Today, dear readers, I found my own mecca. I found culinary peace, zen and pefection. I have attained baking enlightenment. And it came in the form of bread rolls.

Not just any bread rolls, but homemade, perfect, fluffy, wholesome bread rolls. Gone are the usual rock-hard bullets which taste good but are all stodge, and in their place are these light, soft, perfectly-risen rolls, and I will confess it now: I’ve eaten 3. The recipe was from an All Colour Library book simply entitled “Baking“. It was a charity-shop find, and has all of these wonderfully retro 70’s ingredients and recipes, yet has some very nice staples in there as well. None of my other recipe books seemed to have a simple, good bread recipe, yet this one came up trumps. It is actually a recipe for milk bread, and uses milk instead of water. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I have never eaten a bread roll this nice in my life. Ever.

I think it’s the best remuneration possible for 4 hours spent in the kitchen this morning, cooking, cleaning, baking and enjoying yummy smells. Whoever said baking was a chore must’ve not been doing it right, how can making gorgeous yummies ever be a chore?

I’ve been experimenting with ingredients alot recently, and have changed my views about the use of moderately-priced ingredients in place of particularly expensive ones. At least in cakes, I’ve tried switching self-raising and plain flours from shop-bought generic to Doves Farm Organic (available from many supermarkets and whole-food shops) and the difference was surprising. Using the self-raising for the first time I could instantly see that the madeira cake I had made had a different texture and different “mouthfeel” (oh no! Another Heston moment!) which now has me vowing that I will not go back to generic brands over The Good Stuff.

And the stilly thing is, the organic flour isn’t expensive, it comes from England (whereas cheaper stuff could feasibly come from anywhere) and makes better produce. For heaven’s sake, please heed my words and get decent things from now on, ok? Recipes for both the cake and the rolls will be up very soon, but excuse me for now, I must go and give in to temptation!

We used to spend sundays in the garden, with neighbours either side in theirs we’d talk over the fence, swap vegetables and dig, plant and make our gardens beautiful. But since I started working on sundays all this has stopped, and the weather hasn’t been conducive to a good day’s gardening for a long time - until Saturday, that is, when I took the brave step of going out and digging. I can’t however take all the credit for this hard work, the glorious 2 hours were spent digging in tandem with my husband, who got just as much out of it as I did (and he’s not usually one who enjoys it).

I dug with a spade, with a fork and with my hands. The smell of soil, that primal feeling of being close to nature and to the world was a very wonderful feeling. The robins and blackbirds constantly singing in the background and the squirrel leaping from branch to branch. In amongst the weeds we found a meal’s-worth of potatoes, chard and forgotten onions!

Most of all it felt exciting, because I hadn’t paid the garden much attention in the last few months, and me being the procrastinator that I am, I’d just let it go. But it all looks much nicer now, still 3 more beds to tackle.

When all the weeds had been cleared, I noticed this little fella, a tiny, stunted pea plant.

An escapee from last year’s crop had made it through the winter even though they are very delicate plants and can’t withstand any cold at all. And look, there is a perfect little flower, and one perfect (although empty) little pod. Needless to say, that is perfect proof that the world has gone to pot, and that climate change is something to be worried about.

But I have now “officially” been bitten by the gardening bug again and can’t wait to get back out there (hopefully later this week) and start hanging washing out on the line again (yes, it is still January!) and start the arduous task of digging 3 enormous beds and fertilising the soil.

It’s starting to be really beautiful here, the heavy ice and frost has dissipated (the skyscape last night was breath taking) leaving a feeling of heady-springtime in its wake. There are many more frosts to go before I can start planting and spending days in the garden, but I’ll settle for the earlier mornings and later evenings.

I took the dog for a little run up and down the still-frozen lawn, and witnessed this beautiful sky. Mackerel skies, as they are known, are stunning to look at and make me want to dive into a really exciting book that mum got me for christmas, the Cloud Appreciation Society’s “The Cloudspotters Guide“.

In the pots in the back yard area, all manner of interesting things are popping up. Bulbs mostly, iris reticulata and daffs, narcissi and hyacinths.

But the cold weather brings me back inside quite quickly, lest my feet should return to their usually-blue state, and my nose should glow like Rudolphs. This weather, hail, sleet and ice makes me love some good ol’ British fayre, and yesterday I found the Holy Grail of sausages. Not only are they organic (and therefore animal-cruelty-free and ecologically sensitive) but they don’t contain any preservatives barring a little bit of vitaminC (perfectly fine in my book). They tasted gorgeous to boot. So what else could we do than bangers, mash and veg with homemade onion gravy (which really makes it).

I’ve also fallen headlong in love (again) with bands that I’d once loved, had promptly forgotten about, who are now making beautiful noises. Two of the bands, Barzin and Songs:Ohia sound like spring to me, and are being played repetitively in some hope of invoking spring to happen (both can be found here and here, with MP3s to download, free ~ and the site is legit, they don’t spam).

I love the sunny colours of the wintergreen growing in the back garden, with its red berries and white flowers, it smells lovely if you rub the leaves (they use it in deep heat) and is apparently, edible (tasting like deep heat and germolene!).

The Cerynth shouldn’t be up now, but it started growing in October and is now in fine fettle ~ albeit in the wrong place and at the wrong time of year.

I was tagged by Zoe to the Six Weird Things meme, so here are my six!

1. I get inordinate amounts of pleasure from letting our dog, G, lick out yogurt pots. I think it’s because she crosses her eyes whilst doing so which is very endearing in a dog, and makes me howl with laughter!

2. When I was younger I used to spend almost every clear, cold night watching the stars and learning their patterns, the constellations and hoping to see a shooting star. Being under the stars gives me a feeling of being so small, it’s rather refreshing. I believe something special will happen if you see a shooting star ~ it always has for me!

3. I will one day, if it is the only thing I ever do, have a smallholding. It will be somewhere in the South-West, there will be animals and I will become as self-sufficient as possible. I plan to sell our vegetables and become a market gardener.

4. I like melancholy music, and will always be drawn to minor chords over major. I don’t know why, I just feel that sadder music has more to say. That’s not to say I don’t like loud, happy stuff too ~ but I tend to err towards the sadder music.

5. Every spring I feel a bit of panic overcome me at the thought of having to get organised in the garden. This almost always disappears as soon as I get going in the garden, where worms are my friends, the robin sings for me and our squirrels dance above my head.

6. I like to touch trees, will never snap a branch, and feel completely at peace sat at next to, or touching a tree. I love deep, dark pine forests the most, although I love deciduous forests at dawn in the spring. I apologise before I cut a plant down.