“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations. 3.5.25 through 3.11.25
I'm not entirely sure whether the sourdough one was fiction or not! Obviously I hope it's fiction, partly because you should never use Amazon! Nasty horrid corporate types!
I'm glad you liked the sourdough story - yes it is 99% fictional. I've never purchased sourdough starter, from Amazon or anyone else, but I did end up throwing a dead starter in the compost once (with no negative ramifications). I started baking sourdough in 2019, when I'd inherited three cultures from my recently deceased mother-in-law, two grown from wild yeast that she'd captured herself and one commercial culture. The commercial culture perished under my amateur ministrations (and subsequently ended up in the compost), but the wild cultures were strong enough to survive newbie mistakes.
I do have a confession to make, though, and I hope you don't dislike me because of it, but I do sometimes patronize Amazon. Shopping in my area can be difficult, with some things being completely unavailable (e.g., vital wheat gluten - vegetarianism is still considered a bit of a novelty in rural areas) or only available if I had the time and/or inclination to drive for an hour and a half (where the options are pretty much big box stores run by other horrid nasty corporate types). I am sorry, I hope you don't think too much less of me...
Not at all! I could make the same confession because when we needed a new computer Amazon was literally the only place we could really get one. I mean with a Qwerty keyboard. The French ones are Azerty and have all the accents and stuff. The most absurd thing though was when I went to the HP UK site and thought I could simply order a computer from them, but no, they don't deliver to France - 'please use the French site' - does the French site do Qwerty? Of course not! It's dumb of them because they just lost a sale.
Amazon is also really good for searching for stuff and getting reviews and so on. Then I try and find the item elsewhere!
So yeah - us rurals have issues!
I'd been getting a bit worried you felt upset by my comment because I didn't get a notification of your reply - Substack has been doing some strange things to me recently and I've had to re-follow a lot of people. It's a tribute to how good a story it was that I really wasn't sure whether it was fiction or not! Obviously I am glad it's fiction and you are not turning into a sourdough monster.
I'm so glad! *I* was worried, too, because I didn't realize you hadn't seen your reply. I was afraid maybe you saw it and thought, "Pffft, well if she buys from Amazon, I want nothing to do with her!" It's not that far fetched, I actually know people who think like that (people who live in urban areas who can literally buy anything their heart desires within a few miles radius). I really didn't think you thought like that, though, so I was surprised at the lack of response, and then was worried that I'd offended you. I do try to minimize what I buy in general, but around here mail order is pretty much the only way to go.
I did sort of leave it open-ended at the end, though. Maybe it would be good to be a sourdough monster.. 💩
Something really weird happened - I had to click on your handle to get here, and lo and behold I find that the 'subscribe' button is there. So for some reason Substack - or some mischievous gremlin algorithm or whatever must've surreptitiously unsubscribed me, and 'unliked' the likes I did. This, and the fact that something or someone 'unfollowed' me from a load of people, including people to whom I am subscribed, makes me bizarrely suspicious and not a little perturbed! I am going to have to check all my subscriptions now.
Not the sort of thing one relishes on a Sunday morning.
It did, however, snow all night last night so outside it's a bit of a winter wonderland!
So much for Spring! This is Winter saying 'hold on, I'm not through with you yet!'
99% NOT true! But of course you already saw that in my reply to Evelyn's comment. 😅 I guess I've had sourdough on the brain, lately (or are the microbes taking control?).
I'm glad you enjoyed the silly poems (more like doggerel) and the mini pond. We were getting a lot of run-off from the neighbor's yard, so instead of starting a fight, we just put the excess water to use and made the pond. The animals really like it and it's filled with frogs (and tadpoles!), salamanders, and baby dragonflies during the summer. A pair of ducks have been visiting for the past few springs, thinking about making a nest there, but I suspect they think there's too much activity in our yard, because they always move along - which might be just as well, because a snapping turtle visits sometimes, too (and ducklings are one of their favorite foods).
I'm a bit jealous of all your wildlife - our garden isn't big enough or open enough for that, and no pond either, alas. We'd love to have ducks though.
We do get beautiful dragonflies however. We make a very small makeshift pool with a massive lid of the old composter turned upside down...
