Hot and Humid

Another hot sunny day here, and humid!

Attila has his axe in hand. and is chopping firewood today. He is much more heat tolerant than I am. I melt in the heat, just can’t tolerate it with any degree of grace or physical comfort. So I stay indoors on days like this, where we control the temperature, at a steady 23C (73.4F).

I like to go for a walk every day, but become exhausted if I exercise in the humid heat. When it cools down enough at night that the early morning temperature is tolerable, I can get out there early in the morning to beat the heat. But when the heat persists for days and weeks, early mornings just aren’t cool enough for exercise. It was too warm for walking at 7 a.m. this morning, so we waited until Walmart opened, then cruised the aisles. We usually buy something, to honour the business that provides us with this indoor “walking trail”, and today it was a can of coffee

I am still struggling with this sourdough starter. The starter does not bubble as it should, and within a day there is a dark liquid collecting on the top of it. I’ll keep trying, as it does make very nice bread when it is healthy. I drained off the liquid, removed a cup of the starter for baking, and then fed it. I might eventually succeed. I have a very high tolerance for failure!

With the starter discard I made a batch of sourdough scones. I am trying out a recipe from The National Trust in the UK. It isn’t on their website, someone shared it years ago, so it is an older version of the scone recipes they now post. I like the recipe because it uses simple ingredients. I don’t like the recipe because it calls for self-rising flour, and measures everything in grams and millilitres, which I have to convert, and which make it fussy to alter the recipe to accommodate the use of sourdough discard.

I baked the scones in the cast iron skillet. The scones are delicious, but were a bit undercooked, even after leaving them in the oven an extra five minutes. I will have to increase the baking time when I am baking in the cast iron skillet, it takes a while to warm before the baking begins.

I’ve returned to my regular bread recipe, which makes lovely light crunchy croutons. The sourdough bread has not been rising properly, producing dense but delicious loaves, great for toast, but not for croutons.

I remember when I first began baking bread, many years ago. I had so many failures! But eventually I got a feel for it, and now the only loaves that fail are those where I am experimenting, as I am with sourdough.

The garden continues to grace our table with delicious vegetables. The edible pod peas are still producing, which came a surprise, as they usually slow down when the weather gets hot. Cabbages and carrots are coming in daily. The first cucumbers of the season were harvested today, an English cucumber with an odd shape, and a lemon cucumber, new to us, grown from seeds my Mom sent to me in the mail… delicious, thanks Mom!

Pickle Soup for supper!

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Sat, Jul 6 at 3:07 PM
28°C
FEELS LIKE 37
A few clouds
Wind 16 SW km/h
Humidity 69 %
Visibility 28 km
Sunrise 5:31 AM
Wind gust 23 km/h
Pressure 100.9 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:53 PM

Quote

“I never trust people’s assertions, I always judge of them by their actions.”
Ann Radcliffe
1764 – 1823

Apparently, this is not common knowledge, although humans have understood this for a very, very long time. Understanding this comes, if it comes at all, as an epiphany for so many.