Someone Else's DIY

We got back around lunch-time from a weekend in Ludlow, visiting Liz's grandmother. It's always a pleasure visiting her, as a relaxing and undemanding schedule is usually obeyed. Breakfast, coffee/elevenses, lunch, tea, dinner, supper. This appeals enormously. In between, she usually has a list of bits-and-pieces that need doing in the house or garden, preferably by someone younger/stronger/more inclined. It seems a fair trade, to me: food and company, for minor handiwork. I fixed her non-filling water-butt (not, as suggested, a problem with the gutter or diverter, but with the tap, which meant it emptied as quickly as it filled); re-levelled her garden swing-sofa-thing; got the pump in the pond working again; put up a shelf; and installed a solar trickle-charger in her car.

Ludlow's a lovely town to visit, and we had a good wander around the Saturday market and Bread Walk, while we were there.

We're on leave this week, and hope to get the finishing touches in the kitchen done (some of them minor, some less so), as well as a bit of pottering in the house and garden. To that end, we've spent a few hours preparing the way in the kitchen; moving the table out, and things off the shelves and windowsills. We've also taken down the cupboards in the utility room, and removed the washing machine.

Hopefully, by the end of the week, the kitchen will look as it is meant to, and I can soon take and post some before vs. after photos.

Soda Bread

As requested, I've put the recipes for two soda breads onto the recipes page. As suggested, the whisky soda bread could be a nice treat for St Patrick's Day (17th March).

Soda bread, for the uninitiated, is a quick bread, whereby the leavening is achieved through an acid-base reaction (instead of fermentation by yeast). It's useful where fermentation flavours are undesirable, where the dough doesn't have the gluten-originating elasticity to hold bubbles; or where you're in a hurry. The reagents are typically the lactic acid present in buttermilk or yoghurt, and sodium bicarbonate. Buttermilk is the slightly fermented milk left after skimming the cream off; yoghurt is rather further fermented. Sometimes 'plain' milk is used, but acid in the form of lemon juice (citric acid) is added. Alternatively, plain milk and baking powder could be used—baking powder contains both the base (bicarbonate of soda) and the acid (e.g., cream of tartar/potassium bitartrate and sodium aluminium sulphate).

Here endeth the chemistry lesson.

Snow!

Saturday morning caught us by surprise, as we hadn't anticipated snowfall: nonetheless, there were a few inches waiting. This rather reduced our enthusiasm for a day outside, which we therefore postponed to today. Saturday then vanished in pottering, tidying, and cleaning, but never mind; at least I got a big (72 rolls) batch of bread made, which should keep us going for two or three weeks.

Today, we've been rather more productive. Although we finished the kitchen curtains some time ago, we didn't make the tie-backs for them (nor are the requisite hooks up, but that's another story). We've started to address this, and have made three pairs, and cut the fabric for a fourth. At the same time, I finished a tablecloth from an off-cut of the curtain fabric, with a cream border to make it large enough. That leaves us with a pair to cut, and two to sew—and curtains and tie-backs for the utility room.

The snow having thawed somewhat, we also ventured outside, to get a few things done. First was pruning the fruit bushes (and a couple of other things), as the currants, gooseberries, and blueberries all needed attention. The acer and buddleja in the front also had a trim, actually. We then sowed some more seeds: peppers, aubergines, leeks, clematis (C. integriflora, a short species), more cauliflowers, carrots and parsnips. Who knows, some may even germinate. Some pyrethrum/chrysanths, which arrived last week, we potted up, too.

It's the time of year when I get excited about buds and shoots. In addition to the daffodils and crocuses which I've incessantly mentioned, the bluebells/scilla/puschkinia are all on their way up, and I've spotted promising buds on the lilac, rose, honeysuckles, rhubarb, fruit bushes, and acer. And some tulips are showing above ground, too. Now, if only I had a bit more time, and it wasn't so cold, I'd spend some more time outside.

The leaky chimney which vexed me a fortnight ago is now hopefully repaired. Our regular builder (he of the kitchen work) popped in on Friday and applied some sort of magic sealant, which should do the job. I suspect another look at it may be on the cards for the summer, but his rates are (very) reasonable, so I'm sanguine for now. There will, no doubt, be enough rain in my immediate future to establish whether it still leaks.

