Sour-dough Sally, Springtime and the sleeping Squeak

I’ve just surfaced from a very hectic weekend, which explains the lack of updates.

Meet Sally. She’s a sourdough starter mix:

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I wouldn’t normally do anything as daft as name a bubbling mixture of wholemeal flour and water, but surrounded by colleagues who give their cars names and personalities I figured if I was to join in, I’d go with something that  was a living organism.

And live it does. I tried my first sourdough yesterday. I followed the instructions on the back of the flour bag thinking then that they seemed a little vague. But I’d read about it on the internet and knew it would take about 18 hours to prove. Just as I was going to bed (and leave my dough with  some of Sally in it) I realised it was expanding. Quickly. Out of the container and across the piano stool. Hence the first loaf wasn’t baked after I got up, the oven was on at 1am! Mixed results, but it sort of worked and I have a lot more of Sally left so there will be more to come!

It’s only a few days to the Snowdonia Half-Marathon – the fifth race of the 13 Challenge – and I’m both looking forward to it and dreading the fact there’s a steep incline in it. I’ve tried training on the treadmill but I have a sneaking feeling that probably will make little difference. I have my number and will end up with several t-shirts and at least one medal (assuming I get round!) and my ‘free’ hoodie for entering all 4 RunWales events may be ready for collection too. So it scores highly on the ‘free’ merchandise 😀 Of course it’s not ‘free’ as I’ve paid the entry fee which covers it. But that’s not the point!

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I’ve been off today but been working on a report for work which I’ve made very slow progress with. It hasn’t been helped by Squeak deciding to be a lap cat for part of the afternoon, but it’s nice when he decides to be the model pet, rather than just sinking his teeth into my hand, which he does whilst purring…..

Anyway, the first draft of the report was emailed out this evening so I’ll take another look at it tomorrow and go from there. Sometimes it’s a matter of getting something down first, and not worrying that it’s not quite there straight away.

And despite my reservations (and the tennis elbow) phase 2 of house build is now being contemplated. There is good reason – I have family coming to stay in the summer and I’ll need the room which currently has plaster falling off, a non-cooperative window and a lot of clothing piled in the middle. Sometimes it’s all about having the spur to keep going.

Spring may finally be on it’s way!

The greenhouse is now in operation. I’ve got a number of tomato seedlings poking through. Hopefully this year I might get some fruit from them. Not that I can eat it raw, but it’ll make some good sauces. More than likely, tomato flavoured.

And the fruit canes are all coming to life too. The strawberry plants are sprouting fresh leaves as well which is great to see. Again I’m intolerant to the raw fruit but turned into cakes, pies, sauces etc they should be lovely, if not as healthy as they started off!

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