Final greenhouse disaster

Tags

country life, gardening, greenhouse, life, summer, weather, whining

I was optimistic and made new walls. 2 days. Stormy stormy crash. Sigh.

Another greenhouse death

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country life, gardening, greenhouse, life, plants, summer, weather

Yes, we’re having one of those frequent summer storms today.

Greenhouse from scraps

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country life, creativity, gardening, greenhouse, plants, seasons, summer, tidbit, weather

It did blow over in the storm. All of it lifted off and landed on my strawberries…

No dig update

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country life, gardening, greenhouse, omnom, plants, summer, vegetables

I have in fact managed to fill every box this year, which was a bit of a surprise. That is, the homemade tomato green house is still waiting for plants, as the cucumbers need at least 15° C and it’s still about 5 at night here. Last year I built a smaller version from the remains of my windswept greenhouse, so I extended and added plastic. Perhaps it’ll blow off in the first storm, but it was worth a shot.

After the storm

Tags

autumn, country life, fat finger, greenhouse, seasons, weather

Absolutely not the worst one in the history of mankind, but probably the one that did most damage in our 11 years here.

Riding ring fence broken. My little greenhouse was torn to pieces. Roof damage to the barn (flying tiles) and for myself a mangled right thumb. My stupid horses who were calm as can be in the pasture, but too fat to remain there all evening (as well as too near the disintegrating rooftop), decided to freak when I wanted to approach them in the paddock to come inside for hay – ground slippery as soap and down I went, thumb first…. Typing feels very odd without it, am constantly reminded to lift my cup with the other hand, and well, apple sauce, forget it, I can’t peel anything. Knitting? No way. Same goes for writing and drawing. I guess an overstretched ligament. Bummer. I iced it all evening, but it’s still quite swollen today.

I haven’t tried spinning, my left is my forward hand, but I think I probably handle the fiber more than I know with my right. Think I need 2 thumbs for teasing clumps of fleece for carding too? Perhaps I could pick up my lefthanded writing again which I practised when I broke my wrist 5 years ago. Just for laughs.

Guess I better visit the library…

Everyone else ok out there?

Stormskader

Så blev det lille blæsevejr overstået med flyvende tagsten, væltet ridebanehegn, krøllet drivhus og en forstuvet tommelfinger.

De tåbelige ponyer syntes det var en meget farlig ide at skulle ind i stalden (i ly for de flyvende tagsten) og folden var som sæbe, så jeg fik lige trukket tæppet væk under fødderne og landede med højre tommel “brækket” bagover.

Strikke, skrælle æbler til det der mos jeg har truet med, tegne, skrive, glem det, jeg kan ikke engang holde på en tom kaffekop og påklædning foregår temmelig kreativt.

Det ligner vist en tur på biblioteket…

Jeg håber alle derude i det danske land er intakte både indendørs og udendørs?

Solar silk

Tags

coreopsis, green, greenhouse, iron, mordant, orange, silk, summer, weather, yellow

My first venture into solar dyeing, this grey, cold, miserable summer, was a couple of jars with silk and dye from Dyer’s Chamomile.

We did get one week of warm and sunny, but I didn’t actually think of moving my jars into the greenhouse until afternoon on the last day… Pretty typical of me.

After about a month I pulled it out, since nothing much seemed to be happening. (forgot to register, sorry)

I didn’t get any orange from the Tinctoria this time, but not necessarily due to temperature, but rather the fact that I was using 1/1 dyestuff to fiber this time as opposed to 3/1 last time. Bit of a shame since I wanted the orange shade as part of the silk project. So I fixed it by adding a handful of frosen coreopsis to some of the silk and a pot of hot water.

There wasn’t much difference in colour in the copper mordanted silk compared to the alum mordanted, so since I needed olive for my spinning project I dunked it in my horse shoe bucket. Voila presto!

Unfortunately I ran into another problem with the silk. I’d used two different batches, and the bit that I’d been gifted in a swap was really, really odd even as I soaked it before dyeing. Didn’t get wet properly, didn’t “float” and smelled odd. Did I pay attention? Nooooo… So what happend to that portion was, after it’s all dry and ready, the silk was completely brittle and rough to the touch. I can tear the fibres into short, short bits and it just feels unpleasant even after a wash. Not going to spin it. At first I thought it was the iron, but when half the coreopsis dyed silk ended up the same and the other half didn’t I guess it has to be the silk itself.

So I had to take some more of the yellow, that was supposed to stay yellow, and dunk that in iron to get the greenish tint, and then I gave up and acid dyed a new piece for orange. Easy to spot in the crowd I think, but probably won’t be noticed once they’re blended.

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Koldfarvet silke

Ikke helt SOLfarvet, eftersom vi ikke har haft så meget af den, i hvert fald ikke sommertemperatur, men dog farvet uden opvarmning af fibrene. De stod i glas ca. en måned, men der skete ikke rigtig den store udvikling de sidste par uger. Farvebadet er gåseurt, det ene glas med kobberbejset silke.

Jeg fik ikke orange denne gang, formentlig pga mindre plantemasse pr. fiber, ca. 1/1. Kobberglasset var en ret mørk gul, men ikke den grønlige farve jeg skulle bruge, så den kom lige et dyp i min hesteskospand og så blev det ellers oliven på nul komma fem. Orange fik jeg ved at lige opvarme en håndfuld nedfrosset skønhedsøje – coreopsis tinctoria og putte noget af det gule silke i.

Desværre viste den ene portion silke sig at være mere end underlig, så både den grønne og det meste af den orange er fuldstændig sprø og ru. Jeg kan trække fibrene over i korte, korte stykker helt uden at anstrenge mig. Silken var også anderledes allerede da jeg havde det i blød før farvningen, men jeg havde ikke regnet med det ville gå så galt.

Så jeg var nødt til at tage lidt af det gule og dyppe i jern igen, og for at have nok til mit projekt syrefarvede jeg så lige en portion orange. Jeg håber den ikke skiller sig ligeså meget ud når de bliver blandet.