welsh hills again

Did I tell you we bought a Landrover?  There is a justification for a four by four vehicle up here on our hill and we also need something from time that will tow the trailer.  I test drove one (not a new one, an oldish one!) to establish that I was happy to drive it, we bought it and then very conspicuously I did not drive it at all.  I am not generally a driving wimp.  I happily drive on motorways and up and down the country and in all sorts of weather conditions.  So why wasn't I driving it?  I think I was just a little bit nervous that I would meet someone coming up our single track steep hill and, instead of merrily reversing up hill, down hill or around the corners,  as I do in the cars, I would make an idiot of myself.  But Ian is away working at our son's house in Manchester today so I had the Landy and, without anyone to watch me, it was time to have a go.  And it was totally fine, although I did not have to reverse downhill around a ...

Last week my beloved elder daughter and her little boy came to stay for a few days.  Joseph is three and one of the things you should do with a three year old (or a seven or a ten year old for that matter) is to cook.  Cooking and baking are important to me and to our family.  I love to see children learning confidence in the kitchen, doing something real and proudly sharing and eating the results.  Older grandson who is now seven loves to bake with me and has a particular weakness for uncooked cake mixture.  I don't often have the chance to bake with younger grandson who doesn't live as close.  So it was time to get ready for a session making gingerbread. Aprons on first, Joseph delightedly recognising the very hungry caterpillar. Get the cooking stool in place by the worktop. What recipe shall we use?  This time it is daughter's turn to exclaim with delight.  It is the Ladybird "We can Cook" book which she and her brother co...

This morning was a baking day.  The warm sun has gone back to the South of France for a while leaving us with normal temperatures for March, a cool wind and an overcast sky.  Ian had weighed the flour out for the batch of bread last night and it was all lined up on the worktop. I put my apron on, turned on the radio and began the deliciously slow process of making bread, interspersed with the not so slow process of making lemon cake for the holiday cottage visitors arriving this afternoon.  We have a leaven going for sourdough but this bread was the batch baking which produces six loaves, one for today and five for the freezer, which will keep us in home made bread for the week. The mixer chuntered away to itself, the dough hook taking the hard work out of kneading, while I lined tins with greaseproof paper for the lemon cake and grated lemon zest.  On the radio, Sandi Toksvig was visiting Iceland which seems to have the most astonishingly full and creative...