Close the skylight!

And then the rains came again and it rained and rained and rained. One week of summer seems all we will be allocated this month with wild hopes that the weather gurus are right and we shall see some heat in July. One week of sunny holidays for some and sunny exams for others. One week of sun at 5 in the morning, of open bake house doors. One week of delight to be followed by the dreaded return of the rain. As much as the sunny week cheered everyone up and made everything easier, the rains have brought us right back indoors - turning on lights and fires for comfort and cheer. After the bread round,  the most important thing is to close that skylight to keep the rain out and the heat in. The next most important thing is to get on the Internet and find a house sitter. Tradition - and sanity - demand that we close every July and go to Germany to visit the family and take a proper good long break.  Dogs, the cats and especially the chickens that tend to multiply at this time of year stay here and need looking after, so  house minders have proven fantastic. Housecarers.com is a great site where people like us find sitters and adventurous travellers find places to stay. Twice we had a couple from Australia staying who not only minded our house but cleaned it, tidied it, looked after the animals and the garden and fixed all sorts of things some of which I didn't even know needed fixing. Bliss to know your house is looked after, your animals are fine and super bliss to come back from holidays to a warm house with a dinner in the pot a bottle of wine on the table.

That's optimism !!

So house minders are required again this year and plans have to be made to close the bakehouse for one month. Notice has to go ou so that customers can order in advance and lots and lots of plans are already being made for August when we return with new ideas and new energy. Last Sunday at one of the many  "emigration  parties", we met a friend from a while ago who now delivers twice a week from Kilkenny to delicatessen shops in Dublin. Well that gave us some ideas for August. Ideas that involve a night shift to have deliveries ready to go by 2 am, ideas that involve Speltbakers bread in Dublin delis. After the bread round is making plans. Watch this space and wait for the rains to stop.

They actually did after I hung out the washing!!! Maybe that's how it works? Have a little faith, hang out the washing in the drizzle and out comes the sun!!!

 When are we parking and when unloading?

After the bread round we got really cross today because a  traffic warden wouldn't believe that I was on the bread round at all. 3 minutes I stayed in front of the shop - in a loading bay. I showed him him the baskets in the back,  I insisted that I could stop off in the loading bay in front of the shop - because guess what, I was unloading. A small, in fact, a tiny bakery as we are, I was unloading a basket not a pallet but unloading nevertheless. He wouldn't believe me, wouldn't even listen and waving his little computer at me, he took down my details and said he was only doing his job. So was I -  but then apparently not.

The offending vehicle

Just as the business is slowly growing and sales are up and the mood is high - here comes the downer, the kick out of the delivery community that may use the loading bay. My car, you see is the family car. It has seven seats because that's how many we are and it doubles up as  delivery vehicle. It is insured as such but not taxed as a van. It isn't a van. So. Mr Grumpy who is only doing his job, is perfectly entitled to wave his little computer at my tax disc and claim that this private car had no right to park in the loading bay but I wish he listened, I wish he bothered to get to know cars that deliver every day. His colleague in High Street does, his colleague in High Street even waves me on and tells me which loading bay is free. His colleague in High Street wants to keep the traffic going, the shops stocked and he keeps the delivery vehicles moving, be they big or small. Frank knows the small community of delivery vans, Frank does much more than his job, Frank runs the street. Mr Grumpy just does his job and someone should tell him that may not be enough.

As we wait to spend this week's profit on a traffic ticket - for unloading in a loading bay.

On the river

The sun still shines but we all have heard that it won't last and we use the last days and hours. Sunday afternoon in Graiguenamanagh at the river Barrow was like a Mediterranean  holiday resort. A beautiful river with one of the nicest bridges in Ireland. Brandon Hill in the background and boats moored either side of the river. Lazy ducks on the river and a party in full flow on the other side with a band belting out popular songs. The club house changing rooms are open, the locals are out, joined by lots and lots of others who know about the best swimming and diving spot in the South East. Here are the steps where the rowing club launches their racing boats and where we non rowers can sit, dangle the legs in the water or push each other in for an involuntary dip. Here are the diving boards, 1 meter and 3 meter where the braver ones jump in and where each very energetic jumper sets the 3 meter board off to a clanging that supports the drummer from the other side of the river.

