Worms Disaster!

Well, not a total disaster, but I think I've either killed them with kindness, or they were just diseased.  Eric says no-one could have been more attentive to their needs, so it's not neglect.  Ignorance maybe.

At the moment, I have 12 cocoons (although I know for certain that 2 of the caterpillars have died inside), another 3 or 4 spinning (but very sluggishly), and I've just put the other 13 in toilet roll inners, with some leaves, and told them to get on with it!  The best I'm hoping for now is that some of them will hatch into moths, mate, and lay eggs for next year.  In the meantime, I'll do a lot more investigating on the internet and see if I can find anything glaring that I've done wrong.

Next year will be better!!!

Courgette Glut?

If, like us, you have courgettes piling up against the front door, try this recipe. It's really easy, and very tasty.  I actually got it from bbcgoodfood.com.  As usual (for me), I "doctored" it a bit, and it was very tasty.  The amounts here will serve 4 people.

Courgette Fritters with Tomato and Feta Salsa

1 red chilli, finely chopped
125g self-raising flour
Half a red onion
2 large eggs
3 medium courgettes, grated
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds (didn't have any, so used fenugreek seeds)
Salsa ingredients :-
125g cherry tomatoes, quartered and mixed with
100g crumbled Feta and a
Handful of mint leaves, chopped and
Juice of half a lemon

Mix chilli, courgette, onion, cumin seeds, flour and eggs together (I also added some green coriander seeds for a bit of "zing") and season with salt and black pepper.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick frying pan, drop in heaped tablespoons of batter.  Cook, in batches, for 2-3 minutes each side, or until golden.
Meanwhile, mix all the salsa ingredients and serve with the fritters.

We had it with garlic mashed potato and a nice, cold glass of white wine.  I'll definitely be making it again.

Scarf

Decided to make a scarf with the wool I finished spinning the other day, and had an ideal situation for knitting yesterday when we had to go up to Bergerac airport to collect wicked stepson no. 1.  We were in the car for four and a half hours all told, and I was using big needles, so had plenty of time to finish it.

. . . a little bit of detail :-

 

I love the colours and am looking forward to wearing it in the winter.

Loads'a'Llamas

Yesterday we were invited to go and see some llamas.  Eric had advertised some music equipment on a local website and it turned out that the couple who came to see what he had for sale have 14 llamas (well, some of them are her mother's, but it amounts to the same thing).  They were absolutely gorgeous (especially the two adolescents!) but the sad thing is that they want to sell up and emigrate to Canada, so the llamas will eventually have to be sold.

I thought you might like to see some of the photos I took (not exactly professional, but some of them are amusing).

Ooooer - scary person in the field, we're not going over there!

Cheeeese!!!

Who pinched my llama's head?

Smile for the nice lady!

What nice lady?  Oh, her??

The last two llamas are 14 months old so haven't finished growing yet.

I'd taken my spinning wheel with me, so we took some wool from the brown youngster and I quickly spun a little sample.  It was a bit strawy, but lovely and soft.  They're probably going to be sheared before too long, so may be available to buy.

In the meantime, anyone want to buy a house in France with 14 llamas?

Photos

Just a few pictures for Friday.  The first cocoon is now complete :-

 Two more worms started spinning last night in the toilet tube inners, but the rest are taking their time.

The wool I've just spun is skeined and washed :-

And look what we had in the garden today :-

I haven't seen any hoopoes in the garden for a few years, but this one was happily pecking away into all the holes between the stones in the wall, presumably eating insects.  I couldn't get any closer than this, but it obligingly turned around when I took the photo.

Wool 'n' Worms

Couldn't wait to spin the two batts I bought at the wool festival, and finished them last night.  There's about 100g here.  I've spun it as a single, thick and thin.  Not sure what it's going to be yet.

The first cocoon is substantially thicker, and another day should see it finished.  It then has to sit for a week before it can be processed further.

Another worm started to spin last night in one of the toilet roll inners I put around the edge of their plastic box.  I split the cardboard tubes lengthwise and pulled them apart a little bit so the silkworms could crawl in by themselves.  I don't know if you can see, but it's just starting to shape the cocoon around itself.

The biggest surprise though, was the worm in the "sick bay" which I thought was on it's way out.  Last night it, too, started to spin.  It's drawn a leaf around itself and is spinning inside.

Today I made a sort of open-weave framework of mulberry twigs and put it in their box for them to spin amongst, mainly because I knew I didn't have enough toilet roll inners for 70 (ish) worms.  Within a few minutes, three silkworms had climbed up onto it, so maybe that's the best option.

First Cocoon

This is a photo I took this morning, and, as you can see, it's turned into a cocoon overnight.  It's not complete yet, because it needs to spin more layers inside.  There are no more spinning yet, this one seems to be quite early.

I had a bit of a shock this morning.  Because the worm had started spinning in the basket, amongst all the other worms, I decided to leave it there and remove the rest.  Then this morning I thought I'd remove some of the leaf litter from around the cocoon . . . and found a dead worm.  I think it was probably already dead when this worm started spinning, but I was a bit worried that it might be the one which should be inside the cocoon.  And I couldn't see the worm inside because it had mostly turned opaque.  Fingers crossed!