Diary > Saturday 11th April

[trystan]

7:00 pretty quiet on the road.

Buckets of sunshine through the windows.

7:48 Asda ring me up to tell me that their Click and Collect lockers are locked, and my order has been sent to another Asda for collection at 9am today.

Shower, dressed, one cup of tea we head off to Asda to collect our shopping. We saw a car before us being served, so we could see how they did it. So we did the same. We parked up, opened the boot, and got out of the car and waited a few steps away at the front of the car. A lady came out and loaded the boot, and then she told us she had finished, we thanked her, the n she went away. I closed the boot and we drove home. Really good.

We could see people queuying up outside Asda, spacing themselves out, and M&S, and the Tesco queue was very long.

As it is a Saturday, we had bacon butties for a treat.

Our neighbour across the road rang up to say she liked our Easter window displays. I'd cut out some coloured paper to make Easter eggs, and made a cross using toilet rolls innards (whatever they're called). I thought it quite apt as it's almost "The Era of The Toilet Roll".

A good walk, really warm.

A pint of Robinson's Lemon Barley water when I got home to quench my thirst, followed by a good cup of tea.

Am I beginning to get a sore throat I'm wondering? Just a little bit? One of the first signs of this lurgy. I hope not. Hmm. No, I think I'm just imagining it.

We managed to get Sarah a Saturday paper with the Click-and-collect, so she's enjoying reading that now. We left it out in the sunshine for a few hours first, so it's making reassuring crinkling noises.

Not long until I make the Pizza dough for our Saturday Pizza.

150g Strong Flour, 50g Semolina, 120g water, Yeast, 1/4 tsp salt, drop of olive oil at the end.
German salami, home cooked ham, peppers, anchovies.

How has your day been?

[mazi]

7:00 pretty quiet on the road.

Buckets of sunshine through the windows.



Not long until I make the Pizza dough for our Saturday Pizza.

150g Strong Flour, 50g Semolina, 120g water, Yeast, 1/4 tsp salt, drop of olive oil at the end.
German salami, home cooked ham, peppers, anchovies.

How has your day been?

Pretty fair day considering neither of us sleep well when it’s warm, so we arose a bit late.

Went to Tesco, although it’s 9 miles away it’s our nearest shop with a pharmacy, stunning scenery of the Wye valley there and back.

One one person allowed so I self-isolated in the car while Mazi queued, only 5 mins, no flour but everything else was available,  back home to our Tesco treat, choux buns and a mug of tea.

It’s hot, 24 degrees, so we relaxed, occasionally watering the many little plants in trays,  just a short while ago there were floods everywhere, our 9 mile shop was a 20 mile diversion, and now everywhere is dry.

Do you let the pasta dough rise,  or does it just expand a bit while it cooks?

Mike

[pharmaT]

Took wee one to be tested, I am in the bad books as wasn't pleasant.  At least she's well enough to argue with me.  Just waiting for results.

Was lazy again today and just had stir for dinner instead of doing a lot of cooking.  Now watching Herbie Fully Loaded.  Not generally a fan of remakes, modern takes on old films but it's not too bad.

[Roobarb]

Wasn't feeling too marvellous when I woke up (was okay physically but nor emotinally), tried to give my head a shake. Spent some time reading then hung out the washing that had just finished, it was already warm in the garden. A bit of tidying the house then a friend rang, we had a very long conversation, it did me good as I hadn't spoken to anyone since Wednesday. Hadn't been for my walk yet so decided to have lunch then go. Usual carry on circling around people, a boy on a bike was heading towards me, every time I diverted he was doing so, I think he was doing it on purpose. Managed to escape him before I resorted to shouting a complaint to the woman following him on foot.

I'd decided to have a lazy day today but it never seems to work out that way once I start on the gardening. I did bring out my garden chair though and sat reading again with a cuppa for a while. enjoying the warm weather while it's here.

Phoned a friend whose husband is in hospital, of course she's unable to visit him and it looks like he'll be there for a few weeks yet. He doesn't have the virus, thank goodness. We talked about a number of things that have nothing to do with Covid19, it was really refreshing and cheering.

Rootschat and TV. Last night I watched Kate and Koji to cheer myself up, hadn't watched any of the episodes, I couldn't believe it when Koji turned out to be an epidemiologist, what unfortunate timing! It was quite amusing though.

Might have a glass of wine, not because of any low mood, just because it's Saturday and I can! 

