WOYWW 513 Share, Foot and Mouth

Edit:  I am afraid I am still having problems with photos. No need to comment if you can’t see them. I am working on the problem and hopefully you will be able to see at least some of them. I can get them to appear, but they disappear again…

Share

I think I may have sorted the problem of my non-appearing photos – I had tried viewing my blog after logging out of my Google account and lo and behold, the photos were no longer visible to me along with everyone else, and since they were visible when I was logged in, I thought long and hard about that and wondered if it was a “share” issue on Google Photos. After making them “shared,” I logged out again and yes, they were visible to me. So please let me know if they are visible this week, and if they are, please scroll back to last week’s posts and you should be able to see the photos there as well.

As for all my disappearing photos since the demise of Google+, I am trying to work on two posts per day on average, and so far, working backwards, I have got back to June of last year, so it’s not going too badly.

Foot

Well, at least, footwear.

When we went shopping in Totnes last week I bought some gorgeous new felt slippers with really fun tops with felt balls on them.

They are quirky and fun and everybody says they are very “me”! My first thought was what fun it would be to embellish them! Having done my striped scarf with embroidered felt balls and other embellishments:

I thought I could do something similar with the slippers.

I have started cutting out some simple flower and leaf shapes from my large stash of felt.

Unlike with the scarf, I want the flowers and leaves to be flush with the surface of the slippers, rather than being 3-D. I am planning to do some wool embroidery on them and then stitch them to the slippers, and maybe add some embroidered stems, depending on how they look. The felt balls dangling from the tops of the slippers will have embroidery added to them.

Next time we go to Totnes I shall have to take the slippers back to the shop where I got them and show them what I’ve done!!

Mouth

Not so pleasant. I’d had the permanent filling put in my cracked wisdom tooth last Thursday and all was well, although it was a bit painful on and off when I bit down on it. My hubby said this was normal and he often got this for a few days after having had a filling (he has far more than I do so his is the voice of experience). It was pretty bad on Sunday and I was worried about it. Then at tea time on Sunday I thought part of another filling had broken off so my hubby rang on Monday and made an appointment for me for yesterday lunch time.

When I got there the dentist agreed with my hubby about teeth often being a bit sore for a few days afterwards, and then he looked at the other tooth and said the whole filling had come out! He fixed it then and there but it was a lot worse than the wisdom tooth one and the whole thing was pretty stressful. I had loads of local anaesthetic and my mouth didn’t come back to normal until tea time, and it’s been hurting since then, even though it didn’t hurt after the old filling came out. Hopefully it will settle down in a few days. I do hate going to the dentist and consider I’ve had more than my “fill” (sorreee) of it recently!

Our dentist is so lovely – he’s really friendly and knows what a wimp I am and always tries to put me at my ease (impossible) but we usually manage to have quite a laugh once the horrid part is done! He was very amused once when I told him I’d rather have 6 months of chemo than come and see him! Today he said everybody hated him and he had no friends because he was a dentist (which I don’t believe as he’s really nice and friendly!) and he said it was on a par with traffic wardens and tax inspectors. He then asked me, “What do you call 80 lawyers at the bottom of the sea?” I hadn’t a clue. Answer: “A good start.” Lol!!! (I have to agree – they charged us an arm and a leg, and possibly a mouthful of teeth, to wind up Mum’s estate… and it took them over a year.)

Anyway, I hope I don’t have any more tooth problems from now on.

Hospital appointment next Wednesday

I am going to see Mr. Daniels, another colorectal surgeon, at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) next week, having been referred by Mr. Pullan, my surgeon at Torbay. He wanted a second opinion on what he calls my “intractable” parastomal hernia, and depending on what Mr. Daniels has to say on the matter, I may need further surgery. I shall be very interested to hear his opinion about it.

Kitties

Lily and Ruby haven’t been doing anything spectacular recently apart from the usual sleeping, eating, the odd tiff, a fair bit of chasing each other around the house – thundering paws above our heads – whoever said cats were silent on their feet? We’ve always had elephants! They’ve been out most days and seem safe without constant supervision now my hubby has fixed the defences, but we don’t let them out unless he’s around, just in case. They have been moulting their winter coats and getting a few fur balls (fluffy Lily especially) and very, very demanding at feeding times!

No new photos recently so here’s one of their baby ones, just to remind you how dinky they were. 5 weeks old, the first time we saw them, the day we claimed them for our own. We got them at 9 weeks, and my goodness, it was hard having to wait those few weeks for them.

