A novel experience

 I had a new experience last night. We had walked to our son's house to collect something and were standing outside having a socially distanced chat when my son suddenly asked "Is that a hedgehog?" I have never seen a hedgehog before in real life and so I followed it as it walked along the pavement. It walked past half a dozen houses before disappearing through a gap in the hedge into a garden. It headed straight for the gap in the hedge so it must have known where it was going. I took a photograph but it was completely dark so it is not a great photo but it will help me remember the experience. The hedgehog was 8 - 9 inches long which is bigger than I thought it would be.

Nose back to the grindstone again

 Oops. I seemed to have blinked and missed a month. I blame it on the church coffee shop which has opened for business once again. We only serve outside, of course, for now at least. But after being closed for 13 months, the storeroom shelves were empty and the freezers were empty too. So I have literally been starting from scratch to supply everything needed. The only problem was how much to supply for immediate use as some days have been really cold. And who wants to sit outside to have something to eat on a really cold day?

I am also finding that I don't have as much energy as I did pre-covid and can't stand for a whole day baking as I used to. I am doing about three hours at a time which is quite enough for now and I hope that some energy does trickle back into my system. At least a few three hour sessions means that there is a little store of cake in the freezer now - just in case we get an influx of customers. We are serving a much reduced menu for now until we can have customers indoors again so I don't have to cook any lunchtime "specials" like cottage pie or pasta bake or lasagne yet. I did buy some carrots just before Easter weekend when they were down at 20p for a kilo and have put over 50 portions of carrot and coriander soup in the freezer ready for September. And of course I have been shopping and got a few things on the storeroom shelves again.

I have made a note of a few new recipes for cakes and bakes as I came across them this last year. I want to try them out and see how well the cake or bake keeps for a couple of days before I let them be served to customers. Ah well, busy busy again.