Avocadofarver - Avocado Dyeing

     Uglemor forsøger igen-igen på at farve den rigtig røde farve med avocadoer.

Efterhånden er jeg nået frem til at den rigtige måde at gøre det på er ret omstændelig, men som det kan ses på det 2. bundt fra venstre, bliver det faktisk rødt.

1. Glem alt om skallerne.
2. Pil den brune hinde af et par avocadokerner og hak dem fint.
3. Overhæld kernerne med varmt vand.
4. Kog dem op to til tre dage i træk. 
5. Si kernestumperne fra. 
6. Kog det op med garnet (Bejdset med alun) og hold øje med det. Når det har den ønskede farve slukkes gryden og garnet køler af i vandet. 
7. Lad garnes tørre. 
8. Vask garnet grundigt, det er stift på grund af stivelse fra kernerne. 
9. Skyl det grundigt med en sjat eddike i sidste hold skyllevand. 

 🔴 🔺 🔴 🔻 🔴 🔺 🍎 🔺 🔴 🔻 🔴 🔺 🔴

MotherOwl is once again trying to get red from dyeing with avocados.

After trial and erroe inspired by Carol Le's worksMotherOwl now found a method that works for her.

1. Forget about the peels. 
2. Peel the pretty brown skin from the pits. Chop them finely.
3. Pour hot water over the pits. 
4. Boil them two or three days in a row. 
5. Strain the dyebath. 
6. Heat dyebath with premordanted wet yarn to a strong simmer. Keep an eye on it. When the yarn has reached a nice red colour put out the heat and let the yarn cool off in the pot. 
7. Han the yarn to dry without rinsing. It wull turn stiff - this is from starch in the pits. 
8. Wash and rinse wery thoroughly. Put a glug of vinegar in the last rinse.

Farverne er rigtigere på billedet fra i går.
Yesterdays photo shows truer colours.

Småting - This and That

     Så er Uglemor færdig med #RDG21-udfordringen. Men er er nu også sket mange andre ting.

- o 0 o -

The #RDG-challenge is finished. But MotherOwl has been doing other thing as well.

☆✨☆

     Uglemor har lavet sæbe igen. Dette er årets 3. omgang. Hvid sæbe med sorte strimler i. Årets to andre sæber har været omvendte, sorte med hvide strimler.

- o 0 o -

Soaping. The third soap of the year. The two first ones were black with white cut-offs in them Now MotherOwl had collected enough black cut-offs to make a white soap with black inserts. 

      VI har spist avocadoer og Uglemor har farvet garn med kernerne. Skallerne giver bare kedeligt brunligt, så de er opgivet. Men hvis man piller hinderne af kernerne, hakker dem og koger dem op et par dage i træk, farver de pink til rødt.
     Elletræerne står med gamle kogler og nye rakler. Begge dele kom også i farvegryden.

- o 0 o -

 We've been eating avocado pears. MotherOwl used the pits for dyeing. If you peel them, chop them, boil them for three or four days in a row they'll give pinkish to dark red colours. The skins give an uninteresting brownish hue. At least when MotherOwl tries.
The alder trees are right now carrying old cones and new catkins. Both went into the dyepot.

Green letters: Alder cones 1st and second bath. Orange letters: Elder catkins 1st and 2nd bath.
Blue letters: Avocado pits 1st and 2nd baht.

   Forleden var Skribenten på indkøb og kom hjem med nogle gør det selv-svampe. Vi har troligt vandet dem, og nu er de spiret eller hvad svampe nu gør.

- o 0 o -

The Writer went shopping and brought home some grow at home mushrooms. We have been faithfully watering them, and now mushrooms start to show.

Østershatte - Oyster mushrooms

#RDG21 - 21

Day Twenty-one - Why here?

Here!
I love the air and sunshine in my hair.
I love the sound of calling geese in Spring.
I love the snow in Winter.
I love growing things - and harvesting them.
I love my view.
I love it here!

Link to this challenge.

#RDG21 - 20

Day Twenty - Favourite place

The woods close to home. Many a worry has disappeared and many an inspiration appeared biking through the beeches in "my" wood. 


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#RDG21 - 19

Day Nineteen - Something small

Seeds and sprouts are very small, but right now they are a big part of MotherOwl's life.


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#RDG21 - 18

Day Eighteen - After dark

This prompt makes me thing of the book Afutā Dāku by Haruku Murakami. I never read it, but I will some day. As I do not own the book, a real after dark picture is in its place here.

The almost new moon and an old church.

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#RDG21 - 17

Day Seventeen - Something old

This ancient oak - which I pass if I go by bike somewhere else to do my shopping - never ceases to fascinate me.

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TUSAL

Today's ORTs

They are very few. I've only knit one green hat with earflaps for the smallest Owlet. A glorious 2 ORTs are the result:

Link to the TUSAL

#RDG21 - 16

Day Sixteen - Pattern

Patterns are everywhere

 Eve in smashed paper cups.

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#RDG21 - 15

Day Fifteen - Sums up my job

This is an impossible prompt. I am not holding a nine to five job. I work from home, translating and lay-outing, but my main job is being a wife and a mother of the 6 Owlets from which 4 still lives at home.

But this hand (and its mate) does most of the jobs.

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#RDG21 - 14

Day Fourteen - Something hidden

If you do not know it, the entrance looks just like another driveway. But it isn't. It's the entrance to our local pond, a scenic place with animal an plant life of all kinds. I love going there being alone.

From a bygone snowfall. It looks dreary and bleak in today's pre-spring thaws.

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#RDG - 13

Day Thirteen - People

In our small village are lots of people. We help one another, we share plants and noises and sometimes we even celebrate together. 

 

Some of the people from the village celebrating the last Sunday before lent. 

