For our wedding, Gareth and I were utterly spoiled by our incredibly talented friends. They helped with everything! People donated tablecloths, fairy lights, jars, napkins, flowers, seeds, plates, glasses, their skills and time - including our wonderful friend and photographer Emma Brittenden (go take a peek around her site).
Without them the day couldn't have happened. Such marvellous people, we owe you big time.

This banner was made for the day itself but now hangs above our bed.
Thank you, my dearest Annie.

Magical pals

A part-time magician and a talented babe, wowing some children.

how to wile away a winters day

For one week I looked after and played with my friend Ali, her brother Lucian, 10 chickens and 2 dogs. We played a lot of knucklebones, chopped mountains of wood, scratched around looking for eggs, and walked around the block numerous times.
Ali showed off her baking skills too so we had a constant supply of cupcakes, as well as the most beautiful little fimo foods fingers can make.


Hurrah for the much anticipated crafty meeting with wool, needles, hooks, thread and paper and glue!

And while we were busy at the table there were delicious stirrings in the kitchen...

Gareth's vegan afghan delights disappeared before the icing even set, while Annie and Charlotte were brewing something magical that would feed us for days..

Come back one day soon and see the most beautiful edible farewell present imaginable!

birthday birthday birthday

It was my birthday the other day and I just have to tell you about my cakes. My two delicious cakes.

The most delicious moist carrot cake by Gareth (will post recipe soon)

And a chocolatey chocolate monster heart cake by Uncle Lem and Lemur Ming


And my books, my books


woah yeah! hellzapoppin good!

aaaaaand

hoorah! "I know a Miffle needs me, and a Miffle's all I need".

oh oh what a treat!

today is the perfect day to watch this russian folk-tale! and knit with your perfect russian speaking flatmate.

birthday

Minga's 87th birthday party, with ridiculously undercooked chocolate cake

zine of the week

by gemmabear at etsy

before it gets too cold..

a quick nap in the garden under the washing line..

Surrounded by knitting

Knitting is having a revival in the neighbourhood.

Alex is knitting a Jacques Cousteau hat from http://typyp.ajatukseni.net/2008/11/12/jacques-cousteau-hat/




I am attempting to make this jersey from http://needled.wordpress.com

Day trip to Oxford

Annie and I went to Oxford for the monthly craft show. A woman was selling reversible sun visors. We bought a pinwheel.
We did not dine at Joe Seger's Country Kitchen but had day old pies from the bakery/fish and chip shop. There were nice gardens and nice cows.

Beehive World

The yellow dots are airplanes in the sky during a 24 hour period.


You can see the light of the day moving from the east to the west, as the Earth spins on it's axis, the aircraft flow of traffic leaving the North American continent and travelling at night to arrive in the UK in the morning. Then you will see the flow changing, leaving the UK in the morning and flying to the American continent in daylight.
It is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes. From space we look like a bee hive of activity!

You can tell it is summer time in the north by the suns foot print over the planet - the sun doesn't quite set in the extreme north and it doesn't quite rise in the extreme south.

procrastiBAKING

Moom's Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups of plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
85g butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1-1.5 cups chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 C
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Mix together the cooled melted butter with the sugars, beat in the vanilla and egg.
Mix in the sifted ingredients and the chocolate chips.
Place large spoonfuls of dough on greased trays and bake for 15 minutes.
Cool on baking trays and then transfers to a wire rack.



Apple Pie: bread-and-honey.blogspot.com recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups apples, cored, peeled & diced
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons butter
pastry for 2 pie crusts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Roll out 1 pie crust and place in a pie dish. Combine apples, sugar, flour, and spices in a large bowl. Put the apple mixture in the pie dish. Dot the top with the butter and drizzle with milk. Top with the second pie crust.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the crust is golden.



loveandoliveoil.com
Makes 12 lemon strawberry cupcakes.

Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
4 ounces white chocolate, melted
1/3 cup oil
1 cup full fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Frosting:
2 ounces of fresh strawberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
6 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon juice (approximately 1 large lemon)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350˚F.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix. Slowly mix together melted chocolate and oil. Whisk together coconut milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 1/4 cup of batter (should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

To make frosting, first wash and hull strawberries and toss them into a food processor. Puree strawberries and set aside.

Add sugar and egg whites into a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. Don’t freak out if your buttercream curdles or separates, keep beating and it will come together again.

Once the buttercream is thick and smooth, gradually beat in the lemon juice on medium speed, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. By this point you should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. You can stop at this point if you want to stick with lemon buttercream. For strawberry buttercream, gradually add in strawberry puree, beating on medium speed until well incorporated. Spread all over the cupcake delights.

tada!

Polaroid

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Smile! Polaroid is saved

A businessman plans to rescue the abandoned format for the sake of art. Emily Dugan reports.


