I was almost disappointed this morning when there was no glorious sunrise to greet me. It was a grey blanket over everything, although clear. However, patience brings roses as they say, and suddenly there was a bright light coming from somewhere. I again ventured outside, being careful not to create an accident by falling on the hardened snow and captured the sun. We might even have a sunny day today, although still very cold. I am not going anywhere and doing anything in particular. I am having my shopping brought to my doorstep, so what could be better. I got the delivery slot this morning from 11-12 a.m. although I would prefer an hour earlier, but Monday is no great rush to cook lunch. I have odered five breads which I will vauum in plastic before freezing. They are a reserve for the week, although I will probably bake bread myself in between. I read that vacuum packing the bread before freezing keeps them much longer and fresher in the freezer. I also enjoy doing it, looks so neat and tidy when done.

I had such an interesting visitor in the garden yesterday. I have no idea what this bird is, although I suspect it to be some sort of finch. It has such a lovel colourful breast. I saw a couple of them sitting in the trees opposite. The snowfall did not seem to bother them so much.

It is truly wonderful to see the birds outside whilst sitting in the kitchen enjoying. I am having my breakfast and so are the birds. I never thought I would one day live in such a wonderful place, especially after growing up in a working class family in one of the back streets of London, although we also had our bird life. It was mostly the London sparrows I would watch from the top window of our little house hopping around on the opposite roof. The house is now long gone, demolished in the seventies and so are the sparrows. I heard that the sparrow population in London is diminishing unfortunately.

Another day at home for me with company from my radio and in the evening the TV. I at last watched a film completely yesterday. Luckily the BBC channel fim four repeat the films and I can never really watch from beginning to end. I usually have to interrupt them to go down to the laundry room in the cellar, or perhaps quickly inject my MS medicine in between. There is also washing to hang to dry from the machine. The reason I do my washing in the evening is because from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. our electricity is half price, and it really saves, another little quirk I have in my daily golden oldie life. Anyhow yesterday I managed to watch The Transformers, Age of Extinction. I just love those fantasy films and this time the mechanical abilities of the transformers were fascinating. The transforming objects had to leave their planet and settled on earth. With time they were accepted and built their own way of life. I just loved the baby transformers which were learning how to become a machine, especially a little fire breathing baby machine learning how to breathe fire, but only managed a few puffs of smoke. The story was not too bad and even Anthony Hopkins had a role and Seven Spielberg was one of the directors, so it was well done: a good film before retiring to hug the bed.

And now I must really move on to further fields with the copany of a vacuum cleaner and mop. Have a good day everyone, and may the beginning of the working week have smooth runnings.

I wonder where the time goes when I stop hugging the bed and sit here at the computer. First of all I had some laundry to remove from the wash stand which had dried over night. Then I was out in the snow to spread the bird food. The remainders of yesterday had been covered by the snow that fell during the night. Yes, we had another covering, although it is now a little warmer and has already begun to melt a little.

Yesterday they were all paying a visit for some food. The sparrows are always present, but Mr. Magpie also turned up, actually there were two of them. I even got a visit from a crow. I used to have a murder of crows in the morning, but this year have not seen them so much. They were the customers for the walnuts, so I decided to put a few out in the morning again.

And now I am really proud of myself. My first attempt at making and baking my own bread was nothing really special a week ago. In the meanwhile I now have a suitable container for baking it and a cookery book with all the details. My main problem was having the time to do it, but now I have the solution. I make the mixture during the morning which really only takes a few minutes in my super machine. I then leave it to rise. The recipes say an hour, but that would mean I would have to refrain from a midday sleep. I let the dough rise for a couple of hours, whilst I am sleeping. Afterwards I had a wonderfully risen dough, knocked it back again and formed it for the bread. I then had time to bake it for about three quarters of an hour. The first half hour was with the lid on the baking form and the last quarter of an hour without the lid to let it get some colour.

I was so pleased to see how my bread had risen and it was really tasty and not a lot of actual work. It more or less does its own thing, all you have to do is make the pastry, leave it to rise and bake it. The way is now paved for me and I will probably bake my own bread now and again during the week. I only have a round form, so have been looking for a long form with lid and have found one. I had such fun making the bread and a wonderful feeling to see the result. Mr. Swiss and No. 1 son find it was a super bread. I worked out how much making your own bread would cost, although I am not doing it to save money. However, the material and electricity costs amount to half of what I usually spend on a loaf, although that is not counting the labour costs.

My little robin appeared again yesterday and got quite near the window to have a drink. He is always so alone, or perhaps there are two of them, a whole tribe, and they take turns for their meal. Robins do not seem to be such social birds. I am now off to do a bit of this and that, but no bread baking today, although I have a cake in ny radar. I still have a couple of lemons left from last week, so it will be a lemon cake again, although the Angloswiss family seems to like it.

Have a good day.