Hey there blog friends.  I've had real problems getting access to my blog for the past couple of months.  I was frozen out of it but today I thought I'd try again. 

Now that blogger has accepted my mobile number I'm hoping I will be able to give little picture updates from time to time. 

I've missed you and visiting your blogs.  Hope you are all doing well xxxJ

Spring Oak Leaf Wine

Recipe

1 gallon of oak leaves (Spring or Autumn)

4 oranges*

1 lemon*

4lbs sugar

Wine yeast

Wash the leaves in cold water removing all woody stalks, damaged leaves, caterpillars and other hedgerow stow aways (I found several green caterpillars and a black and red caterpillar of the White Ermine Moth). Place the prepared oak leaves into a gallon brewing bucket, cover in boiling water and leave over night.

Strain and separate the leaves from the fluid. The leaves can now be composted.

Add the liquid to a large pan, preferably stainless steel. If like me, you do not have a pan large enough, split the liquid between two pans and ensure that you spread the ingredients equally between the two pots.

Add sugar, juice of lemons and oranges, and thin peel. It is important to make sure that there is no white pith on the peel so I grated the white side of the peel until the pith has been removed and the peel is very thin.

Place some dried wine yeast into a glass with a little water that has been allowed to cool until hand hot from boiling. This activates the yeast.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. When cool pour the liquid through a muslin cloth into a demi John and add the yeast and water. Top up the demi john with cooled boiled water until almost full. Add air lock and bung.

Leave to ferment. When all fermentation has ceased rack off into wine bottles and leave for 6 months. The longer you can leave the wine the better it will taste.

When ready to drink reserve one bottle to enjoy with friends at a solstice celebration. Enjoy!

The same recipe can be found widely over the web and in hedgerow wine books. I used a 1970 copy of the Farmers Weekly Collection.

* When making I did not have any oranges so instead used 3 satsumas and 2 lemons. I'm sure it will still taste great!

Spring

A wee bit more...

Thank you for all that have left comments the past few days. I will answer all very soon. The sun has been out to play and I have a lot of friends and family visiting the island. Happy days :))

Inspirational Forests

Stepping into a forest

Stepping into a dream

Reflecting lakes

Textures of moss, lichen and bark

Enchanting birdsong

A breath of life



This months Festival of the Trees is being hosted by Suzi of Spirit Whispers

To enter a post please email your posts weblink to:

suziscribbles [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Slow Progress

Alexanders

A couple of posts ago I showed a picture of what I know by the name of wild Welsh Angelica. I posted the same picture onto a foraging homepage asking for more information. I now know that this plant is known as Alexanders or Roman Parsley. Like Angelica, it is not native to the UK, instead it was introduced by the Romans and has naturalised over the years and now grows like a common weed all over Britain. Especially near the coastline.

The entire plant is edible. The young reddish stalks are meant to taste beautiful gently sauted in butter having an asparagus like taste. The older stems can be used in a similar fashion to angelica stalks. The leaves and flowers are edible in salads and the roots can be eaten like parsnips.

I found a recipe for Pickled Alexanders Buds on the Eat Weeds Blogs and have made up a jar. Will let you know how they taste when I open them :)

Thatching with Heather

Heather

The coastline of Anglesey is abundant with heather and gorse. Wild angelica is starting to line every country lane and wayside, the brambles a creeping forth and wild vervain (not to be confused with the medicinal vervain) is starting to sprout. Anglesey is a joy to behold in Springtime.

Right now, the heather tops are a glorious green, ideal for dyeing wool. I've been doing a lot of research into the uses of heather and stumbled across the below wool dyeing recipe whilst looking into methods for heather thatching. Click on the link below to see wealth of knowledge and lore collated by Electric Scotland.

A Traditional Recipe for the Dying of Wool

Gather the tops of the (Barr An Fhraoich) Heather. Gather when they are young and green, and growing in a shady place. Place a layer of wool and heather alternately on the bottom of the pot until the pot is filled. Then add as much water as the pot will hold. Put on the fire to boil, but do not allow to boil dry. The wool will dye a lovely yellow colour which is a good basis for green when indigo is added. If a moss green is require, add gall apples and iron mordant towards the end of dying. Purple and brown tints can be obtained by using old heather tops.

If wanted for winter use, the tips of the heather plant should be picked just before they come into flower. If it is to be used fresh, it can be gathered as long as the flower is in bloom.

The resultant dye is a mordant dye which means the fibre requires special preparation before it can absorb the colour. The treatment is 4oz alum and 2oz cream of tartar to every 1 lb of wool.

I've been out collecting heather for thatching my aunt's gazebo with. I have a feeling I am going to be collecting heather for quite some time. I don't mind though, collecting heather or gorse or other free food and dyepot materials is always an enjoyable task.