For a generation, the Polaroid camera gave near-instant pleasure to millions of users around the world, chronicling everything from births and weddings to the downright explicit. But when digital photography came along in the 1990s – with instant images and the ability to edit and delete pictures before they see the light of day – Polaroid was doomed, its iconic white-framed snaps apparently defunct.

When Polaroid announced last February that it would stop production of its instant film, it seemed the much-loved camera was gone forever. But within weeks, a group of users had started a global campaign for the format to return. And now, thanks to an unlikely saviour, their pleas have been heard.

If all goes to plan, the Polaroid factory in Enschede, Amsterdam, will soon be making film again thanks to its new owner, an eccentric Austrian artist and businessman named Florian Kaps. Mr Kaps, 39, has dedicated the past five years to instant photography. He set up Polanoid.net, the biggest Polaroid gallery on the web, and the first ever Polaroid-only art gallery in Vienna, called Polanoir.

Now he plans to save the film. "The project is more than a business plan; it's a fight against the idea that everything has to die when it doesn't create turnover," said Mr Kaps.

Dubbed "The Impossible Project", the development of new film for Polaroid cameras launches today. Working with the Manchester-based black and white photography company Ilford, the machinery is in place to produce film of two exposure types, each compatible with both the classic SX-70 cameras popular with artists and the more modern 600 series.

Work has begun on a prototype. By hiring 11 of the original Polaroid team from the factory floor, Mr Kaps aims to mass produce both colour and black and white film under the Impossible label by December, coinciding with the projected date that existing stocks will run out.

www.independent.co.uk

Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is a form of natural light created by living organisms converting internal chemical energy into light. Some examples are fireflies, squid, mushroom and the microscopic organism dinoflagellate that lives in bodies of water. Whenever there is movement in the water this organism will light up sending a cloud of bright blue-green light billowing and undulating, until it eventually diffuses back into the dark stillness. Like the aurora borealis it is extremely beautiful, organic and mystifying. There is such mystery in the natural world that science and art simply can't compete with it. they are bowls of yesterdays porridge in comparison.


http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=233#more-233

One example of this natural phenomena is known as the Milky Sea, and what is exciting about it is that it wasn't scientifically explained until 2005 and was only believed to be old navy folklore up until then. It had been referenced in several stories and documents throughout the last two centuries and was described in Jules Verne's 1915 book 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea as “A Large extent of white wavelets often to be seen on the coasts of Ambouna, and in these parts of the sea…. the whiteness which surprises you is caused by the presence of myriads of infusoria, a sort of luminous little worm."

Lights

The Aurora Borealis or Northern and Southern Lights are celestial phenomena consisting of bands, curtains or streamers of coloured light that appear in the sky largely in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the earth. They are caused by clouds of particles from the sun streaming into space (the solar wind) and being trapped by the earth's magnetic field. When the particles collide with the gases in the atmosphere they start to glow, producing lights of red, blue, green and violet.

These mysterious intangible lights have created an abundance of folk tales explaining their origin. In Finland they are called "revontulet", which means "fox fires" a name derived from an ancient fable of the arctic fox starting fires by running on the snow, and sweeping it's brush-like tail so that sparks fly off into the sky. And it's interesting to note that these folktales can cross seas and become embedded in another countries culture and language - in English "foxfire" is a glow emitted by bioluminescent fungi growing on rotten wood.
One optimistic Finnish tale claims that there are so many fish in the Arctic Sea that the sunlight is reflected back into the air from the backs of the fishes.

The Eskimos and Indians of North America had many stories to try and explain the aurora borealis. For some the lights were spirits of dancing animals (deer, seal, salmon, beluga), dancing children who died at birth, slain enemies restless for revenge or spirits playing ball with a walrus skull. Others believed them to be the result of incredible creatures in distant lands - friendly giants in the north using torches to spear fish at night, or dwarfs of tremendous strength, who kill whales with their bare hands, boiling blubber over a fire.

Fruit Salad Tree

"Once, there was a king. Inside his palace wall was an enormous garden. In the very center of that garden was a famous tree. On the tree grew three magical fruits, each a different color" The Magic Fruit by Doug Lipman


Discovering the existence of the fruit salad tree (pictured above) has been heartening. A hint of fairy tale reality becoming reality.
It was developed by the West family in New South Wales, Australia and the process involves grafting branches from compatible fruit trees onto one. The result is 4 different trees each with there own variety of fruit. For example there is a stone fruit tree with apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines and peachcots; a citrus tree with oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, tangellos, grapefruit; a multiple apple tree, and a pear tree.

This is an example of science creating what we have only ever dreamed of. What is the relationship to art? Is some sort of charm, whimsy, enchantment or hope lost in these literal translations that a figurative, imaginative art translation would keep?

