Jottings - 29th February - good news

 It's been a glorious week weather-wise - sunny days, followed by dramatic sunsets. 

The flowerbeds are filling with purple crocus and the first daffodils have come into flower. 

After the recent cold spell, Spring seems to be dashing along, and I'm spending a lot of time in the garden. For now there's still a lot of tidying to be done but some of the trees needed a hard cutting back before the leaves grew and birds started to nest. 

News has been good too.  The newly announced 'roadmap' gives me hope for a normal sort of summer (I know we all felt this last year but I'm keeping my fingers crossed) The easing of lockdown restrictions means I can look forward to a family get-together for my birthday in early April; I've known snow to fall on the day so we might have to wrap up in coats or hide under umbrellas, but it will be worth it. In addition, I've managed to book my first Covid jab for next week. 

Meanwhile I've been busy cooking, using up homegrown veg in things like borscht, and making bread and pizzas with my sourdough. The one above is a normal cheese/tomato pizza; that below has sugar added to the dough, a swirl of apple and cinnamon jam and a topping of apple slices. I doubt any of it helps my intention to lose weight.

Rather late in the day, I've settled on my New Year's resolution - to continue to try new things. If life really does get back to normal there'll be plenty of opportunities for this; if not, there are still things to be tried at home.

 Generally though I feel hopeful about the coming months. Maybe, just maybe, things are looking up. I'm not entirely confident that we've seen the last of the virus and it's accompanying lockdowns, but the future seems much brighter.

New Year's Resolutions - at last

 I always say I like the New Year to get settled before I commit to making resolutions. Well, this year I might have left things later than usual, but there are still ten months and some days left, so plenty of time :)

Instead of the usual 'de-clutter' and 'do something arty' resolutions with which I start so many years, I'm going to be re-hashing my 60 Things idea from a few years back. Doing something (anything) new in the middle of a pandemic seems tricky but it IS possible. Anyway, restrictions are starting to ease, and trying or learning something new is always good for us - it stretches the brain, expands our horizons, and gives us something to do while we're holed up at home.

In part I've gone about this the wrong way round - doing a few new things and then deciding to turn them into a resolution, but doing something different throughout January and February was good for me, so extending for a year seems like an excellent idea.

First up, I took part in Veganuary, trying to cut meat and cheese from my diet for a month (I gave myself a 'pass' on milk as I didn't want to cancel my doorstep delivery). Then I decided that, months after everyone else, it was time to set up a sourdough culture and bake bread. And lastly I stumbled upon the concept of online escape rooms, played with family members from the lockdown safety of our own living rooms. 

Going forward I have lots of hopes for new places to visit, new festivals to attend, but until the end of March we'll all stick be stuck at home, so I'm looking for ideas to tide me through, and re-visiting something I talked about doing last year.

Back in Autumn I joined in with The Good Life Experience At Home - a festival that should have taken place at Hawarden Castle but ended up online - and with my activity pack for the weekend I received a preview of The Good Life Handbook. It contains fourteen activities for fourteen weekends, ideas ranging from fungi foraging to darning, from making a slingshot to making herbal teas (the full-sized Handbook contains more). I'm not intending to do all of them, nor confine myself to these suggestions, but it seems like a useful starting point and a spring-board for other ideas. 

More on this as the year progresses with a complete list here

My New Best Friend - Dodo the Sourdough

 I've taken up this whole idea of make your own sourdough bread really late. Everyone else discovered it back in the first lockdown, but it was spring and the weather was nice then, and I spent a lot of time gardening. During the second lockdown I mainly focused on Christmas and that (broken) promise that we'd be allowed a five day get together. 

But with another lockdown announced for after Christmas I felt I needed a focus to get me through to spring. January is too early for sowing seeds or doing anything outside in the garden so I was looking a house-based activity that would be more inspiring than dusting or ironing. Trying Veganuary helped me focus on food and cooking, and a sourdough culture seemed the next logical step.

 I asked for advice from Twitter before I started and someone recommended following Colm O Gorman, food columnist for the Irish Examiner, on Instagram, and his posts and videos made everything look SO easy. It isn't an overly complicated process - make some flour and water paste, keep it warm, throw half away each but day but feed the remainder with extra flour and water each - and sure enough at the end of a week I'd made a loaf, then a few days later another, and eventually one that looked good.

One of the delights has been the other things I've made 'on the side' from the half of starter that is discarded everyday (otherwise there's be the most massive loaf to be baked at the end of the week). I'd got the idea for this from author Sarah Jasmon (Sarahontheboat on Instagram) who I'd seen posting pictures of lovely things made this way.

First I attempted pancakes, just using the runny discard, but then I grew a bit more confident and added more flour to make cinnamon buns, dough balls, dumplings, and even cakes.

My two favourite things though are naan bread (cooked in a frying pan) and pizza.

Throughout these last few weeks it's turned out to be really therapeutic, giving me something to direct my thoughts and keep them away from lockdown misery.

 The sourdough culture is now at a point where I could allow it to rest somewhere cool for a few days, without needing to be fed every day, but for now I'm enjoying my experiments. 

Jottings - February 14th - hibernating

 

Last week it was so very, very cold outside that getting up and doing something (anything) wasn't appealing. Days were dull and cold but with little snow, sunsets were fiery red, and the birdbath water froze solid for three days.

 Maybe the contrast between lovely warm indoors and freezing temperatures outside encourages us to be lazy; to curl up somewhere snug and semi-hibernate. Obviously if you have work to go to, a dog to walk, grocery-shopping to do, then staying huddled inside isn't an option. But I've nowhere I need to go and, having seen forecasts for heavy snow, did my shopping early. 

