Chelsea bun report

January - white chocolate & cardamom

Nice soft texture
Cardamom gave lovely flavour, & white choc chunks nice to chomp.
Milk syrup topping seemed a bit strange, but worked well with them.

Put some in freezer, and they defrosted nicely.
Definitely one to repeat.

Janus - looking backwards & forwards

Haven't written for ages, but it's good to review and preview the years.  So 2012 was a good year.  It was the year of the dogs. 'nuff said.  Weather was pretty bad, but I managed to have 2 weeks off at home when it was dry & fairly warm.  However gardening was pretty bad.  Most of the annual flowers I planted didn't come up, or were very feeble.  I did have ipomoea & blackeyed susan in pots, and was pleased with those.

At work I became union vice-president.  Good to challenge yourself.  And 2012 was a good year for Open Access, my work obsession.

We got our act together on home improvements - builders now here till Easter adding a new bedroom, converting another into an upstairs bathroom, & creating a 'vestibule'  or dumping room as I mustn't let it become.

And I started a couple of hours weekly doing admin at Norfolk wildlife Trust HQ, which has been interesting.

So the year to come.

I'm going to do a chelsea bun variation a month!
Hoping that the new dumping room will help me be more tidy in the rest of the house
Want to contribute to the 38 degrees NHS campaign group
Now we're settled into dog walking routine, I hope I'll get some time for birdwatching
Will try planting annuals again.
Spend less time faffing about on the web?  Hmm.  That's the biggest challenge I think.

Wrapping up the blogpost can be tricky, but as they're not meant to be literary works of art, I should just write stuff & stop when I've finished.  There. Done it.

What I've been eating

OK, inspired by Veggiedyke I thought I'd  record my evening meals for a week.
Sunday:  Pasta with roasted vegetables.  Sweet potato & garlic, red pepper, red onion, chestnut mushrooms, courgette & aubergine.  Bit of olive oil, bit of basil.  Boil pasta, roast veggies, mix together & add a few cubes of cheese (used Parlick Fell)
Monday:  Rest of pasta with some Thai curried vegetables from freezer
Tuesday: Mushroom lasagne made on Saturday, & frozen.  Lots of mushrooms, onion, garlic, tin of tomatoes, tomato purée, italian dried herbs.  Simmered till formed thick sauce then layered with ricotta & lasagne sheets, grated cheddar on the top.  Yum.  Ricotta was well past its best before, but was fine.
Wednesday: Baked potato & a lentil concoction from freezer.  Over Easter I bought too many mushrooms, so had some mushroom-based dishes over last week or so.  The lentil concoction was made to go with some 'rustic' potato chips which were very dull & needed enlivening.  The idea had been to make a kind of mushroom chilli sauce, & then I add puy lentils for protein.  It was nice with the chips, and even nicer tonight with baked potato & some grated cheese.
tbc...

I'll round off the week now.
Thursday:  Had egg fried rice. Boiled some brown rice while I stir fried in sesame oil some onion, garlic, cashew nuts, courgette, mushrooms, aubergine, carrot. stirred in a couple of eggs when the veggies were done then mixed in the rice.  Served with soya sauce.
Friday:  Did some of the rustic oven chips with a bit extra oil & some cumin to spice them up.  Made a chilli tomato sauce, and fried some halloumi then served it with pita bread, stuffed vine leaves & houmous. 
 

Photographing wildlife

Been on a course today about photographing wildlife.  There is so much to learn.  Just going to make some notes to remind myself in future.  So...

• Plan the day beforehand.  Have an identified species to focus on
• Think about the light - all the time - which places are best morning or afternoon, which direction to walk around a reserve, where to stop when you see a subject - often better to keep walking slowly to get to where you want to take the photo from - if you stop then walk on likely to startle it
• Generally use ISO400 - doesn't need to vary too much
• Be ready, lens cap off, camera switched on
• Can use aperture priority on DSLR - you set aperture & camera adjusts the shutter speed
• Thirds rule doesn't necessarily apply.  If bird in tree, try to get all sky or all tree, not combination. If 3rd horizontally, have bird looking into photo
• Use depth of field - may want bird to be sharp against blurred background
• Treat it like sports photography, so fast shutter speed
• Don't need to worry about camera shake
• Practise on bigger birds.  And in the garden.  Set up sticks near feeder so birds will perch there

So now I'm going to practise, & practise & try to get the hang of the aperture vs shutter dynamic.  And will need a bigger lens. 

Living life

I've been to a memorial service today.  A friend died too early from a brain tumour, and this was a service at Colney Woodland Burial Park.  It is a beautiful place, and today the sun shone and the birds sang, making it a very poignant way to say goodbye to somebody.  Death always makes us assess where we are in life, are we making the most of it when we only have one? 

I've been feeling overwhelmed for the last few weeks.  I despise the policies the coalition government is putting in place, they are demolishing so much.  And it creates a pressure at work, many people are stressed, and I don't think this brings out the best in people.

However I've met some lovely people today, and said goodbye to someone for whom the politics of fairness and equality were so important.  I owe it to her to keep fighting and keep my spirits up.  "Life only kills when you choose not to live it."

Things I like about dogs

The dogs have settled in very well.  They are very relaxed, and we're getting into a routine though we haven't settled on what food to have quite yet.

There are so many pleasures that I want to record:

• Logan wags his tail so hard that when it's wet it slaps his sides
• Chance stretches out his back legs along the floor in the morning & pulls them along & looks very sweet
• They keep my feet warm on the sofa
• Logan likes to greet you with a teddy in his mouth.  He holds it very gently, doesn't chew it
• Chance gets up on his back legs to see over hedges if he thinks there's something interesting
• They hardly bark, and they're friendly to other people & dogs
• Logan enjoys being brushed & blowdried.  He positively wants a towel thrown over him after a walk
• Chance likes to give a little nose lick - he's very affectionate

I'm sure all the health benefits are true, they just make me feel very calm and happy, they are a lovely pair and I'm so pleased to have found them.

Life as a dog owner

Well, I'm very pleased to say that we now have 2 dogs.  Logan & Chance, a 4 year old springer spaniel & 3 year old Jack Russell have come to us as their owner is seriously ill, and bravely asked for them to be rehomed.    They've come from Yorkshire, as I was checking the South Yorkshire English Springer Spaniel Rescue website for dogs, saw these two & thought that they looked a beautiful pair.  We brought them back on Saturday, and they are settling in incredibly well.  I've taken time off work so that they can get familiar with me & the house, but they are just so relaxed, it's wonderful.  We've met a few dogs out on walks, and despite being intact boys (until the end of the month) they aren't at all aggressive with other dogs.  They did a bit of  wee marking in the kitchen when they arrived, but this has stopped, and they haven't chewed or done anything remotely  naughty.

They are 2 lovely characters, and we're all very happy.