Ruby on the left of the picture, Lily on the right. (My hubby in the middle!) I can’t believe how tiny they were – they are really substantial now – great hulking girlies!

Finally, a cat funny for you.

Have a great week, everybody.

WOYWW 502–Scarf Embellishing

I know we always say this, but I can’t believe yet another week has passed… Half way through January already!

Remember last year I was working on some embellishments for the striped scarf I had knitted? I decided it was high time I finished that project so over the past few days I’ve been working on making the fringe and adding the felt and crochet embellishments. So far I have completed one end, and this is the result.

The other side.

Detail of fringe. You can see that I have incorporated the felt balls I made with crochet chains. I had made some white balls which I didn’t think I would use but in the end I decided to use them, and I added a bit of embroidery on them with wool scraps.

Detail of some of the embellishments.

Embellishments and fringe.

Closer detail shots of the fringe.

I also attached a few crochet chains further up the scarf, with felt flowers and leaves attached, and the whole effect has been to soften the bottom edge of the scarf.

The little blob on the end of each felt ball on the fringe is a crochet chain loop, through which I am planning to attach a tassel. If I don’t like the tassels I can always take them off again – the little loops look quite nice on their own!

Now all I’ve got to do is repeat the process on the other end.

Kitties

They’ve both been using the cat tree again lately, which is good. I was beginning to think I’d bought a large expensive piece of junk.

Lily exposing her tummy.

We had another session with them in the garden the other day and Lily was quite happy playing and just sniffing at things and running around, but Ruby spent the whole time going round the edge looking for ways to escape. We had to keep her under close supervision the whole time. We took them out in the late afternoon when they were hungry, in the hope that this would get Ruby in, but we had a terrible job with her, and she wouldn’t even be enticed with Dreamies. In the end I fetched the birdie toy (you can just see it in the above photo) and this proved irresistible, and after a while my hubby managed to get her in.

We got Lily in first, and I shut her in the house, out of the kitchen. I went through to check on her because she was crying, and she was sitting up on the flat kitchen windowsill looking out, desperate to know where her sister was.

As soon as we got Ruby in, I chased her into the house and she went into the flat. Lily didn’t see her at first but still went on gazing out of the window, and I called her and said “Ruby’s here!” and she immediately leapt down and went straight to her and kissed her – she was all over her and her relief and love were palpable! It was sweet to watch, and I wished I’d had the camera handy. She really worries about Ruby, but we wish she would just tell her to behave and be done with it – but we all know that Ruby never listens to anybody!!

This is what I’m always threatening Ruby with, when she’s naughty!!

Other news

No sourdough this week, but I made ordinary seed bread in the bread maker. I also did a roast chicken on Saturday which was delicious, with lots of nice cold meat to follow (easy meals!) but I was so wiped out on Sunday after all that effort that I spent most of Sunday morning in bed while my hubby went off to church on his own!

I’ve not been too well this past week, with a lot of fatigue and headaches so I’ve been trying to rest as much as possible, and have also been working hard on sessions for my Bible study group which resumes again tomorrow night. I’ve been learning a lot recently and designing new sessions and am excited to share what I have learnt with the group. The sitting room is a mess and will definitely need to be tidied up before the evening!

We’ve got the plumber and the roofer coming at the end of the week – the former to service the boiler and check out a possible leak in the downstairs loo which always seems to be damp, and also to fix my boiling water tap that has been leaking for ages, and recently caused a major flood in the kitchen. The roofer is coming to fix a leak in the flashing on the lean-to at the back which is causing some dampness on the wall. Oh the joys of living in damp old Devon… It’s much damper by the coast than where we used to live, further inland. Always something to fix on older houses, isn’t there. Hopefully none of these jobs will prove major.

WOYWW 491–Knitting and Pet Service

On Saturday my hubby took me to the Range, and I bought a few bits and pieces. That’s all that’s on my desk this week, I’m afraid. A pack of craft card, a brush tool thingy for removing bits from detailed dies, and a couple of packs of refills for my hot glue gun.

It always amuses me when my hubby takes me shopping. He leaves me to my own devices for a while, so I can browse around, and then he finds me and the first question is, “Are you OK?” and when I reassure him, he goes off again, and the next time he comes back, he says, “How are you getting on?” and I say, “Fine, thank you,” and off he goes again, and then comes back with the final question, “Have you nearly finished?” when I know that he is thoroughly bored and wants to go home!!

