Stepping things up

A few months ago the Girl had a go at synchronised swimming.  She enjoyed it up to a point, but ultimately decided that it wasn't for her.  However, she's not averse to trying another slightly non-standard pursuit, and recently agreed to sign up for a taster course in Irish step dancing.

The first class was tonight.  I was tempted to hang around and watch, but of course didn't subject my daughter to that indignity.  But the teacher seems nice, and a class of five girls feels like a good number.  We'll see how it goes.

Back at home, I'm trying to make serious inroads into breadmaking.  I've decided to eschew that kneadlessly simple business in favour of more traditional methods, so I've borrowed The River Cottage Bread Handbook from the library.  It's by Daniel Stevens, who is enthusiastic about bread in a very engaging way.  His enthusiasm even extends telling you how to build your own wood-fired bread oven in the back garden, which may be taking things a tad far for me at this stage.  He is, luckily, quite pragmatic and in his instructions does allow for readers who have just an ordinary oven.  I've yet to fully master the art of bread, but I'm enjoying the attempts (and - yum - the freshly-baked smell wafting through the house).