Headboard reupholstering

I have always loved the 80's.  No one can tell me that things were not hip and cool back then.  I loved the fashion, the make-up, the music.  And I completely fell in love with those carved rugs that I first saw in the US in the 80's.  They were magical.  I  had never seen anything like it.  I didn't easily confess to this liking, being a design student known to love the Bauhaus movement and modern Italian design.  Black leather and chrome were my thing, so the carved rugs were a bit of an anomaly.

When I saw the carved rug at the thrift store, I didn't hesitate one minute.  Green, pink, peach, yellow and cream!  My colours!  I threw my arms around it to claim ownership.  No one fought me for it.  The same happened with the headboard.  It was just sitting there, that relic of the 80's, priced at four dollars and I knew it was coming home with me.  Except the difference was that back in the 80's I would have made rude gagging noises at the sight of it.  I used to know middle aged women who actually paid good money for something like that.  And they usually chose that dusty rose colour.  So naturally I fell completely in love with it.  How can one not love something so unapologetically cute.  I must have been a little old lady in a former life.

The rug was relatively clean, but the headboard was fithy, so I planned to remove the fabric and replace it with something new.  The fabric that was on it was a type of velvet, but polyester.  Not my thing at all.
So I set about to remove the cover.  Removing staples at the back can be done with a special tool that upholsteres use, a staple remover. They can be bought at upholstery suppliers for about 25 $ and are easier to use.  I used a screwdriver, just pried it into the board under the staple and janked the staples out.
Once all the staples were removed I set about to remove the buttons.  These were actually with nails at the back.  In order to remove them, I had to straighten the nails out at the back first.  I used an old chisel and hammer to get under the nails and bend them up.  Do not sacrifice a good tool for this job.
The buttons were pretty tight, but I managed to use a hammer to get them out.
Under the buttons I found at least two staples in each hole.  Those would have made it easier to hammer the buttons in originally.  By this time I was thoroughly sick of staples to I simply pulled the fabric and the staples popped out.  I wasn't particularly careful with the fabric since I intended to throw it away, but it held up so well that I decided to toss it in the washer and see if it would come clean.
It washed beautifully, although the creases of a few decades remained.  It looked so good after I washed it that I decided to use it again, provided I could reattach it.  Usually, when upholstering, one cuts the fabric quite a bit larger than needed and then trims it tight.  So I knew that I would have very little fabric to pull at the edges.
Starting from the middle, I began by stapling the fabric to the board where the buttons were to come, trying to fold the fabric fairly neatly.  It was easier to place the fabric correctly than I thought it would be, because I had the old creases still in the fabric to guide me.
Onve I had staples the fabric in every hole and arranged the fabric it folds I hammered the buttons in.  The nails at the back of them were not straight anymore, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.  I managed to get all of them in and they didn't look noticeably crooked.
Then the challenge was to pull the fabric tight all the way around and arrange it carefully in the creases to make sure it didn't bunch.  I know that I didn't do this as tightly as the professional upholsterer did originally, but it looks good enough for me.
I managed to get the fabric staples all the way around.  I was quite surprised that the fabric didn't unravel more in the wash.
The finished product.  Not a tight as the original, but I just think it looks more friendly.

I know that this would have looked very sophisticated if I had used some of the stash of linen fabric that I have.   Although, now I'm glad I didn't because I'm hoping to have enough to cover the six dining room chairs that I bought and have started to make pretty.  The headboard looks very good with the carved rug and I'm quite glad that I kept the fabric.  I have two more headboard that I need to give an overhaul.  One really pretty with he most beautiful cotton velvet in a rusty orange.  That looks to date from the 40's and I hope the fabric washes nicely.  I would hate to have to replace that because that fabric is just gorgeous.  The orange headboard is for one of the daughters.  Then I got another one for my mom, but she can't seem to choose a fabric for it, so I may never finish that.  I somehow see hers with a blue fabric.  So I need to find a beautiful blue for her.  Blue is her colour.

The Blues - Tooth soap recipe

I'm not a blue person.  My colours are the warm tones, especially red.  It's not that I dislike blue, in fact I think blue is a very nice colour.  It's just not me.  So I tend to buy things that are not blue, except jeans.  And since I really like the blue of jeans, I guess it could be said that indigo blue is a favorite colour after all, even if I'm not a blue person.  I have been experimenting with dyeing from Woad and Japanese indigo.  It really is an amazing process to turn green leaves into a clear blue colour.  Just like magic.