Knitting

I finally finished unravelling the purple and yellow spotted knitting – and what a pain it proved to be! The fluffy yarn in particular was very hard to undo. I ended up with an enormous ball of yellow – really too big to handle! and a slightly smaller purple one. I created a tension swatch using the same circles pattern as before. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the original pattern from the garment I unravelled, and I had no note of the needle size I’d used, so I’ve had to start again from scratch.

I’ve done a small graph of the circles pattern repeat and now the tension swatch is done and measurements done, I have been able to design the pattern for the jumper I want to make – just a basic shape with nothing fancy – the colours and textures of the yarn will be enough. Using different yarns and needles, and each time making a tension swatch, this should be an easy pattern to follow in future.

This will be a lovely project to keep me going through the winter – nice to have something not too complicated to work on while watching TV.

Finishing the knitting of the peacock scarf.

Sourdough

Again, not a desperately successful loaf this week – not sure what I am doing wrong, but the colder weather may be something to do with it. As usual, it tastes fine. It’s just that it isn’t rising properly.

I also made more brown baps this week – again, very successful – and more sourdough crackers, which have become a staple in this house – I don’t buy crackers any longer. These are tasty and nutritious and filling too – you don’t need so many, which means we are also eating a bit less cheese which is probably a good thing for our weight! I’ve discovered they are also delicious with marmalade. I usually have oatcakes with marmalade (fabulous) and it made me wonder whether I might be able to adapt the sourdough crackers recipe with the addition of some oatmeal, for a change. I must do some research.

Kitties

Lily and Ruby had an adventure on Sunday, when we took them to the annual Pet Service at our church when we gave thanks for our furry family members! As usual, there was a large preponderance of dogs, who were mostly very well behaved apart from some competitive barking before the service began. (The lady on the right in the picture brought along her gorgeous little tiger stuffy!)

Apart from Lily and Ruby, only one other kitty, called Amelia.

She’s an old hand at this and just sat quietly throughout.

There was also Karen, the guide dog, who of course is always well-behaved.

Finally, here are our two.

My hubby had put newspaper in the cat carrier and of course Ruby had to tear this up. They were a bit nervous at the beginning but soon settled down. They had each other for moral support. We had a bit of crying from Lily in the car on the way there, but on the way home, not a peep – they know when they are homeward bound!

The trouble was, they were both very naughty when we got them home! Blowing off steam, I suspect.

The service was lovely with lots of singing, a thoughtful little sermon from the minister about our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation (I thought a lot about a horrifying programme I saw recently about the levels of plastic pollution in the oceans and its impact on marine life), and then a short talk by one of the representatives of our local Animals in Distress charity. This year she spoke about a rescue cat called Bomber with spinal problems, who has recently been rehomed. He had a CT scan on his back which showed that despite his wonky spine, he’s in pretty good shape. You can see his Instagram pictures here which show how happy he is in his new home. Animals in Distress is currently engaged in a massive fund-raising operation to build a new, purpose-built centre.

Lily and Ruby were very much admired and lots of people who hadn’t seen them since last year’s service were amazed how big they were! They were only a few months old last time.

Here are us two, enjoying a cup of tea afterwards. (No, I’m not really trying to hide the cake…)

Talking of animals, my hubby found this brilliant Youtube video last week, about a whale who showed its gratitude to the people who rescued it from some fishing net.

Health Update

I had a letter from my surgeon on Saturday, confirming what I already knew, that the hernia has returned. He wants to see me to discuss options, so no doubt I’ll receive an appointment in due course – but it will probably not be till next year if I know the NHS!

Also, on Monday, not having heard anything further about my pants, I phoned up for a progress report and someone else returned my call, saying that the machinist had been out of the office and they hadn’t even made a start on my pants! I said this was simply not good enough because I’d been promised by the rep that my order would be given top priority because of the mistake that had been made. I expressed my extreme annoyance at their inefficiency and that I was not at all happy. I also told them that I had now had confirmation of the hernia having returned, and that this order was urgent as it needed the support. Goodness, I’m fed up with all this nonsense. They promised the pants would be in the post tomorrow, but I’m not expecting miracles. If they don’t fit yet again, I am sure I don’t know what I shall do!!!!!

Finally, after my recent “relaxed carrot” photo, another wonky veg to make you smile. It arrived with my grocery delivery last week. I think it looks a bit like a seahorse!

WOYWW 490

No change on my main work desk this week, but over the other side, all my felt stuff has been pulled out again…

On Monday afternoon, I finally got round to wet-felting the embellishments I made for the striped scarf. You may remember a while back I needle-felted quite a few felt balls and flowers and these needed a bit of rough treatment to firm them up a bit. At the top of the photo on the left you can see my olive oil soap that you use with hot water for wet felting. That stuff smells lovely and I always associate it with felt.

