Wednesday 11th September 2024

Into the second half of the week, and jobs really piling up at work, but whatever happens, I will go on vacation on Thursday night.

It is hard to tear myself away from the wonder that is watching three Elephant hawkmoth caterpillars on the fuchsia next to the patio. How things so large can just vanish and take hours to find again.

Lots to do first thing, meetings to attend to and try to stay awake in, so that it is ten before I have breakfast and I then remember I was supposed to be making bread.

I find what looked like a quick recipe for Ciabatta, and indeed the first part was easy, making the starter, but then it seemed I killed it in adding to the rest of flour, or squeezed the air out.

And then it wasn't at "wet" as it should be. So after two pinch and foldings, I make two small loaves and leave them to prove, finishing work, then going out to mow the lawnmeadow, so that I can sow the wildflower seeds I collected through summer, before we went away.

It was a glorious afternoon, the sun came out and was warm, doubly so after some manual labour.

Bev and Steve came round to look at the caterpillars, and marvel at the large green turdettes, nearly as wound as the caterpillars themselves, now scattered all over the patio under the plant.

I put the bread in to cook, then am interviewed for the music podcast as it was my birthday fairly recently, so good to catch up with David, Mark and Magic Alex again.

Then I made Caprese, of course, nothing too hard, but the seasoning is the most important thing, as is high quality olive oil.

Jools gets back at six, just as I am done, so we can sit down and eat, feasting on the tomatoes, cheese, oil, basil and lashings of fresh bread, which was fine.

And so to the last evening with the cats, as they're off to a new cattery in the morning, if we can catch them.

So, we go to bed just after eight, oddly pooped once again.