Soapy Stevens

Hello again! It's been a while, and as usual I've been busy, and taking photos the while, always with the intention of writing a blog post - but not actually writing it! (When I was in college, I used to think about writing or phoning home, and then when I did, Mother would say she had been thinking about it too - and writing letters in her head but never sitting down to put them on paper and post them. Actually, we're both the same now, and it's 24 years later!)

At the start of the holidays we had The Girls for a sleepover and a climbing party, to celebrate Girl's 14th birthday.

Then it was the exhibition in Seaford with my usual last-minute flurries of preparation. We had nearly 600 visitors in all, and everyone sold something - hooray! It was utterly lovely to spend time just sitting, either in the gallery or on the beach, without the guilt that I should be "doing" something.

Since the exhibition finished I've caught up on some gardening, and even done a bit of dressmaking. Remember when I made a sort of sack? This time I've made a voluminous blouse. My reasoning being the Japanese models in my dress books are so slight and willowy, I need to scale up and cut out a 12 not a 10. And then my seam allowances are probably a bit off too, so I keep ending up with large, shapeless bags. Comfy, but definitely bags! Just as well I don't teach dressmaking...

In news of sourdough, I have well and truly got this nailed, I can tell you. Look at that:

And the "crumb" shot:

And how about hot cross buns from the excess starter?! Genius! Ok, they were ready at 10pm on Easter Sunday so a little more work may be needed on the timings, but they were utterly delicious for breakfast!

And today yesterday I finally got round to making a batch of seaweed soap, something I've been meaning to do since last August. The packets of dried seaweed from the French health food shop have been sitting there waiting patiently, but I admit I chucked away my hand collected and "home dried" (ie laid out on a bin bag in the sun until crispy) seaweeds from the beach. 

It was all a bit of a palaver, involving multitudinous implements, pans and items of protective clothing, but the smell lingering in the house now is amazing, and no! It's not what you think! I used sweet geranium, bergamot and patchouli essential oils (and a touch of green clay). I can't wait until the four weeks is up and I can try it! 

* Two Way Stretch, 1960, starring Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins et al

Tealeaf

I'll be quite glad when Easter is over this year.

First of all, I've wasted DAYS dyeing squares of fabric in rainbow hues and bedecking the washing line with multicoloured prayer flags:

And I've gone through a truly shameful number of freezer bags:

All because I found out my course is continuing after Easter and I promised my students we would play with dyes.  So if I'm teaching it, I need to know what I'm doing.  And dyeing a few bits in plastic bags in a litter tray at home is very different to dyeing a few bits multiplied by the number of students in a room with one small sink and no hot water supply. 

And to make matters worse, this morning I was painting sketchbook pages with leftover dye solution and left a pot of dye on the window sill, and the wind got under it and tipped it up onto the patio.  So we now have turquoise splats on our lovely new paving stones.

And even worse than that, the dye I had used was Dylon and it occurred to me afterwards that as it already has the soda mixed in, my pages are now painted with alkali dye and will probably rot or do something heinous.

So I comforted myself at lunch with a truly massive simnel muffin.

of which we had made a dozen:

And we had one each at lunch, leaving nine.

Except when we finished our cup of tea, there were only six.

Because one had disappeared without trace into the Whippet and another two were half chewed on the worktop.

Whippets are tall and have long noses.

They can also be fatally poisoned  by any sort of raisin, sultana or grape.

Whippets don't like being dosed with soda crystals, and when that doesn't work, salt solution, and when that doesn't work a trip to the V.E.T.  On a Sunday.  And not just any Sunday.  Oh no, why not do it in style.

The only thing that has gone right this weekend are the HCBs:

Wonderful.