Arty Farty - Surrogate Slippers and Toasty Toes

This was written in 2010 - soon after we moved back to Wellington from India.

I have a lot to catch up on as I've been really busy both on the needles, in the garden and on the GeriPie front.

First up, Chris has managed to get out of India and is now based back in Melbourne. He came home on leave for a few weeks over Xmas and was feeling the cold, even though the weather in Wellington was pretty darn good if I say so myself!

Anyhoo, Pat took pity on Chris' blue feet and lent him his felted clogs. This resulted in one happy Chris with toasty warm toes. So, I decided to get stuck in and make Chris a pair of his own, even though I had sworn vehemently that I would never make anything felted ever again after the crazy measures I had to go to to get Pat's clogs to felt. I didn't quite finish Chris' before he left to go back to Melbourne for work, but I came close.

Once the knitting was finished I decided I'd try to avoid the frustrations I experienced whilst felting Pat's clogs and did a bit of research, the upshot of which was that I  discovered that lighter coloured wools don't always felt very quickly because the bleaching needed to achieve the lighter colour affects how the wool reacts during the felting process.

AH HA!!! Maybe that's why Pat's took soooo long ...

Felting day arrived and I prepared to go to war, following all of the suggestions I had come across in my reading -

* Put item in a pillowcase
* Use a hot wash
* Use a low water setting
* Use towels or jeans to aid agitation
* Check felting progress every 5-10 minutes

and then slowly over the next hour I abandoned or augmented nearly all of them -

* Take item OUT of the pillowcase so they bash around more in the machine
*Turn the cold feed to machine off, discover water is still not  hot enough, so boil kettle 10 million times and add to the machine - ad nauseam
* Use low water setting
* Remove towels until only one remains
*Check felting progress sporadically at first as nothing happens - but DON'T get complacent as I discovered that the clogs went from Shrek size to Tinkerbell size VERY fast when I got the combination of temperature, agitation and water level correct.

As you can see, this time the process worked beautifully and Chris now has a good solid pair of clogs awaiting him on his next visit home. I guess he will require a second pair for his 'home-away-from-home' in Melbourne ...

Arty Farty - On the Needles or Getting a Head Start...

Written in 2010...

So, Masto just SUCKS!

For the third time in 2 years Geri is losing her hair. It's been happening for 6 months now and shows no sign of letting up. However this time, the hairloss is much more wide spread aka it is body wide.... Hmmmm not good me thinks.

 After previous hair dumps Geri has grown her hair back with varying success, but it's never been quite the same as it was in its heyday.

With her loss being so widespread and prolonged this time, Geri's battling spirit has taken a battering and is severely dented. You see she spends most of her life waiting ... waiting to feel better, waiting for the latest episode to abate, waiting to see doctors, waiting, waiting, waiting and waiting for her hair to grow back. Then once it approaches a length she likes, waiting for it to finish falling out once again before waiting for it to grow back in again. The current round in this cycle has been a deal breaker.

Geri wearing Heidi in Dark Rust

If Geri liked the skinhead look I guess life would be sweet ... in the hair stakes anyway. But the trouble is she loves long hair. To help her cope in the past we've bought her wigs so that she can feel a little less self-conscious about her non crowning glory. When her hair started falling 6 months ago, Geri immediately ordered a new wig - hey, what better way to experiment with a new hair colour and style! She decided to become a redhead this time. This is one of the wigs she's using at present:

Heidi in Dark Rust

Recently it became obvious that the hair loss wasn't going to stop any time soon and after a long discussion Geri came to a decision. She decided that she could control this aspect of her waiting. She could stop waiting for her hair to grow back. With this epiphany under her belt, Geri instructed me to shave off her remaining hair. I was pretty upset doing it but Geri found it empowering and indeed it was a symbolic 'flip the bird at masto' gesture for her.

Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina

The game plan is this: She will grow what's left of her hair long enough to be styled into the style that Audrey Hepburn
wore in Sabrina. Now, I think Geri looks incredible with short hair and that this style will really suit her, but Geri begs to differ because long hair is her overwhelming preference. So, on the days when she wants to have long hair aka most of the time when she is well enough to go out with me, she will wear her wigs but at least for the rest of time she will be stylish and glam in a short haired kind of way hehe. We reckon this is a win/win situation and a really positive way to deal with this nasty situation.

The other tack I am taking to help provide a third alternative is to knit Geri some more hats. She has pressed the Angora beret into service many times this winter and with 'summer' approaching some cooler additions to the hat wardrobe are in order. She rather likes the Cloche style of hat so an extensive internet search ensued. I found that Ravelry had a great range available and with Princess Geri looking over my shoulder to give each pattern the royal nod  - or otherwise,  I sifted through dozens of pages of patterns. This simple but sweet pattern is the first I am making:

Amelie Cloche Hat

using 4.5 mm needles and this yarn:

Jo Sparp Desert Garden Aran Cotton in Solstice

which I conveniently had lurking in my stash. It is knitting up at a cracking pace and will be finished before the weekend if everything continues to go according to plan.

Back to  my needles ... UP UP and AWAY!

Arty Farty - Just In Time For 'Summer' - Angora adventures come to a close.