All the pieces are laid out on the table with the vinyl cloth which is beside the sink in my studio. I shall leave them out until they are fully dry, and then I can start sewing the embellishments onto that scarf.

I’ve done quite a few more inches on the peacock scarf and I should finish the knitting in a few days’ time. I need to make a few more peacock feathers and then I can finish that one too.

I’ve also resumed unravelling a rather unsatisfactory knitted tunic top I made years ago – I like the colours and the design (purple circles on a yellow background – there’s a snippet of it in the photo montage that makes up my blog header) but it never fitted very well and I didn’t like the neck. I am going to knit it up again to a different design. It is made up of different 4-ply thickness yarns so there’s variety in the texture as well as the colour. I started working on this particular UFO (UnFinished Object) unravel months ago and it was another one that bit the dust along the way and definitely needs finishing. It will be good to have a new knitting project to keep me going through the winter.

The only other thing I did in the studio this week was also on Monday afternoon. I mended one of my necklaces that had got broken, and soldered a stretchy metal arm band that had also snapped, which I’ve been putting off doing for months! I like these old-fashioned men’s arm bands as I’ve got rather short arms and my sleeves are always too long, and they keep them up out of the way when I’m busy in the kitchen etc. Really pleased to have got that little job done. I had to do the other arm band too, last year. The joins obviously weren’t that secure, but I’ve had them for years so I suppose they haven’t done too badly.

I am getting absolutely inundated with dried teabags and I really need to start working on those, carefully cutting them open and tipping out the tea, ready to go on the garden. Then I’ve got to decide what to do with them all! This job is definitely on my UFOs to-do list.

Bread

I’ve decided to start making bread rolls. They are useful for sandwiches etc. and looking at the list of ingredients on the supermarket ones, I was horrified! So many added chemicals to such a simple food. They are very little trouble to make really, and much more delicious, and with no artificial additives. I found a simple half-and-half wholemeal and white recipe online and added lots of nice seeds to the mix (my usual sunflower and pumpkin, and also some chia and brown flax seeds for good measure), and topped with sesame seeds. A huge success!

My sourdough this week was NOT a success. As usual the flavour is good but I tried altering the technique a bit because I thought the reason why my sourdough never rises very much may be due to over-proving, but leaving it for a shorter time clearly wasn’t the right decision.

Oh well, it tastes OK, even if it’s rather dense this week! It would make good ballast.

Our Michelin-Starred Meal Out

Last night we went for our special meal out. A friend from church gave us the ticket that he’d won, saying we would enjoy it more than them. What a lovely treat! Scroll down to previous post. View it if you dare. Prepared to be green with envy, and don’t view if you are hungry or you’ll hate me!!

Kitties

On Sunday afternoon my hubby was busy in the garden, cutting back, and clearing all the weeds from the waterfall outside the kitchen window. Ruby was fascinated by all the activity and I snapped this sweet piccy of her balancing on the trellis – taken with the zoom through the kitchen window.

Lily has decided to be antisocial in the evenings and her latest sleeping place is on the armchair in the flat, much to my hubby’s disgust. Ruby just loves to settle down on my legs once I’ve got my feet up on the recliner and we both enjoy the mutual warmth!

My little buttercup was in real trouble yesterday – not just once, but twice, I caught Ruby in the act of licking my butter when my back was turned – while I was actually still in the room! The second time I caught her, she ran away and hid. She knew she’d been a naughty girl. Lots of cuddles and forgiveness later.

Health Update

The first pair of support pants duly arrived last Thursday and to my extreme annoyance, they don’t fit. I thought, “Oh no, not again…” I went through all this last year. I immediately phoned the lovely rep and she was absolutely horrified that this has happened to me again, and immediately swung into action, consulting her manager and attempting to sort out the problem. The next morning she phoned me for some additional accurate measurements and I emailed her photographs too. They are going to remake them and hopefully they will arrive in the next day or two as she was marking it urgent. I also sent her a photo of my now very obvious hernia and she agreed this really needs proper support.

They have cut the pants much too short. The band at the top cuts right across the middle of my stoma bag – completely useless! Also, I asked for lace, and they haven’t put this on. Someone isn’t reading the directions the rep gave them.

