Spring into May
Hope you all had a happy May Day! The lovely sunshine is supposed to last for the long weekend, so it's a holiday to definitely look forward to.
I'm back from a wonderful long relaxing visit with my twin over the pond, and am now gearing up to try out some interesting things in the kitchen and garden - the latter encouraged by the beautiful weather we're having. Weeding in the rain is not something I do!
Term 3 of my metalwork course starts tonight (or rather, it started last Wednesday, but I was 5,565 km unavailable) and first up I've decided to make hairpins, as I've promised a set of my wedding hairpins to mishypurple. They'll be slightly different from the others I've made but that's all I'm going to spill until after the wedding. The previous pins were all made from fine silver which, although they worked, meant they weren't as springy as I would have liked. The class torches are hot enough to ball sterling silver however, which my home torch is too cool for, so slightly more durable pins are in the offing.
Next up I'm planning to do some wax carving. I've done a bit of it before, in both wax and PMC, but I'm hoping to learn some more techniques and a bit more about what types of wax to use and where to get the finished product cast.
I've ordered a dozen asparagus crowns online, of the Conovers Colossal variety. They won't be producing anything this year and maybe only a spear each next year, but in three years time we should be having fresh-cut asparagus for dinner. Yum! Hopefully I'll get some planting done in the long weekend, though I imagine every man and his dog will be at the garden centre. I will just have to battle my way through to the compost and baby vegetables.
In good news, the baby basil I bought 3 weeks ago is still looking good - about 15cm high and flourishing. They need to be repotted however and I'll have to give some to tatanatanya as I've run out of windowsill space.
I'm back from a wonderful long relaxing visit with my twin over the pond, and am now gearing up to try out some interesting things in the kitchen and garden - the latter encouraged by the beautiful weather we're having. Weeding in the rain is not something I do!
Term 3 of my metalwork course starts tonight (or rather, it started last Wednesday, but I was 5,565 km unavailable) and first up I've decided to make hairpins, as I've promised a set of my wedding hairpins to mishypurple. They'll be slightly different from the others I've made but that's all I'm going to spill until after the wedding. The previous pins were all made from fine silver which, although they worked, meant they weren't as springy as I would have liked. The class torches are hot enough to ball sterling silver however, which my home torch is too cool for, so slightly more durable pins are in the offing.
Next up I'm planning to do some wax carving. I've done a bit of it before, in both wax and PMC, but I'm hoping to learn some more techniques and a bit more about what types of wax to use and where to get the finished product cast.
I've ordered a dozen asparagus crowns online, of the Conovers Colossal variety. They won't be producing anything this year and maybe only a spear each next year, but in three years time we should be having fresh-cut asparagus for dinner. Yum! Hopefully I'll get some planting done in the long weekend, though I imagine every man and his dog will be at the garden centre. I will just have to battle my way through to the compost and baby vegetables.
In good news, the baby basil I bought 3 weeks ago is still looking good - about 15cm high and flourishing. They need to be repotted however and I'll have to give some to tatanatanya as I've run out of windowsill space.