Written in 2010 ..

Geri's Angora scarf was a quick knit for sure. As you can see from the photos, I didn't stretch it much when I blocked it. The yarn is so soft that I figured it would just reduce back to close to its original size once the wires were removed so I only stretched it enough to open the lace pattern up enough to be visible.

Turns out I was right!




The past four days have been absolutely gorgeous here in Wellington with soft, windless, sunny spring weather so there's not been much call for such a warm, yummy scarf. However, just last week we had massive southerly; aka freezing, gales and heroic volumes of rainfall which induced country wide flooding and landslips.  If Geri had been well enough to be out the scarf would have been pressed into service pronto!

Incidentally, one of the slips was in Pukerua Bay with another just south of us. The southern slip derailed a commuter train coming north which was then hit by another commuter train that was going south ... my husband was on the next northbound train and so had a lucky escape. Good timing huh?

Communter Train Crash

I see on today's weather forecast that our short taster of Utopian spring weather is coming to an end with another 'exciting' storm system heading our way.  Time to batten down the hatches yet  again, wind the scarf around Geri's neck when we are out on Friday and ride the incoming storm out with good old Wellington stoicism.

Hopefully, Geri won't need to use her scarf too much this 'summer' ...

Arty Farty - Jen, Geri, Lynne and 'It'

Written in 2011

A few months ago our friend Lynne; who inhabits the same masto Facebook corner of the world as us, lost her treasured son Thomas in the most tragic of circumstances. There are no words to describe her loss and the pain and agony this dreadful event has caused her.

As I sat here on the other side of the world I felt compelled to do something more than offer words of comfort - which to be honest felt totally inadequate. Ideally what I wanted to do was to spend some quiet time with her, to wrap her up in a huge hug and to just be there. But, that was impossible so I did the next best thing - I decided that if I couldn't be there in person to give her a hug then I could be there in spirit with my arms being substituted by a shawl.

I decided to use this yarn:

Blue Sky Alpacas 50% Alpaca 50% Silk

And once again used this pattern from Knitty:

Knitty - Ella

After confirming Lynne's address I let her know that 'It' was on its way to her and awaited the day it would arrive. That was today. At last I've been able give Lynne that hug and that's a good feeling for sure.

Shawl prior to blocking

and after blocking.

The Hog Diaries - Chalk and Cheese!

After a break of two months during which I had no incomings, things got busy - little did I know JUST how busy it was about to get...

Chalk and Cheese

On Nov 29th 2015, the rescue rang me to say that two babies had been found curled up by a fence, next to their dead mother. So, off I went to collect them.

And so Chalk; 65gms and Cheese; 72gms arrived. I estimated that they were about 2-3 weeks old. These two little ones were dehydrated and starving but even worse, they were fly blown. However luckily they'd been rescued before the fly eggs hatched. A friend and I spent 2-3 hours plucking the fly eggs off them - they were even in their eyes!

Chalk being a big scary, huffy hoglet!

Right from the beginning, these two had very distinct personalities with Cheese being placid and calm whilst Chalk was a prickly bundle of huffy, defensive spikiness.
As I was syringe feeding Chalk on admission she was jumping, spiking and huffing like a grown up hoggie, LOL. Cheese simply took the electrolytes and went to sleep.

Hence their names. You simply couldn't find two hogs more different in personality.







These two wee girl's journey to adulthood has been uncomplicated and fun to watch. On day 22 they moved outside into a hutch and on day 34 they were into a pen. A week later I split them up as Chalk was being bullied out of the nest box by Cheese.

Since then I've been waiting, waiting, waiting, WAITING for them to go completely nocturnal. Chalk and Cheese imprinted very strongly on me in spite of me keeping my contact with them to the absolute minimum. Since going into their pens they've been coming out for a walk about every morning at around 10am. After talking to Narelle we reckoned they were being woken by me cleaning the hutches and pens out earlier in the morning and were coming out to say 'Hi' to mum! So, I have stopped following any form of routine in 'hog alley' and only open their pens after dark to clean them out and put in their food. This approach seems to be working thank goodness! Tonight - after a VERY exciting and stressful day I will be releasing Chalk a few days earlier than planned as I am now desperate for her pen .... more on that in a later post ...

Chalk on Dec 25th

Chalk on the day of her release - Jan 25th

Ruminative Ponderings - Hang on .... Did we order a waterfall with this apartment?

Written in India 2010...

The offending AC unit in place above the doors.

When the temperature outside is 49c, the need for air conditioning becomes rather pressing. We had an AC unit in each room - along with a US$600/month power bill.  Said units were in varying states of (dis)repair and some of them were downright creative in their 'workings' in that they were insanity inducing due to noise and vibration.

The unit in the lounge was one of the newer AC specimens in our apartment and seemed to be fairly reliable ... or so I thought until one morning upon rising, I was greeted by the addition to our household of a wonderful new feature.Yes, the AC unit had; over night, transformed itself from simple cooling unit to a one of a kind, designer Indoor Waterfall which was cascading merrily down the wall to fall with delicious cool splashes onto the marble floor.