It's not all ducks and polywogs. I see coyotes, bears, bobcats, foxes, and skunks on a regular basis. They're usually wary of us humans, though, all except the skunks, who expect us to stay out of THEIR way... to which I say gladly - their, uh, perfume is rather cloying, to say the least. Oh, and wild turkeys, lots and LOTS of wild turkeys - they poop EVERYWHERE! 🦃
And we do get some less than welcome visitors here too. Moles for example.
I think we also maybe got a visit from a fox recently. They obviously have a distinct smell, and then I went and stepped in some very, very stinky poo...
Ah yes, moles. I don't mind them so much, but my husband is very protective of his lawn and does not care for the hills one bit. The fox might help you with the mole problem, though. Though, yes, they do make very stinky poo.
I love this recurring theme of your newsletter. It reminds me I should try to participate in the microdosing. It is an awesome creative exercise. Enjoy your thaw. Temperatures in the 70s in Minnesota today. Hooray.
Yow, for some reason I always thought Minnesota was colder than New Hampshire. We're all the way up to 55°F today! There's still snow on the ground, but its days are definitely numbered (says me as I frantically knock on the wooden tabletop to unjinx myself!).
The microdosing is a good exercise for the brain, especially if one sticks to the word limits. Once in a while I'll go out of bounds, but it's harder work and more satisfying to get something trimmed down to size and STILL have it make sense. Some of the other writers can jam so much meaning into so little space - it's amazing!
The sourdough one!
If your sourdough starter begins glowing in the dark, you'd best be careful. 😅 I'm glad you liked it!
I'm not entirely sure whether the sourdough one was fiction or not! Obviously I hope it's fiction, partly because you should never use Amazon! Nasty horrid corporate types!
It was a great little story, though!
I'm glad you liked the sourdough story - yes it is 99% fictional. I've never purchased sourdough starter, from Amazon or anyone else, but I did end up throwing a dead starter in the compost once (with no negative ramifications). I started baking sourdough in 2019, when I'd inherited three cultures from my recently deceased mother-in-law, two grown from wild yeast that she'd captured herself and one commercial culture. The commercial culture perished under my amateur ministrations (and subsequently ended up in the compost), but the wild cultures were strong enough to survive newbie mistakes.
I do have a confession to make, though, and I hope you don't dislike me because of it, but I do sometimes patronize Amazon. Shopping in my area can be difficult, with some things being completely unavailable (e.g., vital wheat gluten - vegetarianism is still considered a bit of a novelty in rural areas) or only available if I had the time and/or inclination to drive for an hour and a half (where the options are pretty much big box stores run by other horrid nasty corporate types). I am sorry, I hope you don't think too much less of me...
My question answered. What a relief. Someone needs to start a babysitting service for sourdough starters. Hehe.
Well...... apparently there is a "Sourdough Hotel" in Sweden, where people can leave their cultures to be "babysat" when they go on vacation. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/swedens-sourdough-hotels-keep-bread-dough-comfortable-180956562/
😂😂
Not at all! I could make the same confession because when we needed a new computer Amazon was literally the only place we could really get one. I mean with a Qwerty keyboard. The French ones are Azerty and have all the accents and stuff. The most absurd thing though was when I went to the HP UK site and thought I could simply order a computer from them, but no, they don't deliver to France - 'please use the French site' - does the French site do Qwerty? Of course not! It's dumb of them because they just lost a sale.
Amazon is also really good for searching for stuff and getting reviews and so on. Then I try and find the item elsewhere!
So yeah - us rurals have issues!
I'd been getting a bit worried you felt upset by my comment because I didn't get a notification of your reply - Substack has been doing some strange things to me recently and I've had to re-follow a lot of people. It's a tribute to how good a story it was that I really wasn't sure whether it was fiction or not! Obviously I am glad it's fiction and you are not turning into a sourdough monster.
Might be fun for a few days though...
I'm so glad! *I* was worried, too, because I didn't realize you hadn't seen your reply. I was afraid maybe you saw it and thought, "Pffft, well if she buys from Amazon, I want nothing to do with her!" It's not that far fetched, I actually know people who think like that (people who live in urban areas who can literally buy anything their heart desires within a few miles radius). I really didn't think you thought like that, though, so I was surprised at the lack of response, and then was worried that I'd offended you. I do try to minimize what I buy in general, but around here mail order is pretty much the only way to go.
