question cat poses

The hornsea saffron biscuit crock is a kind of functional model of question cat. We did a photo shoot to try and capture this. I don't think I explained the concept well to her.

'kraut

The experiments began. I have a book on wild fermentation which is brilliant and spurred on by the cabbage mountain in our fridge we started with sauerkraut. Possibly the least scary sounding thing in the book for ralph who has issues with off/squishy/furry food. This book is brilliant, it has some really great instructions and introduces a wide range of techniques, none of which seem out of the grasp of people with a sensibly stocked kitchen. Most do not need any special starters although some will require an exciting parcel through the post. Thank you to ralph's friend sophie who sent us a kombucha mother all the way from japan and started all this nonsense.

The coffee crock and beer bottle set up for attempt number one. This has hand grated red cabbage in it with a jar top held down by the water filled bottle.

I mentioned before the hunt for hornsea pots and these are the crocks I got from ebay. There is another saffron pattern jar too. Some scrubbed pebbles and a flattened out bit of milk bottle hold down the contents.

For this batch we used white cabbage, carrot and apple grated in the magimix. I had more trouble with this one, it didn't yield much water and it was hard to keep it under the liquid. The milk bottle plastic is a bit flimsy, something more rigid will be needed I think.

The cabbage was in the jars for a pretty long time, 4 weeks for the red maybe and 3 for the other one, maybe a bit more. The red one mostly just tastes like very salty cabbage but the second one with the carrots actually has a kind of tang which I think is the ferment, it's nice. Ralph likes it.

Success.

slave to the dishes

I just lost an hour or so wondering if anyone has thought of a pleasant way to let your dishes dry. Our ever overflowing draining board, which does have a flat rack, but then spills over onto a tea towel on the side is starting to make me a bit sad. We are pretty regular with the washing up but I guess if you actually cook real food you are going to use many pots and bowls. There is always a mean dish mountain.

It seems that at some point dish drainers got new fangled, but as yet are to become aesthetically welcome. Apart from this one, you can get it from john lewis. But where does the actual washing up go? Obviously some people's food is dispensed from a nozzle directly onto the plate. It looks nice though.

 

I think it'll have to be something along the lines of this one...

This plastic coated wire does have a kind of utilitarian charm. It seems they are made in britain too which surprised me. Good.

Glad to share my dish washing accessory knowledge.

bucket

This place seems to be a little like plumo.

These would be good on the 'stead or as I should say urban homestead. I say that as some mean folks are trying to stop people calling their places urban homesteads, they want the term all for themselves. If you do a web search I'm sure it'll come up, oh or look here.

Anyway, leather bucket at nkuku.

cook

I was telling ralph about this and he asked me was it for camping. We don't have a car so the answer is no. I described it as 'for the little building off over the other side of our compound for when we are hanging out over there'. This is for the future, we have no "compound" as yet.

wildstoves have lots of good things to cook with too.

crumpet

Crumpets are on the list with tortillas as a criminal infringement into sanity. Although marginally more complex than the flour, salt and water that makes tortillas in that crumpets also need milk, yeast and baking powder. No kneading or rolling out for crumpets though, just a whisk. We will never buy crumpets again. The ones you make do not taste of odd chemicals.

 

 Question cat wants crumpets.

new crockery

To further add to the joke that ralph and I are in a 70's sufficiency time warp we have a new dinner service.

It also seems that I picked out the most 70's looking fabric from the ikea sale to make a tablecloth with. It's a bit snazzy. Clashing.

The crockery is hornsea heirloom pattern in brown, as opposed to green or blue. I think I most like the bronte pattern, and the saffron is most like the question. It seems hornsea pottery is a thing to get sucked into on ebay, spotting all the different patterns, seeing the special pieces. Hours spent engrossed in coffee pots and spice jars. All because I wanted a big pot to make sauerkraut in.

Anyway, if anyone's parents have a load of this that they would like to donate, I'm going to try and build a whole mismatched dinner service of all the patterns. Living the dream.

wowdress

I'm not sure why I'm on the ln-cc mailing list as every single thing is more money than I can manage, many of there things are black or beige and you have to call ahead to visit the shop which, in my hermit manner, would induce meltdown. Nice to look though.

More letters, gvgv, and a snazzy wowdress. Why it can't be all 'not rayon" I don't know but I like it's intention. Buy it for £gazillionz.

ln-cc.com

tight

A little shop in brighton has tights and stockings by funn. Wool and cotton stockings and all the colours. Great. Coral or rust possibly.

I like space dyed things, against my better judgement maybe. But in pumice not this green.

bowls etc

These at plumo.

Mugs at furniture barn.

