Inside:
- Baking a tray of jam tarts and a no knead Roman-style spelt loaf (slightly adapting the recipe on the back of the bag of flour - see below). Both easy makes using just a few store cupboard ingredients.
- Reading a new book into the early hours. (The blurb: 'Five friends. An abandoned house. A secret they can't bury.')
- Watching the D-Day commemorations on the telly, thinking about my dad and my 98 year old father in law and the parts they played in the war and getting through an entire box of man-size tissues.
- Pottering, cleaning, sorting, planning.
Outside:
- Trying to reclaim an overgrown border at the bottom of the garden and wondering how to deal with a waterlogged patch of soil.
- Faffing with the camera one evening amongst the rain soaked roses.
- Watching a demo at the last WI meeting and waiting for the blossom on the tree in the garden to open fully so that I can have a first stab at making elderflower cordial.
- Making several visits to the hospital with the still mending mister.
- Walking in rain one minute, sunshine the next, noticing changes in the hedgerows.
Roman-style spelt loaf
1lb spelt flour
1 tsp quick yeast
1 tbsp sugar
400ml warm water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
Sunflower/pumpkin/sesame seeds to sprinkle (optional)
Grease a 2 lb loaf tin (or 2 x 1lb tins) with vegetable oil.
Mix together the flour and salt.
Dissolve the sugar in the warm water.
Add the yeast to the flour and pour in the water and sugar mix. Stir with a metal spoon until the flour is just incorporated. Mix in the oil. (The mixture should be very loose.)
Pour into the tin(s), sprinkle with seeds if using, cover with oiled clingfilm and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 25 mins).
Preheat oven to 180C fan/200C/gas 6.
Bake the loaf/loaves for 40-45 mins or until the crust is golden brown and the dough cooked through (the loaf/loaves should sound hollow when the bottom is tapped).
Turn out and cool on a rack.