My hubby wondered if I could go with another firm but I really don’t want to – when they get it right, the pants are excellent. This company uses a unique fabric which is specifically designed by a doctor to give adequate hernia support while not interfering with the operation of the stoma, and is the only company that does a bespoke service and home visits. Our hospital also deals with them and they run a regular clinic in the colorectal outpatients, and they know the rep that covers our area. The rep didn’t think that what had happened to me was a common problem and was mortified that it had happened to me at all, let alone twice! I had such a time with it last year when they got it wrong twice, and it took months to get it sorted.

In the meantime I am continuing to wear the old ones which the rep said were no longer giving me adequate support because they need replacing every year (they are now about 18 months old) as they gradually lose their stretch with wearing and washing, and also since they were made, I have lost some weight. I didn’t order any more early this year because I knew I was due to have surgery and you can’t wear them for several weeks after that as they exert too much pressure, and then I was waiting to see my surgeon and the stoma nurse for several months after I eventually got out of hospital. When I saw them in August they agreed I should continue with the support garments and the nurse arranged an appointment for the rep to call on me. Everything takes so long to get organised these days and with them making a mistake with the fitting just adds insult to injury and all the time my hernia is getting bigger, it seems.

I had my CT scan last Thursday and of course I haven’t had any result back yet. I shall probably phone the stoma nurse early next week to see if there’s any news.

Rollator

My hubby’s brother has used a rollator for some years now and swears by it, and several months ago, our sister-in-law suggested that I might find one useful. I did some online research and found the one I wanted on Ebay, but it was collect only, and too far away. I looked up the model but unfortunately it is no longer made, which was disappointing because this particular one ticked all the boxes for me. I set up an email alert on Ebay and decided to wait a while to see if any more came up, rather than getting a different one, and this week I got notification of one, and immediately bought it. It’s second hand but looks virtually unused, and I got it for a very good price, and they were prepared to send it, too. It arrived on Monday and it’s really good! We went for a 90th birthday drinks party later on that morning and I was able to try it out. It uses a lot less energy than walking with crutches.

Ruby is terrified of it.

The next thing is for my hubby to try and rig up some sort of bracket so I can hook it on the back of my buggy.

So again, another pretty eventful week chez Shosh! At least I haven’t been so exhausted this week.

WOYWW 481 Felt, Crochet and Sourdough

I can’t believe another week has flown by… We are nearly at the end of August, for goodness sake.

Still no movement on the studio front apart from tidying away my disaster of a felt box which I had discovered was all wet because I hadn’t emptied a bottle of soapy water and it had leaked all over everything. It’s all now cleaned up and dried and put away so there’s a slight improvement in floor space on that side of the room.

I have been continuing to work on felt embellishments for my striped scarf.

I have made several little calla lily lookalikes, and I’ve also started covering the white cores with coloured fleece, as you can see on the left in the photo.

To add a bit of variety, I thought I’d do a few crochet embellishments as well, so after a quick search on Youtube I found some very nice flower patterns, which I haven’t started yet, and this delightful Dutch video on crochet butterflies – even though I don’t understand Dutch, the filming was so clear that I was able to follow everything, and I’ve written out a pattern that I can follow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh1uEIyN0rc&list=PL-OKjxuL-AQjnRsxxRNohlLOr1oAF1Y7s&index=7&t=0s

I have completed one, and am working on the second.

They are a bit lumpy but once they’ve been steam pressed, they will be fine, I am sure. They are such fun to do, and don’t take long.

Sourdough

I decided this week to have another go with the sourdough, following the very good video I mentioned last week. Because my first attempt seemed very dry compared with the baker’s dough on the video, I thought I’d try increasing the hydration of the dough by 10 percent, which was a total disaster – when I turned the dough out onto the table towards the end of the process, and left it to rest, when I came back, it resembled a pancake and was practically flowing out of the door!! There was nothing I could do about this and I was really fed up by this time, as it was the end of the day and I was tired, so I binned the lot.

The day before yesterday I had another go, this time reducing the hydration by 5 percent and the same thing happened. I thought it was a shame to waste good ingredients, although bread flour isn’t that expensive, so I scooped it all up, and decided to make it into sourdough crackers which are made of excess sourdough starter with some added flour, coconut oil, an egg and some additional salt. I can’t remember but I don’t think I added the egg, but I did add some coconut oil and another teaspoon of salt. The cracker recipe says you have to leave it to rest for several hours, and when I came back, the dough was rising all over the place so I thought, what the heck, I’ll bake it as bread and see what happens! I didn’t take that much care over the folding and shaping, so I didn’t expect stellar results, but it did produce a loaf, and as anticipated, the crumb was much more dense than that of true sourdough.

It tastes pretty good, though.

