Eggs and Bread

One of my rambling catch up posts today. First up, we are now well into egg production and we have at least 3 chickens 'on line' as evidenced by the fact that we can collect 3 eggs from the nest boxes (at last! No more laying eggs in muddy puddles!) each day and have started to build up a bit of an excess which Mum and Dad will be pleased to give away to visitors and to people we visit. These eggs can be a bit variable in size while the Lovely Girls are still a bit new to it, and we have also had the occasional double-yolker.

 In the process of finishing unpacking the cardboard boxes of "stuff" from the Tígín we came across two items with nice memories attached and which we are now happy to have here in Ireland. One is Dad's engraved pewter tankard presented to him by the Faversham Horticultural Society as a Thank for 10 years of being Treasurer. This has now been Christened with a couple of cans of nice cold, post mowing-the-lawn, hot day, Guinness.

 The other was a small clay house which Mum got from one of the children for whom she used to babysit. This is also a tea-light style candle holder although it's not wise to use it as such because it has no 'chimney' to allow the heat out from the candle flame. The family are great friends of ours. Mum babysat this particular potter's elder bro' and sis' and patted the pregnant bump of their Mum (Teresa M) when she was carrying this one (R). R was about 12 when she made this 'pot' and is now fully grown and a mother herself. We love that this 'pot' so nearly resembles the Tígín we have ended up with, so it has elements of prescience and romantic "See! It was meant to be!" about it

 Finally, pinned down indoors by the rain on the Diamond Jubilee week, Dad decided to re-acquaint with bread making. Dad prefers this done 'properly' without the aid of a bread maker, with all the kneading and rising that this involves. Mum was therefore dispatched with 'bread flour' and yeast added to the bottom of a shopping list and we have been quite pleased with the results so far. He tends to make bread rolls and plait loaves and has only so far tried plain white, not yet got back into the granary and wholemeal but no doubt these will come as he gets into it.

Deefs