An Easy Cake

A young friend turns 19 today and called to request "Chocolate cheesecake'. I knew I hadn't made one for years then it occurred to me what he meant. For my #2 son's birthday ( Valentine's Day) I made a cake with a chocolate base which I cut in half once it was cooled,, filled with cherry pie filling, then put the second layer on topping the whole thing with a cream cheese mixture. When I served it the top layer nicely slid off the bottom. Tasted delicious but looked pretty funny.
Here's what I did with today's cake. I prepared the cake mix as per instructions except that instead of a 9 X 13 pan I used an 8 X 12 and an 8 X 8.  I took pictures of the two but believe it or not they are NOT to be found. Anyway, picture the two cakes.

After they were baked and cooled I topped the 8 X 12 with a mixture of cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and the Cool Whip.

On that I spread the cherry pie filling. I purposely didn't buy the no-name pie filling thinking name brand would have more cherries but this can sure didn't!!  Also, the cherries on the left are not darker. Darn camera again. ( Couldn't possibly be the one taking the picture!).

The 8 X 8 cake got sprinkles over chocolate icing. There are those who don't like their chocolate cake messed with.  Ha!
So there are my very simple birthday cakes. Happy Birthday, Jake!.

                                                                  Granny Marigold

This and That

Nothing much to blog about this rainy Monday morning. I hope your week is off to a good start. Mine is, in spite of the rain.  I rescued more fallen Daffs and Hyacinths, even a tulip.  I hope we get some days of sunshine very soon!

          And when I have nothing to blog about I can always go around the house and take pictures!

That is about all I have to post today.  Leave a comment if you do visit. Sometimes I think I'm just "talking" to myself here.

                          Granny Marigold

Tea Cups

I had fantastic luck this morning and found a number of lovely tea cups for my ever-growing collection.  I bought three at a garage sale and on the way back we stopped at a church that advertized a garage sale. Amid a lot of junk I spied tea cups and my pulse quickened I'm sure. Of the ones they had I chose 5.

This pretty blue-flowered one is by Royal Windsor. I like the fancy handle it has.

I actually thought these two were identical but when I got home and took a closer look I saw they are almost but not totally the same. One has pink flowers with tiny yellow ones peeking out from behind while the other set has yellow aand pink flowers with small blue ones in the background. These two are my favourites of the ones I got today.  Although in the photo one looks paler than the other that's just my camera. They're actually the same colour.

The cup and saucer on the left below are Queen Anne and the pattern is "Autumn Glory". Quite appropriate for the colourful Zinnias, don't you think?  The other pale yellow cup is Windsor.

This palest blue tea cup has an unusual shape, pretty trim around the top edge, and a single red rose inside.

The black and white C & S are Queen Anne and inside the words Wedding Anniversary are written. I can always turn the cup in such a way as to hide this if I want.   The last C & S are pretty but quite ordinary and are made by Colclough. It does have a nice scalloped edge.

It is a wild and windy day out. The wind has blown the rain away but we sure had a downpour overnight.  A few more Daffodils fell over so I cut them and brought them in.  Now I have some baking to do and the kitchen floor to wash. While I'm doing that I'll dream of a new cupboard to put my newest acquisitions in. 

                                 Granny Marigold

Teapot Hill

My DIL and a friend were planning on hiking up Teapot Hill and asked my DH and myself if we'd like to come along. The hike was rated easy and the time given was about an hour each way. We thought we'd be fine with that so off we went. Today is the last day of Spring break for the children so it was great for them too. The sun shone and we had a lovely day. The views along the way were stunning whether it was of the lake below or the moss-covered trees and ferns that flourished beside the path.

I don't know if this photo really shows how much moss is covering each tree trunk and branch.

Whether people got the idea of leaving teapots 'hidden' along the way because of the name or if that's how the hill got its name we don't know but we did spot teapots!!  Here my granddaughter  just spied one.

Here are two tiny ones hidden in a rotten stump.  For some unknown reason my computer insists on loading it sideways again!! I'd just leave it out but I really like the colours in this pic.

So many things to observe as we walked...and walked...and walked some more. The hike was definitely NOT easy. Whoever rated it had a totally different idea of easy than we do but we made it.  It was funny because towards the end of the hike when we two seniors didn't know if we could go another step perfect strangers encouraged us to persevere. I doubt there was any part of that path that wasn't steep which was just as hard coming down as going up. Tomorrow we will feel it in our legs, I'm sure but we're glad we went.

Now I'm perfectly happy to spend a quiet, restful evening.

                    Tired out Granny Marigold

RED

I wanted to post today but was at a loss for something to write about so....  I went around looking for red things to photograph. I bought this pretty tin for .30 this week. It's cute in a kitcheny way.

I've had these very old canisters for a long time and use them for rice, choc. chips, etc..

                The Bleeding Heart is more dark pink than red but oh well.

                   The tulips, on the other hand, are truly red!

             No one but I (me?) uses these two lovelies.

                             More red things

I got some library discard books given to me. This one is right on my theme.

Okay, these books are definitely not red but I had to include them. I have such good memories of reading the Frances books to my kids and now I get to read them to the grands. How great is that!

If you stayed till the end of my post maybe leave a comment so I know you dropped by.

             Granny Marigold

Cinderella

Yesterday I did something I rarely do which is go to a movie. The invitation was for me to join my daughter, daughter-in-law and the two littlest grands.  How could I resist? The movie was amazing and we all enjoyed it immensely.

The pictures are a bit fuzzy and this time it's not my camera's fault because I downloaded these off the internet. But you get the idea.

Hope your Sunday is sweet!

                                    Granny Marigold

Mostly Teddy Bears

I'm having some problems with my camera and I'm trying to figure out if it is the camera or the one taking the pictures!!   So I went around taking some pictures in an effort to decide which ( but I didn't come to any conclusion yet).
  Here are two of my teddy bears having an Easter tea party. The bear on the left is wearing a new sweater. It's meant for a Build-a-Bear but those clothes fit perfectly on mid-sized teddies.

                                           A close-up of their tiny tea set.

               Then there's these two having a more elegant tea party in the livingroom.

             This little set is in the sunroom.  The tiny Easter eggs are not edible although the cookies are.        Or I should say were because by now they are a week old!

 These Daffodils were falling over due to heavy rain we have been having so I brought them inside.

I couldn't resist these Daffs that were for sale at the lumber yard. Isn't it crazy that you can buy flowers at the lumber yard and groceries at the Drugstore?

        

                                       The sideboard decorated for Easter

I hope you've enjoyed a peek at my house today. I'm looking forward to more flowers in the garden so I can feature those.  We've had plenty of rain lately so now if we'd get a week of sunshine everything would flourish.  Oh well, at least we're not covered with snow as some still are.
Things are bound to get warm and sunny soon. It happens every year!!

           Granny Marigold