Yesterday I thought I’d have another go, and this time use the Youtube baker’s recommended 65 percent hydration again, which I’d done the first time I’d tried his method. I thought that on that occasion the crumb was a bit dense because I hadn’t exactly mastered his method of folding and shaping, so this time I took extra care over this.

Initially the dough did resemble his much more – on my first attempt it was so dry, which I put down to the fact that the rye flour I mix in has a higher absorbency – I thought I could compensate for this by increasing the hydration but after two failed attempts, this obviously wasn’t going to work. This time it seemed a lot less stiff to start with, and I thought all was going to be well. However, with each folding session, it seemed to get more and more wet, until at the turning out onto the table stage, I knew it was going to spread again, and so it did. I was getting so desperate with it at this stage that I thought I couldn’t possibly waste any more dough, and I’d bake it anyway.

As happens every single time I bake sourdough, the final moulded dough sticks to the cloth and will not turn out cleanly onto the baking sheet or into the casserole I use as a Dutch oven. Pulling the cloth away destroys the integrity of the boule and spoils the top surface and because the skin of gluten that you work so assiduously to create is broken, there isn’t enough oven spring and the bread does not rise sufficiently in the oven. I have tried normal bread flour to dust the cloth (not recommended because it’s too high in gluten and sticks like glue), rice flour and semolina (both low in gluten) but everything sticks.

Yesterday’s effort was a total disaster. It stuck big time to the cloth despite copious amounts of semolina – there was only one small central area which didn’t stick. The trouble is, when you flour the cloth inside the bowl or banneton you use for the final proving, the flour won’t stick to the sloping sides but slides down to the bottom.

Worse was to come. I took the lid off the casserole half way through the baking as instructed, and when I came to take it out of the oven I noticed it was rather overdone. Then I couldn’t get it out of the casserole because it was stuck fast! The whole thing is terrifyingly hot so there wasn’t much I could do except leave it in there to cool off a bit. It is still completely stuck. I shall have to wreck the loaf to get it out. Grrrr and double grrrr! I don’t know what’s going on…

The baker on Youtube is a lovely man who has answered everyone’s comments on the video, so I think I’m going to ask him for some help! I’m obviously doing something wrong and am wondering if it’s something to do with the rye flour. If I have to abandon this, I shall be rather sad because we do love the intense flavour of this.

So I think the latest effort may end up being sourdough croutons!!! At least there are lots of variations in the sourdough universe, and whatever I do, and however unsightly it may be (crumb too dense, top looking like a lunar landscape, whole loaf looking like a squashed flying saucer, etc. etc.) at least one thing is consistent – the delicious flavour! I am so determined to get this right, though, and will NOT admit defeat!!

Other fermentation

On Monday the three days required for the second fermentation of my first batch of kombucha (fermented tea) were up, so I put the bottles in the fridge. Cooling a carbonated liquid helps retain the gas in the liquid, so opening the bottles tends to be a somewhat less explosive experience than at room temperature. Yesterday I opened the first bottle, and released the wire clip very, very, veeerrrrry slowly, with the bottle in a bowl in the sink and my eyes tightly closed like a kid watching Doctor Who from behind the settee, and it was pretty lively even so! I strained the liquid into a bowl and saw that as the Youtube video had said could happen, it had grown a little baby Scoby (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeasts – the culture used to ferment tea into kombucha). (in the photo, you can see it on the surface of the mango one on the right, and in the raspberry one, it has got stuck in the neck of the bottle. Goodness… it will probably shoot out and get me in the eye when I open that one!!) Unfortunately I couldn’t keep this because it had flavouring in it (in this case, mango puree) but I had no conscience about putting it in the compost bin because Scobies make excellent compost to feed the garden. The man on the video said if you don’t strain it, swallowing a Scoby by mistake can be a bit of an unnerving experience (like drinking a jellyfish) but it won’t do you any harm – it’s full of gorgeous probiotic bacteria and goodness for your system. (You can feed them to animals who love them! Or you can cut them up and dry them to make dog treats. They need probiotics too.) Anyway, my first batch is delicious – I can’t taste too much mango, but it tastes rather like cider. I haven’t tasted the raspberry one yet. In addition to drinking it as is, I am also using it as an ingredient in a rehydration drink I am making as a change from St. Mark’s Solution (a rehydration drink designed by St. Mark’s Colorectal Hospital in London for ostomates) – I drink a litre of this every day. I’ve been making up the new recipe with the brine from my fermented apples until the kombucha was ready – all adds variety to the spice of life! I think it’s delicious, but when I offered my hubby a taste, he pulled a face!!

