It's springtime for real now, or so it feels - getting warmer, more and more flowers opening up, and I sort of feel the slight pressure to get some of the spring gardening things done, such as planting peas.

I'm also sorting through the seed stock, as there are a few packets of seeds that are probably too old to be viable anymore. Some of them I've seeded out of curiosity to see if anything will still come of it (though I'm not expecting any luck with 10 year old tomato seeds), some I've scattered in the garden (either they sprout, or get eaten by something, either way it's fine) and some are not sorted into either category yet. There were some tomato seeds that had no year with them, so I've seeded those, too. 

I've also tried something new this year, seedling-wise: 

I've used trays in the past, but they only worked semi-well; this way, I can have an eggshell for each variety and put them somewhere else if necessary (like out into the wintergarden once they have germinated, so they won't grow too tall and lanky for lack of light in too much warmth - which they need to get started). If you're thinking of trying it too, I found that the shells should be a minimum size to work nicely. We usually have L eggs, and the shell should really be split in the middle or above; if it's less than half the egg height, it's a little to shallow for me to feel comfortable. (I always think that it will dry out too quickly then.)

A number of years ago, when Sabine and I ran the very first European Textile Forum, one of the papers was about the dyeing industry at Pompeii. Heather, who gave that paper, got together with Sabine the very next day, and some dyeing took place, and the paper and the dyeing and the ensuing discussions resulted not only in a friendship but also in a number of follow-up archaeological experiments looking into the influence of metal kettle materials on the dyeing outcomes. 

The basis for the presentation that Heather gave back then was her PhD thesis about the dyeing industry in Pompeii - and I'm very delighted to say that it has now, finally, been published by Archaeopress. It's called "Investigations into the Dyeing Industry in Pompeii. Experimental Archaeology and Computer Simulation Techniques" and you can get it as an e-publication or the printed version, either directly from the publisher or from the bookseller of your choice.

I'm nearing the end of the ring-making for the Egtved skirt, and like things often seem to take longer towards the end, this does too. At times it feels like a stunningly boring job. The actual making of the rings is not so bad, but the prepping of the fibre rolls, while not taking a lot of time, somehow feels like it has supernatural mind-numbing powers. Still. There is an end in sight, and I'm already very much looking forward to stringing them all up!

There's also definitely more rings in my skirt than I found in one of the estimates of the number of rings in the original. Now I'm wondering if they were counted? Or if it really was just an estimate? There would be an easy way to find out, as the full skirt image is available, and it's large enough to download and scroll across and count the little buggers.

But somehow, I feel like I'll currently rather spend my time on finishing the rings that I have on my piece...

While I'm working on all the gazillion things that have to be done (including trying to figure out how to get the RSS feed for the blog set up properly), here's an interesting video about wool processing, from washing to spinning, in the Pyrenees:

The sky here today looks weird, all yellow-ish - due to dust from the Sahara in the air. It's also raining, which is a very good thing, as it is already quite dry again, and the soil can use some moisture. (I hope there will be a break later, when we're going to the blood donation place, though - or we'll get wet...) 

I wanted to take a picture of the weird light outside, but it's hard to do so. It looks really dull and yellow from here at the desk, but my tries at capturing the light and mood were in vain. So instead, you're getting a cat pic with an exceptionally interesting facial expression.

(She's just about to yawn... because being a cat is really, really exhausting and tiring. Especially if you spend most of the day napping supervising your humans from different vantage points, such as boxes with packing materials in them, the human's desk itself, and the cat bed next to the desk.)

Today started off okay, and then it somehow deteriorated quickly - as in I found out that some of the stuff I had written and finished has magically disappeared (so I have to write it again), and then something similar happened with new writings. And that all while I felt behind already.

The cat "helped" by hanging out on my desk and giving me a microneedle treatment, insisting that the best place for her claws was the back of my right hand. Sigh.

At least it looks like I found out what was the reason for the issues, and they are hopefully resolved.

Also, there will be cake now. And you get a cat picture, because, well, Internet and cats...

It's Friday, the week has flown by, and, well, I'm very much looking forward to the weekend - with hopefully some nice weather. So... here's a few random-ish things for you: 

• The Deutsche Umwelthilfe is running a campaign to introduce a general speed limit on German streets. This would have a lot of advantages - more safety for pedestrians and cyclists in cities, less traffic jams, less CO2, less fuel used, less stress when driving because nobody is going to shoot at you with a BMW. You can sign the campaign here.
• It's Women's History Month, and maybe this podcast (with transcript, so you can read if you prefer) about a lesbian woman who owned silk dildos might amuse you. (h/t to wh1350.at, who pointed me to this.)
• If you're looking for something more futuristic, I recommend Escape Pod's "Tony Roomba's Last Day on Earth". 

Otherwise, things are staying busy here - I still have a good amount of Bronze Age Project to finish, namely the cutting and sewing of the garments and the finishing and stringing up of the Egtved skirt rings. (They've been delayed while the website things exploded and while the spinning for the Egtved fabric went on, so the skirt is not completely finished yet. It's getting there, though, and I'm quite pleased with how it is going.)