Todays hive of activity.....

Well, i know that the schools around here went back today and it was odd, because although we do not follow term times or school hours AT ALL here, it coincided with my first day off for 4 days. One of the afternoons I was struck down with a migraine and spent the rest of the day popping pain killers and hiding in a dark room.I felt I missed a whole day so was determined to catch up today!
So today we have.....

been for a walk in the woods, carving bows and amulets as we went. Louis is still on lead walkies as he was neutered last Tuesday and is yet to have his stitches out. Poor boy, he is very frustrated at not being able to run through the bushes and chase smells.

We had omlettes for lunch and jellies that Jon had made yesterday afternoon, along with the meringues I whipped up to use up the egg whites from the bread and butter pudding I made a few days ago! Yummy!!!! I'd never made it before and was using a recipe I had cut out from the back of a sugar bag, years ago , but never got round to doing. It was lovely despite a few hiccups along the way...like, no white bread in the house, no cream (thank goodness for the village shop and willing errand boys!!), and then the spilling some of the bain marie into the pudding itself...oops! Boys loved it never the less, so a new pudding to add to the regulars.

We have made birthday cards and presents, of which I am giving no details away!!!! William and David both sat together and discussed what they were going to draw and actually sat alongside each other drawing for a little while, unsupervised!!

We fetched out the wheat grinder that we bought ages ago from my friend Han, and had a go at making flour. It is quite a coarse grinder but with all the man power we have here, we put it through several times and managed to get about 9 oz of flour from about half a kg of grains....oh dear, mixing imperial and metric doesn't really work, does it!! 1oz is 25g or there abouts...so 9 x 25 = 225g About half good usable flour for bread and the other bit I'm guessing I can use to bulk out a mince dish or soup.... will read my notes on that later.

A few photos of the process.....

Jon and Will securing the grinder to the computer table. What? The computer table I hear you cry? I would normally do such activities in the kitchen or at the dining room table, but it seemed a good idea at the time. Well, it was actually the right height for Will to be able to have a go, too.Two man grinding....

David seiving the resulting flour...Will using the letter stamp set while he was waiting!!!

And the lovely fluffy soft bread that I have just sneakily eaten two slices of.....so yummy. We cheated slightly in that we added one cup of strong white bread flour to the two cups of the grinded wholemeal (I wasn't anticipating disaster honest!!!) and we used the bread maker to knead the dough before cooking it in the oven in two loaf tins. By far the best way, I think!

So, voila!! Grain to loaf in three hours....cool huh?