I haven't made any blue soaps, although I did try once.  I used indigo powder, but not enough, so the colour disappeared.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to skimp on ingredients.  so when I got the idea for this soap I decided to be generous with the Indigo powder.  I somehow thought it would be appropriate to make a blue tooth soap.  I made tooth soap a long time ago and I still have most of it.  Not because I haven't used it.  It's just that it lasts forever.  But I started to feel a little deprived of the fresh minty taste of conventional toothpaste.  My old tooth soap had baking soda in it and baking soda just doesn't taste very good.  So I have been wanting to do a new tooth soap.  And then I thought about the old blueing agents.  Since i'm quite old, I remember when it was possible to buy a blueing agent to make white laundry appear whiter.  Admittedly, I just barely remember the stuff, but it was sold in the olden days and used.  Now they have something that works in a similar, but in a more sophisticated way, called optical brighteners.  But I thought it might be a great idea to make a blue tooth soap, maybe it would make teeth appear whiter, or it would just look nice.

I have mint growing in the garden and I harvested all of it when it was starting to get cold.  I made some mint jelly, but decided that it really is just too weird to eat that with lamb.  Even if British people do that.  It tastes just like toothpaste.  I guess one has to be reared on that to appreciate it.  But I used part of the mint for a tea that I used as the water phase in my soap.  So the genius me didn't quite think things through.  The art major should have known that mixing the yellow mint tea and the blue indigo would produce a magnificent green.  But I just didn't think.  So here is my "blue" tooth soap:

It's a small recipe (200g/7oz), but it'll last for a long time.

Olive oil 30% 60g / 2.1oz
Cocoa butter 30% 60g / 2.1oz
Coconut oil  22% 44g / 1.6oz
Soybean oil 15% 30g / 1.0oz
Neem Tree oil 3% 6g / 0.2oz

Mint tea 38% 76g / 2.7oz
Xylitol 2 tsp

Lye 28g / 1oz

Peppermint eo
Ginger eo
Licorice extract

Since I don't want the tooth soap to produce too many suds, I used much less coconut oil than usual and much more of the cocoa butter.  The neem oil has anti bacterial properties, so I added some of that.  I also added 1 tsp licorice extract, which is supposed to be good for the gums,  to the essential oil blend. I used 1/4 tsp ginger (again that is supposed to be good for the gums) and 1 tsp peppermint for that fresh minty taste that I had been craving.  I also ground up 1 tsp zink oxide and 4 capsules of magnesium citrate (good for teeth) with about 1/4 tsp indigo powder.

I made these into little hearts since I think they look kind of cute.  I have tried the soap already although it needs some more time to cure.  Well I can't say that it whitens the teeth, but it has a minty taste and it cleans well without sudsing too much.  I might add some more xylitol next time and even some more peppermint eo.  Just to get that really, really fresh minty taste.  And I might even skip the mint tea and go for a truly blue soap.

Distractions

Making soap is just the most satisfying activity that I know.  Ever since I started to make soaps I have been driven by some force that just demands new soaps.  My mind constantly thinking of new things to try.  Some new ingredient.  Some old ingredient in a new way.  A look that I wanted to try to create.  A scent that demanded to be made.  A new colour to strive for.  The ideas came fast and furiously.  So what happened?  Why haven't I been making soap?  I do not know.  Except my mind just wandered off to new things.

This summer I have been taken with dyeing and I bought a lot of used books on the subject.  I've started to organize the dyeing by making sample charts.  It's really interesting to see how the same dyestuff can generate different colours depending on the mordant and modifiers used.  A shift from acid to alkaline can generate a completely different colour, like all soapers know. I make one sample for un mordanted wool, one for rhubarb mordanted and five alum mordanted.  Then I use iron and copper water to modify the colours, as well as citric acid and washing soda to shift the pH.  I have bought Chrome and Tin, but haven't used those yet.  I also try to remember to do samples for cotton, linen and silk, but for some reason I keep forgetting to throw those into the dye pot.   I have assembled about 20 different charts already and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.  I have a lot of natural dye plants that I have yet to try and now the leaves are turning and disappearing before my eyes.  But winter is perfect for using imported dyes like Indigo powder, Cochineal, Logwood, Brazilwood, Annatto and Alkanet as well as onion skins, which I still haven't tried although I have collected a bunch.