Onto the phone to Chris I got, and 'Sid'; our apartment manager, was duly contacted. He assured us that the 'fixit' brigade were on their way. So after installing enough buckets to stop the lounge becoming a lake, Geri and I settled down to await our salvation ... and wait ... and wait ... and empty buckets ... and wait, until at last two workers arrived to sort the problem out.

From past experience I knew what to expect and so I settled in to watch what I was sure was going to be an 'interesting' show.  As it transpired, I wasn't disappointed. Now, if only I had thought to sell tickets ...

AC Fixit Man (ACFM) and his Unfortunate Assistant (UA) came into the apartment, serious faces in place and tool box in tow. I showed them which unit was broken, miming that it was making a waterfall. They looked at each other and then looked at me as if I was stark raving mad. I mean after all, there was no water falling down, just some water sitting in buckets and who knows what these crazy foreign women got up to when ACBM and AS weren't looking. Maybe Mam was going to use the buckets of water for something ...

After standing in the lounge for 20 mins or so deliberating and discussing what was to be done about fixing imaginary indoor waterfalls, ACBM and AS came to the conclusion that there was nothing to be done inside and they went outside to regoup on the balcony. More serious discussions took place, accompanied by much waving of hands, scratching of chins and knowledgeable head nodding. Finally a solution was agreed upon, the tool box was opened and a screw driver was extracted. Said screw driver was deftly inserted into the end of the AC unit's outlet pipe, jabbed about a bit with serious intent then firmly put back into the tool box. After closing the tool box the lads came back inside with beatific grins on their faces and assured me that it was "All better Mam!!!"

Hmmmmm, Okaaaaay....... Yeah. I knew that this was simply a case of "We have no idea what the problem is (because you imagined the waterfall Mam) so we did something and now we can go and have a cup of tea." So, off they went! I even got a call from Chris telling me Sid had called to assure him the problem had been sorted. Such good news!! I of course knew that the fault hadn't been fixed, but in India you just have to allow the process to unfold and follow along as it takes its natural course. Later that day the water feature once again graced us with its presence and we resignedly redeployed our buckets.

I decided that a new plan was needed and instead of contacting Sid again I decided to simply leave the buckets in place; with the AC unit running flat out to ensure a nice constant supply of water for the water feature, for the cleaners to find the next morning when they came in to work.

Dust Storm - one of the reasons cleaning was a daily affair.

A small aside here. The reason the cleaners came in every day - apart from the fact that they 'came with' the apartment was that within 24 hours of being cleaned, all of the surfaces in the apartment were black and gritty. The source of this dirt was air borne ollution and the massive dust storms that hit most days. The fact that none of the windows or doors sealed shut properly meant that anything air borne could simply blow in on the wind and settle inside.

My laundry - on a 'clear' day, just after the cleaners have been.

The following morning  the cleaners duly arrived and I quietly stood back so that I could observe their reaction to discovering the joys of our new indoor water feature. Alas, I was to be disappointed as their discovery was greeted with much consternation accompanied by vigorous head wobbling and hand waving.

Out came the cell phone and a rapid conversation punctuated by concise hand gestures ensued. A few minutes later my phone rang. It was Chris calling to let me know that Sid had called him to let us know that ACFM and UA would once again be gracing us with their presence later that day. Oh GOODY - the anticipation was excruciating to say the least.

The expected knock on the door was answered by me with a great flourish  and grandiose welcome. The poor bemused workmen entered and once again went over to the AC unit to ponder life in general and the foibles of modern technology. At least this time the waterfall was evident and indeed, a beautiful thing to behold it was. After a minute or two, ACFM issued an order to UA. UA came over to me and with many 'Mams' he started miming...

First holding his hand down .... then holding his hand up .... 'Mam!'

Hand down, hand up .... 'Mam!'

Hand down, hand up ...... 'Mam!'

Hand down, hand up ....'Mam!'

Hand down, hand up ....

You get the picture, I'm sure.

It finally dawned on Mam that he wanted a ladder and solemnly shaking my head to indicate I didn't have a ladder, I indicated that they could pull the dining table over to climb on. This suggestion was greeted with absolute horror and a storm of head shaking erupted from UA who whipped out the ubiquitous cell phone once again. Through (I assume) the Sid communication channel, there was shortly a knock on the door and one of the cleaners delivered a ladder to UA who delivered it with great aplomb to ACFM.  The next hour or so consisted of ACFM barking orders at poor UA who had to try to convey to me what ACFM wanted. This comedy of errors and misunderstood mimes reached its culmination when UA embarked on the mime to end all mimes.

Holding his hand aloft he imitated stepping, once, twice, then lowered his hand with a 'Mam!' of course.

So here we go ...

Hand up, step, step, hand down ... 'Mam!'...

Hand up, step, step, hand down ... 'Mam!'...

Hand up, step, step, hand down ... 'Mam!'...

Hand up, step, step, hand down ... 'Mam!'...

Hand up, step, step, hand down ... 'Mam!'...


Well, Mam just didn't get it I'm afraid. My son tells me I failed at Indian Charades because UA was miming in Hindi .... Yeah Ok, thanks Son!

