P(r)imping the Yew Tree

With an abundance of primroses and other spring flowers around the garden, decided to transplant a few into the rather scrubby patch at the base of the yew tree, and pretty it up a bit.

Most seem to have 'taken' ok - but watch this space next year for what hopefully should be an even more colourful display!

Ice Ice Baby

 It's been a bit cold - good job there are no fish in the water feature . . .

Simple Sourdough

Since starting my own 'Adventures in Sourdough' I've looked at numerous websites, blogs, and cookbooks - and even joined a Facebook group.  They all talk with varying degrees of technicality about 'discard', 'hydration', 'autolyse', 'coil' or 'stretch and fold' techniques, 'bulk ferments' etc., etc. - all of which can start to look really daunting after a while.  In the pursuit of 'perfection' you can also equip yourself with proofing baskets (bannetons), and a specialist dough cutting tool (lame) to make pretty designs on the top of your bread.

I've come to the conclusion that if you aren't that bothered about how your loaves look (whether you get an 'ear' or not - look it up!) - and just so long as they are cooked properly and taste nice, it really doesn't have to be that complicated.  

Following a recipe, I tend to end up with a sticky sloppy un-handleable dough, that won't hold it's shape at all - here is one of my early efforts, spreading happily across the baking tray!  Instead I've developed my own sense of what the dough should feel like and I don't stick too strictly to the water / flour ratios in the recipe.

I can't say even now that I have yet achieved a dough that sits proudly in a loaf shape without flopping - but if I take it straight out of an overnight proof in the fridge, and finagle it into a hot 'dutch oven' that doesn't seem to matter . . .

I'm regularly now getting an attractive and tasty looking loaf with this approach.  Pittas, soft rolls, teacakes, pizza bases, naan, stollen, scones and even cookies are all coming out really well too.

Equipment-wise I don't have anything fancy - except for an old Le Creuset.  I don't use a mixer - in fact I don't get my hands on the dough at all until I have to, using a spoon to mix everything initially, and a heavy rubber spatula after that. 

In terms of prep:

• Typically, I'll get my starter out of the fridge, give it a spoon of flour to get it a bit more 'active' (leaving it maybe a couple of hours), and then start my dough from there.  I don't monitor it to see if it is at the top of its rise, or floats in a glass of water or anything like that.  [I don't 'discard' - typically I'll bake once or twice a week - feeding my starter afterwards with equal quantities of flour / water in line with the amount used - I'll let it rise a bit after feeding, before returning it to the fridge.]
• I think I do 'autolyse' - where you mix the starter, some of the flour and water to a paste, and leave it for an hour before mixing in the rest of the ingredients.  
• Once it is all brought together, I'll use my spatula to fold the sides in (with the addition of small amounts of flour as necessary), until I get a firm, smooth, not too sticky looking dough. I leave it then in a metal bowl, with a disposable shower cap over the top.  
• When I remember, I'll return to it, and use my spatula to fold the sides back in and turn it over.
• Sometimes (if I start early enough) I may be baking rolls, pittas or teacakes later in the afternoon (if the dough has risen well and feels ready) - for a loaf, it will typically spend the night proofing further in the fridge.  This is about recognising when the dough is 'done' rather than particular timings.
• For a loaf, I'll transfer it straight from the fridge onto a sheet of baking paper, and into my pre-heated cast iron pot - use some scissors or a sharp knife to score an admittedly ragged line across the top (stops a major air bubble forming) then into a hot oven (220C) for 25 minutes with the lid on, and 25 minutes (at 190C) with the lid off . . .  eh, voila!

The final - and hardest - lesson is not to cut into it when it is hot - as it is still cooking 😋

So there we go - 'simple sourdough' - I know I've got more to learn, and the results are by no means perfect, but this is working for me!

Big Garden Birdwatch

 This year (with nowhere to go!) there really was no excuse not to  . . .

So 2-3pm today was spent peering out of the windows at the bird feeders, and taking periodic trips out into the garden to scare off the mob of starlings that kept descending and taking over the feeders!

