Post-weekend round up
Jul. 23rd, 2012 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustThe back to basics approach produced the best-risen loaf of bread I have yet achieved, so that must count as a success. Contributory factors may have been that I baked earlier in the week than of late, while the starter was still lively; the dough was also quite wet (too wet? I don't know. Time to recalibrate my scales, in which I now have no confidence) It wasn't the most interesting tasting loaf I've made; since my starter isn't real sourdough, that classical simplicity lacks the delicious sourness without offering anything to take its place. It made excellent breakfast toast, but I was too often tempted to spread lemon curd on it.
So today I made a walnut loaf, with the last of the toasted walnut oil I bought in Paso Robles. Again, the dough was quite wet - and increasingly so as the day went on, soft and sticky and disconcertingly smooth, almost creamy. I may have overdone the proportion of chestnut flour; I repeat, I need to calibrate those scales so I can believe what they tell me. It came out of the oven half an hour ago.
Yesterday, on the day the Tour de France became a serious sporting event (for the first time in 99 years, having for the first time been won by an Englishman) we inadvertently went for a walk on a major cycle route. It seemed like a good idea to walk up the Waskerley Way; our reasoning was that after all the recent rain, cross country paths might be unpleasantly boggy, but a railway walk should be well drained, and this one would give us some high open scenery. At some level we must have known that this was part of a branch of the C2C cycle route - but we've walked it before, and not been unduly bothered by cyclists. What we didn't know was the the track has (just) been resurfaced, so that we were walking on a gravelled roadway down whose gradients cyclists could whizz quite fast and in large numbers.
Despite which we enjoyed our walk from Whitehall up to Waskerley and back. The weather was less summery than forecast, and I blame myself for not having been organised enough to walk on Saturday, which was beautiful; yesterday was overcast, and there was a cold wind on the higher parts of the route (we picnicked very briskly at Waskerley). The verges bristled with orchids, though, and the melancholy thistle was in bloom (characteristic of the area, apparently; and melancholy as in 'a cure for', according to Culpepper). It didn't feel like a long walk. and I blamed my sore feet on the hard roadway - but apparently this enabled us to cover 7 miles without noticing. Good to be out, anyway, and here's hoping for more walking weather!
After which I collapsed on the sofa for a bit, and established that the opticians are not entirely wrong: I can read through my varifocal lenses, if I sit right by the window and read a new book with white pages and good-sized black print (Terry Pratchett's Snuff, since you ask). But as for reading yellowing newsprint at the kitchen table, forget it.
So today I made a walnut loaf, with the last of the toasted walnut oil I bought in Paso Robles. Again, the dough was quite wet - and increasingly so as the day went on, soft and sticky and disconcertingly smooth, almost creamy. I may have overdone the proportion of chestnut flour; I repeat, I need to calibrate those scales so I can believe what they tell me. It came out of the oven half an hour ago.
Yesterday, on the day the Tour de France became a serious sporting event (for the first time in 99 years, having for the first time been won by an Englishman) we inadvertently went for a walk on a major cycle route. It seemed like a good idea to walk up the Waskerley Way; our reasoning was that after all the recent rain, cross country paths might be unpleasantly boggy, but a railway walk should be well drained, and this one would give us some high open scenery. At some level we must have known that this was part of a branch of the C2C cycle route - but we've walked it before, and not been unduly bothered by cyclists. What we didn't know was the the track has (just) been resurfaced, so that we were walking on a gravelled roadway down whose gradients cyclists could whizz quite fast and in large numbers.
Despite which we enjoyed our walk from Whitehall up to Waskerley and back. The weather was less summery than forecast, and I blame myself for not having been organised enough to walk on Saturday, which was beautiful; yesterday was overcast, and there was a cold wind on the higher parts of the route (we picnicked very briskly at Waskerley). The verges bristled with orchids, though, and the melancholy thistle was in bloom (characteristic of the area, apparently; and melancholy as in 'a cure for', according to Culpepper). It didn't feel like a long walk. and I blamed my sore feet on the hard roadway - but apparently this enabled us to cover 7 miles without noticing. Good to be out, anyway, and here's hoping for more walking weather!
After which I collapsed on the sofa for a bit, and established that the opticians are not entirely wrong: I can read through my varifocal lenses, if I sit right by the window and read a new book with white pages and good-sized black print (Terry Pratchett's Snuff, since you ask). But as for reading yellowing newsprint at the kitchen table, forget it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 09:22 pm (UTC)Those are splendid thistles.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 02:00 pm (UTC)(But as far as I know, they have been reviewing books for the Guardian.)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 10:41 pm (UTC)I would add that the thistles here are ever-growing and a threat to all other flora. I would characterize them as vengeful.