Sunday evening
Outside my window the moon is riding high and clear in the night sky. I stood at the door half an hour ago and heard an owl hooting from further up the valley and a fox barking. I hope the hens are tucked safely away for the night. I am thinking of all the things to do in the garden and of the need to get my own laptop fixed. I am writing this on Ian's laptop while mine displays the black screen of death. Have I everything backed up on memory stick? What do you think? From the kitchen comes the smell of white thyme bread. Ian has been experimenting with sour dough bread again and today I had a go with the natural leaven. If you haven't come across this before, it is a way of creating leaven using the natural yeasts in the atmosphere. The process of making the leaven takes a few days but when you have it you can take from it every day and keep the leaven alive for as long as you wish. I...