Baking Frenzy

I've been up to my elbows in flour, it seems, for the past 24 hours! So far, I've made:

two gluten free loaves (one plain, one cheese);
a treacle teabread (meant to be a gingerbread/cake recipe but all I can taste is the treacle - more on that in a mo...);
Chocolate Cappuccino Cup Cakes (seriously scrummy. Glutafin recipe but you can use Dove's plain flour in place of their mix, for example, quite successfully);
Cereal bars (for my brother);
Chicken and summer veg pie (my own recipe, created on the spot, and very yummy if I say so myself!);
Blackberry and apple tart (large one, for pudding yesterday);
Lemon Meringue Ice Cream (Nigella Lawson's recipe from How to Eat... slobber slobber!)
Enchilada pie (using Discovery tortillas. Did you know that they've closed their corn factory, so they will no longer be producing gluten free tortillas and tacos? so stock up if you see them on the shelves!);
er, think that is it!

Apart from that, I got caught in the rain again! Half way through the making of the ginger/treacle cake, I ran out of treacle. I'd just fed Jonathan, before starting, and he was alseep, so I told Mum I'd "just pop out" to Sainsburys. Roarke had the car, but no problem - I've been walking to Orpington High Street from this house all my life! I reckoned I could get down the hill, up the high stree, in and out of the shop and back home within about 45 minutes maximum.

Half way there, we had a cloud burst! It was the pedestrian version of my escapade in Leek! Water pouring down the hill I was on, an inch deep. Anyone who knows Orpington knows that the high street floods pretty instantly in those conditions - even since they finally "fixed" the drains - and the bow wave from the cars was reaching across the pavement, and half way up the shop windows! You had to time it to run past and out of reach!

By the time I got into the shop, I was soaked on my trousers all the way up to my thighs. I don't own a waterproof coat, so my woolen-type coat (yes, I know!) was soaked through and VERY heavy, and my hat had NOT kept the rain off!

Getting home I spent a ridiculous £2 on the bus fare just to get up the hill as my clothes were SO heavy I didn't think I'd be able to run up the hill in time!

What is it with me and rain? I got caught today too, when a sudden heavy downpour came on when my washing was out!

Still, watching the news, again I can only be thankful at these minor inconveniences, compared to what people have lost, and even the loss of our car is nothing compared to losing so many of your possessions, when your house floods.

I hope you all out there, in blog reader land, are safe and dry.