I've had a number of discussions with TFL participants recently about sourdough rise times versus temperature and inoculation. Temperature has a big effect on sourdough rise times, and sometimes a starter appears unhealthy, when it is really just rising more slowly because of low temperatures in the kitchen during winter. Also, recipes that used to work seem to fail during the winter, but the colder temperatures may be the cause.

This weekend I took a go at Hamelman's Whole Wheat Levain.

The levain itself seemed to go well.  I initiated the levain according to the recipe on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning it had risen and fallen back slightly. 

I mixed the dough, including following Mariana's suggestion in one of her posts of giving a 30 minute autolyze after just mixing the water with most of the flour.  I did "most of the flour" for that part, because a significant portion of the water was in the levain.