louisa

3BT – I’m not the only one, misconception, night bright

1. The bus stops right outside. I ring the buzzer and tell the voice at the other end of the wire that I’m there to stroke yarn. The way she laughs makes it clear she understands. Inside, everywhere I turn, I see potential.

2. I try spinning for the first time: the wool thing, not the intense exercise thing. I once told Katherine “I want to try spinning” and she was shocked to her marrow, thinking I meant the latter. I am not the type of girl who would want to try that sort of spinning, oh no, definitely not.

3. At dusk, the lime leaved marjoram is particularly vivid against the dull paintwork.

10 goals for 2010 – April & May progress update

1/6/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. To make a meal using only ingredients I’ve grown, raised, caught or killed myself.
April was an interesting meat-y month – we learned how to kill & dress chickens, and we also learned how to make sausages. It was also the proper start of seedling season – and that’s continued in May. So far, we’ve only had lettuce from the garden (winter gems) but the seedlings have been going well. This year is an experimentation year – I’m growing lots of different things to see how things grow in our new garden and also getting used to the different beds (two have proven to be shallower than expected, two deeper).

We’ve also been on a Wild Food Foray, which was a lot of fun and very interesting. I would like to go on another specialising in woodland wild food since that’s our main habitat.

My second attempt at a sourdough starter (after a first failure during the cold cold winter) failed miserably at the start of May – when everything came to a bit of a halt because I was sleeping 14 hours a day and tired for the other 10. However, we learned about slow rise bread while out on the Wild Food Foray and I thought that sounded bloody brilliant – so I’ve been grinding that lately. (Grinding in the levelling-up-at-video-games sense rather than the wheat-ears-to-flour sense.) Although each loaf takes nearly 24 hours from start to finish, it’s a relatively cheap thing to grind at and John is loving all the good, fresh bread.

2. To travel to a place on my “top ten places to go before I die” list.
Nope, still nothing on this one.

3. Finish writing my second novel.
I started to read through what I’ve written so far and while I haven’t done it so far, I know what my next step is (re-drafting while typing it up), then I’ll continue with the story.

4. Learn how to make sausages – wet English style ones and cured ones too.
As I said in #1, yes! Done this one! One goal off the list – hurrah!

Well, we made English wet ones and we learned the theory of making ones for curing (since it’s essentially the same). We also figured out we could use our half garage for hanging – it’s out of the way so it won’t stink up the house, quite cool and could easily be made a little more ventilated. Now it’s just a question of getting a mincer and giving it a go.

5. Spend at least a day fishing out on the North Sea.
I’ve done some research into dog-friendly places to stay on the coast, but that’s it so far.

6. Finally finish learning how to drive.
Done nothing on this.

7. Make a full outfit’s worth of clothing for myself – including spinning any wool used.
I learned how to spin today! Ok, technically that’s a June thing but sshhh! I’ve had the day off today and decided to learn a new craft – I intended it to be dyeing but when I went to the wonderful Textere Yarns (somewhere I’ve been intending to visit since before we moved to Bradford), they had lots of pretty coloured roving so I decided to give it a go instead. It’s lots of fun but my shonky homemade top whorl drop spindle is showing its shonkiness already so I’m going to get a better made one I think (and/or try to make a better one myself).

Today I’ve also started making a light dressing gown for myself for summer – from some lovely fabric I got from a random great fabric shop on Leeds Rd. I couldn’t find a decent pattern/how-to online so I’ve kinda made it up as I was going along, based on the theory of making a kimono wrap for a baby. I’m going to finish it tomorrow – if it works out, I’ll write it up and arguably, by itself, it’ll also be a full outfit, or rather an infit ;)

Tomorrow, I’m also going to try dyeing stuff – got some boring shop-bought dyes to start with but I’m hoping to go natural and find some suitable leaves at lunchtime when we’re out with the Lil’ dog.

8. Learn how to program and make a mini-game/application using Ruby.
I’ve returned to my programs and stuff a couple of times but as I said in my last update back in March, I’d reached a bit of a hurdle in my book, and that’s pretty demotivating. However, my list of ideas for simple programs is growing so I’ll get back to it soon.

9. Climb a mountain or at least a jolly big hill.
Still doing a lot of walking with Lil – or rather a lot more walking than we ever used to. Tom keeps mentioning Snowdon and/or the Three Peaks so maybe, maybe.

