Titanic Belfast

The Peace Wall - Belfast

Titanic Belfast Exhibition Centre - Belfast Harbour

The two cranes at Harland and Wolf shipyard

What a wonderful weekend. We decided to visit Titanic Belfast after watching a programme on TV and of course it is a hundred years ago that the great ship sank on her maiden voyage to New York.We sailed from Cainryan on the West coast of Scotland straight into Belfast harbour by Stena Line.We managed to get a great deal: our price of £23.00 per adult included the ferry crossing, coach transfer to the exhibition and the entrance fee to Titanic.Our crossing was flat calm with the sun shining - a rare treat on the Irish Sea.On our approach to Belfast Harbour the first thing you see is the two giant cranes from the Harland and Wolf shipyard - they have been there forever and are a landmark to Belfast. The coach took approximately 10 minutes to the exhibition centre and as you approach you see the most amazing building - built to represent the Titanic.We had timed tickets, which means you can enter at the specific time and are then free to wander around, taking your time to see everything - lots to see and do.the tour starts in Belfast with the planning of the Titanic and her sister ship the Olympus and includes what life was like for the workers in 1900. The Titanic took 2 years to build and fit out before her launch in 1912. The exhibition contains photographs of the people who sailed and worked on the ship. Perhaps the two luckiest workers were fireman who missed the departure as they were drunk in the pub and a photographer, who was offered a passage but decided at the last minute to leave the ship and go home. The whole exhibition offers the greatest insight into the life of the Titanic. The last room to visit shows her as she is to-day, lying on the seabed. Photographs and images from a camera that were takern earlier this year. I really felt I was there, experiencing the sights and sounds as she wnet to her watery grave.The coach collected us again at the said time and we were taken on a tour of Belfast city. It muist be some 20 years since I visited the city and so many changes - new buildings and a more peaceful place. We visited the Peace Wall which still stands and thousnads of people from all over the world have written messages of peac over the many piees of art work. Still a bit spooky with the electric gates that close every evening and at the weekends, but peace is uppermost in everyones minds and who knows one day the wall may come down.

Hello and I am back

Oh! boy have got alot of catching up to do. Home for the summer and just never got back to blogging. Missed everyone who dropped by and now I have to make time for me and for you. The Village Show leaflet dropped through my letter box last week. This is our annual village show where everyone can enter their crafts, baking, garden produce and almose anything really. I have decided to enter some of the categories for fun and will attempt to make a bag, a floral decoration in a jug, bake a traybake and some brownies and maybe have a go at a limerick. I have been searching for ideas how to make fabric flowers as I feel they will go well in a jug. So better get back to being creative and will post my ideas once everything is completed. Hope you all have a great weekend and good to be back.

Lemon Marmalade

The first ever national marmalade week is being celebrated here in the UK. It kick-starts in the Lake District on 25th February for two wweeks. Not wanting to miss an opportunity I am making Orange Ginger Marmalade and a new Lemon Marmalade. I will be selling them at school to help raise money for our new Fairtrade Tuckshop.
Lemon Marmalade
Ingredients
900g lemons
3.4litres water
675g sugar per 450g pulp

Method
Wash and dry the fruit. Cut in half and squeeze out the juice. Remove the pips, inside skin and pith. Tie these in a piece of muslin.
Cut the peel finely or coarsley according to preference
Put the peel in a large bowl with the bag of pips and the juice. Add the water and leave to soak overnight
Weight the preserving pan and make a note of the weight.
Put the soaked peel, pith and pips into it with the water and juice
Bring to the boil and simmer until the peel is soft and the contents of the pan have been reduced by half - approx 1 hour
Lift out the bag of pips and pith squeexing it against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon
Reweigh the pan and subtract from this weight the original weight of the empty pan to calculate the weight of the remaining pupl.
Add 675g warm sugar to each 450g of pulp, stir until all the sugar has dissolved
Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until the marmalade is set when tested on a cold saucer.
Remove any scum and leave to cool slightly
Pot and seal whilst still hot

Makes about 6-7 jars.

Something a bit different try to celelbrate marmalade week.

Time to Relax

Where have the last few weeks gone? Back to school and busy , busy busy and then the I'nspectors 'arrived. Here in the UK we have 5 days notice that they are arriving. As teachers we do a pretty good job all the time, but during inspection its nice to just tweak things up a bit. I was all set a couple of weeks ago as I was running a Farmhouse Breakfast Week, making sure everyone had breakfast before starting school. I am also running a Fair-trade Tuckshop. I made some flapjacks using fairtrade ingredients which went a bomb. I will post the recipe later.
Happy week.

Cutting and Folding

Catching up on my blogs I came across
http://sharedthreads.wordpress.com
I was inspired and set ablout cutting and folding my old calendar. However I decided to make individual flowers with buttton centres. I put each flower onto a stick. I then decided to have a go the same idea using fabric. No photographs of this as yet as I m going to make several versions and tie them together to make a bunch - looking quite good so far.
Hope you like the flowers, if so have a look at Sharedthreads as she is an expert.
Happy week
http://sharedthreads.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/the-everyday-one-a-day-how-to-recycle-old-calendars/