Another thing that has taken up some time is my addiction to junk.  I love to go on a treasure hunt at the local thrift store, The Good Shepherd.  I generally walk there every day at lunch, killing two flies in one swoop: I get good exercise and I do it during the lightest time of the day which is essential to keep good spirits in the dark winter that is just about here.  I've picked up some very nice things for very little money.  I got a studded headboard for the spare bedroom for a few dollar and redid that.  I also got the linen drapes and a lovely 80's carved Chinese rug (I've always loved those). And the mattress, a very good quality one, I also got at a thrift store.  And the night stand.  And the daybed thing, which I reupholstered.  In fact that whole room is filled with my finds and it's overflowing with stuff right now.

Just the other day I bought some dining room chairs.  They have coil springs in the seat which is way more comfortable than the modern day version that is used in the Ikea chairs we are currently using.  The chairs aren't really old, they are repro pseudo-rococoish, probably 80's or even 90's, but when I've sanded the frames and painted them with milk paint and reupholstered the seat with some linen, they are going to look great.  I also got this lovely little nightstand, a very simple thing, probably from the 20's or 30's with three drawers all of which have locks.  I'm sanding it down and I think I'll wax it rather than paint it with milk paint (which I find so interesting right now).  Originally the pine would have been painted to look like mahogany, but it had been repainted white when I got it.  I've decided that it will serve as an occasional table between two armchairs in the living room.  I can certainly use the storage space for the small treasures I have yet to find.

Then there is the gardening.  I haven't really kept up with the home garden this year, but the allotment has gotten some attention.  I just managed to harvest the potatoes while it was still reasonably dry.  The only thing that's left in the allotment is some salad, some kale and carrots.  And of course the dye plants, although I have harvested most of the leaves.  I've had the greatest fun and frustrations with learning to dye with Japanese Indigo and Woad.  Achieving a beautiful blue colour as well as a disappointing pinkish gray and slowly becoming wiser and more experienced.  Getting a pure blue from green leaves is just magic.  I love the light blue that comes from Woad.  I still haven't tried traditional Indigo powder.  That will wait till winter.  Except I just used some precious indigo powder in my last soap.  The context was perfect for a blue soap.  So I didn't skimp on the Indigo powder like last time I tried to do blue soap.  Well, the results were unexpected, although they should have been entirely, glaringly obvious.  But that's another post.

It's fall already.

It's here.  Summer is gone and fall is here.  The blustery winds and rain have arrived after an unusually good summer.  I'm never prepared, really.  There is always so much more that I wanted to get done this summer.  Every year it's like that.  But it's over in a blink of an eye.  Now we can light candles in the evenings again and curl up on the sofa listening to the winds howl.  Oh, well.  There is something cozy about that too.

I bought the perfect thing for fall.  I found this rya (also called smyrna) rug at the Good Shepherd (our local junk store).  It's owner had only just started it and obviously put it away and given up on it.  I love the colours, reds, yellows and oranges with purples, pinks, browns and blacks.  And it came complete with all the yarns, the pattern and colour swatches.  I only paid 15$ for it and now I'm all set for fall.  I try to do one line in an evening.  It's very calming and I don't have to remember anything.  It's numbered and I just have to change the colours.  I have no idea where I'm going to put it when I'm done, but that doesn't matter in the least.  I have a piece of handiwork that will entertain me in the coming winter months and serve as a warm blanket while I work on it.

Not that I have no projects going.  I'm still cleaning my eiderdown and there is a long way to go.  I'm also dyeing yarn regularly, right now I have some Dyers Chamomile in the pot.  But I haven't made soap in the longest time and I'm starting to miss that.  So much so, that I'm even beginning to get ideas for new soaps to make.  I guess I just might write a post about soapmaking soon.

Mushroom dyeing - Suillus luteus

Dyeing is fascinating.  One never knows exactly what the outcome is going to be and trying new things to dye from is always a thrill.  I have been especially interested in dying with lichens and mushrooms.  Just because it's different, I guess.  So if I see books about those subjects I just have to have those.

I have been buying quite a few books about dyeing.  Old books mostly.  Some of them I have bought for a few dollars and one I even got for a few cents.  I discovered that old out of print books can be found on the internet and many even on Amazon.  So now I have a pile of books on dyeing, most in English but I've also acquired some in other languages.  I even have one in Finish (a language which I absolutely do not understand, but I've used Google translate to help).

