Bakewell Wool Gathering

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I went to the Bakewell woolly show last year, but it has come around again. This year I managed to get a place on a 'Freeform Crochet' workshop  with Pauline Fitzpatrick. I mostly follow patterns when I'm making anything, usually because I don't have time or ingenuity to make up my own. I have a few notable exceptions such as Wendy Wensleydale, but on the whole I tend to use or adapt someone else's pattern. I've wanted to have a go at freeform crochet for a while but have not made the time to play and research how to go about it so took the plunge when I saw that there was a place left on the workshop. It didn't disappoint. The pieces of work Pauline had brought were quite stunning and she was wearing a marvellous freeform crochet cardy. I'm not sure I will ever manage anything quite so detailed, but was quite pleased with my effort on the day. I took some photo's of Pauline's work at the workshop, but the photo's really didn't do them any  justice so haven't included them.

I have a bag of crochet motifs that I have been building up on a periodic basis. Most of them I've done when I've been away on holiday as it is really easy to just pick up a ball of wool and a hook and do a motif or two and then pack it all away after the holiday. I made a start joining them together to make a funky wrap or poncho, but there are some odd shaped gaps so thought that I might learn some techniques during the workshop to fit them together better. I've certainly got a few more ideas on how to finish it now. The only problem is that I haven't an excuse for not finishing my wrap thingy apart from the old lame excuse of lack of time!

I have been very productive this week on the crochet and knitting front. I wanted to use up the left over super chunky wool from the fox cowl, plus a ball I bought on holiday, and I found a fab free pattern for a headband for using it up. It took a while to work out the pattern, but once I'd sussed it there was no stopping me. I found that I could easily make one an evening, and on Sunday I made two! The last two were in black and I don't have a photo of these as they have already been despatched as birthday presents. Anyway, it was really satisfying using up all the wool. I also made a pair of chunky mittens to match the fox cowl and these would have been made in an evening as well except that I inadvertently made two right mittens and had to re-do one as a left mitten! 

I'll finish with an absolutely stunning sunset. Our temporary accommodation might be bijou but it has a surprisingly lovely view. I say temporary, but we've been there a year now and it's beginning to feel quite permanent, somewhat disturbingly!

Ooh, I nearly forgot. We had a lovely walk at Carsington water last week. It's just stunning driving through the Derwent valley on the way to the reservoir, but it was equally beautiful there too.

I just can't stop........here are a couple of photo's from the barns. It's turning very autumnal everywhere. I really love autumn........ when the sun is shining, and absolutely hate it when it's foggy and dark.

Heage Windmill Walk

We are not far from Heage windmill, the only 6 sailed stone windmill in England. It was restored to working order in 2002 and has been my source of wheat grain and stone ground white flour for the past 18 months. It is in crisis at the moment due to a wet rot problem in the main beam holding the sails and tail, and is trying to raise £50,000 towards the £90,000 estimated bill. Click the link if you want to help the restoration of this historic mill. 

Last Wednesday It was very much like the song "I can see the sunshine after the rain", because after an overnight swamping, the sun came out in the late afternoon and it was just too beautiful to ignore. We decided on a short walk from Heage windmill, going down the valley and then following part of the route of the Cromford Canal. I was particularly intrigued by a section of the map marked 'Starvehimvalley Bridge' and so had to go and visit it before making our way back up to the windmill. It was a short walk but it was so nice to be outside in the sun.

#SourdoughSeptember

Chocolate and banana muffins are another (delicious) way to use up sourdough starter, along with ripe banana's that no-one wants to eat. The sourdough starter needs to be fed regularly otherwise it will get too sour and probably a bit mouldy (or even die), so I try and use some every week and refresh the remains with some flour and water to keep it a happy. You may have noticed that I have a very relaxed *read 'lazy'* attitude to maintaining my sourdough starter!  

family tea

I combined my two starters together (Derbyshire starter and a San Francisco starter from Christmas) because I hadn't labelled them and was getting them mixed up. Interestingly, they definitely had a different smell, although I couldn't tell any difference on baking. Now I have a single starter that could be described as multi cultural. Anyway, back to the story. I wanted to make some different bread for family tea instead of a sourdough, so looked for inspiration at the recipes on the BakeryBits blog. These are generally devised by Vanessa Kimbell and I love that she comes up with new recipes for sourdough bread, and also some interesting cakes and muffins using sourdough starter. She also uses a 'la cloche' baking dome so it fits my style of baking perfectly.