I did sort of leave it open-ended at the end, though. Maybe it would be good to be a sourdough monster.. 💩
I'm still not getting all my notifications! I'm going to call the manager. BRB...
Did you check in your junk or spam folder? Sometimes my email program accidentally misfiles some of my Substack notifications.
Something really weird happened - I had to click on your handle to get here, and lo and behold I find that the 'subscribe' button is there. So for some reason Substack - or some mischievous gremlin algorithm or whatever must've surreptitiously unsubscribed me, and 'unliked' the likes I did. This, and the fact that something or someone 'unfollowed' me from a load of people, including people to whom I am subscribed, makes me bizarrely suspicious and not a little perturbed! I am going to have to check all my subscriptions now.
Not the sort of thing one relishes on a Sunday morning.
It did, however, snow all night last night so outside it's a bit of a winter wonderland!
So much for Spring! This is Winter saying 'hold on, I'm not through with you yet!'
True sourdough story?? So funny that you had one today after I asked you about baking sourdough.
Love the poems and the video of the mini pond.
99% NOT true! But of course you already saw that in my reply to Evelyn's comment. 😅 I guess I've had sourdough on the brain, lately (or are the microbes taking control?).
I'm glad you enjoyed the silly poems (more like doggerel) and the mini pond. We were getting a lot of run-off from the neighbor's yard, so instead of starting a fight, we just put the excess water to use and made the pond. The animals really like it and it's filled with frogs (and tadpoles!), salamanders, and baby dragonflies during the summer. A pair of ducks have been visiting for the past few springs, thinking about making a nest there, but I suspect they think there's too much activity in our yard, because they always move along - which might be just as well, because a snapping turtle visits sometimes, too (and ducklings are one of their favorite foods).
I'm a bit jealous of all your wildlife - our garden isn't big enough or open enough for that, and no pond either, alas. We'd love to have ducks though.
We do get beautiful dragonflies however. We make a very small makeshift pool with a massive lid of the old composter turned upside down...
It's not all ducks and polywogs. I see coyotes, bears, bobcats, foxes, and skunks on a regular basis. They're usually wary of us humans, though, all except the skunks, who expect us to stay out of THEIR way... to which I say gladly - their, uh, perfume is rather cloying, to say the least. Oh, and wild turkeys, lots and LOTS of wild turkeys - they poop EVERYWHERE! 🦃
I bet the birds appreciate your small pool!
They do!
And we do get some less than welcome visitors here too. Moles for example.
I think we also maybe got a visit from a fox recently. They obviously have a distinct smell, and then I went and stepped in some very, very stinky poo...
Ah yes, moles. I don't mind them so much, but my husband is very protective of his lawn and does not care for the hills one bit. The fox might help you with the mole problem, though. Though, yes, they do make very stinky poo.
I love this recurring theme of your newsletter. It reminds me I should try to participate in the microdosing. It is an awesome creative exercise. Enjoy your thaw. Temperatures in the 70s in Minnesota today. Hooray.
Yow, for some reason I always thought Minnesota was colder than New Hampshire. We're all the way up to 55°F today! There's still snow on the ground, but its days are definitely numbered (says me as I frantically knock on the wooden tabletop to unjinx myself!).
The microdosing is a good exercise for the brain, especially if one sticks to the word limits. Once in a while I'll go out of bounds, but it's harder work and more satisfying to get something trimmed down to size and STILL have it make sense. Some of the other writers can jam so much meaning into so little space - it's amazing!
The climate is continental -- warmer in summer and colder in winter. Occasional warm fits mixed with mostly cold winters.
Well that explains that. 😊 Enjoy your current warm fit while it lasts!
You had me at Sourdough! 😋
Glow-in-the-dark sourdough? 😅
lol I’ve eaten worse! Ever eat half a sandwich and find the edge of the bread all green?
Nope, but I once bit into a raspberry and found half of a Japanese beetle.
I took a micro biology class a while back, and the professor claimed that bread mold is harmless.
Hmmm I’m thinking Penicillin ? 🤔
Okay you win! 🤢