From Amnesty International

Share the ad that the Financial Times wouldn't publish and make sure as many people as possible see it.

(click on photo to read)

Making bread............

One of my passions in life is good homemade food, which will be obvious if you read here, and an intrinsic part of my love of good food is good bread. The best bread you can make is by hand, at home, with good ingredients. I make bread regularly, aiming to progress to full time soon, but keeping up with the hungry hoards here is a real challenge! When I buy bread, I buy good bread, but the home made wins hands down every time.
I was much cheered by a conversation in the pub last night, talking to two friends, both male. One took up breadmaking when he retired, and makes all their bread now, by hand. The other has a young family, and makes bread with his 10 year old daughter, again by hand.

Wonderful, there is a spark of hope..............:))

Custard creams

4oz butter
4oz sugar
1 egg yolk
4oz plain flour
4oz custard powder
drop of vanilla extract
milk to mix

Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg yolk and vanilla, then gradually add flour and custard powder; mix to a stiff dough with milk, knead lightly. Roll out and cut into shapes and bake on a tray for 10 - 15 minutes in a hot oven until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack, and when cold, sandwich together with thick vanilla glace icing.

Perfect with a cup of tea in the garden :))

Everyone should see one of these.......

......... at least once in their lifetime - a real meadow. Stunning in its simplicity, almost too beautiful on an early summer's day....makes your heart smile :)

It's only a biscuit cutter...............

This is one of my latest acquisitions, a very nice cutter, dating from, I think, WW2 or so.
Most folk wouldn't give it a second look, it's tatty and "old fashioned", which is probably why it ended up at the tip, where it was rescued and brought home by me for literally a few pennies.
Take another look at it - the history it holds is untold, but it is there. I imagine it's been through a lot, and will now serve my household very well - I even have in mind the first biscuit I will make with it!
This little cutter encapsulates my life very well; first of all, it has soul - older, used things, imbibed with a sense of their own and other's history, just not present in new things churned out by the million by machines operated by people usually with little interest in the process or the product. It is useful and beautiful (William Morris.......); it will do another turn instead of being dumped in a landfill somewhere, discarded and thought as useless; even if I never use it, it's intrinsic beauty and just a niceness to handle and look at is enough to justify it a place in my home.
So- it's not only a biscuit cutter is it?
Off to turn the stove up ready................:)

A wasted day.....................?

I think not..............
I woke up this morning barely able to move, full of the cold, bunged up, raging headache - so I stayed in bed. All day.
OH has been making his usual "You'd feel better if you were up and about doing things" type comments, and the wasted day was from him too.
I can think of nothing less wasteful than a day in bed resting and taking it very easy, letting your body heal itself; one day taken out today will repay hundredfold next week, when I would have felt dreadful for two or three days as whatever it is I have dragged on.
So, a day well spent, I conclude :)


The rather gorgeous tree bed is by Shawn Lovell :http://www.slmetalworks.com/beds_a.html

Sunshine.............

...........doesn't it make all the difference? :))