There is always something to learn from a new book, even if on occasion the lesson is mostly about how not to write a book on the subject.  I was lucky enought to find a used book market on a recent trip to Copenhagen and found one book in Danish about plant dyes and another in Swedish about spinning wool and linen.  Can't wait to read them.

It's mushroom collecting time and I've gone once with my mom to collect them.  Although I only picked berries and let her take the mushrooms.  There weren't that many of them of the right size for eating.  As I understand it though, the bigger and more unappetizing, the better they are for dying.

I have mostly gotten beige and brown from mushrooms so far.  The really exotic types that give purples, reds, greens and blues don't seem to grow here at all.  But I was really pleased with the results I got from The Slippery Jack mushroom - Suillus luteus.  My mom had dried quite a few very wet mushrooms in the oven.  The liquid that dripped from them was a bright yellow so she gave it to me to experiment with.

It dyed a wonderful yellow colour, even unmordanted wool.  When I make these experiments I always dye both unmordanted and mordanted wool and then I use modifiers to see if I can change the colour.  I always try an acid and an alkaline soak and also iron water and copper water.  The Suillus turned a very pretty orange in the washing soda bath and a paler yellow in the acid bath.  The iron made it dark brown and the copper turned it a lighter brown.  I love the fact that I didn't have to waste the mushrooms to use their colour and I will certainly go and look for some more after the next rain.  I'm planning to knit a sweater with a pattern where I can use lots of different colours, all with natural dyes.  I've harvested some of my home grown dye plants.  The woad and the Japanese indigo are just incredibly fun to work with.  To make a blue colour from green leaves.  It's magic.

Enzyme cleaner - does it work?

I made enzyme cleaner.  Way back in the beginning of March.  And then again at the beginning of April.  The recipe is very easy:
1 part brown sugar (I don't think it needs to brown)
3 parts citrus peel (or any other fruit peel, pinapple is supposed to really good)
10 parts water

Put some lemon and orange peel (or pineapple) into a 2 liter plastic bottle and then put in the sugar and water.  Close the bottle and shake it to dissolve the sugar.

Let stand for 3 months and be careful to let off some of the gas that starts to develop in the bottle or it will explode.  After the 3 months are up, strain and use by diluting 1:10 with water to clean most things.  The first webpage where I saw this, The happy homemaker was really happy with the results and it seems so is everyone else, but I'm just not getting it.

I did everything according to the instructions and then I also did another batch using pineapple scraps and I know that pinapple is supposed to have a lot of enzymes and should work really well.  I just decanted the pinapple cleaner.  I had that standing from April 7 until Aug. 20 and it never developed any mold.  It looks nice, it smells pretty similar to the lemon & orange peel one (almost like a plastic smell, does that sound right?) and I think it works just about the same.  Which is to me: Not really.  I really wished this to work although it annoys me, not to understand the chemistry, so if anyone can explain this I would be grateful.  I have no idea what went wrong or if I'm just misunderstanding something.

I guess I can use this as an excuse to my sloppy housekeeping in the last few weeks, although perhaps a more truthful story would be the nice weather.  We have had a record in nice weather, for more than 20 days in a row the temperature has reached 20°C (that's a whopping 68°F) somewhere in the country.  But now we have rain and more rain so now I really need to find out why my enzyme cleaner doesn't really work because I don't have any excuses anymore.  Or maybe it does work and I just have to let it  sit for a while before I wipe it off.  Does anyone know?  Or even care?  Maybe I shouldn't either.

Eco dying - Tutorial, T-shirt makeover

I have made four really unpresentable T shirts come alive using Eco dying.  I love doing the process.  It's really easy to do and it's fun.  I learned a lot by reading India Flynt's book Eco Colour (which I of course bought in the end).

What is needed is a piece of fabric, some string, a collection of leaves and flowers and a small branch from a tree or a bush, ideally slightly smaller than you largest pot.  Since this dyeing is not done with harmful materials it is ok to use your regular pots, but should you decide to start to dye it is generally recommended to have a separate pot for that.

