Sourdough loaf with Sussex Magister Wheat

I tried a different variety of wheat in my sourdough loaf yesterday and it made a surprising difference to the crumb and lightness of the loaf. I usually buy wheat grain from the local windmill at Heage but the milling had to stop due to wet rot in the main beam thingy so I lost my grain supply. The good news is that after much fundraising the windmill now has it's sails back on and is back in action. In the meantime I bought wheat grain from Imbhams when I ordered spelt grain and maize so have a different variety to bake from. I'm not sure where Heage windmill source their grain from but it is definitely not the Sussex Magister wheat that I used yesterday. This has a much darker reddish colour and the dough was more springy and stretchy, whereas the Heage grain made a more rustic loaf with a greater depth of flavour. That is not to say that my new grain has no flavour, it is just lighter and more subtle (and just as delicious).

If only a photo could convey the heavenly smell and taste of a sourdough loaf

Whilst researching Heage Windmill for this post I saw that there was a classic motor bike event today so we picked an interlude between the showers and went for a look. It was a small but friendly show with much shiny chrome and classic bikes coming and going and roaring up and down the lane.  It was marvellous to see the windmill sails whipping round in the wind and of course it was quite essential to buy a bag of flour :)

Bike week and National picnic week and 30 days wild

The long planned family bike ride actually took place during Bike Week. We even had a picnic in National picnic week and we cycled at Carsington reservoir with all it's abundance of bird life during 30 Days Wild. How unexpectedly co-ordinated that turned out to be as it was planned weeks ago. There was even had a break in the dreadful weather of the last week and it was dry if a little overcast. We had a lovely day. The funniest thing is that I still have bike chain oil on my calves, as was pointed out at my nephews baby's christening today :)

Beautiful building site

Our barn conversion site is not quite a building site yet, but more of a pre-building site. As this is all set to change in the next couple of weeks, here are few photo's of the garden and some horticultural happiness before building commences.

Admittedly the photo of the garden shed does not portray a horticultural vision but is important to us as it is our domestic garden oasis of calm. This is because our current temporary accommodation is pretty grim. Practical but not pretty would be a kind way of describing our rented flat and we are so looking forward to moving out of it and to our newly converted barn, if it ever happens. Here are a few photo's of our barn conversion in retro style, though these are the before pictures. One day I hope to have some after photo's.

And to finish off this post, here are a couple of photo's of the view we will eventually have one day, although it still seems such a long way off. NB more details of our barn conversion adventure can be found on our barn conversion blog

The FINAL poncho push

At last it's the end of the poncho story. We have a poncho Ta da! to end all ta da's. I'm not sure I'll ever let myself be talked into making a poncho again, but they are statement items of style and beauty (even though I say this myself) and the quality of the wool really shines out. I really am quite determined that I will use good quality yarn for as many projects as possible (funds not withstanding) because it just makes the most enormous difference to the finished item. And I have two happy daughters, which is never a bad thing to say. I'm only wondering now what the other two children will request for me to make. Please, oh please, not more poncho's.

I have another tick on the things to complete list; this time it's the hat started only last week. Oh the speed I can drum up when there is a bank holiday, a lovely sunny day, a warm spot shaded from the the chilly wind and a complete disinclination to do anything other than sit and crochet in the sun. Such decadent idleness :)

A break in the torrential rain of Easter Monday tempted us out to our most local National Trust house - Hardwick Hall (more glass than wall). It's a lovely hall built in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. We had a stroll around the gardens which are just coming to life with spring flowers. It has beautiful gardens which are not enormous but are cleverly planted. I love the herb garden with it's wavy box hedges.

Yet more holiday

I've had a few days off during the February half term holiday and been able to spend some time just doing stuff; some baking, some chilling, some walking.......and I've had some new binoculars. Admittedly, these are for my birthday, even though it's not my birthday for ages, but well, I needed them now whilst I was on holiday. Anyway, this is how we spent our holiday at home:-

Eating

I've been trying to eat more greens and have been experimenting with adding spinach to, well, almost everything. A very colourful breakfast ensued with green sourdough pancakes (with spinach) and purple smoothies with blackberries, banana, avacado, yoghurt and coconut water. It was quite a substantial breakfast and so needed a walk to work it off. I should probably say that the pancakes did taste much nicer than they looked.

Walking 

A spell of nice weather (and a huge breakfast) meant that we needed to be out and about so we went to Crich for a short but glorious walk. We parked near the purple dot below and set off along The Tors which is a ridge with a great view over Crich and Amber Valley to one side and views over the hills towards Matlock and Crich memorial on the other side. The main objective of the walk was to investigate some building works at Ambergate reservoir (marked 'Resr' on the map). The underground reservoir was built 100 years ago and was in need of rebuilding and extending, although we didn't know all this until we reached it. We skirted around the reservoir,  and up through Bilberry wood, climbing up the steepest bit of hill to get back onto The Tors and into Crich. It wasn't a long walk, but it certainly gave the lungs some exercise.

Bird Watching

We are not very good at bird watching, in fact binoculars are usually called 'bird scarers' in our house. This does not put us off from watching the birds if we can find any. In our quest to try out the new binoculars, we made a visit to a nearby reservoir at Ogston. Disappointingly, there doesn't seem to be much access to the reservoir unless you are a member of the bird club, so we zoomed up to Carsington reservoir which is a much bigger (blooming huge) reservoir near Wirksworth with a visitor centre and loads of public bird hides.

Ogston Reservoir

Carsington Reservoir

Carsington Reservoir

Baking

A final baking extravaganza for Sunday family tea included a mixed seed sourdough loaf and a marzipan and mincemeat tea loaf. Plus of course, I've been waffling for Britain as described on a previous post.

Sun and mud

Sunday morning and the sun is shining. Time to drop everything else and go for a quick walk - Christmas can wait.  We decided to go to the barns to do  a little circular route along the footpaths and down to the railway centre and then back up to the barns. It's a walk we've done a couple of times before but it was extremely muddy today and we were slipping and sliding all over the place. I was really glad it was just a short walk because it was really hard work underfoot and we were in serious danger of going arse over elbow (or at least I was) and  when we finally got home, the rain arrived and it was miserable again. It was a well timed and very welcome brief interlude from the mild and wet weather we have had for the last few weeks.

Bonfire night update......

.........well, it all went with a bit of bang, whizz and wow. The food went down a treat. The bonfire was not too wet to burn and the fireworks were fantastic. The weather......well, it could have been better but it didn't swamp it down, and we all fit quite nicely in the 'hall' (or where the hall will be one day). We even had time to play with sparklers.  ahhhhh, family!

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.