Why?

This was a comment last Saturday.  

Anonymous15 February 2026 at 07:09

So many posts on UK blogs about depressed-sounding pensioners sitting around looking out at the rain. Don’t you ever long for a bit of adventure in foreign lands? With the internet it’s so easy now to organise affordable accommodation for a couple of months. Have you never considered escaping the winter? Helen.

I know why I don't long for adventure or fancy two months somewhere warmer - it would be no fun on my own and I'd be bored stiff!

And anyway, I'm English, moaning about the weather is what we do and always have........

On 26th February 1768, MP  Horace Walpole said in his journal "We are drowning again for the second winter, and hear of nothing but floods and desolation"

And weather folklore says..... 

                                                         "If in Februeer there be no rain,

                                                           The hay won't be good, nor the grain.

                                                          All other months of the year

                                                            Most heartily curse a fine Februeer"

Apparently rainfall records have been broken this winter in many places, so we aren't imagining it!

Chocolate Brownies for Grandchildren

 It's good to have something in the freezer that all grandchildren like for a dessert. Adults don't refuse them either.

This is a recipe from the WI Chocolate recipe book and always turns out well. I've added it to the separate recipe page.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES 

These are good served warm with ice cream.

4 oz butter diced

4oz plain chocolate, broken into pieces

1 Tablespoon Golden Syrup

5oz dark muscovado sugar

5oz castor sugar

4 eggs, beaten

8oz SR Flour

1½oz cocoa powder

2oz white chocolate drops or chopped (optional)

2oz walnut pieces(optional)

Line base and sides of a 30cm x 22cm tin (12 inches x 8½ inches)

Preheat oven to 180℃/ 160℃ -fan

Place butter, chocolate and syrup in a large saucepan and melt gently over low heat.

Add all other ingredients and mix really well.

Spoon into tin, spread evenly into corners

Bake for approx 30 minutes until it has risen and is firm to the touch and coming away from the sides

Allow to cool in tin.

 Cut into 32 or 24 pieces.

The photo below is from when I made brownies and cheese straws back in early January.

Crowded Jumble Sale and Rye Flour

 The jumble sale last Saturday, a fundraiser for a village hall in a nearby village, was absolutely packed with people. I just picked up a three things for £1

Something for Granddaughter to do when she's here, another freezer storage box and lid, the right size for putting small cakes in the freezer and a solid clipboard for the check-in charts for Keep Moving group, I've been using a cardboard one for the last three years and it's falling apart.

BUT while looking round I lost my woolly hat, which I'd shoved in my pocket as everyone went in, so annoying as I'd had it ages. It probably fell out of my pocket and got added to the jumble! I can't go out in winter without something over my ears as getting cold can make me dizzy. When I got home I searched high and low for two other pull on beanie type hats that I had and they've vanished, I do still have two but one is a very thin knit and the other is an old fleece hat that lives by the back door for going in the garden. 

So that jumble sale has ended up costing  me more money than I wanted as I've sent for two different new hats - one home knitted from the Oxfam online shop  and a cheapie from ebay. (just occasionally I wish I'd had the patience to learn to knit!)

Then even more annoying, when I put my other coat on on Tuesday I found one of the vanished hats in my pocket ................duh!

After the jumble I went on to the next village for their monthly craft/farmers market and got a bag of rye flour to try (I've been wanting to try to make medieval maslin bread for ages)

 BUT what I'd not realised was that rye flour needs a different mixer blade for my bread machine as it makes a very sticky dough. I could make by hand but find kneading dough very hard on the wrists now. New blades for the bread machine are cheap enough so I sent for a pack containing one of each - normal and rye -  handy to have a spare anyway while it's still available.

So even though the sun was shining for the first time for many days it didn't feel as if I'd had a successful day.

Ho Hum