Take an old T-shirt (or a brand new one if you want or any other piece of cloth for that matter, but not synthetic).  I used a dropper to put some Iron water and Copper water spots on the fabric, but that is not necessary.  And be aware that Copper water is poisonous so I do not suggest you use that.  Making Iron water is easy though, just put some rusty object into a jar filled with a mix of two parts water and one part white vinegar (5%).  Let the rusty objects sit there and disintegrate.  The water will turn a rusty (naturally) orange colour in a few weeks.
Now go outside to your garden or the nearest park or wilderness and carefully snip off a few leaves and flowers that catch your fancy.  Naturally, well known dye plants will give the most colour.  In this shirt I used Geranium, Cherry leaves, Apple leaves, Euphorbia leaves (gives a great green colour) among others. Then you can start arranging the leaves and flowers on you fabric.  Some leaves print really well, white others don't really come through, but sometimes act a a resist.
Then start to wrap up the fabric.
The size should be just slightly smaller than the size of the branch you are using.
Wrap the fabric tightly around the branch.  The tannins in the bark will act as a mordant to fix the colors to the fabric.  If you have any rusted objects lying around, like nails, bottle caps, hairpins or anything like that, feel free to add those to you bundle.  The iron will also act as a mordant and will produce gray and black colors and patterns in combination with the plant material.  Alternatively use an iron pot and you'll get a gray colour.
Now tie the bundle tightly with a piece of string.
Now put the bundle into hot water and simmer it for at least an hour or two.  If your bundle is larger than the pot, just turn it a few times during the simmer.  I used the left over dye water from an Avocado pit/skin dyeing experiment.  But clear water can be used.
I let my bundle sit in the dye bath overnight.  Some people steam their bundles.  I've never done that.  Simmering them in water works fine for me, but steaming is a possibility for those who have an easy time doing that.
I let the bundle sit for a while in the sink before I unravelled it.  I am not a patient person, so few hours is all I've ever managed.
The unravelling!  There is no way to predict what comes out, really.  I have started to recognize how some leaves print, but there are always so many factors that affect how this turns out.  One thing for certain is that with rinsing, the colors will fade a bit.
My revamped T-shirt.  The Avocado didn't really stick, but I got some really nice markings. I have done 4 T-'s so far and am still working on an off white sweater that got a small stain.  I was going to trow it out, but decided to try and treat it to the plant experiment.  It's sitting in my cast iron pot (great gray colour) and I'm going to let it sit for a few days to soak up all the iron.  So far it looks very dark gray.  I unravelled it a bit, but saw that the iron water hadn't penetrated the whole bundle, so I'm letting it sit for a bit longer.  I can't wait so see what comes out.  Also, the sweater is part synthetic so I'm curious to see if how the dye will take to a blend.   I've only ever dyed cotton, wool and silk and synthetics don't accept natural dyes that well.  But we'll see.

Dye-ing to tell you

Quite some time ago I saw India Flynt's book Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles in a bookstore.  I was intrigued by it, but didn't buy it since I was traveling and the book is fairly large and cumbersome.  And, besides I thought, I really don't like this mottled effect of muted colours.  I like the vibrants clear colours of flowers and the rainbow.

But that changed.  It really is amazing how ones taste does change when one starts do dye with natural materials.  I have come to a new appreciation of greeny yellows, browns and grays.  And my preference for evenly dyed yarn and fabric... Completely gone.  I now love the mottled, splotsy (I guess that's not a word) effect that can be achieved with natural materials.  I decided to try some eco dyeing the other day.  I started with an old not-very-white-anymore-t-shirt and then progressed onto a silk scarf that I had bought especially to try to do some eco dying.

I loved the whole process.  Picking leaves and flowers and arranging them onto the fabric, wondering which leaves would leave a mark and how they would look.  Admiring the wonderful colours, knowing that the end result will be completely different from the original composition.  Choosing a branch, wondering which wood would give what effect, and then rolling the fabric onto the chosen branch, tightly.  Tying the  whole thing into a tight bundle hoping that the branch would fit the largest pot, which of course it didn't since I didn't measure before I sawed it.  I didn't steam, I boiled the whole lot.  Wonder if the effect is different that way.  Probably.  Add rust water.  Is that too much or too little?  Have I ruined the whole thing?  Then the difficult time to wait for a while.  I've read some people wait for weeks and months.  What are they made of?  I waited an hour and it was difficult.  And whooo!  What fantastic result.  I love the way the scarf turned out.  Those wonderful patterns that I wasn't aware that I was creating.  I really, really like the effect.

I also loved the t shirt immediately.  Wore for dinner the same day.  And also wore it work.  And then proceeded to dye some more.  The next one was confiscated by a daughter.  That's a compliment, I'm sure.  Then I gave her a few old t's to take on a camping trip around the country.   She wants to gather plants where they stop to camp and arrange them onto the fabric and make a bundle which she'll boil when she gets a chance.  Adding rusted nails and old twigs all adds to the final result.  It'll be exciting to see what she comes up with since they are driving around the whole island and she will be picking plants in very different locations.