Anyway, as I looked blankly at UA he became more and more agitated, miming faster and faster  and louder and louder as this would make me understand. All the while, ACFM was yelling at UA to get what he was asking for. Finally, I held up my hand and got out my phone. This triggered a startling increase in both the volume and speed of UA's miming and a frantic shaking of heads and flapping of hands. It was my turn to mime as I tried to get him to stop and just wait a minute as rang Chris and asked for Sid's number. Once I had Sid on the phone I explained the situation and asked him to ask ACFM just what it was that he wanted. A very animated conversation ensued whilst I waited with baited breath for an asnwer. I was dying to know just what it was that had caused so much passion and grief. Finally, the phone came back to me and Sid quietly told me ...

"Mam, they are simply needful of a cup with which to scoop water...."

OH. MY. GOD!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't help myself, burst out laughing and stumbled off to the kitchen to find the precious cup. Both ACFM and UA gazed upon me with pity and consternation when I returned chortling, blubbering and cackling with glee, holding aloft the prize of the day - a cup! I guess I can see why they looked at me like that.  I mean, not only did I suck at playing charades, but I was also obviously certifiably crazy as this was a very serious business and not funny at all!

By the time I had returned from the kitchen, UA; whom I am sure thought I had just gone off to babble and drool quietly in the mad corner and didn't plan on coming back, had frantically emptied out a pot of screws and was trying to convince ACFM that this would do the job - which was simply to empty some water from the bottom of the AC unit. ACFM accepted the pot, rejecting my precious cup; which sat forlornly on the dining table feeling unwanted, and got on with fixing the AC unit - or not ....

Soon after this I had to evacuate Geri from India so I never got to see how effective the repair on the unit was. But Chris did, as he stayed on a bit longer. He was able to report that the indoor water feature made a spectacular return not long after we left. I'm so glad that he got to witness and enjoy the wonder of it!

The Hog Diaries - Caleb, Conrad ..... and other... ... ... Critters ... ... ...

Caleb arrives sporting his big belly

Rach from Paws4Life contacted me one Tuesday night. Since setting humane cat traps near the
shelter in an effort to capture an injured stray tom that had been spotted hanging around. To date the tom has eluded capture, but she has been doing a roaring trade in catching hedgehogs! For the most part said hoggies have been healthy and after having a jolly good feed in the trap are set free to go on their merry way.

However, the first night yielded a very mangey little boy and Rach contacted me to see if I could help him. Upon arrival and inspection I determined that the hog was male, had awful mange and a very full tummy. After I had given him his first Ivomec jab I popped him into his hospital box with a bowl full of electrolytes along with a little food and left him to it.

Caleb, expressing his appeciation for his heat pad by demonstrating the 'splat hog'

The next morning's weigh in revealed that Caleb had lost just under 80gms which I was expecting as his tummy had been very full the night before. It was so full in fact that I think it was actually helping to prevent him curling up LOL. He'd been exceedingly busy over night and had completely trashed his bedroom. After I'd done his housekeeping and he had been back in bed warming up for a while - he really enjoys his heat pad, I got him up to give him his first oil treatment, start his Panacur and generally have a closer look at him. Apart from his mange which had caused a lot of cracking on his back, he seemed to be in pretty good condition which was great. He very shy and nervous which is to be expected but seemed to be coping with his new situation ok for the most part.

Ouchy ...

 These cases with 'dry mange' as I call it, are much easier; in my opinion, to manage. They don't tend to smell as much - and if they do smell it only lasts a few days at the most, the crust comes off quickly - generally within four days, and in my experience to date they are less likely to be fly blown. So far, Caleb has been one of the easiest cases I've had .. long may it last.

A quick word about his name - when Rachael's partner dropped this hoggie off to me I told him to let their daughter Indi chose a name for him. Rach warned me that said name could well be very random but I knew this from previous experience with Miss Indi and awaited the naming day with baited breath.

Rach informed me the next day that the naming decree had been announced by Queen Indi and that if the hoggie was a girl it was 'Kora-Nina' and is it was a boy it was 'Caleb' so Caleb it was ... I did let Rach know I was very disappointed to have such a mainstream name for him but the Queen had spoken hehe.

Oil treatment on board and it's back to bed to warm up

Caleb coped with his first oiling like a champ and even managed to curl up a bit more since his tummy had 'deflated' overnight. He had another light oiling yesterday and a good 80% of his crust has gone. He's mighty resistant to being medicated but we'll get there with that one via patience and perseverance.

After his big drop in weight the first night Caleb has been steadily gaining and has nearly gotten back to his admission weight. He is eating well - he just loves his Hills A/D and has figured out how to make a nest bed in his blankets so is more settled and content which will reduce his stress levels a lot.

In this photo you can see just how emaciated he is - his head here is about 2/3 the size of his body when it should be about 1/4 the size of his body when rolled up.



and so to Conrad ....

Jacqui from Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand rang me about another hog on Wednesday. This one had been picked up by some children and was full of maggots. Now, maggots and me aren't a good combination so I got them to take the hog to Luanne at Pet Doctors for de maggoting. Luanne then gave me a call later in the day to say the maggots had been dealt to and I went in to collect the hog.

Oh my! The smell was indescribable ... probably the worst I've encountered so far.

I had a new fosterer lined up to come and see me on Sat so I warned her that she would most likely be leaving with a hog in tow. I asked her to name this hoggie and she called him Conrad.

