Staple Walnut Bread

1kg All purpose flour

800g Water

3 tsp salt

3 tsp yeast

Bowl of walnuts

Makes two large loaves

Mix dry ingredients and add water followed by 30 minute autolyse. Overnight fermentation in the fridge.

Shape dough into two squares through stretching and sprinkle with walnuts. Fold into package and shape into boule. Rest for one hour.

Stretch and fold again and shape into boule. Rest for another hour.

Shape the dough and put into brotform. Proof for one hour. Transfer onto peel and score before loading into oven. Bake for around 50 minutes at 230C depending on oven. Ovens have different characteristics so the time and temperature will vary.

Homemade leather conditioner

Beeswax

x

Coconut oil

Cocoa butter

Leather conditioner

Homemade leather conditioner

Leather is a natural material from animals that can dry out and crack if neglected. It is therefore necessary to recondition it by protecting it and nourishing it with oils lost through evaparation.

Although the conditioner can be bought easily, you can control what chemicals go into the conditioner by making it yourself at home and cheaply.

The ingredients are very simple and easily available. They are natural beeswax, Cocoa butter, vegetable oil such as Coconut oil which is more commonly used. Other alternative oils can be used depending on availability.

The beeswax form a protective waterproof layer after application on the leather while the remainder two materials act to modify the consistency of the resultant conditioner.

The ratio by weight are 1:1:2 of Beeswax:Cocoa butter:Coconut oil. Using 3 parts of liquid Coconut oil will result in a softer paste and can be used if it it fits your application.

To make this conditioner, use a double boiling method by boiling a pot of water in which another container is used to hold the wax and oils. This will prevent over heating that may result in a fire.

The beeswax is melted first, onto which is added the Cocoa butter and followed by the Coconut oil. the mixture is stirred continuously until everything is melted and mixed. it is then poured into a shallow container to set at room temperature.

This conditioner can be used to condition your wife's precious Louis Vuitton Vachetta leather handbag with her Highness's permission. However, I disclaim all responsibility should there be a darkening of the patina. It will leave all leather handbags in a beautiful sheen and make the bag last longer. Caveat: I am assuming the bag had been properly cleaned before the application of the conditioner. This is a separate subject on its own.

Other applications are leather shoes, belts and wallets.

 

Home network overhaul

I had been forced to do an overhaul after my daughter told me that she did not have wireless access upstairs anymore. The last wireless extension adapter upstairs went down.

While trying to fix it, I had to get into the router setup page using the IP 192.168.1.1
Whilst I was doing the settings, I noticed a message asking me to update the router firmware. I clicked the update because of security updates. That's where it all went downhill.

The router was an Asus RT-AC87U with four antennas. The wifi it provided reached all the way to the top floor of the house. Now that the home network was down, I scrambled to recover it to no avail.

Fortunately, I had a newer unused router from the telco. I was able to restore the home network but the wifi from this router was restricted.

Fortunately, the comex show was on and I got myself a new set of home plugs to extend the wifi throughout the house.

I called Asus support but after hearing that I had I had tried using the recovery software and that they do not have any further solution to suggest, I gave up on Asus support.

I had done all the necessary steps for the firmware recovery but somehow, the wifi LED s weren't lighting up, not to mention accessing the router through its default gateway. I knew it had to be residual configuration not fully wiped out by the recommended factory reset. Finally, someone on a site mentioned the WPS button as an alternative to clearing the NVRAM. When I tried that, lo and behold, it worked!

So now, I can squeeze more extra years out of this older router. The next project is probably to find a way to reuse the older home plugs which are of a different brand. Hopefully they use the same home plug standards. I will probably use an even older router as a wireless extension with those old power line adapters.

Zebra Doves

My favourite birds like to forage in my backyard. They are highly prized for their singing in South East Asia. They may cost as much as SGD$30000.00 per bird depending on their singing quality. The birds are categorised by classes A, B and C. I am not familiar with the intricacies of this hobby as I don't believe in keeping birds in cages but I think the classes are about the pitch of the bird call. I have learnt to mimic their calls quite closely to the extent that I can imitate the calls of the expensive birds.

When I mimic the calls of the Spotted Doves or the Zebra doves, they will come to the backyard expecting a treat. Sometimes when they arrive and see me, the Zebra doves will make s clicking sound as if they were telling me to feed them.

My garden update

I love nature and plants. They give me so much joy especially when they thrive. If they don't, it gives me a chance to do a bit of failure analysis to find out why they are not thriving.

The Red passionflower bloomed quickly after I pruned it and added flowering fertilizer.

Over ripe bittergourd

Jacaranda

Passiflora Edulis

Passion fruit

View from the top

Mint

Pandan with Bulbul nest

Dan Lepard Foccacia

I have not updated my baking activities although I had been baking weekly.

My free range pets

I have many creatures visiting my backyard. Although I do not keep any pets, I consider these creatures my pets.

Of all the birds that visit my backyard, I have a soft spot for the Zebra doves who are so gentle and perpetually bullied by the larger Spotted doves.

Some like the Bulbul and Olive backed Sunbirds have chosen to make nests in my garden and I feel honoured by their choice of my humble lodgings.

Loving couple of Zebra doves

Spotted dove

Nesting Bulbul

Wood doves

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Crimson sunbird

Sunbird feeding on Passionflower nectar

Sulawesi Toraja coffee

I was attracted to a booth selling Toraja coffee. Sulawesi Toraja coffee is one of my favorite coffees and was very happy to be able to purchase some green fullly washed Toraja coffee. The friendly folks at the booth were a pleasure to talk to and I wished I had more time to find out more from them. If I ever get to Jakata one day, I will make a visit to their cafe.

My three passiflora

Passiflora vitifolia

Passiflora vitifolia leaf

Passiflora miniata

Passiflora Edulis

After two long years, my Passiflora Vitifolia finally bloomed. As the name suggests, the leaf has the shape of grape leaves. The "eyelashes" are red in color as opposed to black in the Passiflora Miniata Vandeplank.

The two scarlet passion flowers look alike and were discovered to be different only recently.

 https://www.google.com.sg/amp/www.jaycjayc.com/passiflora-miniata-coccinea-red/amp/

The Passiflora Miniata has been flowering profusely but the Vitifolia was slow to bloom. I was keen to see the differences and heard that it had a perfume. Unfortunately, I did not detect as any fragrance coming from it.

Love is in the air

The courtship of two Olive-backed Sunbirds in my backyard. The two were spotted by my son. The male puffed out two orange pectoral puffs during the courtship ritual which would have been no less dramatic to Birds of Paradise.

These birds have been building nests just outside my house. So far, three broods have hatched. I feel blessed by their presence and am especially happy to see them feeding from my Scarlet Passion Flowers.