Crockery.

delayed dresses

Well, a month has past. I have been busy so there will be more to follow, just been relaxing into it all.

An easy post to climb back on.

New toast, easy.

hairband
I'll not be getting this but I do like the oceany print and the look of the thing. I mostly like the lovely lady's hair and am slightly sad that the mass of mine was recently removed.

chambray dress
This I would like please. Two tone chambray wow.

top
 

dress

Some bits from asos...

leather skirt

ymc jacket

Done.

challenge

I just signed up to join in with a growing challenge. It seems like a good thing, to join in with others trying out the same thing. Moral support, people you have told your aims to. Not just me on my own.

So we are going to grow things for each season. I think we did ok last year, but not much over the winter, although I did get broad beans and peas in in the autumn so they are on their way now. I've organised the seeds. Today I will plant some. Go.

'fume

As with the soaps, I had some new perfume to try, from future primitive. Tiggy makes really wonderful looking soaps, I had never seem anything like them before. I think I had all the flavours 'open in tabs' trying to decide which ones to get. I decided, ordered, gave one to my mother in law for christmas and am yet to try the rest. I'm willing the current soap to run out.

I have been using the perfume. It is lovely. I wanted something a bit vanillaish and this one is good. Rook and raven, obviously I was swayed by the label.

A dark, deeply mystifying blend of Sweet Sicilian Orange & Vanilla with a drydown of aged Patchouli & Sandalwood resting on a faint hint of infused cardamom pods.

The scent leaves a gentle warmth, which creates a halo around your person that lingers the whole day long.
A warm inviting scent for the wicked winter months.
Inspired by the cackle of the rook & the raven and their beautiful black plumes.

I've not used an oil based 'fume before, it seems to stay well throughout the day, daubed on wrists and neck. Anyway, its great, go get some. 

whittle

I have new knives for whittling.

I've been making scoops.

soapsies

I'm still waiting to get around to trying out the soaps I bought a while back, my first experience of proper soap with nice ingredients in.

With this in mind I'm already looking out for more. No, not really, I just came across these and thought they were good looking and good sounding. I also like the printed brown paper, I am very, very fond of printing on brown paper.

Ralph was going on about pine tar a while back so maybe that's a good excuse to make an order. It seems that this soap is made by a man, who may have a beard if the tar soap blurb is to be taken as fact. Beardy soap making man is my kind of man. I was wondering if it is a kind of mannishness that has imbued this range of soaps with something that caught my eye. No pretty flowers on the labels. No flowery script. Manilla, string, clay, tar, grit, tea, roots. Grrr. But good for you. Nothing for mere fragrance, just good stuff for good purposes.

But we can still choose a rosehip because it's pretty.

RockyTopSoapShop

shoosies

Oh I do like these a lot.

At asos but too much monies for me. Donations welcome. They will help me work out my view on the "massive forest sell off".

good shop

After much trawling about the interweb (whilst doing my epic moisturiser hunt a while back and a subsequent shampoo search) I feel that I maybe have found a place that means no more searching.

Like I said before about goodness direct it's really lovely to find a place that you feel you can go straight to and know that they will have the goodies that you want and give great service.

Lucy Rose. Great!

This is a place that sells friendlier skincare products from many different brands including weleda (but it's also worth checking their website as they are also lovely and have very good service and special offers) and zoya (nail varnish in more colours than you'd think possible).

I ordered late on tuesday night and the parcel arrived on thursday morning. I guess thanks to the postie also but it's really nice to know that when your order goes in it gets dealt with so fast. Thank you very much lucy rose!

I'll have to let you know how the shellac based hairspray goes...

bombs

I've been on it these last few weeks, to a certain extent. So I have been trying not to be on the computer, so no blogs for a while.

I say I've been on it but what I mean is I've finally got around to doing the things I should have done before. Like get the christmas presents together. Now re-named "wishing you all the best for the year ahead" presents, they are all packed up and ready to send, trip to the post officer this afternoon.

As part of that I've made my first bath bombs. I'd been putting them off, for reasons I can't put my finger on. But right, get on with it. Done. Results are interesting. Pink, buttery one on the left is warty. One with orange bits in on the right was very fragrant, surprisingly so. I don't think using beetroot powder for colour worked too well. Not sure about the ones with butter in, the bath melts, but maybe I just need to tweak the proportions.

Also, some lip balm and some balm for achey joints. Named mountain wax in an attempt to appeal to a teenage boy.

'loons

ln-cc.com

Issey Miyake blue trousers from 1987

If only I could afford things from here. I'm not so keen on all the black but the shapes are great. Maybe some like these could be made though. I know it's a disaster waiting to happen.