Hens and Bread

Missing my hens;

Well hens lay eggs and Easter is the time for eggs... Spring is here, though not the weather, 3 cold degrees it says on my computer even though the sun is shining. This time of the year I would escape to the garden with my morning coffee I would have had the company of my two friendly hens - Hetty and Daisy (sadly departed this world sometime ago due to the fox).

Hens are jungle fowl and these two would prowl round the undergrowth happily, spring is of course the time to start laying eggs for these pair, usually in their nest boxes, but Daisy would occasionally go off and make a nest behind the trunk of a fallen tree or a rosebush, and when the nest was eventually found a crop of brown eggs would be sitting snugly there.

Hetty unfortunately went broody quite a lot, a broody hen is the most obstinate creature alive, when she actually made an excursion into the garden she grumbled and muttered to herself all the time. Her broodiness almost caused her demise one night, sat in her nesting box, a badger managed to prise the lid off and grab her by her tail. Terrific squawks at midnight, chasing round the garden, the badger seemed slightly bemused and eventually peace was restored. So at the moment I'm missing my two little hens, though I have every intention of keeping some more in the future.

Bread making, something I've done for the last 30 years, my soul is not rested until it knows that there is some bread in the house, reserves of flour in the cupboard and I am happy.....

This loaf part white/part brown is what I normally bake, this particular loaf has risen too high, and then the yeast has started to die off from the top due to a draught as it went to the oven, not that I mind, too high and you have problems cutting, plus of course it looks like a cratered moon surface which reminds me of that very good tv programme on the universe last sunday. But I decided to bake a plaited poppy seed loaf as well, something I have'nt seen around Chelmsford, this one has sage and onion added, but olives are also good to add to savoury bread.

The Story of St.Melangell and the hare;

http://northstoke.blogspot.com/2008/03/hares.html