Ready for reading at last

Another damp cloudy day with occasional showers but at least a little warmer. As soon as I got up, I inspected the dough and found it hadn't risen beyond the bowl. I knocked it back and put it into two baking tins, but it still only rose very slowly until parked on the stove above the oven as it heated up to baking temperature.

I went to the surgery after breakfast for my annual hypertension review. Unfortunately the nurse was unable to tap into a vein to take blood samples so I was given another appointment for next Wednesday. It seems that veins narrow up if you don't drink enough water. Usually I avoid drinking much after supper and drink at least a pint - water tea or coffee - at breakfast time, but this morning I forgot and drank only a mugful of tea. I don't often feel thirsty, and have to make an effort to remember to top up before I start feeling rotten. It's frustrating.

Clare's study group arrived as I was leaving for the surgery, and was still in session when I got back. She popped the bread into the oven while I was out, and it was ready after returned.

With an early afternoon eye hospital appointment, she needed an early lunch, so I slipped into the kitchen and prepared the meal, so that it could be cooked and eaten as soon as the session finished. Then I drove her to UHW, returned, and while she was out, spent two hours recording and editing the audio for next week's Morning Prayer, then making and uploading to YouTube the video slide show to go with it. 

As it was still cloudy I checked my weather forecast app and found it was just about to start raining for a couple of hours, so I set out for a walk with my brolly and top coat. It didn't rain much at all, just a few very light showers, hardly worthy of rain gear. When I returned, Clare was just setting out for meditation group, so I had supper on my own. The bread turned out beautifully, much to my surprise. Denser than usual but moist. The slow leavening at a cooler ambient temperature than usual resulted in a finer textured loaf despite the late addition of the yeast. Delicious!

Then I finally got around to correcting the final chapters of my novel. It took me the rest of the evening. It's ready now for someone with fresh eyes to read it, and tell me if they think it's worth the effort of taking steps to publication. I have no way of knowing if it's the story I tell is interesting enough to others, or how to convince a publisher it's worth taking on.