brilliant sunshine....

... and a nice surprise in the mail! we received our birthday parcel yesterday - a bit late - but the contents were lovely. esp. the digicam that came from germany:)) so now I am finally able to take pix of whatever I do and put them online -without waiting for months on end to fill and develop the film! of course I fiddled around with it all afternoon yesterday to find out how it works and what we can do with it.... lots to learn, but the first picture of the brilliant sunshine is here! well, not exactly my favourite weather, too warm for a "polar bear" like me - but what the heck, it's supposed to rain tomorrow!

we nearly finished the first week of hedgerow dyeing with the OLG - with nice results all around. a member in nz told me about experiments with fuchsia flowers and solar dyeing - so I am off to pick a jar full later in the afternoon (when the danger of melting outside is gone...), fill it up with vinegar - and stuff some teeswater top into it to see what happens. I read about Lillias Mitchell's dye results of purplish tones, but unfortunately so far all I had was a biting yellow (and a bee sting to boot - I should have been more careful when picking - and not squash the poor bee in the process!). I also have to pick the Gypsywort soon, another strong, slightly harsh yellow - and with some iron water as aftertreatment a strong mossy green! in the books it says black, but I must have done something wrong:))