Plum cake and an open fire for rainy days

There has been some manky weather round here these past couple of days and Robbie and I are trying to get as much done as possible before we have to lock down the house and garden and head to Vancouver. The weather has turned autumnal and with it, great swaths of red berries are hanging out of every hedgerow. I can’t resist cutting some branches and bringing them into the house. In the meantime, the grass is beautifully green but the cooking apples and Victoria plums are all ripening at the same time. Yikes! R climbed the apple tree and shook it as much as he could to knock down some of the apples so we can compost them before we leave. Of course, we hardly made a dent in the harvest by filling an entire green waste bin with yesterday’s haul.

We’ve never had a mole in the garden before, and now there seems to be evidence of the little creature in my flower and strawberry beds. Oh well, everyone has to make a living. I don’t really know much about moles, except that my grandfather used to try to dissuade them from visiting his veggie garden. I’m not too bothered though.

And that leaves our plum tree. This tree thinks it’s a grapevine! I picked a bowl full of plums and decided that a nice plum cake would be lovely. There’s something magical about baking sweets on rainy days, isn’t there? It’s the autumn thing to do. My Czech grandmother used to make a type of cake, not too sweet, interchangeable fruits, called Bublanina. Roughly translated as Bubble cake. My most favourite one was with cherries, but any juicy, tart fruit will do really. It’s not too sweet, so perfect with a cup of tea. It’s pretty simple and delicious.

PS. driving the Landi over the meadow to collect the eggs from the chickens might not have been such a brilliant idea. Ever try shifting gears while holding three eggs? Yeah, instant omelette is definitely a possibility. 😀