[california dreamin]

Fell asleep last night and awoke this morning to eerie quiet. Is this really the sound of lives being saved? Usual morning routine except for the cat had been sick and had to deal with the clean up.  A bit of an effort to do my usual morning walk.  A bit quieter today with all the park goers 'ghosting' each other.  A vibrant display of cherry blossom has appeared, perhaps the extra warmth yesterday allowed the flowers to emerge? Once home I did a few exercises which I've added to my regime.

The rest of the day passed rather eventlessly .  I had a late lunch and ended up watching an old show on Quest. Walking the Amazon with Ed Stafford.  What an amazing feat which took him two years!

A 'boxed' turkey and simple 'trimmings' for tea - which was nice and not too much effort.

Have been awaiting my DNA results from Ancestry and today found the sample was 'not good enough'. So, I'm very disappointed.  I've ordered another test but to be fair I'm surprised this type of item is accepted in the post given what it is!  I doubt British or US post should be shipping any 'spit' samples at the mo. 

Mr CD continues to be pleased as punch with the growth of his beard.  He was telling me today about his work colleague who has a 14 year old son who is a newspaper delivery boy and who has now been declared a 'key' worker.

What a strange old world we are living in at the moment.

Stay safe!
CD

[Caw1]

Had a dreadful nights sleep... who knows why. I got up to open the window in the night some more and the moon was looking quite spectacular... has been though to be fair for the last few nights. Only last night it was really looking quite pinkish and through the trees very atmospheric. I tried to take a photo with my phone leaning out of the window but had to be careful in case I dropped it!

As a result I woke up fairly late to the sunshine streaming in, sent messages to my son and daughter and nephew who lives in Singapore and another Easter ecard to the grandsons!

Felt quite sad as it would have been my mums 100th birthday today and I'm devastated that I can't go and put some flowers on her grave... but it was mitigated by getting up to have breakfast with all the windows and kitchen doors open listening to the birds... she would have enjoyed that.

Got the washing going..... OH had his, now normal, Saturday morning Zoom with his three golf buddies...
I went to the butchers to pick up mine and two of my neighbours orders, already paid for on the phone all I had to do was open the boot they put the boxes in the car and off I went to the coop... had to wait about 10 mins as there was a distanced queue. Quite a lot of people out and about cycling, walking with / without dogs.
Deliver meat to neighbours at a distance and OH still on Zoom... thought they were in for a marathon but soon ended.
Had lunch.. usual sandwich and fruit.

Brought garden chairs out of the shed and sat outside and we whiled the afternoon away playing scrabble... I really don't miss all the sport on tv as it's soooo nice to have OH's company.

We had decided earlier in the day that we'd have a BBQ and sat outside to eat whilst the sun was just going down and surprising how warm it still was.

These last few days of warm weather has brought leaf on the trees, beech hedging starting to go green... broad beans, onions, tomatoes, courgettes all coming up.... radish seeds bought on Monday and sown already showing through the soil.

Watched some tv and off to bed.


Glad you're feeling a bit better today Roobarb always therapeutic to speak to friends.

Caroline

[trystan]

Not long until I make the Pizza dough for our Saturday Pizza.

150g Strong Flour, 50g Semolina, 120g water, Yeast, 1/4 tsp salt, drop of olive oil at the end.
German salami, home cooked ham, peppers, anchovies.

Do you let the pasta dough rise,  or does it just expand a bit while it cooks?

Mike

I made the dough with 100g strong flour, and 50g Semolina in the end for a thin crust.

I put the pizza dough in a glass bowl, seal it with cling film. I then let it rise for about 40 minutes. Yesterday, I put the cling filmed bowl, wrapped in a carrier bag into the miniature greenhouse to rise.
Once risen I put a good amount of semolina (semolina incidentally is just ordinary flour, but coarser) on the work surface. I take out the dough from the bowl, and keeping it my hand I make as big a disc as I can. I then place it on the work surface, and roll it out with a rolling pin until it's the right size for a pizza.

Sometimes at this stage I would then cover it with cling film and give it a bit more time, while I chop the toppings, but it's not really necessary.

Flouring the work surface with a coarse flour (like Semolina) means it goes onto a pizza paddle easily and in and out of the pizza stone in the oven. Sarah very kindly bought me a pizza stone and pizza paddle for my last birthday (I hope it literally isn't my last birthday, as I enjoy making pizza).

The pizza takes 7 minutes to cook, or 8 minutes if I have more moist toppings (like pineapple or fresh tomatoes).

Trystan

[mazi]

Thanks Tristan, I shall give it a go,  I wonder if I could just make a bit extra bread dough, and harvest some off for a pizza after the first rising, use the rest for a normal loaf.

Mike

[trystan]

Mike,

Yes - certainly, you could make dough with 700g of flour and keep about 250g of the resulting dough for your pizza.

Trystan