Project 365 day 218: Old Man's Beard

Clematis Vitalba - Old Man's Beard or Traveller's Joy. I've not previously paid much attention to the flowers, though I've photographed the fluffy seed heads in previous years, but there is  a lot of it in our hedgerows this year, and the creamy white spikey flowers are rather pretty, though the tangles of stems are very invasive. According to Wikipedia, in the stone age it was used to make rope in Switzerland; in Slovenia it was used to weave baskets for onions and to bind sheaves of wheat, because mice do not gnaw it; and in Italy the sprouts are harvested to make omelettes - another recipe to try!

The day's main event was the cake, which I've included as an extra for any chocaholics. J and I baked it for her PA's birthday, and the three of us enjoyed it this afternoon. It is Nigella's chocolate peanut butter cake, a simple melted cake recipe with peanut butter frosting, and although my cake decorating skills are extremely rudimentary, it tastes very good. Chocolate and peanuts are, to my mind, an excellent combination - Snickers bars (sold in the UK as Marathon during my formative years) are my longstanding favourite chocolate bars. The cake is featured on one of the programmes currently available (to UK tv licence holders) on BBC iPlayer, and the recipe is on Nigella's website.