The dough hook for my nice new (new to me that is. ebay triumphs again) mixer arrived today so I thought that I had better justify all the expense by at least making a decent loaf. WRONG It was a total failure. I ended up with a heavy lump of warm congealed yeuk.
A drastic re-think may be necessary. I used to make better bread doing it all by hand so unless something improves then my shiny pride and joy mixer will be labelled as another of my wasteful hare-brained ideas.
On Tuesday morning the building inspector turned up. We had to inform him before we started any of the building for the extension and then at intervals throughout the build so that he can check everything. He was away on holiday for a couple of weeks so Duncan the wonder-builder said that it didn't matter and we could go ahead anyway.
I thought that we may have trouble as the inspector was supposed to check when the foundations are dug that they are the correct depth and then check when the concrete is pored before we go any further. We have done all that without him seeing anything, the floor is down and the walls are up just waiting for the wind to drop before the roof goes on.
Duncan was of course right again. The inspector went 1 foot inside the building, said very good and added that I could now rip up 2 of the forms that should have been sent to him as the work was already done.
Oh the officials here are a whole world more sensible and less jobsworth than in Staffordshire.
Surprisingly we got a call today to say that a course on Orkney archeology that Pam and I had enrolled on had been cancelled due to lack of interest. Most things archeological are very well supported here but maybe next year. They did say that we could change to a practical archeology course but I thought that spending hours on my hands and knees in a trench at this time of year was not really my idea of fun.
I had a go with the bread again. At least I am not a quitter.
I have now solved the problem. It is all down to a silly habit that the ladies who write recipes have. Because they are either illiterate or to lazy to write long words, they use abbreviations.
Now I am sure that you will admit that "Tsp" and "Tbs" look very similar, whereas the words teaspoon and tablespoon are obviously different. When applied to the quantity of yeast in the recipe it makes a considerable difference.
Anyway the loaf looked really good and when I cut it it had risen nicely, my best loaf so far and without all that hard, messy kneading so my machine is a triumph and it does all the hard work but does not leave a tell tale hole in the bottom of the loaf as bread makers do so I can pretend that I did it all.
Wednesday morning was supposed to be very windy and wet but when I got up it was sunshining and there was a light breeze. (I think that I must be getting used to living here as I now think of force 5 to 6 winds as a breeze).
As Pam seems a lot better and as I was going stir crazy, I decided that I would go on the trip to Shapinsay with the U3A bird group. Fortunately the sea was calm as the Shapinsay ferry is flat bottomed (I think).
Shapinsay is a largely agricultural island which benefited from modernised farming methods introduced by the local landowner in the 19th century. It now has a population of about 300. The only village is Balfour village which composed of houses that were originally estate cottages for Balfour Castle. The castle is supposed to be the most northerly castle in the world but that really depends on your definition of a castle. It was built in 1847 but was on the site of an earlier building so maybe that was a proper castle.It is one of the few islands on which people can live while still working on mainland Orkney as it has a regular ferry that only takes 25 minutes to the centre of Kirkwall.
About a dozen of us old codgers walked up to the Mill Dam bird hide and spent about an hour up there. Loads of birds and fortunately 2 of the party knew about birds or the rest of us would have got no further than agreeing that most of them were some sort of duck.
Now I can hear you thinking that it is just a bog with a couple of pools in it. Well apparently this is just what water birds and waders think of as heaven. (They have been very badly brought up and have low expectations of life). When all was explained to us we found that rather surprisingly we could all identify several different sorts of ducks. Now this may not seem all that great to you but at my age, to be able to learn anything at all is quite remarkable and I have decided that as I am up here, I should at least attempt to learn about wildlife and archeology.
I have however decided that it is to much to expect my aged brain to remember to much so if I can remember one new species each time I go out on a trip then that will do.
We then ambled back to through a couple of farms to Balfour village where the ferry comes in. There were seals all over the seafront right in the middle of the village. They must be so used to the people of the village that they are totally unconcerned by them.
It was then into the cafe for tea and cakes before the ferry. We were reassuringly told by the waitress at the cafe that there was no rush to finish before the ferry left because the husband of the cafe owner worked on the ferry and it would be bad for business if they made the customers rush their tea so the ferry would not leave until we got there. A very sensible timetable I thought.
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