Home Brewing: Rocket Fuel

Here is my Nan's recipe for Rocket Fuel AKA Peach wine

Ingredients:

• Peaches 3lb
• White sugar 2.2lb
• Brown sugar 1lb
• Citric acid 3tsp
• Tannin a smidgeon(grape or tea choose your poison)
• Water 1 gallon
• Yeast and nutrient
• A Pectic enzyme(a variety are available on the market)

Wipe and stone the peaches
Pop the peaches into a bucket and mash well by hand
Cover them with boiling water and leave overnight
Stir in the pectic enzyme, cover and leave for three days
Strain through muslin (an old muslin nappy does quite well tied to the unpturned legs of a chair. I object to my tablecloths being used the same way as they don't work as well)
You may need to strain it again if some sludge is left
Add the citric acid, tannin and nutrient
Put 2 lb of sugar into a bucket and add enough boiling water to dissolve it.
Allow to cool
Put the strained peach juice and sugar solution into a fermenting jar
Add sufficient boiled water to bring the mix up to the shoulders of the jar
Add the yeast and fit the air lock
Fermentation should start within three days
Roughly after two weeks add 1/2 pint of syrup (sugar dissolved in water to proportions noted above)
It will probably take seven to eight months for it to ferment but you can keep it going for longer
You may need to split up the ferment to allow for the extra syrup
Don't forget to stir the misture once a day for the first couple of weeks
This should clear very well if you rack it after all the sugar is in.
Don't rack it again unless fermentation has finished

See also:
The Embroidery Library

Home Brewing: Damsons in distress

Ok here's my Nan's recipe for 'Damsons in Distress' AKA Damson Wine


Ingredients:

• Damsons 4lb
• Barley 1/2lb
• Sugar 3lb
• Water 1 gallon
• Yeast and nutrient
• A pectic enzyme(they have a variety of brand names)

Grind the barley up
Mix it with the stoned(now don't get any stupid ideas) fruit
Bung the above into a bucket
Pour boiling water over them and leave to cool
Add the pectic enzyme(You need this for a clear wine)
Strain the mix through a sieve onto the sugar
Add the yeast nutrient
Stir the mixture until all the sugar is dissolved
Add the yeast(try a Burgundy yeast with this you'll get better results)
Keep covered for approximately one week in a warm place
Decant it from the bucket into a fermenting vessel and pop an airlock on
You can siphon off when it clears for the first time but don't bottle it until it has finished fermenting(Exploding bottles make a huge mess)

Drink and enjoy!

The Dragon

See also:
The Embroidery Library

The Embroidery Library: A foray from the past

Strange though it may seem, dragons were once young and this dragon is no exception. I remember a time at my grandparents mill house. The female contingent had just come back from a shopping foray (adding to Nan's embroidery library) and the male contingent had been experimenting with alcohol.

Mum and Nan were not best pleased with the state of the men so off they went to investigate the home brew supplies. They were soon back but not angry. They were laughing their heads off. My Dad and Granddad had relabelled all the barrels.

Between chortles my Nan explained that the damson was now 'Damsons in distress' and the peach had become 'Rocket Fuel'. My Mum then butted in saying that she didn't believe 'Who'd've thought it?' adequately described the blackberry and calling the wheat and raisin 'Winnies Knicker Rotter' was definitely unfair. The adults soon adjourned to the cellar to discuss the rest of the labelling, leaving myself and my brother to amuse ourselves.

After playing with the old cast iron Singer sewing machine in the hall for a while I went off to investigate Nan's embroidery library. Most of this was kept in a big oak cupboard (the shelves made a great ladder) and overflowing with stitch books, design inspiration books, fabric, threads and tools. The books kept me occupied for a while but then I found one on collage.

I had all the equipment I needed to hand paper, fabric, coloured pencils and glue, but best of all I found a really sharp pair of scissors. I liked them from the start. They were small (just the right size for my hands), sharp and had a really interesting animal shape for the handles. All set I started creating a picture of my Nan, cutting and shaping paper and fabric to make the pieces I wanted. Well actually most of the pieces I wanted. I was stuck for the right piece for the lips.
Thinking hard, I wandered round looking for the right thing. In the spare room I spotted it. The curtains were just the right colour. No more thinking, out came the scissors and snip, snip, snip one pair of lips from the middle of the curtains.

Back I went to my collage and started sticking everything together. I knocked the glue over once or twice but wiped the pens and scissors with bits of the collage to get the worst off. No point in wasting glue I thought. Finally it was done. Time to show off my masterpiece.

