Things going on here?

Sorting of pictures from Monday. I'm deleting the really blurry one, and sorting through the others. Not everything was caught properly, in spite of my efforts (and very enthusiastic hitting of the camera buttons); I've also discovered that focus stacking software might be my friend, and promptly got sidetracked into downloading and trying a number of programmes. (With limited success as of now... but ah, well, one shall see.)

There has also been some progress during the last days regarding the Sprang Thing - I've found that I am not able to do both layers at once in the end operations, so I've split up the two layers and am working them separately. The first one is actually almost done, though there are some errors (which I am opting to ignore).



The back is still waiting for its turn, and I'll probably use a different method for finishing that, at least for a good bit in. (The bit of wood is clamped there to help keep the two layers separate until I've finished the front.)



And last but not least, I've managed to get some seeds into soil. Most of them are already a little older, so I do hope they will trn out to be still viable, and result in lovely little plants. One of the rows holds the seeds for black cocktail tomatoes - we bought the seeds as a souvenir during our last summer vacation, and I'm very, very curious how they will taste. I'm hoping for somewhere between "nice" and "really, really good"!



And then I will definitely remember to take take more seeds to carry into the future!

There's people who eat breakfast, and people who don't, and I've been in both groups at different times in my life. I've never been someone to skip a special occasion breakfast, though - you can always get me with a good breakfast buffet, which means that staying at a hotel with breakfast, for whatever reason, always feels like an extra-special treat for me.

Recently, I've been introduced to Bircher Muesli (by my brother-in-law, from Switzerland, fittingly) - and it has become one of my weekday breakfast delights since. I've never been really fond of the typical German Müsli, which is rolled oats and other grains together with dried fruits, plus some flakes or pops; you pour milk over this and eat it. The grains are rather hard, which I don't find too pleasant, and the flakes and pops go soggy quickly, which I also don't find pleasant, and the dried fruit is just... eh. Especially if it's raisins. (It's usually raisins.)

Bircher Muesli, however, is basically overnight oats, only invented way before they became the current In Thing. The original version is a bit of oats with a good amount of apple and some hazelnuts; the oats are soaked overnight, the apple is added fresh, as are the ground or chopped nuts.

Obviously, there's a gazillion of variations (this Guardian article gives you some); I soak my oats in low-fat yoghurt and a bit of water, add a small apple (about 120 g), coarsely grated, to 60 g of oats and about 120 g of yoghurt, leave out the hazelnuts and put in a dash of lemon juice, plus some additional fruit such as a bit of sliced banana and diced orange. That makes for two servings - half of it just goes back into the fridge and is just fine the day after.



The oats are nice and soft and squishy, the yoghurt and lemon plus a tart apple add some tang, and the grated apple makes the consistency somehow fluffy, which I really like. The extra fruit adds some interest and variation plus sweetness, and if not enough of the latter, a little bit of honey drizzled on top does the job nicely.

So in case you're looking for a breakfast idea - give it a try, you might be surprised!

Sometimes you stumble across something really cool while looking for something entirely different. In my latest case, I was looking for an image from a specific manuscript (which, by the way, I did not manage to find online), and I happened across the Troubadour Melodies Database. It is based on Katie Chapman's dissertation, and you can search the database with over 300 melodies from medieval manuscripts, and even compare melodies from different authors and different sources.

I have a thing for medieval music, so I find this very exciting, even though I won't be doing much with it (because of time being no infinite resource, sadly). But maybe it will come in handy somewhere else, or at least give someone besides me the "oh that is cool" moment.

 

 
I actually managed to forget posting this yesterday - so you're getting it today instead, and I'm sorry for the unexpected blog silence.

Spring is coming slowly nearer here, and I'm working on getting the willow fence into shape (as in pruned completely) before it's actually growing time again. There was some progress, as you can see here:

 


I'm not as far along as I would like to be, but there is some progress, and the weather is forecast to be pruning-friendly during the next few days as well.

The fence was put in in Spring 2012, so it's going to be 8 years now. It has changed a lot from the very orderly, very slender beginnings:



I find especially fascinating how the "heads" develop where the rods are pruned off every year:



They have their own kind of weird beauty, I think.

Somehow this week has been really full, and really busy, so I'm really looking forward to the weekend. There was lots of organising and re-stocking and some planning and quite a bit of reading and workshop preparation. Proof of some of the re-stocking: Fibre sample package bags.



So now I'm looking forward to weekendy things, and you're getting a gratuitous cat picture, just because I have it, and Madam looks like she often looks:



The poor, long-suffering cat. She knows from her own hard life that good staff is just so hard to find...

It's finally been cold for a few days - this winter was not very cold overall, there was almost no snow, only a light dusting for a few hours or, at most, two or so days. I'm quite happy that the temperature has finally fallen into the slight negative, even if it's only for a few days, and I hope it's enough for all those critters and plants that need a good stint of frost to do well.

That means I have a few days where I'm not going to prune the willow fence, as it should be above zero for that - it will look like this a while longer:



Every year, I'm floored by the sheer amount of biomass these willows produce over one growing season. It's a lot of wood!

Meanwhile, the snowdrops, unfazed by the cold, are slowly getting ready:



So. A bit more winter, or at least wintery temperatures, and then the new year will truly come in...

Three things I've recently discovered:

There's a project called Thefbo, looking at the textile crafts from prehistory at Lake Constance and Upper Swabia. They even have a blog, in German and English, so you can have a look at what they are up to (which included some retting of linden bast fibres last year).

Also having a blog: Stadtarchäologie Wien (Vienna City Archaeology) - this one's only in German, though. Clicking the link will bring you directly to an article about a woven band (with metal threads).

Third thing, having nothing to do with textiles: There's a website called toogoodtogo.com, and the people behind it would like to reduce the food waste that happens, on a very regular basis, in restaurants, bakeries, and food shops. Basically, you can sign up and then buy a packet of leftover food using the corresponding app for your phone; you pay a small amount of money (which means this reduces the loss the business makes) and get food that is too good to go to waste for rather little money. I've not tested this (yet!), but find it a brilliant idea. After all, this way, everybody wins - the environment, because there's less waste; the business, as they make less loss; and the customer, as they get a surprise food package for a good price. Toogoodtogo is available in several countries; you can check out if yours is among them on their website.