Friday

First of all:  BRRRRR!  It's chilly!  It was so chilly last night and this morning, we needed an extra blanket, and what's worse, I can't find my beanie.  Mum bought me this beanie when I was going overseas in '96, so it's been with me a while, and I refuse to believe I've lost it.  Finding it is on my to-do list for today. 

Celebrating the cooler weather, yesterday I made minestrone for tea, along with some baguettes using the recipe from Dough.  I've used his recipe a number of times, and particularly of late, I've found the bread to be a little bland.  I'm not using the same amount of salt that he suggests (10g per 500g of flour) just because I figure it won't improve the flavour (I'm thinking adding more salt will make it just taste saltier).  So I'm just noting here what I did, so that I can try tweaking it a bit and see what I can come up with. 

The recipe calls for 500g bread flour, 10g yeast, 10g salt, 350g water.  I'm actually thinking that perhaps it's the yeast which is the failing here.  I'm using dry because I'm not sure where to source fresh.  So perhaps it would be fuller in flavour with fresh yeast.  Also, I'm using white flour, and that might be the other thing - we generally eat multigrain or brown, and they often have more to them.  I weighed everything very carefully, and apart from the lack of flavour, it was really good bread: it rose fine, was lovely golden brown and crispy when I baked it, and had a good texture.  The weather was cool (about 20 C) but dry, and the kitchen was fairly warm.  I remember a baker once showing me some measurement ruler thingy which helped him to make consistent loaves, based on the humidity in the air and the temperature - apparently it can affect bread significantly.  So for next time, I'll try and note that.  Also, Bertinet suggests that you keep some dough back, sourdough style (although not to use as a starter as much as a flavour-booster), everytime you make it.  I think I might try that next time.  

The minestrone was yum, though.  Glad I made a whole big pot, although slightly disappointed that the children both turned their noses up at it.  Disappointed, but not that surprised.  It'll probably take some years but I'll wear them down yet :)

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Cooper had a follow up visit to the vet today, where the vet drew blood, took a urine sample, and stuck his finger up Cooper's bum (C had an especial aversion to that, which is fair enough, I thought).  We'll find out tonight or tomorrow morning the results from the blood tests... I'm nervous, but hopeful that it will be something easy to treat.  Poor boy.

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In February and March I planted some lawn substitutes in the back garden, with some interesting results.  The bacopa is going very well



as is the lippia lawn:



(Not sure what the deal is with all the tiny sticks on our lawn but I suspect the dog may be the culprit).

The lippia appears to do much better in full sun than the bacopa.  I also planted some different kinds of thyme, but two of them died due to my water stingey-ness, and the other is doing well, but I won't plant any more of it.  It's too fluffy and high... my idea is a nice flat lawn which needs much less mowing. 

I've had some luck removing some onion weed recently - just pulling it out.  Sometimes the roots (the 'onion' part) come out too, sometimes they don't.  Short of actually digging up the lawn and sifting out the bulbs, I don't see another chemical-free solution, and I'm fairly satisfied with how's it working out anyway.  Besides, it's green and they die down in summer. 

As it's cooler now, I'm going to move the bouganvillea



to the side of the house.  It'll be much hotter there, but I'm certain it will cope; I'm counting on it.  It will provide more privacy from next door, and it's less invasive than the creeper thing that's there at the moment.  I plan to put that under the hibiscus along the fence. 

Also, as a bonus, when I got back from taking C to the vet, our neighbour called out that she had something for me.  She'd picked up two frangipani branches which had been pruned from a garden near her work.  I'm to let them dry out and then plant them in the spring.  Yay!  I love frangipani, and the one that I planted in summer died (lack of TLC on my part, I'm afraid).  The downside of this is that while I was chatting to her, unbeknownst to me, Cooper was having a chook manure breakfast (he'd had to fast for his test, so I guess it was fair game), and as a result, he has just thrown up chook poo on our pale pink carpet. 

Joy.  

Excuse me while I take a break to clean up...

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Tomorrow we're catching up with Meredith and J.  She has her operation in July, so I'm glad we can see them beforehand.  I really want them to feel physically better, finally.  Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end for sickness for her, at least, if not the rest of the family.  J and S get along so well, and with T starting to become less clingy and more into playing with other children, I'm hoping to be able to have, oh, I don't know, at least one or two minutes where I can actually talk to Meredith uninterrupted.  

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Finally, my washing basket broke recently - it finally cracked under the pressure of being turned into a boat/race-car/spaceship once too often.  I think it's about the third one I've had since we moved here in Dec '07 and it annoys me how long they don't last.  Plus I hate how once they crack, that's pretty much it.  I can't really use them for much else, because they won't really hold anything (having cracked) and the plastic where the damage is has quite sharp edges, so one of us (read: yours truly) is likely to get scratched.  Thus it's headed for the bin - what a waste!  So I thought long and hard, and then had to search long and hard for...



a wicker basket!  Because it can stand up to a lot more boat rides, and also once it breaks, I can fill it full of dirt and plant things in it.  Yippee!