A Song for this Last Day of April

This is the last day of a very long April following a very long hard winter.

I want to share April On the Ground with everyone. It tells us about looking forward to the new season, to being outside and no longer facing the storm. He says that it comes with newfound understanding. Hopefully, as we come to the other side of this time of isolation and fear, we too can say we have learned something about ourselves and about our world.

I really like Justin Hines and his music.
Justin Hines is an extremely gifted musician who was born with a rare genetic disorder that affects his mobility causing him to need a power wheelchair. He has now stopped performing due to continued failing health and breathing issues. Justin's songs are sensitive and often inspiring. He has done a lot around the world to fundraise for different charities and has a foundation of his own. I was lucky to see him perform in Winnipeg many years ago when he helped raise money for The Independent Living Association of Manitoba




April on the Ground  - Justin Hines

It's nice to know,
I've seen the seasons in their glory,
Each one brings a different morning,
to my door,

But still somehow,
I'm looking forward to a sunrise,
Where I don't have to face a storm,
to go outside,
Yeah that would be nice,

And here at last,
With a new found understanding,
All the baggage not with standing,
It means no more.

And all is well,
Well I'm looking into friendly eyes,
And I'll hold the hands that keep me warm,
An hang on tight, That's my plan,
Yeah that's my plan,

'Cause its a fine time for April on the ground,
I've never been one for the cold,
And I'd say good-bye to walkways lined in white and not get down,
'Cause its a fine time for April on the ground,

Miles away,
There's a man that's sad an lonely,
His favourite saying is "If Only",
While on his knees,

And he bids farewell,
To a hardened woman he created,
Its been years in the making,
'Cause she's on her way,
I think I heard them say,
Yeah I heard them say,

Its a fine time for April on the ground,
I've never been one for the cold,
And I'd say good-bye to walkways lined in white and not get down,
'Cause its a fine time for April on the ground,

Its a fine time for April on the ground,
Well I never did get use to the cold,
And I'd say good-bye to walkways lined in white and not get down,
Oh its a fine time for April on the ground,
Yeah an its a fine time for April on the ground,
Well I've never been one for the cold, Alright,
And I'd say good-bye to walkways lined in white and not get down, not get down,

'Cause its a fine time for April on the ground,
Its a fine time for April on the ground,
Its a fine time for April on the ground,

Making Sourdougn Bread is Easy?

My daughter Emily and I began a couple of sourdough starters yesterday. I have used sourdough in the past, and Elizabeth, our eldest daughter, has kept her own starter alive for almost two years now. I'm already dreaming about all the wonderful things we can try baking in the next tew weeks.

I looked up Sourdough on Wikipedia, just in case you are not sure what makes it special.

Sourdough bread is made by the fermentation of dough using naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeasts. Sourdough Bread has a more sour taste and better inherent keeping qualities than bread made with baker's yeast, due to the lactic acid produced by lactobacilli.

Sourdough seems like the COVID 19 project of the month according to social media, so we decided to join in too. Emily wanted to try the "Wild Method" to make a starter. That means you use flour of some sort and add water and wait to see if wild yeast that is naturally occurring on the flour or maybe even in the air can start to grow. That is how you develop a local sourdough kind of like San Francisco sourdough because of the specific wild yeasts and lactobacilli in that environment. I wanted to go with the lazy method of adding a package of yeast, so I knew how much was in there and can expect faster results.  We are trying both ways.

My first sourdough ever began with a starter gifted to me around 1981 when I was a new mommy and all into healthy foods for baby and family. My starter came with the name Herman. There have been a few more Hermans since then who met unfortunate ends, but I am more than ready to try again with "Herman the 5th". I asked my daughters what they wanted to name their starters, but they seem to think that naming them is unnecessary and perhaps a touch odd.  Oh well.

There are tons of different Pinterest links on how to do sourdough starters, so you can easily find directions that will work for you, but the following is what we did for Day 1.

We carefully cleaned our glass containers.  It needs to be a container that is made of glass, ceramic or plastic. A lid is a good idea, but if not, you will need something like plastic wrap or waxed fabric to cover it over with.

Emily placed about a cup of warm water and a cup of regular flour in her jar and then put it in a warm spot covered loosely.

My jar was bigger than Emily's, so I doubled it up and used 2 cups of lukewarm water and added one packet of quick rise yeast that I had stored in my freezer. I let that sit and soften for about 10 minutes then gradually added ½ cup whole wheat flour and 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour. I stirred this around until it was kind of thick like a pancake batter. Cover the jar tightly and put my "Herman" starter on the counter next to the "Wild One."

Tomorrow, Day 2, calls for us to remove half of our starter mix and dispose of it. We will then add half of the original amount of flour and water. I will then add a cup of flour and a cup of lukewarm water, mix thoroughly and cover and put it back on the counter until Day 3!

I will keep you updated on our progress.


Have you ever had a sourdough starter?

How about Bread Baking? Is baking bread a skill you have mastered or maybe you have fond memories of your grandma baking a loaf for dinner?

Here Comes the Sun

The warmth of the past couple of weeks has caused the snow to melt here in Winnipeg. The grass is getting greener and there are birds returning and bunnies hopping all over the place. Spring has finally reached Manitoba!

The sun is peeking out intermittently today and my daughter decided that she would take a break from her work and take the dog out to play in our backyard. She said getting dressed, putting on her shoes and leaving the house to get some sun made her feel happier and a lot more ready to get to focus on work again. I teased her when she came back in by playing  Here Comes the Sun by The Beetles.

I love that song. To me, it says to hang on, it has been a long difficult period but that this too shall pass.

The first online handle I had was the nickname  Rainy Gal because it seemed like every time I went camping it rained. I first got dial-up internet around 1998. Things were very innocent back then and I became part of an online "web design and shared learning group" where we linked webpages in our private websites to form a "mouse village".  Yes, really a bunch of adults. There were people there with varied knowledge and info and I learned about initial set up of pages, graphic design, animation, and HTML and even learned some javascript skills.

Together we designed graphics and animations and had our mice do little activities like telling stories and creating new digital furniture and clothes for them and had them do magic tricks. They even got to go camping. We had little digital prizes and certificates for our mice and our fellow creators. We really learned a lot from and about each other.

One of the big online things back then was to program webpages to automatically open with little music clips. This was all before YouTube existed. I had about 20 mousey pages all with different rain or cloud themed songs that I coordinated with the graphics and page content.  One of my favourite pages had the song Here Comes the Sun playing and I placed a sun animation and added my little mice family creations, all animated to jump up and down in the sunshine.

 It was a happy time.

Perhaps this fairly recent Abby Road release will get this hopeful song stuck in your head.

Here comes the Sun

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun,
Here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes…