Saturday 16 March 2024

Mend & Make Do

I bought this coat sometime in the early 90s at Dollar a Pound in Kenmore Square.  It's quite light really, so maybe it cost 50 cents?  I've just spent an hour or so mending and reinforcing tears and seams and it's good as new again -- ready to give me another 30 or so years of use -- and remember -- it was second hand to start with! 


I think the label says it all really!

Friday 8 March 2024

Our first goose egg!


On the left, a normal hen egg.  On the right the whopper of a goose egg that Danny just stole from their nest!  It weighs 206 grams, so about 4 hen eggs.

We plan to steal a few and then let them sit and hatch us some little baby geese fingers crossed!

Sunday 3 March 2024

Shipwreck update


X marks the spot where some long ago ship builder made his mark on this piece of wood!

We had Ben Saunders from Wessex Archaeology on the island on Thursday and Friday, and with the help of various residents, all the pieces of the ship were tagged and numbered and then dismantled and moved off the beach.

Lots of measurements and photographs were taken, as well as slices of the wood -- the next step now is that they will take this information and attempt to figure out where the trees grew and when they were harvested.  Ben thinks that there's a possibility that this could be 17th Century!

The Receiver of Wrecks has also been notified about the ship, and assuming that the owner (LOL!) does not come forward to claim it, it will eventually belong to the island and then we, as a community, will get to decide what we want to do with it.



Freya of course has no interest in the ship at all -- she is just happy to have a good stretch in the sunshine!

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Throwback Wednesday

Still haven't managed to do anything with the wool from last summer's shearing, and before you know it, it will be shearing time all over again, but here's a jumper/pullover/vest (not sure what to call it!) that Rachel knitted with wool from my Balwens!



Rachel says it's warm and she loves it -- but it is not a next to skin layer because ITCHY.  In this detail here you can actually see how itchy it is.  Balwen have quite a short staple length -- this means more ends and more itching.  Looking forward to spinning the Shetland wool as it should be much softer...

Sunday 18 February 2024

Archaeology

This amazing piece of a ship either washed up or was uncovered by the storms the other day.  It's constructed completely using wooden pegs -- no metal at all!  How incredible is this?!

Appropriate archaeological organisations have been contacted so we will undoubtedly find out more about it in due course, but it's clearly several hundred years old at least...

Just trying to imagine the lives of the people who built it and sailed on it...







This is clearly more modern and I meant to photograph it ages ago but as it's not far from the ship I had my chance today -- somebody clearly parked this car here once upon a time and then the sea just destroyed it to the point where all that remains is the tyres and the engine block!

Friday 16 February 2024

Signs of Spring

Snowdrops galore everywhere, and buds on trees, and it's starting to get light now not long after I get up in the morning -- spring must be on its way!

Tuesday 30 January 2024

First egg of 2024!

Here it is kids, the moment we've all been waiting for -- the first egg of 2024!  

We last had an egg on 30th September, so we've been waiting for this one for a while.  Our first egg last year was in the week between Xmas and New Year, so significantly later this year.  Because of the weather?  I don't know...

For those of you who don't know, once upon a time, eggs were a seasonal food, like asparagus or strawberries.  Egg laying is linked to light levels, so when days start getting shorter, laying tails off, and when the light starts to come back, laying resumes.  The reason you can buy eggs year round in the supermarket is because they give hens artificial light to trick them into laying all the time, but we think that our hens deserve a break and a rest from their hard work...


In other news, somebody on the island ended up with more Seville oranges than she ordered -- which meant that I got to make marmalade -- and somehow I managed to end up with more marmalade than I was expecting, but it is so delicious that an oversupply will not be a problem!


Spotted this earlier -- Cookie and Freya probably as close as they ever get to each other -- separated by a pane of glass!  And now I am off to wash my windows!  :)