This wee man was VERY stressed so I settled him in his hospital box, gave him some electrolytes with a little food and left him to it overnight. I didn't like the look of him and the following morning he hadn't improved. He didn't eat or drink at all over night and his breathing was still rapid. I couldn't monitor him closely for most of the day as we had to go to Auckland hospital for a medical appointment but upon getting home later that day the first thing I did was check on Conrad.

Oh lordy, he was simply ALIVE with hundreds of maggots. I had to get over myself and my maggot aversion (instant vomit!!!) which I did pretty quickly once I had lost my lunch and hit the panic button spending the next 2 hours getting the maggots off him. It is imperative with maggots that they be removed ASAP as once they have hatched they instantly begin to eat the hog alive. By the time I had finished, Conrad was obviously in a very bad way. He was unresponsive and I assume, in deep shock.

I tucked him away in his warm bed and waited but I knew in my heart what the outcome was going to be. Checking him 1/2 hourly confirmed he was still totally unresponsive and throughout the evening his breathing got slower and slower until by 11.30pm I was certain he had passed over the Rainbow Bridge.  I waited until the morning to confirm it and my suspicions were correct.

RIP Conrad - may your time over the Rainbow Bridge be free forever from torture and pain.

Ruminative Ponderings - The Mad Cow Meets Some Wild Yeast .... did somebody say bread????

Written in India - 2010 .... For many years, I have entertained the idea of trying my hand at making sourdough bread. However, back home in New Zealand there isn't a lot of incentive as there is a ready supply of fantastic genuine sourdough from my foody happy zone; Moore Wilsons.

Moore Wilson = Foody Heaven!

The best thing about real sourdough is that Geri can eat it without it setting off her GI symptoms. I can eat a bit of it too with fewer problems than I have with commercial bread, but I still have to be a bit careful. After we found ourselves in Melbourne, I never managed to find a decent source for sourdough, although I have to admit I didn't look very hard. I'm sure there is some there somewhere but without a car and with a sick Geri in tow it proved to be too difficult and was relegated to the 'too hard basket'.

I have - in the past, dabbled in the sourdough pond a little using a recipe that employed dried yeast to get the bug going. The results, both in taste and GI reactions were far from desired - especially when compared to the wonders available at Moore Wilsons! There was simply no contest - or rather, the competition was way too steep.

On arriving in Gurgaon I found that the local bread did indeed live up to my expectations - or lack thereof. Hmm, how can I describe the bread made in many Asian countries? Ok, picture this - hang on, quick note here - I am not talking about traditional Indian breads here. I adore these and skoff them often. Here, I'm talking about Western style bread made in Asian countries. So, to continue... the slices are dry and stale tasting; even when fresh, with a texture is akin to a thick kitchen paper towel. A loaf weighs about as much as one of those paper towels and the taste? Well dry is the only way I can think of to describe it... It is a very far cry from the aromatic, chewy, dense (but not heavy and doughy) offerings from Moore Wilson. With my thoughts once again turning to sourdough due to lack of acceptable alternatives, I started researching - yay for the internet, and found a lot of informative and useful websites. Top of my list to date would be these -

Soudough Companion

Catching Wild Yeast and Making Sourdough

Wild Yeast Blog

Now there was just one little hurdle standing in my way before I could embark on this adventure ... I needed something to actually bake my bread in. For the low down on that little saga, see my 'Appliance Adventures'  post. Long story short, after a month of frustration my oven duly arrived - and it is indeed a thing of rare beauty and wonderful baking ability! With the oven duly installed on the bench and daring me to make good use of it, I no longer had any excuse not to get on with it so I decided to stop procrastinating and started my sourdough bug.

Which brings us to the subject of flour. Most of the instructions for sourdough starters are pretty specific about the sort of flour and flour combinations that should be used. Now, that's all well and good when you live in a country where you have choice and selection. This simply isn't the case here in India. As far as wheat flour goes, one gets to choose from two that are on offer - that I've found so far that is.

The first is called Maida. This is an extremely finely milled white flour and would be classed as a pastry flour I think. It is very light and seems to substitute well for the white flour I am familiar with using at home.

The other flour; and the one that is most commonly used here, is called Atta. This 100% wholemeal flour differs quite considerably to the wholemeal flours I am accustomed to. It is most similar to the finely ground stoneground flours available back home and is employed in the making of many of the traditional Indian breads which are made in the homes all over India. I am surprisingly impressed with this flour and am looking forward to experimenting with it further.

 So, the morning that my sourdough bug was conceived dawned dusty and hot. I had decided to go with 100% Atta and having found a mostly suitable pyrex container for the bug to grow in (yes, this had been another of those 'almost mission impossibles' that I am getting used to going on here in Gurgaon) I mixed the flour into some filtered water, put the lid on and left it to it.

The following morning I scuttled into the sweatbox and lifted the lid off the pot. To be honest, I hadn't expected anything to have happened but was amazed to find the bug was bubbling away most gratifyingly. WOOT WOOT! Maybe this was going to work! I continued to feed my bug over the next few days, following the  instructions I'd printed off from the net. I have to make a confession at this point ... I also fretted away like a mother with a new baby about feeding times,  'meal' quantities, discard rates and temperature. With all of this burbling away in the back of my mind; just as my bug was burbling away quite happily on the bench, I watched it with baited breath for any signs of imminent death.

