After a two week silence we restart with the most English of subjects: the weather.
The weather has been a bit up and down these past two weeks. First it got a bit better, meaning that whilst I still needed to wear two layers in the morning (I hate being cold), the layers were lighter.
Then the sun really flashed its brilliant light and showed up all the areas in the house we needed to tackle with the vigour of a rugby player.
Two weekends ago we cleaned the plinths on the kitchen cabinets. The marks left from spills to the floor and the balls of fluffy dust that adhered stubbornly to each surface really put me to shame. I scrubbed the surfaces with the rough side of a sponge and Fairy, the only reliable washing-up liquid, like my reputation depended on it.
Then we scrubbed the terracotta flower pots and pressure-hosed the patio. The herbs got another feeding and I think I might even have talked to them in a moment of happiness.
In between we also cut out a coir floor mat to fit our front porch, and since we started with a large piece we shared the rest with four of our neighbours. Teacher Neighbour invited a few of us to tea, and Thermomix Neighbour made some mango sorbet for everyone to try.
Sunshine really brings out the best in all of us.
Then straight after the second May Bank Holiday the rain returned, this time accompanied by thunder and lightning.
Sometimes wet days can lead to inspiration. Needing more colour in the living room in order to brighten the mood, I placed some fresh cut flowers in old jam jars and arranged them next to some antiques handed down from my mother. To be honest I never saw the need for antiques but now I can see how much fun you can have if you add flowers to the equation.
I have managed to make some delicious curry paste which I will write about in a future post, but the main thing we have made is focaccia. We go through a loaf every one or two days, depending on how many of us are around. Us means our family, the children’s friends and my nieces. For some reason focaccia is the default darling loaf of the family, and we eat it on is own or with butter, jam, olives, hummus as well as with cheese.
Like I have decided that antiques are quite fun to have around, I also decided that there would be no more square focaccias. Our focaccias were always baked in a 20 cm x 20 cm tin, for no other reason than I thought it was nice to have a perfectly square loaf. I now make circles and the first comment the children made was: you haven’t made it square. I shrugged my shoulders and hoped they understood that this was a minor change in the grand scheme of things.
Life is, as ever, always busy and so it is not possible to write up the recipe for each dish we have cooked, although I will endeavour to catch up over the Summer. I am trying to read more as well, and to this end the book shelf was also given a tidy over because books are always the one thing I can see the point of.
