Sharing Bread Making Skills

If anyone had come to the door today they would have been roped into a group bread making session. Well three is more of a group that two!

MC is already accomplished in the arts of the kitchen, most certainly in the area of chocolate muffins, very yummy, delicious quiche eaten today, bramble crumbles, etc. with which she has helped bring sustenance and pleasure to us two new Kenilworth residents. So it was a pleasure to share some of the skills and tips which I have developed and acquired over the last two years, since becoming a domestic hand bread maker.

By the way my son Matthew works for Panasonic, the makers of the best electric automatic bread makers, and has already offered to get me one. I just like the sensual manipulation of the dough, and the ability to make a wide variety of bread from just one batch of dough, so I turned down the offer for now!

Today's output was made from 1kg white flour made into my olive oil bread, making a plain loaf, tomato and anchovy focaccia, and roasted pepper and onion with cheese wheels. MC passed with flying colours and is here with her results for you to see. Well done MC!

Season for making the most of good weather

Bright days at this time of the year concentrate the gardeners' minds around getting in precious plants and sorting out the garden. Mr S(tash) and I worked hard and cleared several piles of rubbish, with trips to the local dump, with soil, rubble, plant, and metals being sorted into seperate bins.

Bright days also mean that I feel the urge to go out on the bike to explore the area. There are other excuses I dream up and quite properly carry out: picking the last the year's brambles, getting fit, hardening up one's saddle, finding happy hens and owners who sell eggs, for how else can I appease Mr S who is at work. Here at the Hatton Locks on the Grand Union Canal I rested, got out my map, and began to wonder if I had gone too far. It was worth it!

For a treat on Sunday after our chores in the garden, I showed Mr S round Warwick. I had already there once been on the bus to meet up with a new friend, who gave me a splendid tour.

There are two good yarn shops in Warwick, so there will be more trips there I am sure!

Mr S and I also popped into Hill Close Gardens which are being brought back to life, after serving orginally as pleasure gardens for the shop keepers of Warwick.

The sheds in Hill Close Gardens have been refurbished to my mind to the state of Luxury Race Course Gazebos. They are truely lovely and the materials used of inspirational aesthetic quality. They are a far site from the shed of my friend and digger extraordinaire Ron. But Ron loves his shed and would far rather sit in the door overlooking his well dug plot shading his eyes from the low autumn sun, whilst puffing on his cigarette...will Ron ever tidy it up, well some day perhaps!

Knitting Friends

Do you knit? .......I do..

Have you even taken part in extreme sports?.....I have, well my walk/climb/scramble across the scree of the Pyrenees with my sister is probably the most extreme sporting experience to date.

Do you have friends who knit?.......I do

Here is a picture of my knitting friend, knitting whilst doing an extreme sporting activity

Have you ever received a knitted present?

Here is the one my Extreme Knitting friend sent me as a house warming present. Her knitting is extremely good too!

Good knitters and good friends will think and plan for gifts which contain so much: memories such as cosy conversations over tea, tea which was brought from across the world and large cups in which leaves and flowers of infusions swirl around.

Even my dearly beloved is enjoying the benefits of the teacosy, now the weather is chilling. Tea in a tea pot kept warm, stays bright and fresh tasting...more time for talk etc. between cups!

Getting to know the area by Bus

Exploring can be fun, especially if you can go with flow. Even the bus driver seemed to be on the route to Warwick for the first time! There was an ex Guide to Warwick Castle and a tourist from Australia, others and myself. The driver even managed to put in an extra loop to show us the Castle before finding his way to the Bus Stop in Market Square. The regulars announced that a few people would have been left high and dry as some roads were missed out altogether!

Privacy or what, learning curves

Just realised that all and sundry would be able to read my blog just by searching on Google with my blog name. I'm just not ready to expose myself and the ones I love to the whole world. This is a learning curve, and the next thing I need to learn is how to tell the select band of friends and family how to find my blog. I'll need to think of ways of keeping it interesting so that they will look in from time to time. So if any of you do look in, let me know if anything is interesting and if you would like more on the various subjects which interest you.

Its really knitting which got me into all of this: wanting to look for fabulous yarns, then taking digital pictures of my efforts and sending them to other knitting friends.

Then of course bread making and gardening.....so for friends from the various areas, maybe you will get to know more about my other sides!

Back to new home

Well it is really truly great to be back home. Its going to take time to feel anything like normal after the last couple of months, which have been very sad and trying at times. To turn to the brighter side of things, this is now home. Dunsford Close has been sold and the new owners have moved in.

The best thing coming out of my trip to Mauritius to sort out some things at my late mother's home, is the knowledge that I have a very loving youngest sister. Our new shared motto is Caring is Sharing, and Sharing is Caring....started with sharing a local mini sweet pineapple....and kept us going by sharing memories, hopes for the future etc.

The weather was so cool that Jenny from Spain appreciated my hand knitted socks, and hand knitted cashmere and silk scarf, so I now have some gift ideas for my new knitting projects.

First Entry

Well today we had our first visitors at Dudley Road: VIPs Matthew my son and his lovely wife Veronica.

For those of you who have yet to meet Matthew and Veronica, here is a picture of them at their wedding. They are about to cut their cake, looked on by Veronica's Mum Antonia and her father Brian is just out of the picture. All their other friends, David and I were looking on repleat from a superb Indian banquet.

With Matthew being an IT expert, what an opportnity for him to help me set up my very own blog.

Also today I received a lovely present from Judith a good friend...more of later.