On days 3-4 things started to look a bit grim. The bug went very quiet and I panicked. Had I committed bug-a-cide??? I consulted a few more blogs and web sites and decided to just keep going, although I couldn't resist fiddling a bit with the type of flour; I changed over to Maida, and the discard rate; which i reduced. Keeping my fingers crossed I hoped for the best. Over the next few days my bug-baby slowly seemed to come back to life and also started to smell pretty good too - it had a slightly sweet/sour/yeasty smell; which while it was unusual, wasn't unpleasant in any way.


I may have had a hand in the day 3-4 crisis ... but I'm not sure as some websites report that this slow down does sometimes happen. I had been concerned that the kitchen would be too hot for the bug as the temperature sits between 30c and 45c most days, so on the night of the second I put the bug in one of the rooms that the A/C would be running in overnight. Now, it's not cold in these rooms by any stretch of the imagination as they sit at around 24-25c. However, the big slow happened the next day so who knows...

The whole issue of temperature is interesting. People have been making sourdough for a very long time, and very often in quite cold climates. It seems that the process will still happen, but that it simply takes longer. According to one blog, around 30c is the optimal temperature for sourdough development - if that is the case then my kitchen should be the perfect sourdough hot housing environment. Perhaps my bug-baby decided to punish me for putting it out in the 'cold' by having a big sulk. I have since left it in the kitchen full time and dared it to do a repeat performance.

Finally on day 9 it happened! My bug-baby reached a major developmental milestone - it doubled its volume in 12 hours. This was apparently an indication that my nurturing; and fretting, had paid off and that my bug-baby was ready to start the weaning process - having matured enough to be ready to go to work for me. I elected to give it another few days of growth just to be on the safe side and began a search of the net for loaf recipes that looked like they'd fit the bill. Remembering an episode of River Cottage- where they'd made a simple sourdough loaf, I went in search of the recipe.

River Cottage Sourdough

D-Day - or evening, arrived and I took the first step which was to make the sponge. This simply involved mixing water, flour; I used Maida, and some of my bug-baby together and leaving it to it overnight.

Another quick trot to the sweatbox ensued the following morning and the sight that awaited me was wonderous to behold ... my little bug-baby had done a stupendous job during the night and the sponge was a mass of lovely yeasty bubbles all of the way through.

All that remained to do was to mix in the rest of the flour; Atta this time, some salt and a little Olive oil. The mixture was fairly wet and gooey but improved upon kneading. Then I put the ball of dough aside to have a think about rising, which it proceeded to in a stately but steady manner. My bug-baby hadn't let me down so far and I hoped it would continue to produce the 'goods' as the day went on.

The first rising took around 5 hours, after which time I punched the dough down and tipped it out onto the bench to shape into its form for baking. As I don't have any proper proving baskets (or any other western bakeware for that matter) here I improvised with an Indian dish which is sort of like a small shallow wok. I lined the bowl with a clean tea towel which I floured then popped the dough into its nest to prove  before putting the whole lot into a plastic bag.

Bug-baby's rising rate during proving was a bit faster than the first rising and within 1 1/2 hours it was looking pretty darn good. The aroma of it when I took it out of its plastic bag to check it was amazing - it was yeasty but also smelt distinctly of yoghurt. I couldn't wait to see if the finished bread tasted the same as the smell. Erring on the side of caution I decided to leave it for another hour as I felt it had more rising to do before it was ready for baking.As it transpired, I got busy with dinner so the loaf proved for a total of 4 1/2 hours before I got back to it.

 And so, look at this!! Just like a real one! I am still a bit surprised that it worked so well ... what shall I make tomorrow???? Grisini anyone?

Oh, and yes... it tastes amazing. Very tangy with heaps of flavour. YUM!

A final thought ....

The sourdough process is certainly one that can't be rushed. I think this is a big part of its charm. It is a true member of the slow food movement.

The Hog Diaries - Freedom, Freddie and Fab Fosterers

Written Sept 2014 ...A few nights ago I released Kera, almost 8 weeks to the day that she came in to care. On the day of her release Kera weighed a roly poly 1108gms and was beginning to have trouble rolling in to a tight ball.

Let's just say that she had plenty of blubber on board to sustain her over the first few weeks of freedom whilst she found her feet.

Fatty Fatty Bom Bom

Kera was released along with Lucky - another female hog, at Houchens House. This is the same place that Hector and Poe were released a few weeks ago and is a beautiful and special spot located on the fringe of one of Hamilton's southern suburbs. There are acres of formal gardens - all heavily mulched, which will provide provide plenty of forage for the hoggies.

Kera and Lucky's release boxes

A view of some of the garden at Houchens House

Freddie continues to thrive and having finished all of his medication is well and big enough to have graduated to a hutch outside.

He hasn't looked back since his move and at his last weigh in a few days ago he was 902gms. I'm not weighing him every day now as he needs to start getting his wild hog on which he is doing admirably.








