Roads to Joy

Today we’re baking a bigger batch of bread than the usual weekly effort. I say ‘we’ but really my job is only to take care of the fire and then do the washing-up of the bowls. So when the fire has really taken hold of the hardwood logs (not nearly as fast as dry softwood to ignite into a roaring flame) I can breathe easy. As I write, the temperature in the oven has risen to 200ºC and rising, so everything seems in hand for a good bake. We have to catch the oven on the way back down, from a peak at about 450º, at prime baking temperature, holding steady at 230º, after all the ashes have been raked out.

It’s part of our strategy to reduce electricity consumption, and to use what energy resources we have available to us. Just now, hardwood is neatly stacked and convenient, so we thought, let’s do a big batch of bread this week. We’re about to embark on the day’s work.

The sun rises and hits my eyes, still sleepy and waking up, here in the little porch office. It looks like a beautiful day ahead. I wonder what intriguing things I might accomplish today. Maybe I’ll consolidate some writing tasks, or maybe I’ll go for the fallowness of input; I have two novels anyway on the bedside table to finish reading, and more to begin.

With the preparation work done on the oven front, and the day stretching out before me, it’s a lovely feeling of relief to ease into the morning.