In the kitchen again...  

Yet again, somebody on the island had more oranges than they could use, so now that we were down to the last three jars of marmalade from last year, I made enough to hopefully get us through another year!

Fresh out of the oven this morning -- spice cake -- haven't tasted it yet as it's still cooling, but if it tastes as good as it smells....

Earlier in the week I made some chocolate pepper nuts...

The weather has been much better than last February -- I've managed to get another few swims in -- weekend before last I had three swims in four days -- so the count for 2025 is now up to 8 -- ahead of my target of a swim a week.

Today was swim number 5 for the year -- not quite as sunny as the forecast promised, but a nice swim nonetheless.

The snowdrops are out in full force so fingers crossed this means that springtime has got the memo that it needs to be getting here soon.  Plus, I've had enough of the mud!  :)

Not long after we first came here, I realised that I needed a hat with ear-flaps and strings to tie under my chin as I spend too much time trying to do things one-handed while holding onto my hat with my other hand (this is particularly difficult when I'm riding my bicycle...) -- and I finally knitted one!

I actually started this hat way back in December 2023 and I knitted about a third of it -- and then I proceeded to have a mental block about knitting for a number of months.  In August, when Heidi was here, she had socks with her that she was knitting -- which helpfully spurred me on to picking up my knitting again, and I finished this on Sunday.  I think there is a bit of a cosmonaut look about it with the flaps down and tied, but it is beyond nice to be able to have warm ears without holding on to my hat!  :)

In the kitchen, we've had a yummy Greylag goose, barley, and mushroom casserole...

...and some beremeal ginger nuts...

And let's not forget the highlight of every alternate month -- it's Booky McBookface day with lots of new reading material for me!  :)

Weather has been wintry of late, so have been spending lots of time in the kitchen.

Things that I have realised that I never post about -- the bread...  I bake all our own bread -- two different loaves -- every single week.

This is the yeast risen loaf -- 75% white and 25% wholemeal.  4 hours start to finish but only about 15 minutes of my time.  Incredibly easy, the kneading bit is great if you are mad about something and need to get your aggression out, and totally delicious...

And this is the sourdough -- 50% white and 50% wholemeal.  Yes, it's in a tin.  I know.  I eat most of my bread toasted, and tin-shaped loaves just are easier for making toast.  If sourdough in a tin offends you, deal with it...  :)

On the pie front, now that the hens are laying again, yesterday I made this yummy pear custard pie -- and clearly Danny really likes it because when I got up this morning I found that MORE THAN HALF of the pie had been eaten!  :)

And because this is the UK and pies here can be savoury as well as sweet, I also made a fish pie -- yum yum yum!

We did have one nice day in all the bad weather -- so of course I went swimming -- swim #4 of 2025....

Now off to try to get warm before I go out to feed the sheep in the wind!  :)

We've suddenly got some unexpected good weather!  Temperatures around 8 degrees (that's 45 in American money), calm, and sunshine!  I went swimming Saturday AND today -- possibility I might make it in tomorrow morning as well -- if I do, that will be a miracle to have three consecutive swimming days in January!

Danny and I went for a walk at Cata Sands yesterday afternoon -- these photos show just how calm the wind is -- you would never normally get reflections this clear!

This hen has started hanging out on the windowsills -- she's startled me quite a few times now!

And here's Cookie's latest snoozing spot!

Finally made it in to the sea yesterday for my first swim of 2025 -- boy was it cold!  The car said the the air temperature was 2C, maybe the sea was 5C or 6C?  But the sun was shining!

The reason it's taken me so long to get in for my first swim is that the weather has been horrible.  We've had snow and hail for nearly a week -- you can't really see it in the photo, but there was snow on the beach when we swam!  Not enough snow that the sheep needed hay, but it's still thoroughly unpleasant being outside with hail hitting your face all the time...  

It's warming up now and nearly all the snow is gone except for this little patch in the back garden which gets no sunlight in the winter at all...

We harvested the last two boys from last summer...

...so now there are 15 hens and 1 cockerel to lay eggs and make chicks for us this year.  Here are some of the hens (and our very muddy drive!)...

Tupping is also over, so the girls are just chilling now while their babies cook...

And speaking of cooking, remember that batch of mincemeat I made back in 2007?  Turns out I had one jar left, and it's still good, so I made an apple mincemeat pie!  Yum!

I managed to make it to 65 swims for 2024 on the 27th of December!

Haven't been in this year yet -- aiming to go tomorrow morning when it looks like the weather might be a bit better -- after an unseasonably mild end to the year, 2025 has started with snow and ice and frozen drinking troughs for the sheep!

(Yes, that's little Cookie completely not bothered about the snow!)

The boys (Horatio & Raymond) came out on the 30th so fingers crossed that I now have 10 ewes in lamb -- we will see what happens in April!