After one false start I finally got a good sourdough starter, and used it to make Ninni's rye bread which is packed full of grains, lentils and seeds, super hearty and delicious. The recipe makes a lot and the overnight rise was so lively it almost escaped, so I ended up with two loaves. This will be great hiking food!
Removed the unnecessarily bulky builtin wardrobe from my bedroom to reclaim the space for better things. Except I guess it's been here since the flat was built, because they didn't bother to finish the floor, walls or ceiling underneath. So now I have new and exciting voids and exposed brickwork. Also the edges don't line up. K gave me some MDF for a temporary floor, but I'm probably going to need a professional to deal with the rest.
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When I first moved here I wished for steps down to my nearest bit of beach, instead of the slippery muddy slope down the verge. One of my neighbours had been thinking about solving this problem for some years, too, and had both expertise and vision to actually do it (unlike me). So with five and a half hours work (including lunch break) and lots of digging and rock hauling, the two of us built these steps. It was deeply satisfying, and they look like they've always been there.
I finally managed to eat a (first-party) cookie during a TAG meeting in which we talked about third-party cookies. Nobody mentioned TAG side effects being increased desire to eat cookies all the time.
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I am definitely going to fail as a gardener because I refuse to kill any bugs. Anyway my lettuces belong to the aphids now.
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Crochet panda hat and shoes for Polly's new baby.
This morning I have one fewer lettuce growing than last night. It's just... gone. I have spent an hour searching and I cannot find the slug. Am I going to have to stay up all night and watch for it?
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Baby seedlings: radish, lettuce, carrot, parsley. Sprouted in a tiny pot then planted in the windowbox, but kept inside for the time being. Some cute slug frens, gently evicted after demolishing two whole lettuces. Also Project Mushroom began in earnest.
More pictures of daffodils and the beach in the morning. One evening of snow.
Gonna make my first sourdough today, which means scheduling my whole day around its needs, apparently.
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My first ever sourdough! What labour. Started Sunday night, finished Tuesday morning. Had to plan my whole day around it. But it was good.
A walk through Dunnikier Park, litter picking in Dysart harbour, plus the usual ambling around Dysart and Ravenscraig. An exciting walk into town and lunch from Kangus.
When one person mutes someone else in a video call it should make a "shh" sound to the person being muted.
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My brother said, whilst cleaning up and glaring pointedly at me, that maybe the reason he's miserable all the time is cos he prioritises housework over "zany adventures" but what he classes as my "zany adventures" that day consisted of taking three cute slugs 'rescued' from my seedlings on my morning walk, and carrying a tire up a 45degree slope after getting stuck in a spiky bush in the evening.
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Lowenna came for beach walkies! And made friends with Max. She did her best in the sea. She's so big and sleek now, and distinctly less demonic then when she was tiny.
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You either never make sourdough, or you're constantly making sourdough. There's no in between.
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I put my little baby seedlings outside for the first time and they are so small and pathetic I'll worry all night. Dissuaded from sleeping on the path next to them, but I have rigged up a little cardboard tent..
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Also I crocheted some little mushroom keychains.
Early mornings on the beach at Dysart. Astonishingly warm. I still can't believe I live here sometimes.
Also featuring: many slugs rescued from local lettuce in my kitchen.
Started the day with an hour and a half of picking up rubbish on the beach on the way to West Wemyss. Then found some really beautiful spots in the woods between Dysart and Glenrothes. A pet cemetery, an old bridge, an epic gate, and many wonderful trees. GPS trace.
I made sourdough again Sunday night - Tuesday morning, and sourdough lentil/seedy rye Wednesday night - Friday morning. It turned out basically the same as the last one, which is good, because I didn't change anything. Good with leek and potato soup.
I moved my salad windowbox outside, replanted my tiny carrots into the tyre planter, and sowed chard seeds in there as well. I stacked my other windowbox onto rocks, and planted nasturtiums in there.
It didn't take long for my lettuces to all die from wind and sun exposure. The radishes look battered, but I think most of them will pull through. I lost a spring onion as well. I direct sowed bok choy where the lettuces were. The carrots look pathetic, but mostly okay for now.
I was given a growbag and two healthy tomato plants and a cucumber, and rigged up some string for the tomatoes to climb against the wall. On Sunday I picked up a bunch more big planters from a Freegler as well... so the path-garden is growing..
Meanwhile in the living room, I made makeshift pots from toilet roll tubes and a plastic bottle for chilis and sweet basil. By the end of the week some of the tubes were germinating, but I couldn't remember which were which. I expect they're basil though. By some miracle the chilli seeds I planted weeks ago - at the same time as the lettuce, radish, carrots and parsley - finally sprouted!
I also repotted my older supermarket basil plant and moved it to better sun and it's looking happier again. One of my rosemary cuttings sprouted roots, so that's in a pot now too, and I rearranged my windowsill setup multiple times.
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Homegrown mushrooms on homemade sourdough, with homegrown lettuce leaves and home-sprouted chickpeas. The ultimate lockdown breakfast?
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Oyster mushrooms! Elm, and blue/grey. First pins appeared on the 18th, and they matured and started dropping spores on the 25th. A fast turnaround! Every time I went in the kitchen they had grown some more. I felt like I could see them growing before my eyes.
They are the most beautiful things I have ever had a hand in creating.
I used kits from urban-farm-it.
I gently and lovingly harvested the beautiful mushrooms, and later gently and lovingly cut them up and seared them lightly with a little bit of coconut oil and sea salt. My delicious babies.
Last of the first flush of mushrooms, on homemade sourdough with homegrown salad.
A pox upon gumtree people who ask "is this still available" then never respond again.
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Okay so it's probably a totally random coincidence and definitely not systematic sexism but I got a letter from the NHS addressed to both me and my brother and even though I'm Dr (clearly superior) and alphabetically first, it's still "Mr and Dr Guy".
Edit: Handed the letter to Dave when he got home from work and the first thing he said was "with your impressive title and the fact you did all the work for this, but my name is first? Wtf sexism." So he's raised right.
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