When I very first published a photo of the view from our new house, someone asked me if we had a lake opposite and I said no, in the distance we have the River Conwy but no lake. Now I have to take that back .... we have a new lake. In encroaches on the fields directly across the road from us a little bit more each day and changes the landscape dramatically.
Unfortunately I do not have a boat or I could go for a little trip straight into Llanrwst and not have to take the car at all.
The chickens are hating this weather, I can almost see the reproach in their eyes, they have not had a single completely dry day since we got here,. The underneath of the henhouse is the most used area of their new Chicken World. This morning was so funny, they ran down the ramp when I opened up the henhouse at first light and then quickly did a U turn and went straight back underneath the house.
Poor girls!!
We have had a casualty since the move, one of the 'Gang' of Hylines decided she didn't want to live in this wild, wet world any longer and simply decided to die, chickens do this very easily ... if they don't want to live they just wont!! She is now buried with Archie with the rhubarb, and if we dig a hole we have to fill it fast before we end up with a little paddling pool such is the power of the rain.
I was asked for a picture of my finished loaf in the comments under yesterdays post so here it is.
I decided to make myself a nice little loaf in my 1lb loaf tin ...
... of course that meant I had half of the dough left over, so I made three pizza bases to pop into the freezer.
I debated whether to just pop the lumps of bread dough into the freezer as they were, but decided that three flat bases would take up less room and be ready to use directly from the freezer when we fancied a quick pizza. By the time I have got the toppings ready the dough will have started to thaw anyway being this thin,
Yesterdays lunch, homemade Leek and Potato soup and a slice of the loaf, lovely simple food and very in keeping with my new 'back to basics' mind-set.
Sue xx
Thanks for the picture of the bread...looks yummy and the pizza dough bases ready in the freezer will come in very handy. I know I have to do this myself as well this year. We had 2 chickens and one of ours died a couple of weeks ago which was sad for the kids. Luckily I was the one that found it and got rid of it before they sore it (James is 10 and Sienna 7) as we lost one a year ago and James found it before school and he was shocked and sad and cried all morning at school so I was pleased I found it but not a nice job to sort out particularly when you are still in your nightie and the kettle was on but the coffee wasn't yet poured. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
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You inspire me to start breadmaking again :)
ReplyDeleteI have just put together a cottage pie for tea tonight using odd bits and bobs previously frozen to avoid waste. I held back a few slices of leeks and potato to make a soup for my lunch. Feeling very frugal and virtuous - lol!
Sorry about your chicken.
Lynn.
We live on home made bread and vegetable soup for lunch these days - it's so easy to russle up something nourishing in this way isn't it? Hope you manage to keep dry and that the "lake" doesn't get too big!
ReplyDeleteHomemade bread and soup here too......pea and ham. Sue, what's the mini Aga thing in the background on that last pic?
ReplyDeleteOh, and we're in a rural area on farmland that is also now lakes......it's like this whenever we have heavy rain, the farmers have it so hard round here, crops last year were completely ruined in the prolonged rain.
This is what our fields look like right now. There's only one way out of the village but thankfully most of the houses are unaffected.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear you lost a chicken :(
Sue I put left over dough in the freezer as pizza bases but part cook them first when cooking the loaf. That way when you take them out of the freezer the toppings can go straight on and into the oven to cook. No need to let the bases defrost.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your chicken. Let the other chickens know that it's not always like this in Wales, honest! I've never seen it like this before. We have so many roads flooded and sea fronts "lost". Luckily, we are safe at the top of the hill, but it's hard watching our friends lower down have to deal with all the flood damage.
ReplyDeleteYour bread looks lovely. What a good idea for seperating some for pizza dough. I have been making my bread and pizza dough seperately! Had never thought of doing a big batch before. A great tip from Ellen too to par cook them.
Thanks all. Hope your chickens get some dry land soon.
xxx
Snap, I made leek and potato soup on Sunday, just about to have the last for lunch.
ReplyDeleteAh well, at least you are up a hill so hopefully the 'lake' won't reach you. Don't suppose you are able to sort out any more dry areas for the chickens as the wind might take it?
ReplyDeleteWell you do live in North Wales now and it does rain lots and lots and lots. I have a matching lake in the field at the back of my house. Sorry to hear of your poor little chicken.
ReplyDeleteWe saw scenes like yours all the way up and down the country on our recent trip from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, this on top of the 2012 summer which was also extremely wet (we saw similar on our journey back from Europe). It is quite unusual and not pleasant to live in; having said that I think your chicken was a bit hasty!! I hope you can all recover soon and that we all have some sunny days to look forward to. Well done with your frugal food etc, I will enjoy sharing your challenges and new lifestyle over the next few months. Please don't get too disheartened by the negatives that seem to be happening to you at the moment, soon it will be someone else's turn I am sure. X
ReplyDeleteMy family have always called Wales, Wetwales!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Your bread looks so perfect.
