Your starter for...

 During the craziness of Covid lockdown a lot of people started making their own sourdough bread - I wonder how many of them are still making it?

We had started our sourdough well before Covid was ever heard of.

But what we had never tried was a gluten free sourdough. So we are now trying to make a starter. We are using a mixture of a ready made gluten free flour mix and adding sorghum flour and finely ground up quinoa.

It is starting to bubble so hopefully we will be trying gluten free sourdough soon.

Another bug

 Does anyone else get odd illnesses?

The latest one has made me poorly, nothing specific just poorly. The main side effect was that it was very hard to eat or even drink. Having zero energy too.

At least the weather has been good.

Flaming June

Another hot day so a good day to do some washing which takes a long time to dry. Nice to catch up on the gardening as well. Some fruit picking mainly raspberries. I made some frames for the gooseberries and redcurrants. It is lovely to have a mulberry tree in the garden but it gets completely stripped of fruit by the blackbirds. I wouldn't mind too much if we got a chance to have some ourselves but they get eaten before they are ripe.

Market day

 We went to the market in Clevedon today then on to Nailsea. An old chap we met asked us almost incredulously why we were going to Nailsea. Well why not?

A few different locally owned shops to look around is a bit of fun and hopefully shopping there keeps them solvent. The death of the high street will be yet another backward step for communities. Amazingly there were no roadworks in Tickenham!

Bedankt

 A trip to Holland. I was a bit apprehensive about travel post Brexit and post Covid but apart from a bit of a queue at Schiphol to get our passports checked - the officer was very friendly and efficient it was just the sheer number of people all at the same time that caused a small backlog I wouldn't have noticed any difference.

We went to Amsterdam first then Utrecht, what a delightful city. The Dutch are a very friendly nation and it was a super city break.

Election day

 Does anyone else feel dispirited when it comes to voting?

Naively I did think that a vote made a difference. But it does seem to me that whoever is elected, it is the faceless bureaucrats who make all the decisions.

But hopefully local elections and those elected will be able to make improvements to our local communities.

Nature

 Disappointing to see that the snails have got to the tomato plants that were starting to grow in the greenhouse. I didn't want to use slug pellets but...

Even worse is the box tree in the garden. This well established tree is completely overrun (if that is the correct word to use) with caterpillars, hundreds of them. They have basically eaten it.

I have read that the moth has gradually spread through the country and is decimating box hedging. What an awful pest. I do have some untouched cuttings but will it be worth growing them on in future?