Witchhazel in Snow
While they are still fresh and the snow is on the ground here are some snow photos from yesterday morning.
Before ‘sunrise’
We woke up to 16 cms of sticky British snow, the sort that hangs on the powerlines and brings them down as it has done in Wales.
Wintersweet
The sun didn’t come out so the photos have that grey cast to them, I have brightened them up a bit but anyway it gives you an idea of how it looks here.
Galloping Poodle
Nose-diving Poodle
The dogs love the snow and the snow loves them, clinging to their legs and forming huge balls of ice in their fur which we have to melt off when they come in again. I might have to buy those ridiculous legged suits for them if this goes on.
Caraway Rye at the back and Kamut and regular wheat at the front
Edited to add a crumb shot, very pleased with the lightness of this loaf!
Crumb shot of light rye and caraway sourdough loaf
Because the central heating is on more or less all the time, the sourdough was very happy and made me two lovely loaves of bread in about seven hours altogether. One is with some kamut in the mix, the other with light rye and caraway. The rye was a looser stickier dough and even though both loaves had the same overall amount of flour, one a bit more water and followed my regular formula but they have different shapes and the dough felt very different. The moment you introduce rye the dough gets stickier to handle. Always interesting, how the bread comes out. Stay warm if you are in the Northern Hemisphere this weekend and I hope my Antipodean friends are staying cool!
Zeb Bakes 
Beautiful loaves, Joanna!
Thank you :)
Adorable poodle! I particularly like the nose-diving one.
I must take my camera out with me today and try and take some action shots of them in the snow, they are very funny to watch :)
Those loaves look delicious!
Love the crazy poodles too, brought back memories of our family dog doing the same – I’d forgotten how funny it is to watch.
One of these days you will have to borrow the dogs for a walk, though I think today is a bit slippy on the roads :)
We’re trying to stay cool. We had one of the hottest days on record yesterday – 47C. It was so hot it was beyond description but walking outside was like when you open the oven door and all the heat rushes at you and is enough to singe your eyebrows. That’s a lot of snow. I didn’t know it snowed that much in the UK. I thought it mostly rained! And how do you get the ice off the dog’s legs?
Scotland nearly always has snow in the winter, they ski there, but it is more variable in England, all depending on where the wind and precipitation is coming from. We don’t usually get much in my little corner of England but this time we did – and we are famously bad at coping with it too :) We have tried two ice removal techniques so far, one hairdryer, which takes ages and melt water flies everywhere, and today, I chucked them in the shower and hosed their legs and that was much quicker and got any salt out of their paws. I think 47C would feel like hell, but I am not a hot weather person. Presumably you can fry eggs on the pavement? x Joanna
Kids and dogs – they love snow. Molls had great fun outside this morning. She’s napping now – all tuckered out.
Mine are tuckered too, another romp and a skid to the littlest localest park for us just now :)
Your bread is totally gorgeous! And by the time I got to the crumb shot I was thinking of getting out the rye flour, myself- the crumb shot convinced me- I love the crumb shots!
And the witch hazel topped with snow should be on a calendar- really beautiful. I remember the frozen snow balls my Afghan hound would come into the house with in the winter. We made him sit on a thick towel until they all melted!
Thank you! That witchhazel always reminds me of the fuzzy paper you get in fancy wrapped gifts, I ‘m sure it has a name, shreds of intense colour on bare twigs. The bread was only a little rye, mostly a mix of Manitoba and Gloucestershire wheat, maybe 10% rye? But even that little bit changes the feel of the dough. Just made B a ham and cucumber sandwich with it. I am not eating till this evening. (My tum is rumbling though :) )
Oh good, a new bread post – Nice. I hate snow – I once (while away at school) lost my car all winter after it got plowed under by a snow plow – really deep – managed to dig it out in March. We’ve had no snow yet, not even our usual dusting – but it’s been cold and gloomy. Eagerly looking forward to spring.
I can understand you not liking snow! Was the car drivable? I have daffodils and snowdrops under there somewhere waiting…
Lovely (deliciously cool!) photos – and the bread looks sensational. Do you share your recipes?
Silly me! JUst clicked on link to your delicious recipe. Thank you so much!
hello! thanks for reading and following the links. There is a big post about making sourdough if you click on the link in the menu at the top of the blog.
Dear Joanna,
I was thinking of you and stopped in for a visit. Snow in Bristol – oh my! My fingers are crossed that we don’t experience any more snow here this year. You are welcome to whatever our share may have been.
We are bored with the snow now, though we enjoy the birds coming into our suburban garden that we only see at times like this ; blackcap and fieldfares today. No sunshine at all now since it snowed either. Hope all is calm for you x Joanna
Nice shots as I sit here in 100F (38C) temps. Bread looks wonderful, can’t wait to try my rye sourdough starter for the first time. Waiting for some slightly cooler weather!
I can not imagine putting an oven on to bake when it is that hot Ardy! Looking forward to hearing how the bread goes :)
Beautiful photos – both snow and bread. Only 33C here today so not too hot, but if I need to cool down I shall look at your lovely pictures and imagine myself snowdiving with Zeb!
We are becoming expert at icicle removal though when they decide they have to go out at 4 am and then I stand there freezing to de-ice them, I think of the dogs I saw in the north of Alberta who slept outdoors in temps as low as -40 and had the biggest thickest coats you ever saw – then I wish they were more resilient :)
I love the photos of Zeb playing in the snow. It’s so childlike and I can imagine the delight in discovering that the landscape wants to play! I really like the photo of before sunrise when the landscape is a silent, secret world.
You should see them destroying my snowballs and barking for me to make them more. They go wild in the snow Jan. They do the same on the beach too, or when they come out of woodland onto a golfcourse, they revel in the change of texture and environment and always respond by kicking back their heels and galloping around. They are a joy :)
Beautiful photos…the first is my favorite with that lovely pop of colour! We have the snow ball boot problem here every year with our hairy bearded collies. We run a very shallow warm bath and pop them in one after the other (3 dogs!!). We did once have to carry our oldest ( and hairiest) back to the house because she had run through such deep snow, that the snow ball boots were so big she couldnt move one back leg past the other poor thing!
Thank you! It’s been hard to take photos with no sunshine so I looked for colour wherever I could find it. You have bearded collies? They are such lovely dogs, I know two and they both have such great personalities and sweet natures. We used a walk in shower when the snowballs were worst but a gentle warm bath would prob be the best but I would have to carry them upstairs. I think about those legged suits but I can’t imagine a dog would be really comfortable in one of those unless it was custom made for the dog.
Yeah, we carry them upstairs! What we do for doggie love :-) they don’t seem to mind the snow balls…although I know some owners who have their dogs leg hair clipped for winter to avoid them……so we just go with the flow and warm baths! If we are walking near a river the cold water seems to melt them too. I think dogs must have central heating in their paws as the cod doesn’t seem to bother them :-)
The paws of dogs are mysterious in their ways… Poodles have hair in between their toepads too (which are clipped regularly) so if the snow is ‘sticky’ then it can build up under their feet but that hasn’t happened so far this January :)
Mysterious indeed…..but wonderful!!
I shall have to get into the habit of slashing my loaves. It looks so good.
Yes, go on, give them a quick slash, especially big round loaves :)
love your galloping poodle and your nose-diving poodle. great photos. great fun! (oh love the holey bread too!)