ReplyDeleteYour bread looks yummy! I must have a try at making some. Hope the water does not come too close - now you know why we Gogs have webbed feet!
ReplyDeleteI hope that water recedes soon. The soup looks delicious, soup made thriftily from a few vegetables is one of my favourite things. Love it. A great idea to flatten your excess dough for quick pizza bases. I often fancy making a pizza but the time taken to make dough means it isn't practical. If it's already done, it's a very quick job, thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteThat soup sounds lovely and that loaf of bread looks delicious! I make two big pizzas for the family every saturday. One to eat and one to go in the freezer. I don't cook it but leave it on the tray and put the topping on. When it is frozen hard l take the tray out. That way we always have an extra pizza if there are guests. Pop it in the oven and leave it five mins longer. Lovely to have a quick homemade meal almost ready. Hope the rain stops soon, what a wet winter. Pam
ReplyDeleteAnother snap! Leek and tattie soup and HM bread here too. Just hits the spot in the winter, don't you think. Sorry about your chook, they do have tendencies....
ReplyDeleteWhere we've been lifting carrots on the farm here so it looks like the Somme, that's going to need some cultivation when it dries up a bit so I feel for the farmer across the way from you. Water in those quantities leaches every bit of goodness from the land.
Lovely pic of newly settled Mavis with friends yesterday, she's so lucky to have found you both and a happy home.
There is a lot less flooding in the Conwy Valley since the work in the 70s and 80s, but then meadowland is there to dissipate the force of the water and receive the burden of silt to improve fertility....if it ever dries out!!
ReplyDeleteI used to live in Nantlle and Garn Dolbenmaen....journeys had to be carefully routed in the Winters!! Now we're living in the nicely wet South West of Scotland...thankfully on higher ground.
Hope the chooks get some dry weather soon; the ones in the yard here are spending most of their time in the Dutch Barn!!
I was brought up in SW Scotland - know what you mean about the wet weather! But it was a lot milder than where I am now in the North of Scotland and we had a lot less snow and ice.
DeleteYour bread looks great x
ReplyDeleteHome made soup and bread here too! I have home made soup every week day but didn't have any over Christmas because the HUGE cooked turkey was taking up all the freezer space. I missed my soup so much so yesterday I made a massive pot, using all my yellow sticker veggies, broccoli stalk, cauliflower greens and whizzed it all up. Blooming delicious and lots in the freezer to keep me going! Sorry about your loss Sue. Life will settle down soon and hopefully be dry and sunny too x
ReplyDeleteOh, my, that loaf looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThat loaf looks sooooo appetizing! I`m trying to wean myself off bread as I`m back to losing weight. Nothing beats a home made soup served with home made bread, though.
ReplyDeleteHome made bread at its best! Whenever I make bread I tend to eat too much of it. I restrict my bread making to once a week or even once a fortnight or else I would be a rolly poly person. But, nothing truly beats the taste of home made soup when served with lovely bread like that.
ReplyDeleteoooooooh! I didn't realize where your new house was... we spent our honeymoon in Llanrwst almost 29 years ago! it's probably changed a bit since then. I remember going to the pub at the bottom of the road where the holiday cottage was, and on Sunday evening there was the spectacle of "Beryl on the organ"!!
ReplyDeleteThe bread looks fantastic! It seems that there's plenty of extremes happening in the world right now. Extreme rain and flooding in the UK, extreme freezing temperatures in Europe and we've been having some Extreme heat in our part of the world. A little less of the extremes would be nice!
ReplyDeletexx Susan
...ooops, I meant to say Extreme freezing temperatures in America.
ReplyDeleteSoup for us too - a little leftover lamb, tomato puree, couscous and spices. Very nice! My mother just said this morning how bad the fields were in your area - luckily you should be high enough not to worry about flooding.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness that is a lake indeed!
ReplyDeleteI hope it doesn't get closer to your house x
Sorry to hear about your chicken, this weather is certainly getting on my nerves, I don't mind rain or wind but it's nice to have a change from it. The local villages round here in Wilts are really struggling, it take an age to get anywhere as you have to keep giving way to people driving through all the surface water before you can go through. I certainly haven't seem flooding like it in 15-20 years in our village.
Your bread looks delicious and I agree that pizza bases are a great idea for the freezer.
As always I love this blog, I find it so inspiring, especially with our upcoming 'big bungalow' project :-)
Stacey at mortgage free journey x
Talk about bring back memories. I used to holiday in Wales as a youngster stopping at Betws y Coed. My friend and I (about 12 or 13 at the time went to a dance at Llanrwst. You are in such a beautiful part of the world and hopefully one day when it eventually dries up you will see it at its best. I do hope the lake doesn't get any closer, water can be so destructive. Sorry to hear about your little chuck and I hope you and the rest of your menagerie can soon enjoy the lovely life you have planned. Good luck for the rest of 2014 and beyond.
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