And here's our tally:

• 15 Starlings
• 7 Goldfinches
• 5 Blue Tits
• 3 Chaffinch
• 3 Great Tits
• 2 Coal Tits
• 2 Dunnocks
• 2 Magpies
• 2 Robins
• 2 Sparrows
• 1 Siskin
• 1 Woodpecker (Great Spotted)

This Year's Snow?

I don't think we had any snow at all last year - but we did wake up this morning to a light covering . . .

Can't say it lasted long - but it was at least something different for the few hours it lasted!

And on the basis of the last few years that is probably it for 2021 . . .

Sunshine after the Storm

The latest storm of the season - Storm Christophe - landed this week, and while it wasn't that stormy in some ways, it did rain, a lot!

The paddling pool at the top of the garden was soon a rather large 'lake', which while it was draining off into the field next to us, couldn't quite keep pace with the amount of water still coming down and finding its way in from the top field.

Meanwhile on the other side of the crossroads the road had flooded again, although not as badly as in 2018.  Even so it was rather surprising to see someone riding their bike through the floodwaters!

 

By today the water was subsiding rapidly, and it had (mostly) stopped raining.  

The sun even came out for a little while - illuminating the first daffodil of the year.  Hopefully that means Spring is on its way!

In 2020 I Mostly Read . . .

The 2020 reading list:

September-December 2020 - Finally back to Dresden, with both new books now out. Had suspended the re-read at no.10 towards the end of last year, as I was getting ahead of myself. On to re-read the last five:

Turncoat - battling a skin-walker, and lots of wizard politics.

Changes - family revelations, facing down the Red Court, and Harry finds himself signing up with the Winter Fae.

Ghost Story - errm, trying to avoid spoilers, but yes, here he is mostly dead.

Cold Days - back in the land of the living, but as the Winter Knight, treachery and Outsiders.

Skin Game - a heist on Hades, working for the Denarians!

And with the re-reads done - dipped in to some short stories, in the Side Jobs and Brief Cases compilations before the first of the new releases:

Peace Talks - as it turns out this only leads in to the next book, so lots remains unresolved - the eponymous peace talks don't go well, more family issues and politics, and an epic battle in the offing.

August 2020 - In need of something unchallenging, a return to childhood with Enid Blyton's Secret Island (it was one of my favourites, so has remained on the book shelf!). Very illustrative in itself of how times have changed from the early C20th to the modern day.

July-August 2020 - Some historical reading for a change - Peacocks in Paradise - a history of Hafod and the Johnes family. I didn't quite get to the end of this for one reason or another (it wasn't easy lockdown reading), but I did enjoy what I read, and it certainly casts a light on C18th society and how that played out in rural Wales.

June-July 2020 - Back to Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series - first of all the novella The October Man (with a German protagonist), I liked this one, the story was pacy and there were some good cross-references to the wider 'magic' story. Then a re-read of Lies Sleeping ahead of the new offering False Value. I found this a bit difficult to get into - it jumped around a bit too much maybe. There were some amusing references to other genre offerings (Hitch-hikers and The Librarians) and by about half way through I did settle in to it. Good, but not his best.

June 2020 - Lifespan: Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To - maybe I'm getting conscious of getting older! Didn't finish this but what I read was really interesting - it does sound as though there are drugs that we could be taking to inhibit the degrading effects of aging, and that maybe one day they will be more widely available - just not quite yet ...

April-May 2020 - Book 4 in the Pathway Tree series - The Cascade - all getting quite serious now, with more to come. Want to find out how this ends!

April 2020 - Sandi Toksvig's Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus - I really enjoyed this, a mix of snippets from her life and interesting and odd facts about London - with some really thought-provoking stuff mixed in. Recommended read.

March-April 2020 - Charlaine Harris' Lily Bard series - Shakespeare's Landlord, Shakespeare's Champion, Shakespeare's Christmas, Shakespeare's Trollop - another great central character, and interesting stories / mysteries (picked them up cheap in a charity shop, but haven't got the fifth one yet).

January-March 2020 - F.D. Lee's Pathway Tree series, books 1-3 The Fairy's Tale, The Academy, and The Princess and the Orrery. Interesting and original fantasy, great characters, and a political edge to it all - kept the pages turning . . . looking forward to book 4.