Looking for some entertainment for your next five minute break? Karina Grömer has done a science talk about iron age clothing, and you can watch it right here:

Enjoy!

These are crazy times. Crazy, with a capital C, or maybe with all capital letters. But anyway, even though it's all crazy, and even though we don't know how things will develop from now onwards (at least not in the medium run, it's pretty clear what will happen here in Germany in the next two or three weeks), a bit of optimism might be what we all need.

So. I'm very, very excited to announce that we will try to have a European Textile Forum this year! If all goes well enough, we will meet in Tilff-Méry, Belgium, from August 9 to August 15.

Our focus topic this year will be "Sticks and Stones May Make a Loom", and we will explore weaving techniques and possibilities on "primitive" looms during the Forum week.



If you're a weaver, or a researcher, and that sounds interesting for you, you can find out more about it on textileforum.org, where there's the Call for Papers and the registration form online now.

I spent part of the day today standing in the wonderfully sun-warmed wintergarden, sorting these wonderful new arrivals:



Fresh wheel-thrown spindle whorls, with a new colour - there are some grey ones among the mix now, too! I'm all delighted with them.

They were lined up in neat rows according to their weight range:



Now they are in my shelf, sorted away, waiting to be sent to new homes... and, of course, waiting to be properly photographed so they can be listed in the shop! That will happen tomorrow, though, when the light is nice and bright but not too bright yet.

It's well and truly spring now hereabouts - which is good for the mood, and thus very, very good at the moment, with all the stupidity running rampant in this country. The planned lockdown-esque thing over Easter? It's been cancelled again, because of reasons. So we'll be going on just like right now... which, according to my personal prediction, will mean we'll have a 7-day incidence of about 200 by next Tuesday. And then it will rise some more. And, with the incredible ingenuity and flexibility of our politicians, combined with their courage to do the things that are necessary even if they are painful and the lobbyists protest, and their disregard for bureaucracy when things need to move quickly, nothing will happen for at least three more weeks.

My unexpected laugh of the day from yesterday, by the way, was hearing that the Irish news say Germany wants to have all adults vaccinated by July. To which the most patient husband instantly commented that yes... they may want that.

Me, on the other hand, I think it's entirely possible that this happens - as they did say July, but not which year. July 2023? Totally possible.

Ah well. Nothing I can do to change all this. So - let me entertain you with the flowers currently blooming in the garden!

The first violets are coming out...



...while the crocuses are still going strong. And there was a white-butted visitor snacking on these this morning:



Also - mini-Iris blooms!

Just in case you're shaking your head at the pandemics politics in your own country (provided it's not Germany), rest assured that things here are managed just as stupidly as you could imagine.

We'll have a "lockdown" during Easter, where all shops are closed except those selling food, and those are closed as well, only wait, we can't have people be without food-shopping possibilities for five days consecutively so they will open on Saturday. Because those five days will help so much, yeah. They would have helped plenty back in November, when the second wave was getting ready to pick up speed. They would have helped at the start of March, when it was apparent that our numbers were not sinking anymore, but stagnating. But no, there had to be openings back then. Now it's too late for those five days to make an impact, as experience tells us.

There are restrictions regarding whom you can meet (one other household, maximum of five persons) and you are not allowed to stay somewhere else in your own caravan, but it's perfectly allowed to fly to Mallorca and have a vacation there, and there's no testing required by law before or afterwards, only the airlines are supposed to be testing their customers, but at least one has already declared that they won't.

And after Easter, there may be discussions about opening things up again, and there will be more safety because there will be vaccinations and more quick-tests. Um, wasn't that EXACTLY what you declared would make the last loosening of restrictions totally safe and sound? There's still no consistent strategy for this, and there's obviously really steeply rising numbers, so tell me again how this is going to work any better in two weeks, with higher incidence numbers than two or three weeks ago?

All of this, mind you, is also only theoretical, because as the actual handling of things is down to the individual federal states, they will all do their own thing again. We will have 16 different sets of rules, at least, and then again differences in how the counties handle things. Because, as all our politicians will readily tell you, we really need a straight, simple set of rules and guidelines that everyone in all of Germany adheres to. Except where their own region warrants an exception, obviously.

I'm really, really fed up with our politicians right now. They have learned exactly nothing, nothing at all. At the start of all of this pandemic, nobody knew anything - so yes, making mistakes is somehow understandable. But then nothing to prepare for the second wave was done during the summer, and that, consequently, was managed very badly. But to have learned exactly and utterly nothing again yet from the second wave for the third? That is inexcusable. Not that there weren't warnings from the doctors and hospitals and epidemologists.

Stupid, stupid politicians. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it... and even if there's an excuse for not knowing and consequently not learning from real history, as in several hundreds of years ago... it should be possible to remember what happened a few months before. But then, we're talking about politicians here, who probably can forget everything and anything in the blink of an eye if it suits them.

It's been a while since I posted a recipe - time to change that!

It feels to me like there's been a bit more experimentation in the kitchen since the start of the pandemic, and there's definitely a few more recipes in my personal recipe book now. I try not to buy cookbooks or other printed cooking-related items, but I don't always manage to resist. Most recipes that I use, though, are adaptations of things I find on the Internet, where I look at a number of different recipes for one thing and then make up my own version.

In some cases, the adaptation is due to things not being available here. In this specific case, the things (Ginger Nuts) are not available to buy in German shops, and one of the ingredients, the molasses, are also not readily available. In addition, at least the cookies would be packaged in plastic foil, and since we're trying to avoid single-use plastics wherever at all possible, they'd be out anyways. (We solved the coffee problem, the Röstorium does not only sell wonderful coffee, but also posts it in paper packaging on request. We mostly solved the meat problem, finding a regional farm shop that even packaged things for us in their own reuseable boxes and lending them to us. Fish still is unsolved, and will probably stay thusly, unfortunately.)

So... here's my recipe for ginger nuts, which turn out hot and fiery and crunchy, and taste just like I remember the bought ones from Britain and Ireland, only maybe even better.



100 g flour (I use spelt)
1 level tsp baking soda
2 level tsp baking powder
40 g sugar
7 g ground ginger
pinch of salt
50 g honeydew honey (original calls for molasses)
50 g butter
a bit of finely grated orange peel (of c half a fruit)

Melt butter and stir together with honey, warming it until all is nice and liquid. Stir together remaining ingredients, then stir the liquids into the dry mixture. Divide into 16 parts, form each part into a ball, flatten slightly, and bake at c 190° C no fan for about 10-13 minutes. Take care not to let them turn brown.

These will be quite spicy, so maybe go down a bit on the ginger if you like them more mild!

With the pandemic still wreaking havoc on all plans for cons and such, I'm utterly delighted to be part of an online convention: Flights of Foundry!

It's getting better still: The con is free to join! You can register via the website link above. It will take place on Discord (mostly) on April 16-19 (depending on your timezone) and there's a lot of programming planned already. Around the clock, to give everyone from everywhere the opportunity to join in for interesting and exciting things.

Just like I did at the actual real WorldCons that I went to in the past, I will hang out in the dealer's room, and I'll give a presentation about medieval spinning techniques! That will be on Sunday, 13:00 German time. It's all very exciting, and I'm very much looking forward to this. How good that there's still a bit of time to figure out how everything will work...