Its blowing a gale outside, or should I say, it blew a gale last night. 150-200 km/hour winds which 
brought down trees and tumbled trampolines into the universe to find new homes where they landed. It was gale force last night and unexpected. I went walking up Mt Albert near my home and found massive 
one hundred year old trees uprooted, debris all over the neighbourhood and more than 180,000 homes are still without power. Nature owned it last night and all we could do was hunker under our roofs and hope for the best. 
Today now, hail!! This weather bomb is getting interesting, not to mention cold!
So in such a windy inclement climate, bread making seemed to be the order of the day. I whipped up the dough by hand 
and set it to rise on the bench. 
Its combination of warm milk with French mustard and grated cheddar cheese sounded delicious. 
I had to leave it for an hour, so in that time, I wrote my novel, which I had started in March. In that hour I managed (somehow) to write 1000 words. Happy! 🙂 The bread had risen beautifully, despite the cold weather, doubled and so I made the loaf and set it to rise again. 
While I waited this time I decided to get out of the house, so headed to a café to edit. Bored I didn’t last long, no longer than a soy latte in fact before I was drawn home by the rising loaf and the desire to get it in the oven. Lo and behold, it came out crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside with the flavour of cheese scones. 
Mmmmmmmm. Not a treat to be missed and it went down exceptionally well with our quiche and salad for dinner.
Time and nature are funny things. One minute, stable, safe and secure, the next, hundred year old trees are being toppled in an instant by ferocious and unexpected winds. I guess life’s a bit like that, we never know what’s coming next, we just have to count our blessings and smell the roses, or at least the freshly baked bread.
My tumble for the day was tripping on the back step while rushing out to put the wheelie bin out before the rubbish truck drove past. I caught myself just in time and landed on my feet, instead of my nose or knees!! That was close. The last time I had an encounter with that step I broke my foot!