10. Participate more in the real world – plan/run a real life green event or scheme.
Again, lots of ideas and I’m *almost* ready to take the first step on two of them.

3BT – soft & even, play time, the new recipe

31/5/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. Her freshly clipped coat feels like velvet.

2. We worry – as we always do – that the play is bordering on fighting but the woman assures us that it is definitely play. The dogs bounce around together amongst the oak trees as we talk about them behind their backs.

3. The slow-rise bread – 22 hours in the making – comes out of the oven too late to eat with dinner so we have it as dessert instead. Its golden dome is perfectly cracked, its centre spongy & bubbled.

Last week’s Tweets (up to 2010-05-30)

30/5/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

Had a wonderful wild food foray with @SlowFoodWYorks @ Bolton Abbey yesterday. Loved the Sweet Cicely, the large bittercress & crayfishing! #
Went to bed for a ten minute power nap at 8pm last night to grant me energy for a useful evening. Slept for 12 hours. #
@davidsmalley I think you meant illy not lily. although i can sell you sun-dried "lily beans" if you like. she's made a fresh batch today ;) #
. @johnleach is pretending to be a robot (actions & noises). apparently robots are really frickin' slow at making me cups of tea. #
@sarahjarvis tea robot ;) in reply to sarahjarvis #
I'm happy to take full responsibility for the end of the sunshine: I bought shorts yesterday. Sorry. #
Two cockchafers (aka wang beetles) are having sexual relations in front of us. My brain's pun lobe just exploded. #
Just slipped down the stairs and carpet-burned my elbow & upper arse. At least I only spilled tea on myself though, not on the carpet. Phew. #
Hating HSBC a little more every day. #
A conversation on IM reveals it took the rain two minutes to travel 1.1miles up the road. #
@IdleSi yes, toying with the idea of doing a #biglunch – have to get a wriggle on if we want to close our road for it. #bd10 #greengates in reply to IdleSi #
@SlowFoodWYorks I blogged about our foray day too – http://bit.ly/a7mP1C – we had so much fun! thanks for organising it :D in reply to SlowFoodWYorks #
Dreamt about hosting a pie website last night & now being followed by a local pie maker. Is the universe trying to tell me something today? #
@strowger78 happy big cat belly tickling! in reply to strowger78 #
Lost the last three hours playing on Inkscape. Fun but hungry now. #
@andatche isn't it John "rms" Leach? http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/archive/mundane-name ;) in reply to andatche #
A morning of digging will be rewarded by an afternoon of seedling transplanting and hopefully a summer of organic, zero food mile veg! #
Has had a very productive day. Now to completely waste the evening losing at pointless computer games, yay. #
Has spent the past hour shaving the dog. #notaeuphemism #honestsweartogoditwasntaeuphemism #
@strowger78 that's not a lion cub in that picture with lizzie! safari rip off! :) in reply to strowger78 #

3BT – finally finished, look closer, soapy spheres

30/5/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. The joy of a job finally finished – the last of our veg beds dug over and ready for seedlings. Years of ambivalence left them compacted and weed clogged so it’s been a chore to clear them out but I know that from here on in – next year and the years after that – it’ll be easier.

(1b. There are a couple of plants in the bed and the remnants of daffodils. I transplant what I can but one of the plants falls apart on the way. I salvage its blood red blooms.)

2. John explains that the wild food walk last weekend has changed how he looks at grassland – he no longer sees “just green” but the huge variety of different plants growing in a small area. We look around and spot sorrel, lady’s smock & purple thistles amongst the grass, clover & buttercups at our feet. Across the beck, the bank is full of flowering ramsons & chickweed, a cloud of white flowers giving way to late bluebell wilting up the hill. Definitely not “just green”.

3. I blow bubbles from the balcony. The wind catches them and they float up and out over the gardens.

3BT – combing, misty, mmm

29/5/2010 / louisa / 0 Comments

1. While John’s out, we have a lazy day, the dog, the cats and me. I comb Lily for one cartoon, then Carla for another. Carla, despite being a third of the size of the dog, wins the fluff shedding contest. Both feel softer and smoother by the time the funnies come to an end.

2. The rain slows for the first time all day and we descend into the woods for a walk. The mist hangs in the air beneath the canopy and reflects the light, making the lower levels brighter than they should be. The beck water is higher than it has been for the last few weeks but in the pools, it’s unusually clear too. Lily runs around like a crazy thing, I dawdle behind.

3. Nothing tastes as good as leftovers.

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