Of sourdough and spangles............

I've been meaning to master the art of sourdough bread for a while, but not done much about it since my first attempt a couple of years ago. However, never daunted, I unearthed my well-thumbed copy of By Bread Alone by Sarah Kate Lynch, and a while ago made a good go of the apple juice starter. Well, it was ready to go today, so here's the result


I hope it tastes as good as it looks! I love teh sharp tangyness of the crust and the chewy texture. Could easily become hooked on bread making; I make basic loaves quite well, but would like to be a bit more adventurous - watch this bread-shaped space!:0)

While the above was proving and baking, I hoiked out my lace making starter kit and got on with spangling the bobbins - very enjoyable, and I'm please with the result, but another 12 to go! Looking forward to getting soem thread on the bobbins and getting going.


Trying to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels, and hopefully removing them from the house all together, we are starting to run the Rayburn on more logs and wood; I always wanted a wood-fired stove, but thought it would be more like the big cast iron ones from Little House on the Prairie! Our Rayburn seems to run quite well on wood though, and it makes the fire very responsive, but we'll need to practice banking it up at night for the winter as it's the only source of ehating in that side of the house.