Summer Flowers

Since the weather today was so lovely and sunny, I went for a walk around some beautiful flower gardens near Roath Park in Cardiff. The weather was perfect and the colours of the flowers were incredible and so eye catching I had to take some photos. Here is a collection of photos of the stunning flowers from the flower garden.

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I hope you like these photos I took of the gorgeous flowers, I highly recommend visiting the Roath Park Flower Gardens for a day out or an afternoon stroll, especially on a sunny day so that the vibrant colours of the flowers are on show.

A Trip to Sicily

I went on a school trip to the island of Sicily to embrace the Sicilian Culture. I will say now that the culture over there is very different to the culture here in Britain. Everyone seemed to either be very laid back or in a rush in Sicily. But obviously being in Sicily, the beautiful Italian language would be ringing out from every direction. Here are some photos from my adventure to Sicily.

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Day 1 - Travelling to Sicily and visiting Catania

 

Here is the view from the aeroplane window at sunrise when I was travelling over to Sicily.

When we landed we got onto a coach and travelled into Catania where we saw many streets filled with beautiful, rustic buildings.

We were on the hunt for some traditional Italian food and couldn't resist some pizza. If you ever go to Italy I highly recommend you should treat your tastebuds on some classic pizza because it is obviously the best thing to eat there.

I fell in love with all the Sicilian buildings because of the colours and quirkiness of the architecture.

When walking through the streets of Sicily we came across some interesting graffiti artwork by the artist C215. The contrast between the black and white of the paint worked really well with the urban street walls. 

Our next stop was the Cavea of the Greek-Roman Theatre. It was really interesting to be able to see the ruins of an old Greek-Roman theatre and finding out about how it was built.

We even saw some cats at the theatre!

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Day 2 - Giardini-Naxos and Taormina

On the second day of our trip we were luckily enough to have some sunny and warm weather to go down to the coast and soak up some rays.

The weather so lovely, which made it even better to photos of the beautiful landscapes.

Palm trees in Giardini-Naxos

We then moved off to travel up to the Ancient theatre of Taormina. The views were phenomenal since you could see the whole coast from the theatre.

Mount Edna in the distance

After visiting the theatre we then walked into the centre of Taormina and the views just kept getting better.

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Day 3 - Isola di Oritgia

Sadly on the third day in Sicily it tipped it down with rain so we couldn't explore Isola di Ortigia in much depth.

This was the restaurant that we managed to find in the pouring rain and couldn't resist trying the pasta  that they served. 

However, about midday the sun came out and brighten up the area just as we were passing the Duomo di Siracusa.

I also fell in love with architecture in  Isola di Ortigia. All the colours were so eye catching you couldn't help but take photos. After visiting  Isola di Ortigia we then had a three hour journey across the island to Agrigento, where we were going to be staying for the last two days of the trip.

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Day 4 - Agrigento, Valley of the Temples

For our final full day in Sicily we embarked an adventure to the Valley of the Temples.
The weather was perfect for the final day. It was sunny all day and it made the temples look even more stunning.

This was the first temple that we saw, the Temple of Juno.

Temple of Concord

Temple of Heracles

 After finishing at the valley of the temples we then travelled to Castelvetrano and explored the temples there. This temple is called the Temple of Hera.

A ruin of one of the temples.

For the last temple we had to walk in the sunshine from the Temple of Hera to this temple near the sea.

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Day 5 - Travelling home

For the final day we had to travel back across the island to the airport.

 Once again I took a photo from the window of the aeroplane on the flight back. This time it was took at sunset.

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The trip to Sicily was an amazing adventure that gave me a great opportunity to take many photos.

If you ever travel to Sicily I definitely recommend visiting all the temples, they were so mind blowing and the weather just made it even better.

Beach Photos

Here is another collection of photos from my holiday that I took when I went to Cley beach in Norfolk.

The beach isn't a traditional sandy beach, instead of being surrounded by sand, all you see are stones. I quite like this beach because even though many people visit it, it is still big enough to make the coast line look empty. Cley beach is one of the many sea sides that surround the coast of Norfolk and on a sunny day the water looks really blue, just like it would be if you were abroad.

I loved taking photos of the waves that day. Each photo expresses the movement of the wave and all the colours that they bring into the shore.

You can really see how blue the sea was here. The sunlight reflecting on it made the sea sparkle and look even more beautiful.

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I really enjoyed taking photos that day of the sea and the waves, and the fact that there was sunshine made it even better. Walking along the shore with the sea near by is a great thing to do during the summer holidays, you can also see so many different views, I would definitely recommend doing it.

The Countryside at Sunset

Last week I went for a walk around the village I was staying at in Norfolk. I managed to get out just in time to catch the beautiful sunset in the countryside. Here are a some photos that I took that show how stunning the sky was.

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This photo shows how visible and bright the moon was that night. The sky here is a mysterious purple colour and the clouds a gorgeous pink. The cloud even looks like a mountain the way it was shaped.

The sky was even darker when this photo was taken and the sun was just about set. The sky's colour had changed from purple to a midnight blue only in a short space of time. So many colours are shown in this picture, a mixture of blues, greens, oranges and yellows that show a definite change between day and night.

Chocolate Fridge Cake

This chocolate fridge cake recipe is one of my favourite cakes to bake and eat! It's so easy to bake, you don't even need an oven and it's perfect to make for birthdays.

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To make this Yummy Chocolate Fridge Cake you will need:

12oz milk chocolate 

(6oz for the cake and 6oz for the topping)

I like to use normal milk chocolate for the cake and Cadbury's Dairy Milk for the topping.

4oz butter

1 large can of Nestle's milk

10oz Rich Tea biscuits

(or any other plain biscuits)

2oz raisins

8-10 glace cherries

Cut into 1/4

*1 tbsp cooking brandy*

(optional)

Topping to decorate

Method

• Melt together half the chocolate, the butter and the Nestle's milk. Keep stirring until the mixture is all melted together.

• Whilst the mixture is melting, put the Rich Tea biscuits in a plastic bag (I like to use a sandwich bag) and crush the biscuits with the end of the rolling pin. Make sure you don't over crush the biscuits into powder because the cake tastes better with that extra crunch.

• Once the mixture has all melted, add in the crushed Rich Tea biscuits, the raisins, the cherries and the brandy.

• Mix well until the mixture is thoroughly combined.

• Pack the mixture into a cake tin lined with baking paper.

• Chill the cake in the fridge for about 3 hours.

• Once the cake has chilled for a while, take it out of the fridge and turn the cake out of the tin. To top the cake, melt the remaining chocolate and spread it over the top of the cake. I like to spread it around the edges as well.

• Whilst chocolate is setting add your topping. I've experimented with M&M's, Smarties and Malteasers before and they've all worked.

• Put the cake back into the fridge to set the chocolate.

• Once the chocolate has set take it out and enjoy!

I hope you will enjoy baking and eating this cake just as much as I do, trust me it is very yummy!

Have fun!