Foccacia Bread

Pleased with this Foccacia bread, but I have to report that the sourdough starter died somehow. I'm not sure what I did wrong but it definately did not look right after the first rise. Oh well, back to the start and try again.
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Sourdough starter 3 days in.

Here is my sourdough starter after 3 days, full of life and needing a feed. It has trebled in size and is full of bubbles and when I opened the lid a sound reminiscent of a weak fart escaped. The smell was as described (not the fart description) slightly sour and it had darkened in colour. So far so good, let's give it a feed and see what happens next. I could be making sourdough bread by the end of the week :-)

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Yellowhammer on the hedge

I wish my phone had a better camera to capture this little beauty sitting on the hedge, such a lovely song as well.
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Sourdough starter

Here it is, my sourdough starter. You can see life already bubbling up through the batter, time for a feed soon I feel :-) can't wait to get cracking on some bagels as requested by no.2 son (he, with the ooh so delicate constitution unable to cope with a little horse poo) OK, so it was a lot of horse poo but we are getting off subject. I will post updates of my Levain (sourdough starter by another name) as it grows and then follow it through to the end products.
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What a load of *#it!

Why is it so difficult to get your teenage son to muck in (quite literally on this occassion). I had advised the aforementioned that I had need of his services to assist me off loading the trailer. "What is it?" Says he. "Horse muck" says I. "No, your alright" says he and promptly walks off leaving yours truly to off load the steaming pile. Kids! Who'd have 'em.

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Rasta Hat

My eldest son requested a Rasta Beanie even though he doesn't have dreadlocks. The request was for an oversized beanie in green gold and red. I can do oversize I said (see previous hat attempt) :-)
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Bread

I have recently been bitten with the bread making bug and having successfully made a pizza dough and focaccia bread from scratch I thought I would move up to a full blown white loaf. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience and so, have just begun the process of creating a sourdough starter for more adventurous bread making shenanigans. Let's hope I'm not trying to run before I can walk.

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Heeland Coo!

Close encounters of the hairy kind. As you can see from my finger in the bottom right of this image I happened upon a Highland cow whilst collecting some eggs from the farm shop at Enterkine House. It was just roaming free! An hour earlier and I would have been on horseback through the yard, that could have proved a little sporting! Minding his own business munching on the hedge. The geese were out in force as well, that would definately have been a challenge on Benny Boy :-)
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