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Try Something New - Week 42
Sunday
We explored a new piece of woodland - Views Wood. And very lovely, it was too. Not quite as special as Lake Wood, but definitely worth another visit some time. This was also the first trip to a new Woodland Trust wood since becoming a member.
Thursday
We had our first meal from allplants. I made an order last weekend, they arrived on Tuesday, and we ate some on Thursday. It was good. Surprisingly good. I’d been prepared to be a bit meh about it - it is frozen food after all. But I was pleasantly surprised with the first two options - falafels and a tagine - and I look forward to trying out the other four meals I have tucked away.
Saturday
I had my first experience of carrying Skitters in her doggy rucksack. She’d been dragging me through the forest after some trail (we later saw a couple of deers so it could have been that), and then stopped and wouldn’t put any weight on her left front leg. So into the doggy rucksack she went. It took a bit of getting used to but was a far easier transport mechanism than holding her in my arms.
For more Try Something New posts, and the explanation of this project/intention, visit this page.
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Views Wood
Today we visited another new (to us) wood, Views Wood. It’s a Woodland Trust woodland and isn’t that far away from Lake Wood - another recent discovery.
This was a decent sized area for an hour, or so’s explore. And as Skitters is still needing rest for her neck, we popped her in her backpack for the middle 20 minutes of our walk.
This was my first Woodland Trust woodland visit since becoming a member.
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Try Something New - Week 41
Sunday
Two bakes on Sunday. I found another recipe for chocolate chip cookies that uses the ‘make a dough log, pop it in the fridge (or freezer), slice it and bake it’ technique. The dough for this recipe was stiffer as I prepared it, and the ratio of chocolate to mixture was less than last week’s. The baking time is also almost double that of previous recipes, so unsurprisingly they are a much crispier cookie. I’m planning on taking the best bits of each of the three recipes, to make my ideal ‘comfort cookies’.
Inspired by last week’s Great British Bake Off, I found Paul Hollywood’s soda bread recipe and decided to give that a go. I didn’t have enough Buttermilk for the full recipe, so I scaled it down to being two thirds. I got a bit carried away with the slashes across the top but I rather like it looking like one of those paper fortune tellers that we made as children.
Monday
I started a new Future Learn course on Building human connection in a digital world. I thought this might be relevant and helpful to me as I work and socialise from home on various different sized screens of glowing light. It’s a two-week course, so feels manageable. So far it’s not quite hitting the spot for me, but I’m willing to continue with it as it’s such a short course.
Wednesday
Another online book launch event. This time for Clare Balding’s new book Heroic Animals with her being interviewed by Fi and Jane (of Fortunately fame). Three lovely ladies chatting intelligently. So enjoyable to watch and chuckle along with.
Friday
Richard and I visited Fabrica together to see their new exhibition Earthworks. It’s restricted to 12 people at a time, so I had lots of space to allow myself to be absorbed into the projection and soundscape. Glorious.
Saturday
The first outdoor use of the dog-carrying rucksack we’ve added to our collection of dog-related paraphernalia. Skitters still needs to rest to try and allow her body to heal her collapsed disc as much as possible. But her brain still needs a workout to help keep her energy at a manageable level. And we want to go to interesting places. So this seemed like a reasonable compromise. We’ve been getting her used to it at home over the past couple of weeks. But Saturday was our first “in the wild” attempt. And she was terrific about it. She climbed in lured by a carrot. And then sat down and sniffed her way along the 20 minutes or so she was in it.
I tried another scone recipe from the book. This time I went with apple and raisin, as it felt like an autumnal recipe. The scones looked a great colour and were enjoyed warm with butter (well marg actually) as suggested by the book.
For more Try Something New posts, and the explanation of this project/intention, visit this page.
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