In fact, when I last got him up to weigh him he balled and prickled up like an absolute pro. I was so proud of him hehe. He is growing a very impressive amount of fur as well as a good covering of quills and next weekend I will move him into a pen in preparation for release, for which he should hopefully be ready in 2-3 weeks.

Currently our Hamilton foster network is almost full to over flowing; which this early in the season is a bit worrying, as over the past 6-8 weeks we've had a steady stream of severely mangey hogs coming out of hibernation in very poor shape indeed. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that we are temporarily down by two fosterers which equals 4 hoggie placements. That aside though, the hogs that we have in care (all eleven of them!) are doing well, with some coming close to being ready for release.

 I also have to remind myself that this time time last year we had one 'official' fosterer in Hamilton - me, and that coming in to this season we have six super caring souls helping us, with more (hopefully) coming on line soon. Let's just hope that we can get our current inmates well and on their way before the main rescue season hits with a vengenace.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Arty Farty - A Shawl Well Traveled

Written in 2010 - How many countries do you think this garment has traveled to? Well, it was conceived in Australia, spent its teenage years in India, reached maturity in New Zealand and will soon emigrate to America to be rehomed at a fund raising auction for the Mastocytosis Society during its 2010 conference in October.

The shawl's pattern is a variation on a theme from a pattern on Knitty:

Lace Ribbon Scarf

I doubled the width so the scarf is around 62 cm wide and 2m long after blocking. It is knitted on 4mm needles and took 5.5 balls of yarn. I altered the gauge a little from the original 21st/ 34 rows to 24 st/ 32 rows.

The yarn I choose is deliciously soft and lovely to work with:

Eki Riva Supreme 100% Baby Alpaca # 2299 Lavender

I choose to use this particular yarn because alpaca is often tolerated better than wool as it is softer so is less likely to cause irritation. This was an important factor in my decision because many folk who suffer from Mastocytosis have issues with skin sensitivities and itching.

The edging was knitted separately and sewn on prior to blocking. The pattern is called Willow Leaf and is from one of my books:

150 Knitted Trims

As with all lace, the edging looked horribly lumpy prior to blocking and there was plenty of guestimation going on whilst I knitted it and tried to figure out long it should be, but it shaped up nicely once it had had a taste of the 'wires'!  Blocking really is akin to putting your precious work on the rack for a torture session.

I hope that whomever takes the shawl home with them at the conclusion of the conference enjoys wearing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Ruminative Ponderings - Trishaw TriHard

Written in India 2010... One fateful Sunday, Chris and I headed out to Galleria Market Place. The main reason for our mission was to go to Le Marche and Le Marche Sugar 'n' Spice. I had read about these two shops on line. One was apparently a good butcher and the other a source of imported goods.... yes, I was determined to find some coffee beans... We also needed to purchase a large UPS unit to protect computers etc during the 5-20+ power cuts a day that are the norm in Gurgaon.

Now, Galleria is an 'interesting' place - as many are in India. The link below provides a  description which suffers from a syndrome I am finding is quite common here in India, and that is that it is utterly fantasy driven. It's almost as if they believe that if they write that it is like that then it will be that way in reality. Honestly, reading this you'd expect to never want to leave the place once you got there ... this certainly isn't our experience to date. One really has to marvel at the Photoshop skills of the person who provided the images and also has to wonder just what the author was smoking when they wrote the article ...

Galleria Market Place .....

In the summer heat the central plaza is simply an oven. If it is around 40c in the shade then heaven knows what the temp gets to in the sun. Simply put it is hot enough to bake ones brains in ones skull within minutes....

This particular Sunday we were fortunate in that the temp had peaked at a 'cooler' 36.5c. The driver triple parked to drop us off then beetled off to find a parking spot somewhere in the shade ...

Our first stop was Sugar 'n' Spice and yes there was a range of imported produce, including coffee beans - yowsers tres expensive! The shop was a  really a long skinny cupboard crammed with people and very hot but hey, this is India! We stocked up and went off to find the butcher. I walked in and took a sniff as I checked out the meat on offer. Hmmm, having been suffering with Delhi Belly for the previous week didn't help my first impressions. I bought a few packs of locally made sausages which were very fresh but declined to sample anything else on offer.

Lugging six bags of shopping plus the very heavy UPS, Chris and I made our way out to the entrance and called the driver. No answer .... okay, maybe he's away from the car, we'll give him 10 minutes and try again. Which we did ..... over and over and over for the next 70 minutes. There was no response at all. After the first 15 minutes I had found myself a seat under a tree and had planted myself there to wait ... as you do in India. I passed the time checking emails and posting on Facebook and trying not to get tooooo wild. I was so relieved that Geri wasn't with us...

When the hour mark clicked over Chris started talking about using a Trishaw to get home. NO WAY! I am not going on one of those things on those roads!!!! I was getting a trifle 'grumpy' by this stage as I was overheating and hence began suffering a total sense of humour failure. Poor Chris was watching me closely and trying to gauge just how close I was to total nuclear meltdown. I'm certain he was dreading the dropping of the "I've had enough and am going home" bomb. Eventually he went to see if he could find the driver; with no luck, however he did come back with some cold bottled water which was wonderful.