We have brought our kayak, a double sit on plastic boat, and bring it down to the steps - only to discover that a winter of leaving the kayak in the garden has resulted in an ants nest in one of the seat covers!!! Nasty red biting ants - that thankfully can't swim. We turn the kayak upside down, take off the seat cover and  get bitten and bitten some more as the ants desert the boat and take refuge up my trouser legs instead. Marginally hysterically, we win however and set off up river, leaving the crowds along the diving boards and passing the little beach, which -  in pre-sun times - doubles as  a cattle drinking spot, with a beach line of 2m. In the summer however, it is a beach with  a life guard  present,  flags flying and swimming lessons available. After the beach comes the bend in the river and after that peace and tranquility as you cannot buy. In the background, the band still plays on but all we really hear are our paddles and the shrieks of our  non paddling passengers as he gets splashed and nearly capsizes us all pretending he is on the Titanic.

More lazy than energetic, we paddle on around another bend and drift around a bit, enjoying the sun, the water and the company. Eventually, we turn and head back to civilisation and our picnic, the totally crucial part of any outings. We pull up at the boat slip this time and out comes Pitta bread with tomato sauce, sandwiches, brownies, hot chocolate  and tea.

As the sun looses its power, the swimmers disappear and the last cool dudes climb the 3 meter board and declare they'd jump no problem but it was a bit cold and anyway, tomorrow they'd give a go - and they go down by the ladder again, swagger off hands in pockets, all three the same rolling walk, the same flower shorts.

Too lazy to paddle on, we pack up our boat and our picnic and give the non paddling passenger a run along the river on his BMX. At the little beach there is a log seat which civilised parents use to sit on while their children swim. We play balancing games on it, slapping each other off the log. Last one standing wins. I like it when I can still beat my  children. Not sure it looked great though, when one of them  nearly flew into the river. 

Time to go, the bread round starts again on Tuesday and the bake house still needs its weekly clean up.

The first Blog

It always takes me ages to embrace the new ways. I love writing and wrote a column in the Kilkenny People for 6 years. Stopped 3 years ago and have been looking for a new column ever since. I theoretically knew about blogging but that was it. Now, literally years later, here I am - on Blogger, blogging and thrilled to be back. Yesterday, I set it up on a beautifully sunny day while waiting for my daughter to finish her maths grinds. While she was working on differential equations, I was flicking between tabs, setting up my blog on one while reading how to do it on the other!! Today, while the sun is still splitting the skies, two people have already viewed this emtpy space where the wisdom of the finished baker will be aired. Someone in America was wondering what this blog is all about and I do hope you look in again.

After the bread round are the thoughts of a woman in her 50s, a German living in Ireland, a wife of an Irishman, a mother of four children who are just beginning to leave home. A woman living in rural Ireland who trained as a geographer, worked as a home manager with a bit of geography thrown in after she thought of setting herself up as Ideas Unlimited, the versatile rural consultancy.

Then came the column writing with the love to her my opinions and then came another idea which was to join the wonderful artisan food producer community and start a home bakery. From baking for the family to baking for  a shop run by a friend it developed to baking for 7 different outlets and finally this year moving out of the family kitchen into a bakehouse across the yard. An old farm house with many empty sheds is now a farmhouse where the shed, loosely known as the rubbish shed is now the bakehouse.

Every morning at 4am, I start and still am thrilled with my wonderful new space. Working the yeast doughs is a great and many people pay big money for this kind of therapy.
At the moment I work with two of the children helping out on alternate mornings, the plan is to grow, to employ part time bakers and maybe a driver, to do markets and sell more. The plan is that this business will supply many, many people with great bread and us with a bit more of an income at a time when money is on every ones lips and in less of our pockets.

So, I'm here, set up, ready to communicate. Shall now get back into the bakehouse and do the Saturday clean up. Sunday and Monday are rest days and if the weather holds up, the River Barrow in Graiguenamanagh is where time will be spend after the bread round. JP