A hot day and everything changes...
These pictures seem to have joined up in some mysterious WordPress way so rather than mess about with it anymore. I’ll just leave it like this. :)
The top one is a ladybird larvae on an outside wall beginning its change…..
Zeb Bakes 
We get lots of the larvae in our bathroom. Hope it doesn’t correspond with a huge swarm of the harlequins descending on our house in October to hibernate.
On a jollier note, that bread looks stupendous. *jealous*
Joanna,
Your pictures are beautiful.
Especially the bread.
Your baguettes are beyond beautiful- I can almost smell them.
Loved this post!
You’ve been baking up a storm, lady….
The grande illusion of some very ordinary French bread…. I will post about it properly soon… mais merci mes amies!
I noticed ladybird larvae for the first time this year – they were on the basil I was trying to pick. Mine were at an earlier stage than your first photo and were completely grey and quite long; had to guess at what they might be and check online. It was interesting to watch them change.
When they first hatch from the little yellow eggs they are tiny and black or grey and then they eat ferociously and grow like mad. Different colour ladybirds have different coloured larvae too I think.
Suelle, did they clean the aphids from your basil? I’m a bit cross with them at the moment as now they are all pupating the aphids are coming back. I never knew what they were before I looked them up either. None indoors as yet, Annalisa, I’m keeping a close eye out for them…I’ve seen the pictures of those swarms in North Nofolk last year.
My goodness you have been so busy; swiming … all those cakes and now your ‘bête noir’, ze leetel french baguette … :)
Seriously though, they look absolutely beautiful and those slashes ….. I’m dead jealous!
Joanna – there were no aphids on the basil, so either they’d all been eaten or these ladybird larvae were off piste!
I’m finding them all over the garden now, Suelle, I think they just eat everything they can find and then march onwards…
Beautiful pictures, beautiful bread!
p.s. saw some glow worms (fireflies) in the garden this week. Unfortunately I hadn’t got my camera charged :( I was chuffed as I’d only ever seen them once before and didn’t know what they were … like little green leds in the dark … beautiful :)
I would trade all the baguettes in the world to see fireflies – how wonderful! Be not jealous of my efforts, the truth will out… :)
Amazing photography again – I’ve seen ladybird larvae, but never the transition. Your bread looks totally delicious as usual.
Well, we think that’s what they are… I’l write the bread up properly tomorrow…
Must…bake…bread…
Your baguettes are hypnotizing me, Jo…and the perfect answer to what to do with my volcanic starter, which is beckoning me into the kitchen this Saturday morn…
Celia, I just read a ‘tweet’ from Nils in which he recommends brushing the slashes with water two or three times in the first ten minutes in the oven…. though how he doesn’t lose his temperature I am not quite sure, but his slashes are certainly very impressive and three dimensional!
I just had a very decadent fried egg baguette sandwich :)
Those baguettes belong in a basket on a bicycle, cycling to a picnic…ah, how lovely.
They didn’t last that long, but you’re right – I might make some more and think picnic :)
What an informative post – the different end result caused by the different flours is quite amazing. The floured surface shows up the slashing well on the ’00’ baguettes . The colour of the crust on the bags using the ordinary flour is lovely and the crumb, to my novice eye, looks better too (at least in the photo). I’m very curious to see what following Nils’ advice of wetting the slashes will bring …. but I would be worried about losing the heat, though perhaps baking on a hearth mitigates the temperature drop somewhat?
Here the crazy temperatures are skewing everything bake-wise – Hamelman’s leaven starter for the Vermont ripened in just 5 hours on Saturday instead of the usual 12 to 16! The refreshment made with the two remaining spoons of starter went straight into the fridge and, for the first time ever, I see my white leaven is high as a kite at 4°c, where normally it is only the rye leaven that rises as well at 4°c as on the worktop! A learning curve ….
Hi Blue, I like the contrast between flour and slash too! I do that quite a lot, the other thing you can do is paint/brush the top of the loaf with cream, or egg wash and then you get a brown shiny top with contrasting slash colours. Works well on whiter loaves in particular. Here is an example:
If your starter is being used a lot and it is warmer it will be ready to use in 6 – 8 hours for sure, you can leave it longer if you want a more acidic flavour to the bread, but we like mild sourdoughs here for the most part. Maybe you have been nurturing your white leaven a lot recently? The more you discard and feed, the hungrier and more active they get I think. If you leave them a long time in the fridge,most of them die so take longer to build up their numbers again, or something like that. :)