My garden in May

May’s a great month, and not only because it’s my birthday month, but it’s the month that usually brings sun - and this year was no different, though since then it’s been a bit AWOL. But it’s good to look back over my pictures from the month and see the blue skies and enjoy the blooms from the Gertrude Jekyll rose which had plenty of flowers this month. And to marvel that our well known for its late flowering camellia, was still going strong this month - its latest ever, and no doubt a knock on from the peculiar weather in previous months.

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The bluebells and sedums also enjoyed the month and looked good with a layer of camellia petal confetti among their greenery too. The rear of the garden was filled with the scent of lilac, and while we didn’t have many flowers on the tree, what we did have was powerful - and pretty.

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May was also a windy month and we had at least three branches down, some of them bigger than others and some managing to balance themselves precariously on the fence, but just in a spot we couldn’t quite reach.

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On the patio the border was full of greenery and the new additions of three stone spheres were almost, but not quite swallowed by it all. The alliums rose above it all and provided spheres of colour at a higher level, I think they’re increasing each year but it’s a slow process.

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In other developments we did hang our new garden lights. After trying many types of lighting and approaches, this time we’ve gone for battery powered strings of lights across the garden, and they’re fab. I’m hoping we get much use out of them this year.

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So that’s my May in the garden, how was yours?

The return of the Loo Series

Yes, it’s been a while but y’know, lockdown. It’s not exactly been the time to be out, let alone be out snapping pictures in loos. But last week we headed into the City for a meal at the city version of Bar Douro - so it was always likely to be photograph-able.

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And though it was small, it didn’t disappoint.

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So many different patterns, but mostly as you’d expect blue and white. The light fittings were unique too - that’s the metal sphere in the photo below.

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And yes, a mask wearing Loo Series entry.

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More bubbles in my sourdough

I’ve long been a sourdough fan and back in 2015 I shared how I made my loaf. It’s always made a fairly dense loaf and that’s been ok. Recently though I’ve been experimenting and have made a bubblier sourdough on more than one occasion, so today’s post is all about that.

It may be different to your sourdough recipe, or those of the sourdough artisan bakers - but this is my new way of making my sourdough. And part of the reason I’m sharing it here is so I can remember the quantities of the ingredients - sadly, true.

The ingredients are:

  • 500g white bread flour

  • 300g water

  • 150g sourdough starter

  • 8-10g salt.

Now having just compared that to my previous recipe I’ve realised that my experimenting has led me to swap the water and sourdough starter quantities. How strangely peculiar.

Anyway, the method is pretty much the same - combine all the ingredients until they come together, and leave in a warm place.

At this stage it is a bit bumpy and lumpy - but don’t lose faith. Every 30 minutes or so I use the flexible dough scraper to “turn” the dough, making sure I scoop from underneath and fold that into the top. I usually count 20 turns on each attempt.

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Gradually it looks more like the dough you were expecting. Then I cover it and leave it in a warm place until I’m ready to cook it several hours later. The trick is to leave it long enough so the dough rises, but not too long that it over-prooves, as an example - if I start this around lunchtime, I’ll cook it between 9-10pm. If that tells you anything about me, it tells you I’m a night owl.

For cooking times - I heat the oven to 220 degrees and put a small ramekin of boiling water in the oven once it’s at temperature to help with the crust. I’ve taken to cooking the loaf on baking powder, but mainly so I know it will be easy to get off the small baking tray.

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This loaf had a bubble at the top of the dough, and I learnt that that will burn. Next time I’ll make sure the bubbles are less obvious, I think.

It still tastes good though!

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