Day 8 of my self isolation and I am quite enjoying it: no stress, no thinking about I have to go shopping this afternoon and just taking it easy. When I awake to such a wonderful sunrise it compensates everything for me. Yesterday we had permanent snow.

The birds were flocking to my meals on stilts in the garden. Usually it is only one or two tits that feed from the birdhouse, but yesterday the cheeky sparrows took it over. The snow had completely covered their ground rations and so they moved on to where they didn’t have to dig for it.

I used to hate the snowy times, going back to the old days when I was a working lady and had to drive to work on the snowy and sometimes icy roads. After my retirement Mr. Swiss gave up driving and I was still doing the store run once a day and being glad when Winter was over. Eventually I also stopped driving. That was in Summer which was no problem. I had my electric wheelchair and scooter for transport. However the Winter arrived and I had to gradually start to rethink. Then we had Mr. Covid and pandemic to complicate things. Although an inconvenience in Switzerland we have worked on overcoming the problems and now there is a perfect online delivery service. I also had to re-organise my home life to deal with the changes in my comfortable life, but I now seem to be on a discovery voyage.

I am beginning to learn how to bake my own bread. It is not absolutely necessary and I get deliveries of fresh bread from the supermarket where they bake their own. Freezing it is no problem. The fresher the bread is when frozen the better it is. And yesterday I made my own spätzle. For those that do not know what it actually is, it is a mixture of eggs flour and milk-water and some salt. You form small pieces and drop it in the boiling water. It cooks for just a few minutes, remove it with a slotted spoon and eat it.

Here is my machine. It looks a bit complicated. On the left is the part that makes the spätzle and on the right the support for fitting to the pan to let the completed spätzle drop into the boiling water.

Here is the finished product. I put them into a pan with some butter to finish them off.

I served them with meat and veg. They need some sort of gravy to to eat with. I must admit I was really proud of myself. I usually bought the ready made, but now I make my own. Although Mr. Swiss is not a fan, even he said they were perfect. I had a feeling of culinary achievement. And now to continue with my bread making efforts. I am waiting for a delivery of a suitable pan to bake it in the oven and a new cookery book to go with it. I am definitely not wasting my time of isolation at the moment.

I still have not been able to book my appointment to have my vaccination for Covid, but as I no longer mix with the others so I suppose there is no great rush.

So here I am sitting in my kitchen with the computer, just eaten breakfast on the side and a camera on the table. What could be better? Of course a wonderful view in the garden of bird life. Perhaps they are only sparrows or tits, but I enjoy every minute of it.

And now I should move one, life is not only pleasure, there is work to be done as well, although even that breaks the monotony. Have a good day, make the most of it and it can only get better.