could sit on them'. No way. No way.

















It just goes to show that you really do have to believe, sometimes. Because the impossible isn't really that impossible. Look at how enormous they are!


The colours and textures all work together beautifully to create a very inspirational palette indeed. I particularly love these colours and the hue variations with the light yellows and lilacs against the dark crocodile black and green.

















And these. Well. These are David LivingStones. That's what I called them; they're actually stone plants (Lithops) - living stones - and they disguise themselves as pebbles to avoid being eaten by predators. I thought they looked like brains. Who would want to eat brains? They sold these in the Kew Shop and I was oh-so-tempted to take a few David LivingStones home with me for my desk.

















All in all, a jolly fine day - and a lovely outing about town with the EEWI ladies who always seem to be in such good spirits. It was the perfect break from a series of Quite Horrible Days, and gave me a boost of energy to get through the last of the project I was working on. Back to normal working days for a while now, hurrah!

And so, we went camping.

It wasn't as nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting freezing cold nights with the rain beating down inside of our tent. I was expecting bugs and creepy crawlies coming at us from every direction. I expected that we would give up after the first night and make the long trip home.

But it wasn't at all like that.

This is the view from our pitch. In fact, it was rather lovely. And yes - those are the white cliffs of Dover you see in the background.






















We had a little whistling kettle for tea.






















We had twirly swirly marshmallows which we roasted over a coal fire.

















And I had managed to pack in my knitting, too. By the by, this is entrelac. It's rather lovely. That yarn is King Cole Riot in the moors colourway, and it is a variegated blend of purples, pinks, blues and greens. Mm. It's going to be a bag. The more I look at it, the more I think it's less suited to bagness than it is to cushion-coverness, but a bag it shall be.

















We stayed at this campsite (here) which is perched quite literally atop a white cliff. This is the beach below, and you can hear the waves crashing all day which is arguably one of the best sounds in the whole world. We went for an early hike on our first morning: we went down the cliff, along the beach, up that folly you see in the distance, down the other side, and across Folkestone Harbour to the end of the town far, far in the distance.






















It took us quite a while to do the entire walk, but we did get stop to admire the view and take a few photographs!

















It's all so different from the white-sand beaches we're used to. This is much prettier, although I wouldn't like to walk barefoot on those stones. There's so much texture on every surface and there's a story behind everything. As you walk along the beach you happen upon chunks of brick wall that come from who-knows-where, with railway sleepers lying about, and even bits of iron. There was a man with a metal detector and a collection of spades walking up and down the beaches looking for treasure, too.

















It's amazing how nature has just taken over all of the man-made objects - like the wave-breakers and erosion prevention thingy-ma-bobs. This has such incredible texture to it! This bit of iron scaffolding was much taller than I was, and as you can see, the tide obviously comes in quite high. We had to climb down off of the walkway to get to the beach and luckily it was still walkable when we came back!

















It's such a rare sight to see this much blue just outside of London.






















And possibly, inside of Folkestone Harbour too. As the tide washes out it leaves behind a legacy of crabs, shellfish and small fish that get caught up in the debris. The seagulls in Folkestone are enormous with all of this food around! They're easily the size of cats or small dogs.





















The town itself was very well-looked after. There is quite a touristy bit just above the harbour called the Creative Quarter which is bustling with coffee shops, small art galleries and shops selling designer décor and homely things.

















We happened upon a little coffee shop called Fresh & Easy. It was quite charming and quirky with fun serving dishes and some really beautiful pastries in the shop window. They served me my toast in a VW Camper bus which I rather liked, the milk came in a cow-shaped jug, and the salt and pepper shakers were mini Vespa scooters. There was an extensive collection of shakers behind the counter, so I'd imagine that they serve different ones for each table.

















We were absolutely spoilt with brilliant weather and - can you believe it - we both got quite a bit of sunburn!

















All in all we rather enjoyed our little camping trip out in the countryside.

















It got a bit cloudy on Sunday, but that's was okay because we had to leave anyway.






















... but not without a stop-off in Dover proper and a trip to the Battle of Britain Memorial!






















This fellow sits and looks up at the skies all day. He's a WW2 Pilot (as you can see from his uniform, of sorts). Perhaps he's thinking about his fallen comrades and the atrocities of days gone by (things that rather make me feel quite ill when I find myself thinking about them), but I like to think that he's rather enjoying a spell of sunshine and he's pretty glad he doesn't have to head back to London for another week of work.

A little while ago my dearest friend Anne sent me a box of treasures, and I think now's a good time to share them with you.