Thanks to my lovely textile colleague Sarah Goslee, I've been pointed to the DOAB - the Directory of Open Access Books. And yes, it does contain quite a number of textile-related books!

You will probably have to filter down if you only search for "textile", as there's a lot about modern speciality textiles and modern textile manufacture in the list, but fortunately an "archeology" filter exists, as do several others.

You can find the main directory at https://www.doabooks.org/en. I hope it will be helpful for you!

Well. Nothing utterly new, or such things. I'm more or less trying to prep the next event (a workshop for a volunteer group at a museum), get the image database updated and finally transferred to the new system (fingers crossed nothing will explode there), and try to get more done on the other open or have-to-be-maintenanced things.

Yesterday evening was mainly spent on preparing a new batch of cat food, so Madame can go on having food she enjoys (a little too much, at times), and we spent part of our lunch break today outside photo-hunting insects and obsidentifying them.

Have I mentioned that app before? It's what we use these days to identify plants or animals that we don't know. It's usually quite good and quite reliable - sometimes there are hallucinations, but these are typically easy to catch. The app is called "Obsidentify", here's the website with information about it, and by using it you become a citizen scientist (or, in this case, more a citizen science minion) helping to track species and, via that, climate change and other changes in habitats.

We now know that there's a special kind of aphids hanging out on willows. In our case, that's also the meeting place and orgy location for a lot of Asian Ladybugs... or, as we call it, the "Ladybug Swinger Club".

I'm living much less under a rock these days than I'd like. Because, well. Things going on in the world and so on.

So. In case it has passed you by (for instance because you live abroad, and don't get German-centric news): The CDU (the "black party") has made a "Kleine Anfrage" which is basically an information request. That is their right, and it's a perfectly normal thing to do if you want to know something, or get some current numbers.

However... the way that they worded it, and the things they ask, it reeks of trying to intimidate a number of organisations that were active in the protests against the CDU vote together with the AfD. It's basically a thinly veiled threat of "we will cut your funding and discredit you because you did this". 

There's a few things about this. Once, that's just not how you do things. Apart from the fact that any democratic party should be happy about people rising up to defend the democratic system, making a sort of roundhouse kick like this (which will get a lot of people working in the offices quite busy) and not even researching the individual organisations a bit on whether they are actually considered as "gemeinnützig" or not... well. 

Discrediting networks that are doing research to help with renewable resources, sustainable farming, reducing food waste, animal rights, the protection of the environment, and educating people about right-wing extremism? That sounds like they are using the opportunity to try and get rid of everyone and everything that is criticising them for stuff that, yes, the black-led government or the governments with high black involvement have done.

Which means that quite a lot of people are now pissed, and the black party has not done anything to improve their image (which wasn't too good from the start if your viewpoints include anything like gender equality or social justice or environmental concerns). 

The good news: In contrast to what the Kleine Anfrage implies, a lot of the organisations listed don't actually get any money from the state. So they can't cut their funding. 

The other good news: We now have a handy list of organisations to support. So if you're curious, or if you would like to, say, send the equivalent of a coffee to one of them each month... here you go. 

• CORRECTIV gGmbH (https://correctiv.org/)
• Omas gegen Rechts Deutschland e. V. (www.omas-gegen-rechts.org/)
• Campact e. V. (www.campact.de/) 
• Attac Trägervereins e. V. (www.attac.de/) 
• Amadeu Antonio Stiftung (www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/) 
• Peta Deutschland e. V. (www.peta.de) 
• Animal Rights Watch e. V. (www.ariwa.org)
• Foodwatch e. V. (www.foodwatch.org/) 
• Deutsche Umwelthilfe e. V. (https://duh.de/)
• Agora Agrar gGmbH (www.agora-agrar.de/)
• Agora Energiewende gGmbH (www.agora-energiewende.de/)
• Greenpeace e. V. (www.greenpeace.de/)
• BUND e. V. (www.bund.net/)
• Netzwerk Recherche e. V. (https://netzwerkrecherche.org/) 
• Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen e. V. (https://neuemedienmacher.de/)
• Delta1 gGmbH mit Anlaufstelle Green Culture (www.greenculture.info) und Aktionsnetzwerks Nachhaltigkeit (https://aktionsnetzwerk-nachhaltigkeit.de)

Always remember: Every little bit helps. Or, as it was once said during the pre-election campaigns here: Democracy is not a spectator sport.

After looking for so long for a replacement for my dearly beloved FotoAlbum software, I think I have now found the winner: It is Tropy, from tropy.org. There's still a few things I have to find out how to handle in the new software, but I have sorted out the importing sequence (and that's actually rather simple) and will be able to keep everything, including my dates. There will be some more tests to make sure everything will be in the new place as it should be, but then I should be fine with the new software.

Here's a screenshot of the current small test run:

Another thing to take a look at, and figure out, is the lists of controlled vocabulary that can be linked up with tropy, and then choose appropriate ones. 

But I'm really, really happy that it looks like I'll be able to shift everything to the new place! It's currently 84,654 images in the database, and while not all of them are fully equipped with keywords and a description, enough of them are to make migration in any other way than one big database export, tweak, and import a nightmare.

All the other programmes I've looked at were either not able to import my things (or, to put it properly, making the migrationary tweak was too complicated for me), or they were cloud-based with very limited storage space (we're looking at more than a terabyte here already, so 50 GB free will just make me snort and move on), or really pricey. Or a combination of several of the above. 

