ARRRRRRR

Pirate cake.
Simple enough.  We did a pirate ship a couple of years back, and this was actually a darn sight easier.  Basic victoria sponge (6,6,6,3 if you're wondering about the size) 
Bit of pink royal icing (beaten egg white, 350g icing sugar, tiny bit of red colouring) 
Cover cake with pink icing.
Make red icing (not royal - the chickens didn't lay enough).  Sadly, Dr Oetker's red food colouring, when used in any quantity, makes the icing taste absolutely revolting.
Slap on red icing in one corner (I know, it's a circle - it's an arc then, not a corner)
Then it should look like this.

Make up some black icing (thankfully, the black colouring didn't have the same taste outcome as the red!)
Put it on the cake in likely places (you'll see from the above pic that I poked the cake to get an idea of where the icing was going...)
Eventually, your cake will look like this:

All in a day's work.
I ignored the suggestion about including a parrot...
Big Boy was happy with it, which was the main idea really!

Jam hot.

Today's project:
Pick plums

(Don't worry, I picked some myself too!)

Put plums in pan with water:

Put pan on stove.  Turn on stove and cook until mushy:

Add sugar and heat to 105 degrees:

 Leave for 10 minutes to cool.

 Retrieve jars from dishwasher (sterilising...)

 Put jam in jars and seal:

 Simple.
(1kg, 1.4 litres and 1 kg, if you're wondering)

No, not that sort of bed.

This was one of the projects for the year. 
It was always going to have to be done sooner rather than later, but it was sped up somewhat by necessity.  We've had a whole load of space cleared and it will be replanted.  Crucially, some topsoil was being brought in last week, and I wanted a couple of barrow loads, so the bed had to be made quickly.  The construction itself was about and hour and a half.  Filling it with soil took another chunk of time, and topping it with compost isn't quite finished yet (obviously having the lights go out by about 5 doesn't help...)
So, here's the patch of ground.  Strangely, I took this photo from one angle, and all the others looking the other way, but I'm sure you get the picture (so to speak...)

 It's not ideal in terms of sunlight, but there's plenty of space here by the hedge, and there's room for expansion if necessary.  I'm guessing the soil's not great, what with the hedge having been there for yonks, but that's part of the point of a raised bed of course - it doesn't really matter!
 The first task was to put in one side, aiming to make it at least vaguely perpendicular to the hedge (tricky, given the hedge isn't straight)

 Then do the front and other side.  Note the profusion of power tools.  I had a jig saw, a power drill and a cordless drill (used as a screwdriver).  If I had to choose one, I'd have gone for a powered screwdriver - there wasn't too much cutting, and drilling the pilot holes for the timber was precautionary (didn't want the wood to split) rather than vital.

 Uh, then I seem to have taken a picture of the same thing, but without the tools there.  It's a bit like Kim's game I guess...

 This was the hardest bit physically.  Bringing 6 wheelbarrow loads of soil (wet, and therefore very heavy!) to put in the bed.  Having said that, it was also the bit of the job that made the rest happen.  The soil was delivered for another project on the day I made the bed - if I hadn't got some immediately, it would have been absorbed into the other project and I'd have had to order some more.

 Once the top soil was in, it was a question of getting in some compost.  This was a bit of a pain, because there's loads of ivy in our compost.  Having said that, the compost was thankfully lighter than the soil, so that was a relief!  (Spot the wheel barrow change!)

I think it was only four loads of compost, but I'll add to that in due course.  It's good for now though.  I'm hoping to plant the blackberries tomorrow, but it rather depends on time.  If I don't do it soon, the money I saved on getting them cheap will be wasted, because they'll be dead!

 

So, there you have it.  One raised bed, almost completed.  Bring on the vegetables...