The Fruit is Ready!

The red currants have been picked (with a few left for the birds to find), and the red currant jelly made and put down for Christmas, if I can keep it that long.   It was a bumper crop  and took four hours to pick.

Seven and a half pounds of currants made seven and a half jars of jelly, and I used two methods. For those of you interested in the statistics... one without a pint of water per pound of fruit, and one with water.  The waterless method with 3lbs fruit made less jelly (one and a half jars), but thick and well set, and the other method with water and 4 1/2 lbs fruit, made 5lbs jelly.

heavy pan holding 4 1/2 lbs fruit

The fruit was brought to the boil in the pan and crushed, then simmered for 45 minutes.
A pillowcase was scalded in a bowl and the water discarded before the fruit and any juice was poured into it.  Knotted and tied with string, the jelly bag was suspended over the bowl.


After two hours approximately, the jellybag may have stopped dripping, and can be carefully removed.  A note of caution, if you wish to have crystal clear jelly, do not squeeze the bag.

Pillowcase jellybag hung over a large bowl, on a broom handle between two chairs.

Put the juice back in the clean saucepan with one kilogram of preserving sugar per litre of juice. Discard the fruity mash. Bring the jelly to the boil and skim off any scum with a spoon.

Scum on a plate!

Boil steadily until setting point is reached. Setting point is reached when drips of jelly set on the plate used for that purpose.

Fill warmed jam jars with the jelly, put waxed covers over the jam, and allow to cool before sealing with jampot covers.

Music to Start the Day

Here is something to really start your day with a lift.
We used to listen to this after assembly at school. Not every day of course - it was among the repertoire of the school LP collection.  Anyway - here it is:
Scherzo This is from Concerto Symphonique #4 by Henry Litolff, played by Philippe Entremont on piano with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Okko Kamu.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Darkroom Experiments

The May blossom was at it's peak last week and I had wanted to try making Japanese style pictures for some time.  So this was an ideal opportunity for some darkroom experiments.

May (also called Black Thorn)

Two Photograms forming a diptych

Projected Image

Inverted (negative)

You can clearly see the fragile petals and stamens in the close up projections.
To see more photographs of the May blossom and the location visit Paper Tiger Moth

Harlequin Ladybirds

'The harlequin ladybird has landed.'  On Monday this week I was investigating the insects on the red currant bushes and what did I see?  Two very spotty ladybirds. I guessed that they were Harlequin Ladybirds.   The harlequin ladybird was first spotted (no pun here!), in Britain in 2004 and has spread very rapidly across the UK since. They have a nasty bite and eat almost everything including native British ladybirds and their food.  If you are interested check out the Harlequin Ladybird Survey website, and if you have seen any you can take part in the survey.

Papercuts

Today I have put some photographs of papercuts onto Paper Tiger Moth with instructions, but somehow it looks very dull, so I am going back to sort it all out.   As usual Pip the Cat helped out.

Here are some of the results. To see more look on the Paper Tiger Moth blog.

The garden is now looking very overgrown, green and in desparate need of some care.  Yesterday I took some 'before' photos and hopefully will be able to make some useful comparisons.

It is my ambition to make an 'Artist's Garden'.  I think I have a long way to go!

Resolution?

I think I have fixed the heading.  Have a look at Paper Tiger Moth if you can get there from this page.

Creating Logos and Headings

Finally, I have managed to create a sort of logo type heading for my Paper Tiger Moth page.  The idea was to have white on white with a minimum of shadow showing up the lettering.  I chose Josef Albers simple alphabet and transferred the lettering to white cartridge paper, which I then scored.   After cutting the lettering, I photographed the results and did not get what I expected!

It looks a bit blue, probably because the white balance setting on the camera was 'sunny' and the iso was 1000.  I changed these settings to iso 200, white balance automatic and tried Ansel Adams Zone System (take a meter reading and overexpose by 2 stops for highlights).

Actually, I think I prefer the blue heading!  Oh well!

my logo for paper tiger moth

Paper Tiger Moth

My second blog titled Paper Tiger Moth has nothing posted on it yet, but I am working on a special heading and will show you 'how it was done'. Hopefully this link http://www.papertigermoth.blogspot.com/ will work.

Garden Tiger Moth

Research

I just love research

I have been looking at images of tigers and tiger moths (the insect), and have found some stunning Japanese prints. This example is called 'Roaring Tiger' an art print by Koson.
I have also found several tigers on clipart, but this is cheating.
Today I went into our local town library and looked up tigers and tiger moths in the reference section.
Like the tiger, the Garden Tiger Moth is in decline. This is due to concurrent wet Januarys and cold Februarys, and if you have ever seen a woolly bear caterpillar, you have found their lava.
No two Garden Tiger Moths have the same wing patterns, and when closed over the body the wing patterns join exactly. I can do something with this.

Now, how do you get images in the middle of the text?

Saying Hello

This is my first blog and also my first message to all. They said it was easy. Yes, it was so easy that I accidentally created two blogs at the same time. So I have decided to keep them both and use one as a journal to document my endeavours and explorations through the bloggosphere, while the other will (hopefully), become a thing of beauty!!
I have a great deal to learn about blogging. I have already had to look up what is a 'gadget' and 'followers', but I will get there in the end.
My inspiration for creating a blog comes from blogs I have found and loved. It's like being your own magazine editor.
My other blog is called Paper Tiger Moth . The title is from a poem I am working on.

Incidentally, I live in a village called Bloxham, which the local students call Bloggoland. How weird is that.