Snow On The Plot
The First Loaf
Turned out really well, tastes great and made some excellent sandwiches! Fruit loaf next 😋
A Muse
One of my Christmas presents was the hare print above. I managed to find a frame for it, and at the weekend managed to get the print into the frame.
I still need to get a length of cord on the back of the frame so that I can hang it, but for the time being it’s been in front of me in our lounge. It’s become a bit of a muse for me, I find myself staring at it quite captivated. I almost don’t want to hang it on the wall, I like it where it is.
The artist is Lisa Cunningham, and she has lots of other great things on her Etsy page.
Bread Maker Update
I wrote about our old bread maker a while ago, and it seems that it had made its last loaves. I tried to make a couple more in it, and they came out rather brick like. It seems the belt or motor was so worn that it couldn’t knead the dough properly after the first rise, meaning that the bread wasn’t rising properly at all, and we were getting rather solid half-sized loaves.
So we’ve bitten the proverbial, and bought a new one. It’s the same make as our last one, but a slightly better model. It has an ingredient dispenser, which means you don’t have to stand around and wait to add extra ingredients, the machine will do it for you. We make quite a few fruit loaves, so this is a bonus.
It’s only just arrived, and hasn’t yet made its first loaf (it’s doing that as I type), so there’ll be another update once we’ve tried it for a bit.
Old School
When I was sorting through some of my Dad’s old paperwork, I found a folder in his filing cabinet with my name on it. Inside were a lot of my old school and college reports. I hadn’t realised that he’d kept them (although possibly given his filing system he may not have realised that they were still there).
I pulled a few out at random and it reminds me pretty much of how I felt about school and college. Latterly I didn’t really enjoy school very much, although college was much more interesting to me (probably because I was specialising in the subjects that were of most interest to me). My teachers seemed to think I was good in class but not very good at exams (which is pretty much how I remembered it).
I’m not sure whether or not I’ll keep them, for now they’re back in the filing cabinet.
Eat Seasonally
It doesn’t come as a surprise to me to read articles like this one, but it shouldn’t really matter that we can’t get produce like this at this time of year. The UK climate doesn’t support growing iceberg lettuces outside at this time of year, but there are plenty of things that do grow well in the UK winter climate. Leeks, kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower to name a few. Add to that things that have been frozen or preserved – beans, onions and a few other things. It doesn’t matter that we can’t get these other crops. Shoppers have got so used to having those things, at a reasonable price, that it’s suddenly news worthy when there are crop failures, and prices go up. They’re not used to looking at the other vegetables that are seasonal, available, and probably grown in the UK.
Quick Links 6th February 2017
Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
Life In General.
It’s mostly been a work focused week, and I’ve been holed-up in my home office working (see below). I’ve had to step out to walk the dogs, and a couple of other chores, but otherwise it’s been a fairly quiet week with not much to report.
Work.
This last week has been pretty full-on. I’ve been working on a number of different proposals, and waiting to hear on some of those that were submitted the previous week (no news at the time of writing on any of those). Writing proposals (bids) is perhaps one of the most time consuming and often frustrating parts of what I do. Depending on the client you can write an awful lot of proposals before hitting the sweetspot of a paid job. I think of this as a strike-rate, i.e. how many of the total number of proposals written actually turns into paid work, say you write ten proposals and two of them turn into paid work the strike rate is 20%. Of course those two might actually bring in enough income that you quite well off for the rest of the year, thank you. What frustrates me though is clients that continually ask for proposals and then don’t take any of them forward. I have one “client” who is particularly good at that at the moment, and I am working on ways to avoid doing a lot of unpaid work to satisfy their whims. Writing proposals is usually unpaid – it’s pitching for work. I normally only do this if invited to, either directly by a client or via a public call for proposals. Rarely will I submit something unsolicited.
I’ve also been giving some thought to one of the new projects that I’ve been working on as well, although not to the extent that I want to share very much here just yet, but hopefully soon.
Currently Reading
When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature by Thomas Merton [GoodReads]
A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life (Journals Vol. 3) by Thomas Merton [GoodReads]
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King [GoodReads]. The next book in the Dark Tower series, a book I’m reading for an online group.
Blog Survey
If you haven’t already had time, please consider completing my 2017 blog survey. I’m keen to hear what you think of the blog, and you can potentially win a £10 Amazon voucher. Looking at the responses so far it seems to take people about 3 minutes to complete. I’ve been having a quick look at responses each day, and I think I can already see some trends, plus there are some nice comments generally, thank you if you have left me one of those, it is appreciated and really means a lot.
If you’ve already filled it out, thanks! If you haven’t had a chance yet, then please do (it will be open until the end of February).
UK lagging behind on its renewable energy targets [Link] The headline holds no surprises really, the current government has done little to support renewables. It has drastically reduced financial support to projects in particular Solar PV, skewed planning against onshore wind, and turned down a significant offshore wind project. It has also taken it’s time over whether or not to support tidal projects e.g. the Swansea tidal lagoon. It seems keen to promote nuclear and unconventional gas i.e. fracking. So much more would have been possible without the uncertain policy stances and changes to incentives that have been the hallmark of the current government.
Bird Flu and the Free Range Egg
Due to the presence and risk of bird flu in the UK at the moment, anyone who keeps chickens has had to keep them indoors. There have been a few reported infections, although I’m not convinced that the government actually has a proper handle on what is going on. It does mean though that the definition of “Free Range” is being tested. This article talks about this more generally, and how broad the definition already is. In short if you genuinely want an ethical egg, there are a limited number of ways you can actually achieve this. Either do it yourself or only buy from someone who you can truly ensure has traceability and is prepared to talk about it (my experience is the latter are few).
The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures
Potato Time
I picked up my seed potatoes from the allotment shop yesterday, and they’re now sitting in egg boxes chitting. Another sign that the new growing season is nearly upon us.
A Job For The Weekend
Sow some tomato seeds.
If you don’t have any, go buy some. Sow them in some good compost in either a seed tray or if you don’t have the room for that in a small flowerpot on a windowsill. You need to keep them somewhere sunny and warm, and a windowsill is perfect. A propagator in a warm room would be good too. Give them a little water to get the compost damp, but don’t water them again until they germinate.
Once they’ve germinated, keep the compost slightly damp, but don’t over water them. When they’ve produced their first true leaves (the seedlings above don’t have their true leaves yet), pot them on into two or three inch pots / modules.
Electronic Scrapbook 