What's New?

What's new, besides the year?! I've been busy with new things, breadmaking for one. Loaves abound! As I posted before, I am baking rustic, sourdough loaves from a wild starter on a weekly basis now. Mr. G. was eager to resurrect another sourdough starter, similar to one that I had used back when our children were small. It is fed with sugar and instant mashed potato flakes and produces sweeter, more conventional loaves for slicing. I was able to get that one going too. 

Since there are just the two of us here, and we can't possibly eat this much bread; we've been gifting loaves to family, friends and neighbors and will probably continue to do so as long as I keep up the process! Another new thing, to me, is making pancake batter from the discarded starter. 

It all begins with an overnight "sponge" (above); the sponge is made with the starter, flour, sugar and buttermilk and sits out on the countertop, covered, until morning. When it's time for breakfast eggs are added, along with oil, salt and baking soda; the result is an airy, foaming, fluffy batter.

The sourdough "sponge" batter produces the lightest pancakes that I've ever made, or tasted!

Saturday of last week was spent putting Christmas decorations away for another year. Mr. G and I were able to accomplish that task together in record time this year.  Inspired by Janet O., The Rogue Quilter, I snapped some pictures of our various nativities that I've had on display. They are all from different countries and, except for the carved wooden set with the stable which we bought when we lived in Switzerland, they have been treasured gifts received throughout the years. It's always sad for me to pack them up and store them away.

A few poinsettias remain (Augie says "hi"!) as a reminder of Christmas-all-too-soon-gone, but that's about it. I've never successfully had any luck in saving them for reblooming the following year but that doesn't mean that I don't try. 😉  We'll see if this year's any different. 

That's about all that's new, for now, from around here. 

How about with you, what's new?

Life is Good!

Let There Be Light

When you're married to a retired engineer there are always interesting projects going on at home and even more interesting and creative solutions happening!  It was time to change the chandelier in our foyer, the one that's been hanging there for fourteen years was never exactly what we had wanted in the first place, not to mention the fact that the brass plating was turning color. But, how to remove a fixture that's suspended 19 feet high?  Mr. Goodneedle constructed scaffolding, he even clamped the ladder to the platform. I can write about this now because it all turned out to be okay and without injury, but, I assure you, I thought I would suffer a stroke before the chandelier was succesfully replaced!  So, back to the chandelier replacement itself... what, exactly, did we want for a fixture? The retired engineer-turned-woodworker had an idea. For quite some time now he's been keeping the wood lathe very busy. 
Here's the new chandelier, hand crafted in its entirety from cherry wood (except for the innards, the metal conduit and wiring). He added a ceiling medallion while the scaffolding was erected. There's a soft "down light" incorporated into the bottom turned portion of the fixture, I didn't get that in the photo above.

Here is a closer shot of the fixture, in all of its hand-rubbed glory!

Yep, this is it... just what we wanted, lovingly made to order.

Let there be light. And there was light. And it was good.

Life is Good!