{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
My sourdough baking has taken a Great Leap Forward due to the snagging of some of Suki’s starter. It’s a game changer and leads me to observe that you can have all the skills in handling the dough, all the right temps and times, and still be frustrated, without good starter.
How to get good starter if you don’t have it (short of taking someone else’s), I don’t know. Move to Georgia? Live on an Army base?
The variations in these loaves are due to two factors: my bannetons are slightly different sizes and shapes (affiliate link there) and my oven is still not functioning properly; its heat fluctuates all over the place and I have to constantly re-set it. The repairman is coming yet again but I’m losing hope. Please send info on a home oven that doesn’t rely on stupid computers that give up at the slightest stress.
I know you want me to tell you how to make sourdough, but I’m still figuring it out! Do learn to make regular yeast bread (I show much of my method in this post and randomly in other bread posts that can be found in the sidebar), study the King Arthur directions, and follow the sourdough and wild yeast hashtags on Instagram. The best bakers on there have sites you can go to for more studying.
I will try to collect my thoughts on the matter!
On to our links!
We have vast amounts of a certain weed in the lawn that the children always call buttercups and the adults always correct: “Those aren’t buttercups,” but don’t actually know the name of. They turn out to be colloquially named fig buttercups — so take that, adults! Their official name is Ficaria verna , formerly Ranunculus ficaria L., or “lesser celandine.”
The children pick them assiduously, which is great, because they should not be allowed to go to seed; and futile, because their number is legion. They are pretty! And the leaves are shiny and low.
Turns out that the poet Wordsworth wrote three poems about this little flower! Might as well enjoy. To the Small Celandine is the first; To the Same Flower is the second; The Small Celandine is the third.
Lots of medical/health thoughts this week:
Is marijuana more or less harmless? Is it medicinal? What is to be done about it? Alex Berenson writes about what so few know of the mental illness and violence caused by this drug; Peter Hitchens reviews Berenson’s book (not completely favorably).
It’s been rightly said that if your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail. This goes for the Pill, too. Gynecologists are trained to remedy everything by prescribing the Pill, or sometimes so it seems! Here is a guide to alternatives for feminine problems. It’s a start, at least, to an important conversation about being more discerning in studying the delicate hormonal system that runs our bodies.
I’ve been thinking so much about how alone a woman must feel when she receives a diagnosis of some abnormality in pregnancy. Suddenly everyone just wants her to “terminate” and nary a voice is raised to defend the child or offer her help. Does every person need to have superhuman inner strength just to not kill her own child? How many are able to resist such overwhelming forces? Seems like too much to ask! But what can we do? I was heartened to see that this site exists: Be Not Afraid. Just hearing others’ stories will make such a difference. How can we make this assistance better known?
How hospitals are not caring for pregnant and birthing moms.
And some politics:
Socialism from the perspective of Christian virtue.
Every once in a while I like to thumb my nose at the whole”organic” thing — not because I don’t care about how food is grown, but because I do.
A lecture:
Finally, Bridget highly recommends, as we prepare for Easter, this lecture given at Thomas More College by Dr. Matthew Walz on Death by Incarnation.
From the archives:
A sweet way for children to learn the best-beloved chants along with the story of salvation.
The Easter Triduum is approaching — time to get your ducks in a row.
Today is the feast of St. Martin I, Pope, Martyr.
Also, it being Passiontide: Do you know of Fr. Willie Doyle, SJ? He was a WWI chaplain, an Irish Jesuit of fervent faith and courage. The site that is devoted to him is posting stations of the cross from his writings, being updated these last days of Lent.
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