Nature, nurture

Saturday we went for an attempted hike on one of the "blue blazed" trails in the area. When we arrived at the designated trailhead, we found a small stream, lots of rocks, picnic tables, some snow, and no trail. There were other cars parked where we were, but the footprints that we could see were all leading us nowhere. Pretty, but nowhere.



We walked back to the car, and realized that we had to walk on the side of the road, cross a bridge, and then the trail was there on the right. No signs, no mention of this anywhere online, so let me be the first to tell you online, if you go looking for the Mattabesett blue blazed trail, the trailhead at Seven Falls Roadside Park is uphill from the parallel parking area, across the bridge over the stream, and on your right. Once there, there are some tiny old signs, about 15 feet up a tree that say "Mattabesett Trail" on them, but they are tiny.



The trail we did get onto led us uphill for a bit, onto some ATV trail for accessing high voltage power lines, and then we lost the trail, doubled back, found the trail and ended up back by the stream, this time on the other side. The trail trial was a bust, but the water was frozen in really cool ways on some of the rocks in the stream.







It was a good adventure overall, but I have alot to learn about CT's blue blazed trail markers.

Yesterday I baked bread, for about 6 hours. Two loaves, the old fashioned way, yeast in water with sugar, add flour, mix, knead, let rest/rise, knead, let rest/rise, bake. It turned out pretty good.





We don't have a baking stone (yet), but I put an extra baking sheet at the bottom of our oven on the lowest rack to help even out the heat (electric) a bit. The top shelf was originally too close to the top of the oven, and the loaves were browning too fast, so I kicked it down a notch and covered them with a piece of foil.



After complete cooling, the slicing went well and we enjoyed some late night toast and jam. One loaf in the freezer and one for this week's hammysammys (all-purpose term for sandwiches). Next comes the sourdough...