Breadmaking, Pesky Horsetails and a Night time Visitor.

We've got a new breadmaker, thanks to our friends Kath and Dave, and spent some of yesterday working out how to use it. We were a bit cautious about following a recipe exactly as Kath said she'd not managed to make great bread with it (which is how we inherited it) but nearly all of the recipes which came with it had skimmed milk powder added. We started to Google for alternatives but in the end just left it out. It worked fine and we made a large wholemeal loaf with lots of seeds. I'm not sure how environmentally friendly it is in terms of the energy the machine uses...but Ethan HATES kneading by hand so I think we'll be using it quite often.



We did a bit of gardening and tried to get rid of the Horsetails that are taking over the patio and choking our broad beans. Although the weather is making the plants grow really well, it's also doing the same for the weeds unfortunately.
We abandoned gardening when we got caught in a couple of showers and went inside for a cup of tea and a bit of reading. We've just started reading The Hobbit together. I remember loving it when I was around the same age and it's great to be revisiting it.

We have a new addition to the garden...a lovely little hedgegog that Ethan has named Muffin. He seems to be out and about after 10 pm so Ethan is having a few late nights watching him. We managed to get some pictures last night and he/she is so cute. We're so lucky that we've got birds, butterflies and even bats in our tiny suburban garden and "Muffin" is an added bonus....and a good excuse for us not taming our rather wild (in comparison to all the neatly trimmed lawns and regimental planting of our neighbours) front garden too much.