This is so easy to do and my shabby old t's look really respectable when they have been through this process.  No longer gray and dingily, they look like works of art.  I'm hooked.  I almost threw out some of my old t shirts and now I'm Google-ing "t-shirts in bulk".  I can't get enough of dyeing them.  I run out to the garden and pick whatever takes my fancy and arrange it carefully.  That part is tranquil and serene.  Tying it up is fun, the the marks usually show and make some pattern.  Then I have to wait to see what emerges.  I have one waiting right now.  I dyed that in avocado skins which gives a lovely dusty pink colour.  Then I put leaves on it and boiled it for an two hours or so.  I put some rust water on it and some copper water also (that is poisonous, but I'm careful) to get some effects.  The rust water produces the grays and blacks, the copper water enhances some green colors from leaves.  Both act as mordants, along with the tannins in the tree branch.  But all very unpredictable in combination with the different leads and flowers.

I can't wait any longer.  I'm unrolling the bundle.  It's all excitedly mottled and splotsy (that should be a word even if it isn't) and I'm sure it's the best one yet.

The Bigger Picture

Most people, when they look at landscape, look into the distance. They admire mountains and waterfalls, glacier, rivers and geysers.  The big stuff.  I was taught differently.  My parents would always concentrate on the details.  Their noses as close to ground as possible, they would walk across the landscape with their tiny loupes in hand.  And that is how I learned to appreciate the country and I sometimes wonder: Which is the bigger picture?

I went up to the north last weekend for a gathering-of-the-clan-thing.  In this case it was the descendants of my fathers grandmother and grandfather on his mother's side that gathered at the old farm, Svanshóll  (Swanhill) in Bjarnarfjörður (Bearfjord).  The last time we were there was in 2006 when my father came with us to celebrate his fathers centenary.  Later that year my father passed away, so that trip was very special.

I have been wanting to come back, so this opportunity was welcome.  I wanted to go to spend some time in the fantastic landscape, look for lichens which I knew are abundant in that area and even gather some.  And I did.

How to explain this purple stain on a rock?  One might think that someone took a felt tip pen and colored the stones.  There were a several purple stains on the rocks.  What they all had in common was that, on closer inspection, one could see at its middle a rather battered lichen (of the type Umbilicaria).  Well, I can only surmise that some bird left it's dropping on top of a lichen and the ammonia in combination with the oxygen developed that fantastic purple colour.  I know that purple can be obtained from this lichen and now I've seen it happen spontaneously in nature.  I wonder if this is how our ancestors discovered lichen dyes.
Umbilicaria proboscidea.  At first glance the rocks seem to have black flecks on them.  Then, when one looks more closely, one notices that it is lichens.  That there are more than one species of Umbilicaria isn't evident until one looks even closer.  U. proboscidea has the distinctive raised, white navel and black fruiting body.  U. arctica is larger and evenly colored and U. torrefacta is distinguished by having small holes in it's surface.
If one very carefully breaks away the thallus of the lichen, without taking the navel (the stem that attaches it to the rock) this lichen will continue to grow.  This way I managed to carefully gather some of the Umbilicaria which grew absolutely everywhere we looked.  I gathered at least three types, all quite common: Umbilicaria torrefacta, Umbilicaria arctica and Umbilicaria proboscidea.
Ochrolechia parella (I think).
A beautiful symphony of lichens.
Parmelia omphalodes (or saxatilis).
A fish head found in the grass.
I love the beaches in the north, full of driftwood from Russia, littered with old ropes and the odd shoe or boot and often you will find a small flock of sheep resting on the warm, black sands while Eider ducks swim with their young ones just a stones throw away.
That colour!
What texture!
The rhythm of the relentless sea.
I always stop at the churchyard to visit my grandmother's grave where she is buried with her two youngest daughter and the three other people who died with them in the avalanche that demolished my fathers home.
The gravestone
My older sister hasn't visited since she was about 6 or 7, so I took her to see Goðdalur (Valley of the gods), our grandfather's farm.  It is very remote.  The road is long and winding and very rough and we had to cross two rivers, one had a bridge, the other didn't.  Jeeps really are a necessity in this part of the world.
Goðdalur, the farm.
Quietly crumbling.
Eventually becoming a part of nature as everything must.
I miss my father.  I think he would have liked my interest in lichen. But this is how my sisters and I always remember my parents:  Together,  heads close, loupe in hand looking at some plant and discussing the details to be able to identify it.  Both of them have found new species of plants for Iceland.  I'm very grateful that they taught me to look closely at the world.  It really is only when one looks at the details that the bigger picture reveals itself.

