Monday 20 February

As usual we spent half term in Lyme Regis. We came back last Friday and despite the house being back to normal, Mount Laundry having been (partially) conquered and the children having gone back to school this morning, I'm still pining slightly for the lazy relaxing days we had there and am reluctant to be drawn back to our everyday routine. Fortunately I have several photos to relive the memories - and happy memories they are too.

I don't think I'll ever get bored of Lyme Regis.

Monday 6 February

Snow!

This country gets a bit excited when there is snow. This year, for a change, the country didn't grind to a halt. And the excitement has worn off for most now - we would quite like things back to normal thank you very much. (not me - quite enjoying it!)

Friday 3 February

I failed miserably last week on posting a photo of what made me happy. Maybe I set myself a few too many New Year's resolutions. I'm managing to stick to the other ones reasonably well, but this one just slipped my mind until earlier this week. Ah well, one for this week then!

This photo made me happy for two reasons. Last weekend B. replaced my camera - yes, the DSLR he bought me for my birthday back in December. I was slowly getting to grips with it but found out a few weeks ago that it wasn't a 'proper' DSLR. We got a few recommendations for another one, he started looking on eBay and before I knew it he was bidding on a much more professional looking one (a Nikon D90). It arrived last weekend and I've been having fun with it ever since. It does seem a lot easier to use and takes nicer photos. I think I'll be enjoying it for a long time to come.
This photo is one of the first I took and I'm sure it's not up to professional standards, but I'm happy with it. Plus it's a lovely picture of 12yo - this is just as she is - growing up fast and loving modelling, but this is her natural pose. My big girl.

Happy that it is weekend. No big plans - 12yo and 9yo are with me tomorrow so we'll brave the cold to pop to the market after riding lessons, have some lunch in the cafe at M&S, and B. and I will have mussels for our supper. We have snow predicted for Saturday night, I'm hoping that I don't get snowed in in Norfolk so I can still get home on Sunday afternoon, but secretly hoping that school will be closed on Monday...!

O and that hat she's wearing? Not really hers... I knitted it for B. who years ago managed to lose a hat I'd knitted for him out of merino and silk yarn (the first item I'd knitted him too!). I found this pattern on Ravelry and it was called Honey I lost my hat. I couldn't not knit it could I. But it's so comfortable that everybody's been wearing it - so now one's on the needles for 9yo and I hope to get one made for 12yo next week too.

Wednesday 25 January

The two cloths from my monthly dishcloth swap. This month I was paired with Kellie, who I've swapped with before. The green cloth is what I sent to her - I found the pattern in her list of favourite patterns and as it was named Windmill, I thought it'd be appropriate to knit for her! The bottom one is what she sent me, because they had snow in Alaska. Nine-year-old asked if we could please not use this one, as it was too nice! If you're reading this Kellie: thank you very much!

Saturday 21 January

And here they are, in all their glory. One of my most favourite knitting projects.

It seems that since I changed my settings, not everybody is able to post comments (and here I was, thinking you were all ignoring me and I'd turned billy-no-mates). If it doesn't sort itself out within a few days, I'm going to badger Blogger - after all, we all like getting comments don't we. And I was looking forward to being able to respond to them too.

Friday 20 January

My somethings that made me happy today have not really been photo-worthy this week. Yes, I have written a something that made me happy today every day, but they've not been things that I could take a photo of. And no, I'm not posting photos of me in my flannel pyjamas and socks and hot water bottle crawling under three thick layers of bedding (it's been cold here in the UK. And in my 131 year old cottage it's usually colder than it is outside).

I have only taken a few photos this week and I can only post this one. But, it is of something that made me really excited this week - so excited in fact that I finished off the second one tonight, even though they were supposed to be part of a knit-along where we were all supposed to knit at the same speed.
And would you believe that I took this photo while holding my camera with my left hand and pressing the shutter button with that same hand? Blur all in the right places...
Pattern is Cafe Au Lait Mitts (Ravelry link) - I am looking forward to drinking lots of lattes in Lyme Regis with these next month.

Monday 16 January

I made sourdough bread this weekend. I'd enjoyed reading about sourdough on Twitter so I thought I'd give it a go too. I followed the recipe on the River Cottage website and started my starter on Sunday night in the hope of having a bread by the following Saturday evening. I'd read a few reviews of people having varying degrees of success so I wasn't sure at all if it would work. After 36 hours the first bubbles appeared, I then dutifully fed it every 24 hours and to start off with it was lovely and bubbly. Then all of a sudden it began to look more like pancake batter that has been sitting around for a while, with a layer of clear liquid at the top. The website said by the end it should start to smell fruity and yeasty, not harsh or acrid. Mine didn't smell fruity or harsh... a bit yoghurty, if anything. (In fact, 12yo said it smelt like her plaster cast when she'd broken her arm last year. I decided to pretend I hadn't heard that).
On Friday night I made the sponge which uses only 100ml of the starter. I was so convinced it wasn't going to work that I threw the rest of the starter away. (I also threw away the washing-up brush that I used to clean the bowl. Boy is that starter sticky! I'm sure you could have built a retaining garden wall with it.) You had to leave the 'sponge' as it's called, overnight in a cool place, covered with clingfilm. Imagine my surprise when I came downstairs to a bowl full of what was almost frothy batter! I still wasn't sure about the smell - it wasn't nasty, but definitely not yeasty either. I made up the dough, kneaded till my arms ached and I'd worked up a sweat, then left it in a bowl next to the Aga for the day. I think it was probably a good thing we were out all day, or I'd have been checking up on it anxiously every hour! When we came back early in the evening the dough had doubled in size - just as the recipe had stated. So I knocked it back and put it on a baking tray to rise for a second time. That was where I went wrong though - I left it on the warming plate of the Aga and that was really a bit too warm, it started cooking rather than rising. So I gave up on that one and chucked it in the oven. Forty-five minutes later and out came a bread that smelled good and looked like a crab shell (it did look very odd...). We'd just had a substantial evening meal so left the bread for breakfast, but was it worth the wait! The crust was a bit hard but the flavour... just perfect! It was lovely with a thin layer of butter (o alright, I may have had a slice with a thick layer of butter too. Yes this was where my WeightWatchers resolve weakened ever so slightly), but it was even nice just as it was. By the end of Sunday it had disappeared, even the kids liked it. And they're not always easy-to-please customers.
It goes without saying I'm cursing myself now for throwing away the rest of that starter...