I love making bread. Like someone else commented, it is very therapeutic. I have a bread machine which I use constantly. I also do some breads by hand. I make white bread for my other half, spelt loaves or wholemeal for me using a variety of seeds or honey, molasses, bran, oats etc. I also make bread rolls, croissant, baguette, tortilla (which takes seconds by hand and is then used to make wraps, enchiladas or quesadillas). I also make Pide (Turkish bread), roti chani(paratha), flatbread, roti, puri, bhatura, chapatti, Irish soda bread, dried fruit soda, boxy (an Irish potato bread usually eaten at Halloween), St Vincent bakes, Scotch pancakes, crepes, scones, pizza base, ciabatta and focaccia. I like Matthews Cotswold flour which I get in Aldi when they have it or on Amazon. I bought from Shipton Mill during lockdown as I had very little white and wholemeal flour left. They were excellent, reasonably priced as well. I had been struggling to find flour and Amazon had doubled the price of the Matthews ones and I couldn't get through to Matthews directly. I buy 12-16 kg at a time usually of the flours I use the most. I currently have about 10 different types of flours I am using. We never buy bread any more and my other half finds homemade bread more filling so he eats less and is full quicker. Even the dog comes running when I slice a new loaf. He only gets a few crumbs but he loves it. I would love to go on a bread making or even a pastry course as I want to learn more. One bread I haven't mastered yet is naan bread. I am wondering about buying a pizza oven as I think a standard oven can't do it is well. Or maybe I just haven't found the right recipe yet.

Supervintagegirl- have you every seen or read about "Extreme Irining" as a sport? There are World Championships in it. Got a book on it as a fun wedding present for a cousin who has been known to ask you to take of some item of clothing that you are wearing as you stand in front of her so she can iron it for you!! I kid you not .... My SIL not far behind. Spent 4hrs - FOUR FULL HOURS - Irining her 20 something year olds shirts the other evening !!! It would take less time to train them to do their own. Ho hum .... ironing can be very therapeutic tho ....

A flickering flame surrounded by ancient carved stone - Antique stone fireplaces add both character and a sense of place to any room, the knocks and bumps of the decades nay centuries, connecting hearth to home. Even with the advent of central and underfloor heating we crave that focal gathering point that a fireplace provides - a room without a fireplace? Nowhere to hang the picture, mirror or tapestry, no were to put your cards and certainly no place to hang your Christmas stocking!

We have a small bin under the sink for non recycling things, black plastic, the pods from my coffee machine, dirty kitchen roll etc., which before 5p a bag started, used to be lined with a shopping bag, now I save the planet by buying a roll of bin bags! We also have a small food compost bin next to it, which I buy special bags for from amazon. Then, in the garage, which is next to the utility room we have the paper, tin, glass, plastic recycling boxes, the big food bin with the strong lid and the larger general waste bin which is collected every fortnight. I hate seeing bins outside houses and think that the new bin system which requires such a collection of bins has meant some terraced houses in our area have gone down in value, the residents are not always tidy and the council should provide better ways of collecting and dealing with rubbish when people find it hard to store it out of sight. Seeing bins around is one of my big pet hates!