Perfect and thick - Yoghurt revisited

It's been more the a year since I made my first yoghurt and I've been making it ever since.  That is just about every week to ten days.  The yoghurt that I make tastes somehow fresher than store-bought.  I have never liked unflavoured yoghurt.  It's always tasted way too sour, but when I make it myself I never sweeten it.  I just mix a bit of honey or strawberry-honey mixture and I love the way the crisp sour taste mixes with the sweet honey and tart fruit.

I think I surprised everyone that I was so diligent about the yoghurt making and baking sourdough bread, which I also do every week or so.  I think it's because I just feel so good after eating my own.  I can't imagine being without it.

I've just started a new diet called GAPS.  The whole idea is that our gut is damaged and lets through large molecules into the bloodstream which cause the body to make antibodies and also that the bacterial flora of the gut is not good, so that we have too many harmful bacteria in the gut and they make toxins which also get into the blood and they cause all sorts of problems.  Neither grain nor dairy is allowed on this diet because they are hard to digest.  The diet starts with meat broth, boiled meat and vegetables, cod liver oil, Probiotics and yoghurt for those who can tolerate it.  Rather restrictive, but I'm prepared to try it.  I am lucky enough to be able to use yoghurt from day one.  Not only have I been eating yoghurt every day but I'm one of the lucky people who can digest lactose as are 95% of my country men.  This ability is a genetic mutation about 8000 years old, known in peoples of northern Europe and eastern Afrika.  So I have no plans to abandon dairy.

I have found a wealth of information on the internet about this diet and I particularly like this site, The Liberated Kitchen, where she has a page about the resources, for those who would like to know more.  I have started this diet because I am really tired of arthritis pain in my hands and I think I need to try something to make it better (other than painkillers).

But back to yoghurt.  The first time I made my own yoghurt I got a really good thick yogurt, so I thought, hey, this is easy and promptly made another batch that was very thin and runny.  Then I had a batch that had tiny hard grains in it.  So I thought I had better figure this out so that I could make the perfect batch every time.   This is how I do it.

I always use 1.5 - 2 liters of full fat milk.  For a while I experimented with adding cream to it and that produced very nice yoghurt, but it is more expensive.  So full fat, pasteurized og homogenized (can't get it any other way) but not ultra heat treated.  I would try fresh milk straight from the cow if I could.  I put this in a pot and put it on full heat on the stove.  I stir it pretty continuously as i monitor the heat with a thermometer.  When it reaches 180 °F / 85 °C I turn down the heat and hold this temperature for at least 5 minutes.  This is the best tip ever.  This is what makes the yoghurt thick and creamy.  Something about the heat and proteins, but the result is thicker yoghurt.

After holding this temperature for 5 minutes I plunge the pot into a bowl filled with ice cubes and water and stir the milk until it has cooled down to 110 °F / 42 °C.  Then I pour almost all of the milk into a large jar.  The small amount I pour into a glass and to this I add the yoghurt that I'm using as a starter.  This is usually what is left of my own.  Or, if I've been greedy, store bought fresh yoghurt.  I mix it with the milk in the glass, about 2 - 3 tablespoons, and then pour it into the large jar.  Then I mix the liquid in the jar by gently stirring.

I put the jar into my oven on a low setting and keep it overnight.  I find that 10 hours works very well for me.  Then I take it from the oven and put it in the refrigerator to cool down.  When it is cold I use a knife to stir it well and it is ready to eat.

I used to think this was so much hassle to make.  First I thought one would need a yoghurt maker.  Not so.  Wouldn't use one if I was given one.  It is much easier to use a jar.  Also I used to worry terribly about the exact temperature.  But it's not that precise.  I've heated the milk above the recommended temperature (although not to a boil) without any ill effects.  The important thing is that the yogurt bacteria thrives at temperature between 100-110 °F / 38-43 °C.  If it gets hotter the bacteria will die.  If it gets colder the bacteria won't do it's job till it's warm again.  So as long as one is careful about the temperature after the yoghurt is added, there is no problem.