Kept in the dark and covered with ....?

Something a bit different. I was given a pearl oyster mushroom kit and decided to make a photojournal of what happened.

For the first 7 days nothing happened at all. The following pictures were all taken 24 hours apart over the following 6 days.

 At last - something stirs

Same day but a close up shot - from nothing to this in 24 hours

Getting bigger

and bigger

Growing apace now

Almost ready for harvesting. The gills are well developed and the caps are flattening out.

Ready to cut. This is the last picture as 10 minutes later they were chopped up and in the pan ready to become part of a mushroom risotto.

And very nice it was too!

Nos Galan Gaeaf

Having said that, no, I wasn't going to decorate the blog for Halloween, I find myself in trouble with a couple of people so.......

Happy Halloween to all those that celebrate it  :-)

 

Little Box

Had a very nice weekend away with a good friend and the chance to play with some of her goodies - she is far more talented at this craft stuff than I will ever be.

My instructions were to bring a cigar box and some bits to put on it. Sounds easy enough so I acquired this:

 First task was to paint it white with gesso and when dry sand off all the edges and stain then with a brown distress ink pad to make it look old and worn.

 So far so good. Hardest part was waiting for the gesso to dry. Strangely the lid developed quite a pronounced curve when wet. Much to my relief it went flat again when it had dried.

Next it was time to decorate the sides. Firstly I tore some old book pages to size, about half an inch smaller then the sides.

Using the Sissix machine I embossed some brown glassine  paper with a clock pattern and then rubbed it over with some walnut distress ink and a few touches of Treasure Gold. These were cut and torn to be a little smaller than the printed paper

 

These were then stuck on top of the book pages and both pieces of paper stuck to the box sides. It was already starting to look very different.

Next came the feet to raise the box up a little  - it is amazing the difference feet will make! These were made from beads. Panel pins were knocked through from the inside and the beads threaded on and glued firmly into place.

Time now to decorate the top. Firstly the flowers. These were made by cutting 4 large flower shapes and 2 small ones out of more glassine paper. The paper was then crumpled up and rubbed over with more of the walnut distress ink and some gold highlighting spray. They were then assembled into 2 flowers and the petals held in place with a brad. A bit more crumbling and shaping and some nice blown roses appeared.

The top was covered by a triple sandwich  held together by  machine stitching. The base which was just a little smaller than the surface area of the top was thick white paper. On top of that but slightly smaller was another sheet of embossed glassine paper and finally, smaller again, some more of the book paper.

Almost done. The paper sandwich was glued to the top along with the flowers. An old metal washer acted a keyring to 3 old metal keys and these were held together with some string, again dyed with walnut ink. A few stained wooden leaves and some flakes of mica completed the top.

A blob of glue to hold everything in place and .....

...all done!

I do need to line the inside but I now have a pretty little box to keep "things" in

Playing with Potions

Yesterday I had the great good fortune to go on a day workshop in "compounding and concocting" run by St Martha's Botanica in Glastonbury.

From the left:

• Double Fast Luck
• Money Drawing Oil
• Commanding & Compelling
• Dixie Love Oil
• Fiery Wall of Protection

In the bottles:

• Glory Water
• Peace Water
• Four Thieves Vinegar

In the packets:

• Commanding and Compelling
• "Go Away" Powder
• Money Drawing Powder

This was such fun  ( unfortunately the recipes are not mine to share)   and I've picked up a few useful tips and tricks to try with my own recipes so all in all an extremely good day. The oils will take a week or two to infuse properly before I can try them out.

Firstly though  to find out if the "Go Away" powder works on mice ( and  large spiders!)....   

Water water everywhere

Well after my observation last night that it was raining - it went on to pour. All night I think - at least everytime I woke up I heard the rain lashing down.

It was obviously going to be a fun trip to work so I took a camera with me.

The Cheddar Gorge didn't disappoint. Last time it was this bad, part of the road itself washed away.

Today it was just unpleasant. The main problem is the torrent washes the stones from the edge into the middle of the road , where covered with water you can't always see them.

Drying Times

Yes autumn must be here. The wind is lashing the rain against the windows and there is a steady sizzle from the fireplace as the water comes down the chimney.
 
Last change then to pick and dry things. The apple crop has been a complete and utter failure. A cold wet snap at the wrong time kept the bees away and instead of a good supply of apples for the winter we have barely any. Most of the plum trees had no fruit at all and we got a small bowlful from the one tree that did manage to set fruit.

I have however managed to get hold of a hop bine this year which is drying nicely in the kitchen. I'd like to say I grew it myself but this was from an internet site. Not a lot of hops are grown around here.

Putting it up was "fun" but the flowers we lost in the process are now drying nicely for use in a hop pillow.  Also in the picture are a few rowan berries ( the strung ones are almost but not quite completely dry and a burdock root.

I'm not sure what I'm going to use that for at the moment but the plant has been the bane of my life all summer so it has given me great pleasure to dig it up. The roots go pretty deep and and thick and strong. I may need to take a hacksaw to the main rootstock.

Autumn Berries

Autumn is definitely on its way now..

The Rowan trees are loaded with ripe berries and I picked a few with the intention of making some garlands.

Stringing them on to the red silk thread was a stickier job than I'd anticipated! I was helped by an earwig that had hitched a lift with the berries ( not keen on them - he was relocated to the garden very quickly)

Hung up to dry.  In a couple of weeks I should have some nice little  Rowan berry beads to string.