Its too early to collect heather for wine or tea but I think I'll have a go at making a besom :)

My uncle made this gazebo himself. Its beautiful isn't it. Can't wait to see it with its heather thatch. I'll post more pictures as the project progresses.

Here is a picture of Welsh Angelica. I have some of the garden variety North American Angelica growing in my garden. Its a lot bigger than the Welsh Angelica and has not yet come into flower. I have plans to harvest it later in the year and make some into Angelica Liqueur. I'm trying to find out if this wild Welsh Angelica is edible too. Maybe it can be used in a dyepot? I'm going to look into it as it grows so freely around here I'd love to think of it having a culinary or dyepot use. I recently found an article on the Wild Colour website explaining how rhubarb leaves can be used as a mordant. I'm not very scientific so don't know the botanic make up of rhubarb, maybe angelica will work on the same principles?

I've been noticing lots of these round balls growing all over the oaks. My granddad calls these 'oak apples'. Can anyone tell me if these 'oak apples' are also 'oak galls'. I've been reading about dyeing with oak galls so am keen to give it a try.

The past week or so I have been noticing dandelions springing up all over the place. I read somewhere that St Georges day is the traditional date for collecting dandelions. There are so many culinary, healing and dyepot uses for the dandelion. I think I'm going to have a go at making dandelion wine and using some roots for the dyepot. I have read that dandelion roots can give a red/purple colour in the dyepot but also that this is a debatable fact. There's no harm in giving it a try to see what happens.

I tried solar dyeing with the beautiful wild vervain last year. I didn't get a very vivid colour, but I will try again this year. There are so many techniques for dyeing I'm not going to be put off by one failure. Above you can see the vervain just beginning to surface. In a few weeks these plants will be waist height and displaying the most magnificent red and cerise flowers.

I hope to have more to show you soon xJ

A Wakeful Green

Forests have seasons all of their own. Today, wandering through the forest I listened to the call of the sparrowhawk, I heard the wind rustling through the trees and watched the tall slender saplings bending and swaying to a rythmic dance.

My two favourite seasons are Spring and Autumn and today I felt I was walking with each side by side. Gold and rust coloured leaves littered the floor and my eyes rested upon the russet hues of last years bracken while all the while leaves are unfurling, the brambles are tentatively marking out their territory and ferns are still enchanting with their fossil like curls. So much is happening.

I miss this forest feel. I spent so much time gazing at the dreamcatcher/medicine wheel like patterns to the log rings whilst my friend could not help noticing the runic symbols scattering the forest floor. Newborough Forest lies at the other side of the Island to me and I get the impression that large forests are not natural to the isle of Anglesey. Anglesey is essentially a small island known for its farming history and 200 miles of magnificent coastline. I am blessed with miles of hedgerows, gorse and heather lined fields and coastal paths, wildflowers and alpines unique to Anglesey with unusual healing properties.

Having so much outdoor beauty to focus on I find that I have not been creating art or pieces of felt but instead have been occupied with creating willow domes, tending to my garden, going on long walks and getting inspired by foraging. I have been adding gorse flowers o my salads and have made the gorse flower cordial, which is delicious, and dyed wool in gorse. I have plans to flower pound gorse flowers through a stencil. I quite like the idea of making a CND stencil to pound through, and later in the year if i am feeling more adventurous I think making stencils of peace symbols with a rainbow of different pounded flowers.

Next, I think I will be making a study of heather. I am going to help my aunt and uncle create a heather thatch roof for their pagoda, I think I'll make a heather besom, some heather tea for my mam to use as offerings at her Buddhist Centre, some heather wine and of course use heather as a natural dye.

I'll keep you posted with lots of pictures. Until then enjoy your spring and thanks for sticking with me during my silent unproductive months xJ

Tunnel

The dome has begun to green up a little and I have been planting out lots of bulbs seeds and seedlings around the entrance to the dome. I' ve even divided and taken cuttings from some of my herbs and flowers so when my little girl is playing in her dome she will be surrounded by colour and fragrance. A lot of the plants are good companion plants for a vegetable plot and some are culinary, sources of natural dye and healing too. There is sweet pea, sunflower ,enula, borage, cornflower, marigold, iris, sweet cicely, nasturgeons, daffodil, fennel, oxeye daisy and chocolate mint. Next I will have to hang the pirate bunting on the inside of the dome and the Jolly Roger flag to the wall behind the swing.

I managed to squeeze in a little time to finish off the tunnel yesterday. I wanted to create a sensation like climbing down the rabbit hole when entering the tunnel for the willow dome. The tunnel is curved and taller at the entrance and considerably smaller at the point which it meets the dome.

Dunes & Texture