Breadmaking and winter
We’ve had some snow, I’ve had a bad back, so being indoors has kept me hibernating…got a bit carried away this week with bread making. My freezer is full, so I’ll need to hand these over to friends.
I’ve just used white for these babies as we had some last week with white only and it was really light and delicious. Normally I split the flour 1:4 wholemeal over white.
I think I’ll make some more yoghurt this afternoon as I don’t really eat breakfast, but this is light and slips down really well.
Christmas Wreath
If there’s one thing I love in the festive season, it’s the smell of real pine. I wanted to make my own wreaths this year. The shops sell some fantastic ones at £20 – £30 but I figured I could have a go. Years ago when I lived in CT, I went with a friend to workshop. It was truly amazing. The wreath I ended up with was quite impressive. She had all kinds of bits to add on from holly to eucalyptus, sparkly bits and enormous seed heads. So my first thought was to look for a course. Naturally, looking for a course in the penultimate week of November doesn’t generally come up trumps with the limited time constraints I have. So, making my own with my limited supplies was the answer. It feels a little basic, but actually, it suits the rustic simplicity of my dad’s beautiful handmade porch. This is a 12″ wreath and really I’d have liked to have made a 16″, but was struggling to find anywhere locally that sold plain wreaths let alone the large ones. In the end, my local independent garden centre had several as well as some large off cuts of pine which, in hindsight, might have been even more fitting for either side of the porch. However….
It wasn’t a long project, perhaps an hour with a glue gun and some wire for company and I’m pretty pleased with the results. Fortunately my husband isn’t home until the weekend (when it then will be December) so he won’t know that I have put up the first decoration in November (oops!)
Lip and hand winter salves
So this has been fun. I’ve been experimenting with making some winter salves for chapped lips and hands. I really suffer as do my family, from chapped lips or cracked hands in the winter months, so as I had a huge amount of leftover wax this year I decided to have a go at this.
They’ve all turned out quite well and I’m feeling pretty chuffed. I think there maybe a few popped in as little gifts this year for friends and family too.
Thornhill House 