The myrtle family of trees

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RATA AND POHUTUKAWA



Northern rata is found in the North Island from Te Paki in the north to Wellington in the south. It usually begins life as an epiphyte or plant perched on a mature host tree; over centuries the young tree sends descending and girdling roots down and around the trunk of its host, eventually forming a massive, frequently hollow pseudotrunk composed of fused roots.
The Northern rate has small, leathery, dark green leaves which are 25-50mm long by 15-25mm wide, and have a distinct notch at the tip. The flowers are a mass of dark scarlet stamens that grow in sprays on the tips of branches. The bark is usually brown or grey-brown and rather corky




Southern rata (Metrosideros umbellata) grows from a seed in the ground to become a tree up to 15 metres high with a trunk 1 metre through. It prefers cooler regions with high rainfall and is particularly common along the west coast of the South Island where its nectar is the main source of the local honey.
The flowers of Southern rātā are scarlet, with stamens about 2 cm long. White or yellow flowers are also known. Leaves are from 3 to 6cm long, and are sharply pointed. The wood is hard, dense, and very strong. The bark is rough and flaky.



The tree grows up to twenty metres in height, with a dome-like spreading form. Its natural range is the coastal regions of the North Island. A giant Pōhutukawa at Te Araroa on the East Coast is reputed to be the largest in the country, with a height of 20 metres and a spread of 38 metres. The tree is renowned as a cliff-dweller, able to maintain a hold in precarious, near-vertical situations.
The Pōhutukawa's flowers are a brilliant crimson that completely cover the tree.


RATA OR POHUTUKAWA?

Found in marlborough sounds, I believe this to be a northern rata.

Snow prints

I found these photos at 2pie.blogspot.com.
Apparently they are quite simply faces pressed in powder snow resting on cars.








The beauty of these rests not only in their formal aesthetic properties, but their momentary impermanent existence and the experiential element of their creation.

These works are also evidence of the merits of the internet and global communication. Without it the works would have only existed for their creators on the street in a city, for a moment.

Because it was so delicious...

...ginger frog


...gopher beer & ginger bee


...ginger whale, ginger deer & ginger bear



Ginger Beer Recipe from meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com

Takes 3 weeks to make.
Makes about 25 litres.

Week One:
To reap 20 or so bottles of ginger beer - you need to make a starter or plant and 'feed' it for one week. So today - take a large clean jar. Add to it 2 tsp of ground ginger, 2 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp dried yeast and 2 cups of water. Mix it all up nicely. Cover with muslin (or other clean open weave fabric) and secure with a rubber band (or a piece of knotted elastic). Each day you need to 'feed' your ginger beer plant 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of ground ginger. Do that for a week so it can sweeten and ferment. (Don't put a lid on your jar - the bubbling yeast might 'blow' it right off).


Week Two:

Next, you'll be needing an extra jar!
Today, you need to divide the week old 'plant' in the jar into two halves. Place half the mixture into a clean jar with 2 cups of warm water. Then tomorrow, start 'feeding' as before, that is, two teaspoons of ground ginger and two teaspoons of sugar each day for a week.

(The other half of the 'plant' can be given to a friend with this recipe - Or you can leave it in the original jar and have two plants 'on the go'. Feed each plant as detailed above.)

You MUST start collecting plastic bottles this week! We'll need about 20 1.25l bottles - or if you want less now is the time to adjust your quantities DOWN and gift some of that ginger beer plant to someone else! All bottles must be super dooper clean - so get a bottle brush and plenty of hot soapy water happening.


Week Three:

YOU WILL NEED -
A clean tub or huge clean pot - large enough to hold about 25 litres of liquid.
Lots of clean plastic bottles with lids - at least 12 one litre bottles - and double if you are using both 'plants' we made last week.
A big spoon to stir
Some muslin or other such fine fabric to strain your 'plant'
Sugar - at least 8 cups
Lemon Juice - at least 1 cup
A Funnel
Warm Water
Fancy labels

In the tub, mix 8 cups of sugar, 48 cups of warm water and 1 cup of strained lemon juice.
Now you should strain your ginger beer 'plant' through a couple of layers of muslin (this is the ginger beer plant that we divided last Saturday - if you're greedy like me and are making two lots of ginger beer do the sums accordingly - you'll need extra sugar, bottles and lemon juice!).
If you don't have muslin use another light, open weave fabric that will catch any chunky bits! Add the strained 'plant' liquid to the sugar/water/lemon mixture and stir well until very well combined.
Dispense into super-clean plastic bottles with the aid of a funnel and a clean tea-cup or other such helpful vessel and wait ONE WEEK. It'll be lashing of ginger beer all around then!

Iron Filings

The pulse of the electromagnet is wired to the volume and frequency of the music.
So they dance!



Claire Watkins uses magnets and motors behind copper plate paintings to keep the files dancing. And pins on string attracted to a suspended magnet.