The New Year is almost here.

Well Christmas is here and the New Year is only days away.

The closing year has seen lots happen for me personally. The year started when i went back to the UK in January.

My Mum was due to have yet another operation on her hip, due to delays she ended up having the operation days before i was to return home. Thankfully she has recovered and has slowly made progress. Mum expects to be able to be running round like a young kid but she has to make do with the progress she is making. 

But it was the return home that was a big surprise to me, the lane outside of my house had been resurfaced. Before i went back to see my Mum the lane was little more than a track. When i got back we had a nice new resurfaced lane and they had made it wider as well. When i returned home the house had been empty for a month and it took three days to get it warm again, i just left the aircon on. The walls being single brick had no insulation and they had just retained the cold with no heat to keep them warm the walls where like radiators but being cold instead of warm.

I have just been to dig up my Christmas potatoes and i am a bit disappointed with the few i was able to dig up. But it's something else i have been able to do. Next season i will be better prepared and able to plant and look after not just Potatoes but lots more.







Recently i have had problem with my bread making, a number of loaves have not risen when baked. First i tried new yeast, no good and after 5 failed loaves i got some new flour. Right away it worked perfect so it's down to the flour and it seems that where i have stored the flour it was to cold. I get 25 kilo of flour in 5 kilo bags from Makro and this does me for a while. Now i need to find a way to use the flour instead of wasting it.

Now that's what i call a nice loaf. If i hadn't had so many failures i would have added some Sultanas.