 ... and they're off ...

                               
Finally reality bit and I accepted that we had no other option but to take a Trishaw. Oh joy! Chris went off to negotiate and once he had agreed on a price I staggered over with our loot. As everything was loaded aboard I marvelled at the poor, scrawny little guy who had been game enough to take on six bags of groceries, a large UPS and two huge Europeans.  We set off down the road at a fairly sedate pace and after a few minutes I had to grudgingly admit to myself that I was almost enjoying myself ...

We traveled at a sedate (poor, poor man!) pace for about one kilometer during which time I looked around and gave thanks once again that Geri wasn't with us and that the road we were on was a quiet (for Gurgaon) one. Glancing over to the right I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted what I thought was our car. I grabbed Chris' arm and pointed frantically as I sputtered at him to tell the Trishaw driver to stop. Said driver finally did stop; totally confused, and watched in horror as Chris leaped out of the Trishaw and ran over the road to our car.
                                                                                                                                    
Trishaw guy turned to me; totally confused, and exclaimed "NO taxi, No taxi!" I tried to make him understand that that was our car but he just looked at me as if I was stark raving mad - hmmm, maybe he wasn't too far off the mark! I finally got him to understand (I think) that he just needed to wait and we watched Chris trying to wake our driver; Saroj, up. He bashed on the windows, venting the frustration that had built up over the last hour and a half. Slowly, slowly the noise penetrated the impermeable cocoon of sleep that Saroj had woven around himself. He cracked open an eye and when the realisation that it was 'Sir' bashing on the window and that 'Sir' was looking very irate he erupted out of the car  and proceeded to look very confused about why we hadn't phoned him to pick us up!!!! GARG!!! His level of mortification increased exponentially when he he spotted me perched in the Trishaw.

Chris came back over the road, paid off the Trishaw guy and we transferred everything to the car before proceeding back to Central Park. The tension in the car was palpable and on arriving back at the apartment 'Ma'am' made it perfectly clear that she was beyond angry - no smile, no eye contact, death ray vibes humming.

For the whole of the following week, Saroj waited for the axe to fall. You see, his transgression was a fire-able offence.  Now, there's no way we would get him fired for this. He'd never done it before and goodness knows how many people rely on him and his income.We just hoped it would never happen again and decided to let it go. Unfortunately, it did happen again the following weekend. This time we had been at a major hotel for lunch and Saroj once again disappeared off the face of the planet. After waiting for 30 minutes (inside in the A/C thank heavens) a customer services employee; who knew Chris well, let us hire (for a nominal fee) one of the hotel limos to get home. An hour after we got home Saroj called, wondering where we were.... hmmmm...... no comment.

One major ramification of these incidents is that I don't feel I can trust Saroj to be there when I need him to be when I am out with Geri; not that we've been out much so far, as we've been too sick.  This means that I can only take her out to somewhere that I know has good A/C but even that wouldn't be safe if she was reacting. So we are restricted to Ambiance Mall which is attached to the Leela Hotel. The staff at the hotel know us and know that Geri is sick so would do everything they could to help in an emergency and whilst this is reassuring, it is somewhat restrictive to say the least. I guess only time will tell if Saroj blots his copybook again ...      

The Hog diaries - Freddie - Words Fail Me!

Written in 2014 ... Well, Freddie simply breaks the cute - o - meter.... He's been with me for 8 days now and is just the cheekiest, wriggliest, happiest, cutest wee hog in the whole world.

Look at that face!!!!!!

So far, Freddie has been in care for 51 days, 42 of which were with Maritha; his and Kera's rescuer, who had done an awesome job to get him this far as he has been every bit as sick as Kera and far from an easy case.
However after struggling with him for 6 weeks, Maritha reached the end of her rope when Freddie's latest poo tests returned (still!!!) positive for Lungworm and also showing a very heavy Coccidia burden. This of course meant he needed yet further rounds of medications and when I reported this to poor Maritha; who was also struggling with a teething toddler, her face just fell. I had already made the decision to take Freddie on if Maritha needed to surrender him and when I offered to take him on she accepted immediately, albeit tearfully.

Once I had Freddie settled, I immediately started him on Deprim for the Coccidia and waited for the required gap between his last Profender treatment for Fluke; which had been given on the day he arrived, and starting Panacur - his 4th course!!! There is simply NO way he should still have had Lungworm and hopefully this latest round of Panacur will finally deal to it once and for all.

When Freddie arrived he was still quite skinny and underweight and although he had gained 297gms since admission. He was apparently quite a fussy eater and refused all wet food... Well he's had a change of heart and eats a huge bowl full of Jellimeat (into which I mix Flaxseed Oil and a Magnesium/Zinc/B6 supplement to encourage quill/fur growth) every night. I am very pleased with his progress so far and expect he will simply go from strength to strength for here on out.

In the ensuing 8 days since admission Freddie has gained 215gms and is now a healthy, plump 828gms. He's filled out a lot, has relaxed and is less anxious and frightened. In fact he is just the cheekiest wee thing around. Whenever I open his crate he pops his head out of his blankets and peers up at me to say hello.

Me thinks Young Freddie is going  to need a good long spell in pre release to wild up!