a productive domestic day
after two days of struggling to wake up before noon due to meds we finally figured to have me take it earlier in the evening so that i was really sleepy at night instead of in the morning, which meant i could get up sans grogginess like normal like the rest of the world hooray! double hooray cos it was a mild day, bit of sun, bit of cloud, a nice relaxing day.
started my day of domesticity by using up the three very ancient bananas to make nigella's banana bread/cake. i left it in the oven to stay warm while L was studying and i was outside in the garden so that when we had some later it was warm and the chocolate chunks were oozy and the crust was crunchy. yum! very pleased with that :)
then i felt very, very accomplished because for the first time i managed to make bread with potato water (ever since i got the domestic goddess book in what, 2005? and i read about it in there i have been thinking well one day i should try that shouldn't i?) but although it sounds simple enough (boil potatoes, save the water, use for making bread) it doesn't fit in with my life. either we don't boil potatoes often enough, or the one time i do boil potatoes i forget about the plan, or i remember but i might have just made bread, or i keep the water but forget to make the bread or something. but last night i boiled potatoes to make shepherd's pie topping and saved the water. today i took it out and bunged it in the breadmaker with everything else. lo and behold the stars must have been aligned! easy peasy! i am confident this sequence of events will not recur for another 100 years. (L says the bread is good, which makes me happy. personally, i'm over bread at the moment)
spent a lot of time in the garden leisurely doing this and that. i love pottering in the garden on a warm day with the doors wide open and the boy somewhere nearby :) and something yummy to eat when i get hungry and a LARGE bottle of water on standby.
i finally got out the two long pots i had in the sunroom over winter and revived the surviving parsley and swiss chard plants, added compost and sowed rocket/mesclun. sowed more rocket/mesclun/basil in pots. also sowed some beautiful borlotti beans direct in the garden (after MAJOR weeding - i know why people say "put your back into it!" now) which i haven't done before, both the species and the practice. i usually sow into punnets and transplant but i think these beans are big enough to make it in the garden plus the packet says not to transplant. ok lor. we got three colours, a dark purple, yellow and a speckled pink. i hope they take and produce cos they sure will make pretty minestrone soup! (already thinking ahead for cool weather food)
i divided the very old strawberry plants and replanted them, hopefully at least some will survive my rough handling in the wrong season for dividing. doesn't matter if they don't cos i was planning to replace them so any that do are a bonus! it was a last minute spontaneous decision. also planted out the broccoli, which will be interesting as they are called "midget". i wonder what that means? L thinks they will be too small to eat. Silly boy. I think I'm more interested in cooler weather crops or dwarf varieties to suit our shorter season and i've gotten over my tropical-climate envy. while it would be cool to have a banana tree, well, i couldn't have a lot of other desirable crops too like parsnips or apples or plums or tulips (not strictly crops but so pretty!)
more rain tomorrow. the kitchen/reno guys are coming round. wonder what'll happen in the meeting?
started my day of domesticity by using up the three very ancient bananas to make nigella's banana bread/cake. i left it in the oven to stay warm while L was studying and i was outside in the garden so that when we had some later it was warm and the chocolate chunks were oozy and the crust was crunchy. yum! very pleased with that :)
then i felt very, very accomplished because for the first time i managed to make bread with potato water (ever since i got the domestic goddess book in what, 2005? and i read about it in there i have been thinking well one day i should try that shouldn't i?) but although it sounds simple enough (boil potatoes, save the water, use for making bread) it doesn't fit in with my life. either we don't boil potatoes often enough, or the one time i do boil potatoes i forget about the plan, or i remember but i might have just made bread, or i keep the water but forget to make the bread or something. but last night i boiled potatoes to make shepherd's pie topping and saved the water. today i took it out and bunged it in the breadmaker with everything else. lo and behold the stars must have been aligned! easy peasy! i am confident this sequence of events will not recur for another 100 years. (L says the bread is good, which makes me happy. personally, i'm over bread at the moment)
spent a lot of time in the garden leisurely doing this and that. i love pottering in the garden on a warm day with the doors wide open and the boy somewhere nearby :) and something yummy to eat when i get hungry and a LARGE bottle of water on standby.
i finally got out the two long pots i had in the sunroom over winter and revived the surviving parsley and swiss chard plants, added compost and sowed rocket/mesclun. sowed more rocket/mesclun/basil in pots. also sowed some beautiful borlotti beans direct in the garden (after MAJOR weeding - i know why people say "put your back into it!" now) which i haven't done before, both the species and the practice. i usually sow into punnets and transplant but i think these beans are big enough to make it in the garden plus the packet says not to transplant. ok lor. we got three colours, a dark purple, yellow and a speckled pink. i hope they take and produce cos they sure will make pretty minestrone soup! (already thinking ahead for cool weather food)
i divided the very old strawberry plants and replanted them, hopefully at least some will survive my rough handling in the wrong season for dividing. doesn't matter if they don't cos i was planning to replace them so any that do are a bonus! it was a last minute spontaneous decision. also planted out the broccoli, which will be interesting as they are called "midget". i wonder what that means? L thinks they will be too small to eat. Silly boy. I think I'm more interested in cooler weather crops or dwarf varieties to suit our shorter season and i've gotten over my tropical-climate envy. while it would be cool to have a banana tree, well, i couldn't have a lot of other desirable crops too like parsnips or apples or plums or tulips (not strictly crops but so pretty!)
more rain tomorrow. the kitchen/reno guys are coming round. wonder what'll happen in the meeting?