I digress......back to family tea..... I found two recipes that fit the bill for today's family tea; Chocolate and Banana Sourdough Muffins, and Cumin and Sultana rolls.

The muffins are incredibly easy to make. It really is a case of mix the crumble topping ingredients and set aside , mix the dry ingredients together, mix the wet ingredients together and then combine the wet and dry together. Plop the mixture into the muffin cases and then pile topping  on the er.... top. Bung in the oven for about 20-25 minutes and there you have it, delicious chocolatey muffins

Muffins ready to mix

chocolate and banana sourdough muffins

The bread rolls are an unusual combination of cumin and sultana, but it really works as a taste combination. The fragrance of the lightly toasted cumin seeds and the baking bread  permeates the whole house making you instantly hungry. The rolls are shaped and then proved in the baking dome base and then popped in the oven with a pre-heated lid. It's so easy. In fact I made another batch this morning, since the last lot didn't make it past teatime.

cumin and sultana bread rolls

I have to mention the amazing purple smoothie I made last week. It started with a spot of blackberry picking from the back of the car park at the flat. They are the most succulent, huge blackberries ever. I just couldn't resist and it only took about 20 minutes to pick nearly a kilo! I didn't fancy making jam using the pretty useless cooker that's in the flat, so decided to freeze the blackberries for smoothie-ing and juicing. What a purple delight a blackberry, yoghurt and banana smoothie is! And so very delicious with sourdough cheese scones for lunch.

Cows on my running track

I've found it quite hard to get back into running after my holiday. I have to admit I came back a bit battered and achey after climbing mountains and fording streams so gave in to the pain. A session of physio helped enormously and I would recommend my local friendly physio Di at Fizziofit to anyone. Anyway, my resolve just crumbled when I found cows on my running track. They seem friendly enough, but you just can't be sure........especially when you're not in the mood for running anyway. I know I could just run somewhere else, but I like that my track is exactly 1k long so can easily measure how far I've run, and I know that the hill isn't really that steep and long so will soon be going back down again on the next lap. Also, it means that I can listen to a story on my ipod and be distracted from thinking about the actual running and how nice it would be to stop doing it. I was very pleased that I managed a fairly comfortable 4 laps (4k or 2.4 miles) last week when the cows were in the far field and I only stopped then because my new running shoes had started to rub and cause a blister.

Wood pile @30DaysWild day 29

A haven for wildlife! Day 29 of @30DaysWild.

Wall garden - @30DaysWild day 27

This pretty wall garden is part of our barn conversion (before conversion!). From a domestic dwelling point of view it is a bit of a disaster, but certainly fits the 'wild' theme. As does the rampant ivy below.

I saw a mouse....... @30DaysWild Day 26

This little chap was found at our (soon to be) converted barns. Fortunately, he was on the outside, although I've no doubt that there are plenty inside!

Poppy fields and sparrowhawk - @30DaysWild day 23

I've been making the effort to notice the world on my daily commute, so yesterday instead of engaging the mental autopilot and GET HOME mentalilty, I saw this heavenly site and instead of whizzing by, I pulled over and got out with my camera. I spent a while just marvelling in the beauty of a meadow full of poppies.

Not my best photo ever, but later on we went out on a wildness adventure along a local footpath. The most wild thing about it initially was the fact that the nettles were bigger than us, and possibly a danger to life and limb. However, when we could go no further and turned back we could hear an incredible ruckus in the trees. The birds were going mental about something, and then we saw it. I'm pretty sure it was a sparrowhawk, but my camera reaction time was so slow that I only just caught it.