So I stayed in. 

I tended to the sourdough (made my best loaf so far, plus naan, pizza and dumplings from the discard), 

I started reading Troy by Stephen Fry (one of my Christmas presents) and continued my Wii Lego journey through Middle Earth - that's nearly finished with just a few irritating tasks left to do, and I've decided to start a Lego Pirates of the Caribbean alongside.  Made cake with aquafaba, coconut water and blackberries from the freezer 

I finished the gloves/hat/scarf set made with another Christmas present, and I'm now at that 'find the next project' stage. 

Other places had huge snow drifts or beautiful icicles worth walking to see. We just had cold, iron-hard ground with the lightest covering of snow. On Tuesday I went out in the hope of finding some snow away from pavements and roads ... but didn't, although falling snow made pretty stars on my coat. 

Jottings - January 31st - the longest month ever

I think almost everyone agrees that this January has been the longest on record. It seems to have stretched interminably. 

This last week, on the other hand, seems to have flown by. It started with snow, and ended with snowdrops. 

Like last week, it's been busy, though for different reasons. I had two trips out to different supermarkets to pick up online orders!! I can't remember the last time I did this, but there's always something that one supermarket stocks that's special, isn't there? This time it was a specific chilli powder, and particular flavour of Pot Noodle. 

My sourdough, now named Dodo, is still demanding a lot of attention, but even if the bread I make isn't edible getting my hands sticky and floury has been worthwhile for the range of things I've made from the unwanted mix discarded each day. Dumplings are a definite favourite, and pancakes made this way taste almost like those made with eggs and milk. 

What I'm most pleased with though is making reasonable naan-style flatbreads. I tried this before, after watching a demonstration at the Good Life Experience At Home in autumn, and they didn't work well, managing to be both burned and undercooked at the same time! This time I got them right; maybe not perfect, but not bad.  Oh, and I served them with a new vegan dish discovered on the BBC Good Food site - a squash and cabbage sabzi - which exactly fitted what I was looking for with Veganuary; using up the allotment produce.

And a lot of my time has been spent playing Lego Lord of The Rings on the Wii. If you've played it yourself (LOL) you'll know from the photo that I've finished the first play-through of the game, and now reached the fun bit where extra quests and mini games have opened up. It may seem an odd thing to spend so much time on but while I'm playing all that matters is escaping from orcs and fighting my way to the end of the level; there's no coronavirus in Middle Earth! 
 

Projects to see me through winter lockdown

 Today is Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. And this year surely has to be one of the most depressing on the record. Coronavirus is frightening. Lockdown is boring. The weather is generally dull and dismal - apart from a few rare days, we haven't had beautiful sunny frosty mornings, or even snow which would be exciting, and no problem as we're stuck at home - and spring seems a long way off. But even stuck at home I can decide to live a little differently.

I usually start the year with a list of resolutions, what I would like to achieve in the coming months but they often tend to be vague concepts rather than concrete plans. This year I feel I need something a little more specific than 'do art' or 'get fit', and I need something to do now, not when summer comes round. 

So I've replaced 'eat healthier' with 'join in Veganuary'. The rules are simple - avoid meat and dairy - and there's a finite length to it. Meals take more planning, to avoid pumpkin chili everyday, and longer to cook, which is good as it fills the day. 

It's probably not much healthier though, despite the soups for lunch, because there's no limit on sugar, and experimenting with vegan cake recipes is a good way to spend a damp afternoon.

As a sort of follow on to this I've decided, later than everyone else of course, to set up a sour dough culture. Two days in it isn't looking great, but there's time yet, and importantly it adds another thing which must be done each day*.

'Get fitter' has been replaced by 'up the step count'. There was a dreadful point towards the end of the first lockdown when I realised I was hardly taking more than a thousand steps a day! I don't want to fall into this laziness again. The weather isn't appealing for getting out and about right now, though I have some nice new 'sale' boots to wear, and my average step count has been dropping, but I can always add in a few minutes of zumba-style antics during the day, or just walk up and down the hallway for 250 steps every hour when prompted. 

Christmas marked a point where a lot of my knitting and sewing projects were finished, so after a week or so of laziness I've settled on what next. First a pair of gloves from Christmas present yarn, then a hat or scarf to match. 

Alongside, as knitting is an evening occupation, a skirt renovation, turning long and full, into shorter and somewhat tighter to wear with leggings. Another of my Christmas presents was a scarf-dying kit, but that's going to wait for milder weather as I think I'll do the messiest bits outside. And for later on in Spring, I've a grow-your-own-snowman-pumpkin' kit to start growing. 

I knit mostly while watching TV so, looking for a lengthy challenge, I've started rewatching Better Call Saul. That's a lot of episodes so should last for a few weeks. And then I'll follow it with Breaking Bad. The two don't quite join up yet, but they almost do. And for something more cheerful, I'm going to watch Frasier re-runs, if I can find it streaming somewhere.

For dark afternoons, I've taken up an old winter pastime - playing on the Wii, specifically Lego Lord of the Rings. Again, it takes a while, especially if the known bug (collecting things in the wrong order in the Weathertop section) kicks in and I have to start back at the beginning. When the days start to get longer, I'll probably abandon the little hobbits on their way to Mount Doom and sit out in the garden but fro now it fills a dead space in the day.

Hopefully by the end of lockdown I'll be able to put a 'completed' tick against most of the items on my list, but till then they'll keep me occupied.

Above all I want to be positive in my outlook on life.

*the sourdough DID get going and has turned out brilliantly.