Kitties

From being ultra teenagerish and stand-offish, suddenly Ruby wants cuddles all the time in the evening once they are in from the garden and have had supper. When not on my lap she likes sleeping on the back of the settee behind me. Last night Lily purloined her favourite spot and for a couple of hours they were happy up there together. Is this the new latest place? Lily seems to have abandoned the hammock!

Here they are on the outside of the kitchen window, in the vain hope I’ll open up and let them in.

And here’s Ruby cuddled up with the teddies after my hubby brought them (the teddies, not the kitties) in from the sitting room window.

Lily is loafing around the TV. She is fascinated by the screen saver that comes on if the DVD player goes into standby. Lily is a bit of a TV addict anyway, and particularly enjoys wildlife programmes.

Hospital appointment

I have done a blog about this in detail, but suffice it to say here that I saw my surgeon last Thursday, and the stoma nurse. It is possible that I have herniated again… I suspected this and told him, and after examining me, he couldn’t be sure so he’s booked me in for a CT scan (awaiting appointment for that). If I have got a hernia again this will be the biggest bore ever – it will mean I went through ALL THAT at the beginning of the year for nothing – further major surgery, followed by infected haematomas and the beginning of sepsis and coming close to death. It will be much more difficult to deal with now, because of the presence of the mesh, and also I have already had the hernia repaired twice. Oh grrrr… Anyway, I’m not going to worry, but wait and see what shows up, and if I have got a hernia, I think my surgeon will agree with me to leave well alone, get adequate support asap (stoma nurse arranging appointment with support garments lady – my existing ones now 18 months old and probably too stretched to work properly any more, in addition to my having lost weight), and hope against hope that it doesn’t cause another obstruction. They reckon that between 50 and 75 percent of ostomates will get a hernia and it’s a very difficult problem to deal with.

WOYWW 480 Felt and Sourdough

I’ve been really tired this week and still getting intermittent headaches so I’ve rested as much as I can. I finished knitting the striped scarf (one of my famous UFOs – UnFinished Objects!) and sewed the ends closed, and when I did the ironing at the weekend, gave it a good press so it’s now looking OK.

To finish it off, I’ve decided to add lots of fun embellishments instead of a regular fringe. Ages ago I found a brilliant image somewhere online which inspired this idea, and now I can’t find it for love nor money – I had an idea it was on Pinterest but I think it must have been taken down, and I didn’t download it, so I shall just have to remember the impression of how it looked. This is probably a good thing because I won’t be tempted to copy it, but make it my own from a memory that inspired me.

The first step was to make lots of felt balls. I’ve started these off to the pre-felt stage, using needle felting, which is more time-consuming than wet felting, but at least I can do it sitting on the recliner. I made quite a lot, and then decided it was a waste of the coloured Merino wool tops so I started making white ones, which will have coloured wool needle-felted on top.

They are in a variety of sizes and after wet-felting they will be smaller. I can string these on crochet chains and also attach tassels to them. I am also thinking of adding a bit of embroidery to the larger ones.

I have also started making a few needle-felted flowers, some of which will also be suspended, and others will be sewn on the scarf itself.

I’ve chosen colours as close to the knitted colours as I could manage. I think the effect will be quite striking.

Sourdough

Esmeralda, my sourdough starter, has been quite active in the fridge, where she is supposed to be asleep, and after I fed her she started going bananas again so I took some out, and made pancakes again. I didn’t make any sourdough last week, but just fed her and put her back in the fridge.

Last week I was doing some more research into improving my sourdough technique and found a superb Youtube video which showed how to get a good texture from a relatively low-hydration dough. The higher the hydration (very wet dough) the more difficult it is to handle, especially for beginners like me, but if the dough is too dry, you don’t get the characteristic sourdough texture.

This man had a different technique which involved folding the dough several times over a period of six hours, after having chilled the dough and then leaving it at room temperature overnight, so quite a long process. I was able to do things in between, of course. When I turned it out ready for baking, it maintained its shape brilliantly and didn’t subside into my usual flying saucer! I baked it using the Dutch Oven technique, using my mum’s old iron casserole which creates a micro-climate around the dough and keeps it moist during the first stage of baking, allowing for what they call good “oven spring.” – the final rise in the oven.

This was the result.

From the side, you can see how much it has risen, and what a good shape it is.

Cutting it, I was slightly disappointed that the crumb wasn’t quite open enough, but this can be improved upon with higher hydration.

