Bread making day, and Robins again

Bank holiday or not today is a bread making day. We gave up buying bread ages ago when realised how much we threw away. I have always been an occasional bread maker but now we arrange our meals to suit the type of bread I bake,today it was three floury bloomers half wholemeal flour and half white. There is a lot of rubbish talked about bread making and it puts people off making it. Bread makers are ok but what comes out if them is not as good as the traditionally made sort;I use quick dried yeast so it only has to rise once and only has to be kneaded for 10 minutes,it rises quickly in a warm kitchen and three loaves only take 30 minutes to bake. I find 4pounds of flour and four sachets of yeast the best mixture-ignore the pack instructions,if you add 1oz of butter or one tablespoon of oil to each pound of flour the bread will keep very well. The bread made today will make great toast or garlic bread as late as Saturday if there is any left,usually there isn't. I make an amazing loaf using cracked wheat and honey,next time I make it I will give you the recipe.

I picked three pounds of gooseberries this afternoon, a painful business. I think I have acquired more thorns in my fingers,amongst other places than fruit. The robins however were a joy;as I picked I discovered small green caterpillars of which there were a great multitude, the robins dived in and out, pounced on them with energy, and even took them from my hand;I feel so very honoured to be allowed to help them raise their family,to be so trusted by a wild creature is a privilege I treasure.

Last nights party well everyone staggered off in taxis well before they fell over thank the Gods.

That's all for tonight, its a little dull perhaps but even Samuel Pepys didn't have a fire or a plague to write about daily.

Robins and Gooseberries

I watched the Eurovision Song Contest last night. Never again I swore last year but the flesh was weak. Did I imagine it or was it even tackier than usual - to quote my son “What a boring yawnfest”.

I am not surprised that we lost but I astonished that the young lady who performed her song as if in urgent need of the lavatory won so convincingly. I voted for Belarus which shows what I know about such things. Enough of this frippery, I managed to get into the garden today,everyone was out for the afternoon so I had a lovely solitary lunch in the garden,well not quite alone, I had a pair of very attentive robins for company.

They have a nest full of young in an ancient nest box on the orchard wall. Whenever I am in the garden they follow me, diving after grubs and small spiders the moment I begin to disturb the soil. They are so trusting sitting on my boots waiting for crumbs during lunch. Their are four nest boxes on the old wall well covered in ivy, two are empty and one houses a nest of wrens - tiny birds but what a noise they make. Greater spotted woodpeckers visit the bird feeders regularly all the year round and this morning the Nuthatches reappeared,we have not seen the since March,they too must have young by now.

The Badger left the vegetable garden alone last night thank the Gods, although I love having them about they are the very devil when they take over the garden, they arrive apparently with a JCB looking for chaffer grubs.We have had a fox earth at the bottom of the orchard for years and play full cubs have caused some damage in the past, even our cat occasionally sabotages seedbeds while

scouting for a latrine , I've replanted the lettuces so often I may put them on elastic to save myself the bother next time!

The jam making season has arrived as the gooseberries are ready to pick. I note this with a degree of trepidation as thanks to bad weather and minor surgery I am note quite ready for the fray. I shall pick the large ones and freeze them, I add them to strawberry jam as they have lots of pectin and help the jam to set, you have to pick them while they are green as the more ripe they become the less pectin they contain. I am confined to my bedroom this evening as there is a party going on downstairs, my son's friends come here to celebrate their birthdays and I tend to leave them to it and spend the evening watching a film or two.

I think that's enough for now,one thing is certain, if I am going to do a lot of this I shall have to get a softer seat, my poor bum is completely numb!

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cake!

Yikes!!! I've been catapulted into the twenty-first century by the arrival of a small rather cute laptop. It followed close on the heels of a strange box which sits beside the television and whose doings are a total mystery to me. I've never been a gadget person, even my kitchen is more a place of arcane ritual and ancient artefacts than a space age stainless steal wonderland, as seen on all the best cookery shows. As a means of honing my computer skills I am resolved to record my daily doings and inflict them regularly upon an unsuspecting world!You have been warned!

My son is hosting a birthday party here tomorrow so I just made a huge chocolate layer cake. Have you ever noticed how messy cooking with chocolate is, it gets on everything, it gets on you, even things at the other end of the kitchen are daubed with the wretched stuff. Casual passers by carry it into the sitting-room I even found some in the bathroom...I think. Now for the recipe.

6oz butter or margarine (if you must)
6oz self raising flour
6oz caster sugar
3 eggs
1.5 teaspoons of baking powder

As long as the butter is soft you can bung the whole lot in a bowl and beat for three minutes. Divide between two greased and lined 8” cake tins and bake for 30 minutes at 180c. Now it really gets messy.

For the frosting.
8oz dark chocolate
2 tablespoons of milk
1 pound icing sugar
8oz butter.....................don't try this if you are on a diet.
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence.........or you can ponce about with a vanilla pod if you prefer.

Melt the chocolate with the milk in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water.
Cream butter and sugar and vanilla,cool chocolate a little and add to the butter cream,beat well.

When the cake has cooled spread lots on one of the sponges and sandwich together.
Spread more on the rest of the cake;you should have some left so pop it in the fridge and we can use it to sandwich biscuits together on Monday. You can decorate the cake with chocolate shavings chocolate buttons walnuts....go mad have fun.

I hope tomorrow is sunny, it's rained all day and I need to get into the garden to see if our resident badger has dug up the lettuces again - if anyone has a suggestion as to how to stop their vendetta I should be very happy.