A Good Year For The Birds

I just have to share crab apple harvest this year.   These orange apples, on a now leafless tree, are too small to make jelly from.  We leave them for the birds - who devour them when other food becomes scarce in mid winter.  I am sure they get drunk on them because once they get started there is no limit to the antics they get up to as they tightrope/softrope their way along the branches.  Blackbirds and pigeons are the most enthusiastic, but these house sparrows on the nearest bush seem to be keeping a custodial eye on them.

Just in case you are wondering, yes the blue lines are our washing line.

A Bread a Day Week, Day Six - Apple and Oat Bread

There are some that have enough of this bread obsession:

But a friend gave us a bag of apples from their garden and I was sure that Dan Lepard had an apple and oat loaf.  The start was not looking that promising.  A cup of grated apple mixed with a a cup of porridge (real oat porridge)

But mixed in with a standard white dough it's not that extraordinary...

...until you try to turn it out...

...when it all got a bit messy...

...but it turned out...

...pretty well