Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Soo…you know I collect fossils, right?

This little beauty is a particular treasure – a 180 million year old dactylioceras ammonite, possibly from either Germany or the UK. It comes with provenance too – it was a gift from Tom of the Living Fossil Gallery who originally got it from the great Warren Somerville. It’s perfectly formed and if you look very closely, you can see the leaf-like suture pattern on the top right of the spiral…

After seeing ammonite-imprinted pottery on a UK website, I asked my friend Steve Sheridan last year if I could commission him to make some ammonite tea bowls for me. He took an imprint of my fossil, then produced these absolutely stunning pieces for me…

Each has a wee ammonite – my wee ammonite – in the base. The one I’m using most often has a green celadon glaze and fits perfectly in my hands…

The blue celadon is slightly larger and a good size for herbal teas. I love how individual every single one of Steve’s bowls are…

I told Steve that I was more than happy for him to make these to sell, so if you’re interested, here’s a link to his website. This isn’t an ad though, I just think Steve and Trish are wonderful! ♥

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This is our friend Will. Please don’t tell him I’m writing about him.

You would love him. I say that with huge confidence, even though I don’t know you, because everyone loves Will. He’s one of those rare people in life with great compassion, dry wit and absolutely no pointy bits.

When Big Boy and Monkey Girl sent out their wedding invites, the dress code was “semi formal”. I rang Will and said, “Hon, I’m sorry, but as MC, you’re one of the few people who will actually have to wear a tie on the night”. He replied, “Celia, I’m English. Of course I’m going to wear a tie. The question is whether I wear a waistcoat.”

Given it was 39ºC the day of the wedding, I’m glad he decided against the three-piece suit.

Here he is on the day, deep in a conversation with a kookaburra…

And for those of you who’ve been reading for a while and like to join the dots, Will is Baby Grace’s dad. Remember her? If not, let me refresh your memory. In fact, let me find some Grace photos for you, because just looking at those are guaranteed to bring joy and we could all use some of that right now!

At this time when we’re all missing our friends desperately, it’s nice to take a moment to reflect on how truly wonderful they are. ♥

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I sent a text to my neighbours a couple of days ago which read “I’ve sewn face masks if anyone would like one. However, please understand that by taking one, you’re officially joining our gang and now have to get our street logo tattooed on your arm”. (I was joking of course, we don’t have a street logo. Yet.)

I began with this YouTube tutorial by Keiko Olsson and adapted it from there. If you’re interested in sewing these, please watch this first and I’ll explain my slight modifications below…

In my version….

1. I used two pieces of fabric cut into an octagon shape instead of a folded rectangle. I drafted a rough pdf pattern here based on Keiko’s instructions – print on A4 or draft on graph paper.

2. I ironed interfacing onto the front piece to make the mask three-layered, as currently recommended.

3. I didn’t bother with doubling up the elastic casing. Instead, I just overlocked (serged) the side seams and folded them over once, then stitched.

4. I added a small pleat at the bottom of the mask so that it would sit more snuggly around the chin. You can see a bit more detail in the photo below – the mask is upside down and you’re looking at the inside of it…

5. I used shirring elastic for the first batch, but have since moved to lingerie elastic, which is less cutting around the ears. I personally prefer two long ties (45cm/18″ each) which I thread through with a large tapestry needle. I cut the ties from old t-shirts.

. . . . .

I made a couple from a beautiful piece of quilting fabric for Monkey Girl and myself…

And finally, I thought this might make you laugh. Of course I had to try making one from the stripey socks! ♥

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These tiny fossils have been in my collection for a long time now, but I’ve only recently learnt a bit about their folklore.

They’re echinoids – fossiled sea urchins – and the name itself is a treat. It derives from echinos (Greek) which means ‘hedgehog’. Better still, “urchin” is an old word for hedgehog. It’s an apt name too, because in life, sea urchins are covered in spines. These drop off when the animal dies, leaving behind the “test”, or skeleton, which usually looks like a star. They’re not starfish though.

In England, echinoids were often known as Sugar Loaves or Fairy Loaves, because of their resemblance to tiny loaves of bread. According to this website, they were used to protect the family against witchcraft, so that they’d always have bread to eat. Bread making is so integral to human history – I guess it’s not surprising that so many superstitions have risen up surrounding it.

Another form of these fossils is commonly known as a sand dollar – these are the fossilised remains of very flat, burrowing sea urchins (photo below from Wiki). I don’t have any of those, which is probably just as well – they might result in flat loaves!

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