Sweet! A rainy day!

I used to make sweets as a child.

But I haven't for years.

And then I fell into watching Hercules Candy youtube videos.

They are a candy store that makes their own candy.

And I was re-inspired.

The first challenge was to find ingredients.

What is cream of tartar in Slovenian? 

What equivalent of corn syrup can I use?

My mum came to the rescue with the cream of tartar - bringing some over from the uk.

And google provided the answer for the corn syrup - golden syrup.

And Peppermint Pillows were the result.

There was one big mistake.

I was using an American receipe and forgot that temp would be in F.

So the oven was way too hot, I got burnt and the sweets more correctly should have been called Caramel Peppermint Pillows.

Oh, and if you put the peppermint in too early it all evaporates and your eyes water like mad!

But they were popular.

And an immediate request arrived for butter scotch.

Once again google came up trumps with the recipe.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/butterscotch-hard-candy

Yep, it's American and yep, I forgot again about the temperatures, so yep, the first batch was butterscotch caramel.

Interesting, but not quite right.

But the second batch......

You will have to take my word for it, but they are really rather yummy.

What next?

My favourite time of year

The first spring flowers

I love this time of year, when on every walk, you spot new flowers.

Hazel catkins (and a Pippa dog, waiting for me to play)

And primroses

And snow drops

 And crocus

The last two I transplanted from further up the valley to our bank. So I'm pleased they've settled in so well.

I'm looking forward to watching them spread all over our field.

Water water everywhere

The thaw came.

And large volumes of snow became large volumes of water.

Our region is known as the Suha Kranj - the dry place, because we get low rainfall and there are very few streams or ponds.

All the water goes underground.

But not right now.

The underground lakes and rivers are clearly full.

Because our dry bottom valley does not have a dry bottom, but a huge ribbon lake.

I hope you agree it's very lovely.

(This is just one end. It's so extensive I can't get it all in one picture)

This was an evening walk up the other end, where the spring is.

The whole valley spur had become a water meadow.

I loved how all the wild purple crocuses wee coming up through the snow melt. 

Our end of the lake, before all the snow had melted

Will Pippa dog survive?

I'm sure 4 Weeks of deep snow and -18 degrees C is nothing for some people, but for us Brits, it's quite exciting.

It's so cold, even Pippa dog is complaining

That's one frosty dog face

Looking frosty? Someone left the beer out of the cellar

And remember that Christmas picture of two dogs and a Christmas tree?

Poor thing is barely visible.

There's no denying, it's a snowy year.