First of all: Poppies!


These guys are trying to take over the garden, and I actually do not mind at all...

 
And now a few links:

Jim Hines has done some gender-swapping of texts from classical SFF works, and a corresponding blog post about the differences between writing men and women.

If you need a geeky t-shirt for the summer, getdigital has a selection of geeky and nerdy stuff like this "Batoro T-Shirt", printed on fair-trade organic grown cotton. Yay!

In other news, I've been busy sorting out things, washing wool and making new distaffs. I've also made a bit of progress on the two-colour renaissance shawl:


I've finished with all repeats of chart E (I did one extra), and now I'm slowly working my way through F (who'd have thought?). I have also more or less figured out where I want to change back to the night-blue colour, though there's still a way to go. And I'll have to print out the final chart again, as I have all the other sheets (even though they look... mangled, and sport more than their fair share of stains and notes) only not the last one, which probably got re-purposed at some point.

Now the big question is - will I finish this thing before our summer break? Or not?

It's finally sunny again outside (yesterday and the day before we had rain like for the end of the world), and the garden... is looking like it's early summer. The poppies were in full bloom yesterday, but the night's rain has stripped them of most of their petals. The rest of the blooming things, however, are giving their all:

[caption id="attachment_2449" align="alignnone" width="366"] Nigella damascena - one of the German names is "Jungfer im Grünen", literally "maiden in the green". I really like these, and I'm happy they are returning every year in their little spot.


[caption id="attachment_2450" align="alignnone" width="359"] Iris, in blue. They are a little too tall for this spot to be seen from outside the garden (the willows are purposely stripped of any buds at their very base), but they are very visible from the inside.


[caption id="attachment_2451" align="alignnone" width="383"] More iris - this one is one of the take-over-the-world plants.


[caption id="attachment_2448" align="alignnone" width="533"] The cat, meanwhile, is utterly unimpressed and prefers to nap on the sofa.

It's Whitsun - and thus a nice long weekend, isn't this nice? Even though the weather forecast doesn't sound so splendid, we're hoping to make the most of the extra day off.

[caption id="attachment_2409" align="alignnone" width="379"] Aquilegia in front of our willow fence. It's fascinating how quickly the willows grow at this time of the year!


 
Weather permitting, we'll be outdoors, enjoying the colourful flowers of this time of year...

[caption id="attachment_2411" align="alignnone" width="372"] This plant is called "Doldenmilchstern" in German - literally translated "umbel milk star". I like the English name better: "Nap-at-noon" (or Star of Betlehem, but I prefer the nap).


 
...as well as some time spent with friends.

Have a nice long weekend, and I'll be back on the blog on Tuesday!

I have a stack of links to throw at you again - but before that, here's proof that our garden knows which month we have:


These are called Maiglöckchen in German - which literally translates to "May Bells". The German language seems to like flower names with a time of year in them - we not only have "Easter Bells" (daffodils) and "May Bells", but also "Whitsun Roses" (peonies).

Cathy from Loose Threads has something else: a list of tutorials. I haven't looked at any of them yet, but they range from medieval things to Victorian, and you might just find something that amuses you - or might prove helpful.

Erik Kwakkel at the medievalbooks blog has a fascinating post about medieval scripts, including a picture of a scribe's advertisement sheet.

Aisling has a list of tablet-woven bands from the Anglo-Saxon and Viking period found in Great Britain and Ireland.

Rainer Schreg has some thoughts about the Vienna Statement about the threat to cultural heritage in the Near East and North Africa. If you want more about that topic and don't mind a gruesome read, check out Heritage for Peace's newsletter about damage to heritage sites in Syria.

To end with a lighter note: There's a new Jane Austen film, "Love and Friendship", coming to theatres tomorrow. It's a screenplay adaptation of "Lady Susan" (a short epistolary novel). Here's an interview with filmmaker Whit Stillman. If you'd like to pass the time until then with more Austen film adaptations, you might want to check out this list.

 
 

Glasgow Textile Conservation has a blogpost about the conservation of an 1820s cap. More textile links? Aisling has posted about three different variations of a single pattern (in German, though).

Jstor Daily has a nice post about weird names of food.

In other news, the sun is shining, the cat is napping on the sofa, and I'll be packing stuff into the car now for the trip tomorrow. And finally - here's a gratuitous pic of the madder in the garden, growing nice and tall in the spring sunshine.
It is not alone, this little stalk. In fact, madder has a tendency to take over as much ground as it can - a bit like peppermint plants... only with more red in the roots. This autumn, I really have to harvest some of the madder roots, or there will be no space left for anything else!

First of all, here's how the red-and-yellow tulips look today:


They are lovely, and they seem to be really robust - several years ago, a friend brought us ten red-yellow bulbs, ten black ones and ten white ones. There's one small white tulip left from that planting, the black ones have all disappeared by now, but the red-and-yellow ones are going so strong that I even had enough bulbs for a second cluster somewhere else in the garden last year. (I'm a little sad about the white and black ones. I really liked them!)

In other news, I've been busy working on one project which I cannot disclose yet, plus preparing for both the IRM (drawing closer and closer) and the Internationaler Museumstag, taking place on the third Sunday in May (so this year it's May 22). I'll be in Darmstadt on that day, demonstrating really early textile techniques - think neolithic times. This is a bit earlier than my normal focus time, so I'm extra excited and happy to do something different this time around, and have been doing some preparation work for it. (That will include taking a few photographs for the programme and PR, which is on my to-do-list for tomorrow.) Some more prep work is also planned - I'll have to harvest a few samples of plants that were used for these proto-textiles, but this is a task better done nearer to the actual event. Speaking of which - the programme for the day in the Landesmuseum Darmstadt is not online yet, but I've had a sneak peek, and I can tell you that it is chock full of interesting things!

I'm busy preparing for the IRM in two weeks (my, how the time flies by!), so it's making a list, checking it twice, sorting things and getting all kinds of odds and ends into place.

While I'm doing this, maybe you'd enjoy some more nice flowers from our garden?


It's really lovely to see all the colours coming out, and things blooming merrily everywhere. The only sad thing - there's next to no bees around, only the odd bumble-bee here or there, and I always feel like there should be many, many more of them...