In Denmark you celebrate by dressing up, eating special buns, smashing a barrel containing candy and by going  "trick or treating".

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#RDG - 12

Day Twelve - Home

     This dome shaped greenhouse is home to my tomatoes and chillies in the summer. Today I made it ready for the coming summer, removing all the dead tomato and chilli plants from last year, weeding, and chucking out several slugs. I carefully displaced the worms and tried to let the woodlice alone.
     The place, we call home is not our home alone. My garden is home for me, the Writer, and four Owlets, but it's also home to 8 chicken, a zillion wild bees, some lizards, salamanders, frogs, toads, and various birds.
     And this time a year, as every year, I'm trying to tell some crows that this noisy (MotherOwl clapping her hands and making other noises) and dangerous (MotherOwl flapping her black ... t-shirt) place is not a suitable home for baby crows.
     I like to spend the ever increasing time between sunrise and the sounding of the alarm clock sleeping, not lying awake listening to mama and papa crow disciplining and educating the baby crows.

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#RDG - 11

Day Eleven -Friends

One of my sons and his nephew. Best of friends. 

I missed a couple of days, but the clues seem too good to miss. I will catch up.

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Historiske dage og nælder

     Søndag var vi på Historiske dage i København. Skribenten skulle holde foredrag, vi andre fulgte bare med som det tynde øl.
     Der var mange spændende ting, men et flyveblad på en computerskærm ved Den Slesvigske Samlings stand fangede min interesse:

"Sammelt Brennesseln! Bester Ersatz für Baumwolle."

Udsendt af Nessel-Anbau-Gesellschaft i Berlin i 1918.

   
      Løbeseddelen ledte mig til Nessel-Anbau-Gesellschaft og derfra videre til dets stifter: Gustav Bredemann. Han har skrevet et par bøger om nælder og om at fremstille tekstil af nælder.
     Jeg ville gerne have fingre i denne her: Die grosse Brennessel : Urtica dioica L. Forschungen über ihren Anbau zur Fasergewinnung

     Han fremavlede også en nælde med et højere fiberindhold end de sædvanlige. Gad vide om de findes længere?

#RDG21 - 10

Day Ten - Architecture

Only one photo?

A farmhouse near where I live. The stones at the corners are rounded. I love to look at this place.

Link to this challenge.

#RDG - 9

Day Nine - Where are you from?

I was born in a little house in the middle of nowhere. I do not remember this, as I was one year old when we moved away. I grew up In Helsingør - yes Elsinore, the town of Hamlet.
It's now more than 30 years since I left the town, but I often visit there.

Photo from the internet somewhere - December in Elsinore in times gone by.

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#RDG21 - 8

Day Eight - Lunch

     Yes, I eat lunch ... every day. Sometimes all alone, sometimes with The Writer and some of the Owlets, sometimes with one, two, three or even four Owlets.

But do I remember to take photos of my lunch? No, I'm much too busy eating it - and talking.

A bento, I once made for a competition. And no, I did not win anything.

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#RDG - 7

Day Seven - Favourite colour

All the colours of the rainbow ...

But if I have to choose, I choose 

BLUE!

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#RDG21 - 6

Day Six - Work space

Well this is where part of my work happens. Other than in the kitchen, bathroom or living room. Making soap and plant dyeing wool are both messy and requires a lot of space and water.


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#RDG21 - 5

Day Five - Self portrait

I'm shy.

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#RDG21 - 4

Day Four - Favourite Book or Film

I can't do this! I can't choose.

This is one out of at least ten book cases in The Owlery. Do you see why? I can't hurt all the other books by naming just one.

Link to this challenge.

Back to the Classics - March - Updated

My Back to the Classics Challenge is suffering so far.

In January I rolled an 11 and began reading A Classic that scares you: Dr. Zhivago. Well I'm at page 50something now. Every time I pick up this book, I begin doing something else - or reading something else.
It STILL scares me!

In February I rolled an 8 for A Classic with a single-word title I chose Gymnadenia by Sigrid Undset. It still lies unopened here beside me, even thougt I'm sure I'll love reading it.

In the meantime I've been reading a lot more than I have done for a very long time. I read:
- A Wrinkle in time by Madeline L'Engle (which I have placed under 3. A classic by a woman author on my list), which the library was able to find for me.
- De grønne skyggers dal by Poul Nørgaard (this one qualifies for 9. A classic with a colour in the title) which was a gift for Christmas.
Then I read a couple of books that do not qualify, as they're far too recent to even get near the list. All this in order to avoid reading Dr. Zhivago. I even tried bringing that book along for long, boring train journeys on my own, but I never got to open it, free newspapers and the view from the window captured my attention.


And now the March die was thrown. I got a 6, meaning: A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction.
Well. On my table also lies P.D. James' Death in Holy Orders. Let's see if I can manage that.
Oops I imagined P.D. James to be older than she was. This book was written in 2001 - hardly a classic. Try again. 

#RDG21 - 3

Day Three - Weather

The Weather. One of those things people in Denmark are always taking about.
It is by the way fantastic how divers the weather is even on our small island. Windy and cold everywhere, but the amounts of snow differ widely. From the "we're buried in snow, schools are closed" conditions in the south of Zealand to our "Send More Snow" place in north of Zealand.

Windy, grey clouds, -2º , scattered snowflakes.

#RDG21 - 2

Day Two - Biscuits

One of my motherly duties is filling luncboxes for the Owlet. A staple filling is crackers. Variety and number keeps varying with season and over time. Rigt now we go for spicy and quite a lot.


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#RDG21 - 1

Day One - Journey

Even the longest jorney begins with the first step. But today it's too cold to do more than dream of a journey.

The way through the woods.

Link to this challenge.