Following along with the Youtube video while I was folding the dough, mine was a lot stiffer than his, even though the hydration was the same. I think this is because I used a combination of white and rye flours, and the rye flour is a lot more absorbent than the normal bread flour. Next time I shall increase the hydration and I think it will be easier to handle, and also give a better crumb.

Unfortunately I had to make this into a single, larger loaf in order to use the Dutch Oven method, because I couldn’t get two small ones in the casserole side by side. My bannetons are too small for a loaf of this size so I had to use a bowl for the final proving. I shall either have to buy a bigger banneton, or revert to the original method of baking in the oven on a baking sheet, with a tray of boiling water underneath to produce the steam to prevent the dough drying out too much initially, and stopping it rising in the oven. Even when pre-heating the baking tray in the oven, it doesn’t stay hot enough when you take it out to turn the dough out onto it. The casserole, being solid cast iron, remains incredibly hot – I had to get out my old fashioned oven gloves in order to be able to handle it at all! The Dutch Oven method is definitely more successful, but without the banneton, I don’t get the traditional spiral pattern on the loaf. Appearance? Quality? It’s a no-brainer, really… However, the main thing is that this bread tastes absolutely fabulous. This is Real Food. Watch this space.

Other fermentation

The kaanji I attempted to make was revolting, and ended up being poured away. Can’t win ’em all.

This week my large fermentation vessel and bottles arrived, along with a Scoby (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeasts – looks a bit like a dead jellyfish) so I started some kombucha (fermented tea) which is going very well in the airing cupboard – I can see definite evidence of fermentation activity. It takes about a week to ten days. After this, it can be bottled with a bit of fruit for second fermentation which will flavour and carbonate it. I can’t wait to try it.

(It looks a bit like a kid playing a shepherd in a Nativity play!)

I tasted the kimchi I had had fermenting on the kitchen counter and it’s delicious, but really fiery! I think I might have put in a bit too much of the Korean chilli powder. I stirred a little into the sourdough starter pancake batter and it was great, but next time I’ll add a bit more to give more of a kick. It’s now in the fridge, to arrest any further fermentation.

This week my hubby brought in the first crop of apples from our tree, and I’m attempting some fermented apples. I’ve added dried fruit (dates and raisins) and some spices (cloves, cinnamon) and it’s doing its thing on the floor of the pantry. I am very interested in how this might turn out.

Apples on the left (fermenting) and kimchi.

We are still continuing with the kefir. I start a new batch every night. The grains increase, and I put the excess in a jar in the fridge in some milk, and I’ve given the first lot away to a wholefood shop in Totnes – she was very grateful as she often gets customers asking if she has kefir starter kits.

I’m running out of jars. I’ve got half a dozen 1-litre Mason jars on order from Amazon. As for fridge space, that’s now at crisis point!

Kitties

Just one picture of them this week, taken with the zoom from the bedroom window.

They don’t like the rain and have taken to coming in and out throughout the day, and sleeping more in the daytime.

For some reason quite beyond my understanding, last night Ruby suddenly decided she’s gone off kitty biscuits and started trying to eat her sister’s wet food, so we’ve started giving them both the same food again! When they were quite small, Ruby made it quite clear she hated wet food and would only eat biccies. What has suddenly changed her mind again? Can anyone fathom what goes on in the kitty mind? The question remains unanswered, along with what happened to the ill-fated Marie Celeste, who killed Cock Robin, and whether the moon is made of cheese. (Funny, even after putting men on the moon, NASA didn’t tell us this. You’d think they’d know.)

Health Update

When I was in hospital, my surgeon said he wanted to see me two weeks after my discharge, which was at the beginning of May. The NHS runs on a different time-scale from the rest of us. Two weeks = three months. My follow-up appointment is tomorrow. Oh well. It’s a good thing I’ve been OK, isn’t it. I rang the stoma team a couple of days ago to see if I could see the nurse while I was there, and was told they are very short-staffed (two on holiday, and one with a broken wrist) but they’d see what they could do. Not too impressive. My surgeon told my GP months ago that I couldn't go back on the Rivaroxaban (anti-coagulant) until I’d seen him in clinic so I’ve been off it all this time, and am not sure what effect this is having, and whether I still need it or not. If I do, my health could have been put at risk all this time. No doubt I’ll get the chance to discuss this with him on Thursday.

My studio remains a total tip. Hopefully in the coming days I shall have more time and energy and actually get back in there. I don’t understand how mess multiplies when one isn’t even using the room. Another conundrum to go with the kitty mind one.

Happy WOYWW everyone.