I will keep you updated on my progress!

After a few logistical issues that had to be solved, I'm absolutely thrilled that we finally have a date, place, and focus topic for the ETF 2024. Hooray! We will indeed be in Mayen again, and it will run from November 4 to November 10. Our focus topic will be "Edges and Embroidery".

The European Textile Forum started in 2009, and from the start on, it was intended to connect practical and theoretical aspects of textile research. There've also been quite a few archaeological experiments throughout the years - and I'm already looking forward to find out what we will be up to this year in November!

You can find out more about our Forum 2024 on the Call for Papers page, and you can register for the Forum week here.

And now I'll go and celebrate a little more that things have been solved, and the Forum will happen in November!

This year, I'm quite happy with the successive flowering of plants in our garden - there's been no gap yet, with something attractive to the bees always in bloom. At the moment, it's the lavendar that takes prime position, though it's not the only thing getting attention. 

There's still a number of plants I'd like to have in the garden, or have more of, but I have sort of accepted that this takes time. There used to be foxgloves and calendula, but they have disappeared, and I'd love to have them back. Probably that means some seed buying, or some seed stealing, at some point in the near future. And then maybe it will work this time around, maybe not - eventually there will be plants that thrive with the soil and amount of attention they will be getting here, and then it will be fine. 

Meanwhile the little lemon tree has decided to make more leaves again. I'm very happy about that, as it had been flagging for quite a while, even though I had tried to get it enough (special citrus plant) fertiliser, and have it watered correctly (it did not like getting too dry at all, and actually wants much more water more frequently than the instructions everywhere had led me to believe). But even though it's supposed to like hard water, it did not do too well with it (so now I use rain water), and the special fertiliser also didn't cut the mustard. The leaves it made were relatively few, and they were more yellow than green.

I finally figured out that it lacked both iron and magnesium, so I provided both - what a good thing that we had an iron oxide (for making iron gall ink) and chalk (for bouldering) that are the two key ingredients in iron and magnesium fertilisers. I had to guess for the amounts, and delivered some more magnesium a few days ago, but at least the iron has arrived, as the new leaves are a nice dark red (as they should be, or so the Internet tells me). 

Regardless of its plights, and the fact that it does not look very pretty (rather irregular and not decoratively tree-ish), it has taken its job of making lemons quite seriously, and we've been able to have home-grown lemon for quite a while now. It is also getting ready to try and make some more, as you can see on the image!

So... any plants or flowers you would not want to miss in your garden, or urban green space like your balcony?

If you're following me on Instagram, you might have seen photos of my Trusty Red Suitcase - one of my premium travel companions. (Technically, it's probably an item, but it is a) so important and b) so large that it counts as a companion. At least I think so.) 

We bought this suitcase about 6 years ago, and it has been my go-to luggage hauler for a good number of work trips by train and, occasionally, even by plane. It is large, and lightweight, and it came with four little wheels and when you gave it a push, it went "wheeeee" all through the room until it hit some wall somewhere.

That went for a while, and then somehow, it didn't go "wheeeeee" anymore. Quite to the contrary - it became rather hard to push or pull. Some closer examination quickly showed the reason: The plain bearings of the wheels had given up. They'd been made from plastic, and three of them had worn out, and the fourth had, at some place, gotten so warm through friction that it had half molten (so the wheel still hung in there, but quite lopsidedly). 

Quite clearly, the makers of these wheels had not intended them to run for several kilometers through city streets and train stations, bearing a suitcase with a weight of about 30 kg (which is the maximum of what I can still handle, and which also ends up being the total weight more often than not). Probably most buyers of that kind of suitcase don't go "oh, well, I have time enough, the weather is nice, I've just spent 5 hours sitting on a train, and it's just three kilometers to the hotel, I think I'll walk." (Which is how the little suitcase has racked up the kilometers.)

So... also quite clearly, something needed to be done. Wheels made for heavy duty were bought, with proper ball bearings, and got installed by the Most Patient Husband of All Time (whose patience did get tested, as the modifications necessary were quite a few). And then, lo and behold! the suitcase went "wheeeeeeee!" again when pushed. (So much that at some point it got little stopper wedges to secure it on the train.)

But now, on the way back home from the trip to Berlin... it lost one of its wheels. 

Apparently, not only the wheels in their original version were not intended to go for long rolls... there's also a limit to what the anchoring of said wheels would take. And, quite clearly now, that limit did not include hopping the suitcase up and down curbs while weighing, ah well, you know. (There's a technique to really easily get the suitcase to hop on a curb, provided that is not too high, but it's probably not the most, erm, gentle on the wheels. As you approach the curb, you give the suitcase an impulse by pulling on the handle so that the front wheels come up into the air, and then once they come down again and hit the ground on top of the curb, you do the same in reverse to lift up the back wheels. Works fabulously.)

I went back to search for the wheel that had gone AWOL, but couldn't find it again, and did not want to cut it too close with my train, so with a heavy heart, I abandoned it in Berlin Main Train station, somewhere on the way to platform 1 in the basement. 

Its companion on the same side of the suitcase also wobbles a little... which means there will be some more Frankensteining of my little-not-so-little red travel companion soon. We're considering the installation of some metal plates to make it a bit more sturdy. And then I'll be looking forward to many more years strolling through train stations, and faraway cities, with it!