Crocuses Aplenty

A very pleasant weekend, with a couple of walks, a visit to my parents, and plenty of food (including a rather good whisky soda bread). A few plants arrived, too: some single and double freesia bulbs (to go in once the frosts are past), short-stemmed lilies, and six chrysanthemums (Pyrethrum). I also received a very pretty ornamental Japanese cherry (Prunus incisa) Kojo-no mai: it's got zig-zag stems, and grows to around 1.8 m tall and wide. It'll probably remain in its pot for the spring (so the blossom can be inside, spreading its scent), and possibly in a bigger pot for another year (until its permanent home can be determined!). Cherry blossom is a rather short-seasoned treat, but the advantage of Kojo-no mai is the winter interest of its contorted stems.

This morning I've been greeted by a real density of crocuses on the ride to work. They were just coming up last Monday, but they seem to have really taken off since last Thursday, and that stretch of roadside is quite covered.

I've a new toy that I'm looking forward to setting up this week, if I can: a logging weather station. It will allow 15-minute logging of temperature/humidity, pressure, rainfall, and wind direction and speed, which I can then geekily analyse. As well as technophilic satisfaction, the temperature records will, I hope, be of use in the garden (for sowing, planting, cropping and protecting plans), as will the rainfall (because we work on the Other Side of the Pennines, it's sometimes hard to gauge the rain that's fallen at home). The wind gauge is more speculative: mostly interesting, it might be of use in determining the suitability of a wind turbine.

Any way: I plan to mount the sensor suite on a post amongst the fruit cages (where it will hopefully blend in, not be too obvious, and provide relevant data. With some luck, I may manage it this week; otherwise, it'll happen at the weekend.

Seedlings

It looks as though about three-quarters of the cauliflowers we sowed have come up (which is good), but only one of the sweetpeas (which is bad), and so far none of the strawberries (which is worse!). Hopefully they're just tardy, and will yet appear, but it's also entirely credible that the seeds were no longer viable. Nonetheless, I might sow some more, in the hope of getting a few plants.

Otherwise, the bulbs are growing apace, and the mornings are discernibly brightening, both of which are encouraging. The first of our onion sets (the Autumn Gold Improved) arrived a few days ago, so they're ready to go out as soon as it's a bit warmer, and not likely to frost.

At long last, the boiler replacement is complete. It was operational a couple of days after starting (that is, mid January), but the replacement flue was delayed, and was only fitted yesterday. It's a lot thinner than the old one, which is good; I haven't seen the roof-top vent in the light, yet. Apparently, though, the pointing on the roof ridge is in poor shape, so that will need to be added to my list of summer jobs.

Crocuses & Leaks

We've had really strong winds over the last five days or so, and awfully heavy rain. The drain off the hillside opposite the house is struggling, and there's a pair of visible streams running off the hill feeding it (it usually restricts itself to a subterranean source). The big problem with the wind has been that the fleece covering some of the new perennials has been blown about, and is a bit worse for the wear; and there are several split seams in the fruit netting. We stitched the nets together using cord that hasn't worn too well, it transpires, and there were five splits this yesterday. I've repaired four of them, using the same twine (no better material on hand), but will have to find something better: possibly a polypropylene cord. The last split is on one of the raspberry cages, which isn't within reach—and the ground's too wet and the wind too high to go up on a stepladder. Temporary fix, therefore, was all I could manage.

The other unfortunate result of the heavy rain is that we have a leaking roof. Probably not caused by the weather, but potentially. I think the cause is leaking flashing from the chimney, which means rain is running down the outside of the chimney, through the loft space, and coming through the bedroom ceiling. It's not a huge quantity of water, but it's going to require some ceiling repairs, and a careful look at the joist holding up the ceiling. My builder is coming out to look at the flashing as soon as he can...

Old houses: don't you love them? At least it's not as bad as the (new) Glaswegian block of flats that lost its roof last week.

In brighter news, I discovered that several pots of crocuses have come up, so I moved them from the 'out of season' area near the workshop to the more prominent patio outside the kitchen. More daffodils, including a few of the 2009 planting, are coming up: the ones that were already above ground are really getting going now! The bank at the edge of the garden under the track is also thickly covered with new bulbs coming up: puschkinia, scilla, muscari, and narcissi. In the same vein, I spotted a few crocuses on my ride to work (on Upper Brook Street, Manchester). I've been keeping an eye for the last couple of weeks, but today was the first time I've spotted them.