Proud of my work I marched off to show it to my Nan. They were still in the cellar. Nan looked at it and proceeded to thank me for such lovely work, my Mum on the other hand gave me a hard stare(they're legendary in our family) and left the cellar. I should have stopped her. She was soon back in ogre mode reading me the riot act. Not only had I left glue, paper and fabric pieces lying around the library and cut lips out of the curtains, I had done it with my Nan's best embroidery scissors. Oops. I tried to explain that I'd chosen them because they were sharp. They were exactly what I wanted to make the shapes I'd used. Oh dear! I shouldn't have said that. Apparently it was a smart ass reply and the gist was that I had been very naughty.

Fortunately Nan intervened at this point to give me a talk on the proper use of embroidery scissors. My reasons for chosing them were valid but she wanted to keep them sharp for cutting threads. Fine. I learned a lot from her about different types of scissors that day and I did clean the glue off her scissors up properly. Couldn't do much about the curtains though.

Moral of this tale? If you are going to use your Nan's best embroidery scissors to cut lips out of curtains DO NOT cover them in glue afterwards!

Listen to this post:

audio/embroidery_library.mp3

Declining literacy standards or the rise of alternative media?

I came across this interesting article today on the ABC news site. It seems to indicate declining literacy standards in the US. The article quotes:

"One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices."

Being an avid bookworm myself this intrigued me. Could the same be said of the UK? Our government frequently has a go at standards in literacy, putting all sorts of programs into place.

As an unofficial attempt to get some data I have put a little survey up on Facebook here.

Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3507898

Needlelace and the art of computer programming

A friend asked me last night how I could have a hobby like needlelace and a business like computer programming. I started pondering. How could she see it as unrelated? In needlelace you take your design and plot out where your sections should be, what stitches should be used and how they should be put together. The art of computer programming is to find out what the output should be, what functions the program needs, the programming language most suitable and how to tie it all together.

Now from this perspective they don't seem very different to me. You have a process you go through in each case:

• Rough out design concept (appearance, function)
• Processes required (stitches, functions)
• Materials required (threads, program compiler)
• Create the pieces (pattern pieces, modules)
• Connect the pieces together
• View the finished article
  

Now I realise this is a very simplistic view but it is a way of seeing that needlelace and the art of computer programming are not so far apart.

Free Tarot Card Readings: why people do it?

While I was tinkering around with free tarot card readings I started thinking on what I would expect to get if I did a reading for myself and I suppose the main thing is a triggering of ideas.

Say that I was bogged down in a project and couldn't solve a vital step in the process. I could pick up some tarot cards, lay them out to see what percolated through my head.

It would seem that reading tarot cards is a way of relaxing your mind whilst chucking ideas at it. It could be that some of the symbolism that we use in our mind is triggered by the cards.

As each person thinks in a different way so different tarot decks seem to appeal to them.

Anyway this was just a take on free tarot card readings from my perspective you may see things in a different way.

Free Tarot Card Readings and cries for help

Some people only resort to free tarot card readings when they desperately need help. The American Tarot Association has recognised this fact and has the following to say...

"Free teleconference courses will begin to be offered quarterly to all those who read for the public as a preliminary training for recognizing and responding to serious online reading requests."

This is great news for their members and good news for the public at large. Free tarot card readings receive a lot of flack from some communities. They say that tarot card readers profit from others misfortune or are just plain quacks. The announcement in the ATA's magazine shows that not all tarot card readers think that way.

Maybe this fact should be publicised more. When people need help they will turn to the field that most appeals to them.

Good on the ATA for recognising this.

Source :
http://www.ata-tarot.com/reflections/06-15-07/2007_07_14_Announcements.html

Free Tarot Card Readings may help jobless find work

Just found an interesting article from the Netherlands where free tarot card readings, astrology advice and spiritual personal development programmes would be offered to encourage people back to work.

This is an interesting attitude by the Dutch government. The article states...

"Since 2004, the jobless and people on incapacity benefit can get up to €5,000 from the state to pay for courses to help them find work. Last year, some 42,500 people were following such reintegration projects"

As someone who has experienced unemployment on several occasions, I could see some benefit to this. It is very demoralising for people to suddenly find their company no longer needs them or that their health is preventing them from following their career path. It could help people gain self confidence or perhaps generate ideas for the next career path they might consider.

If it helps people get off benefits then it is a worthwhile initiative.

You may well disagree but if aids people why not?

Source:

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2007/08/state_funds_tarot_card_reading.php