Hello everyone,
Since it is Wednesday, I am sharing some photos of what’s on my hob, rather than my desk, with the WOYWW gang and also belatedly some photos with the Tea Gang (links at the end of the post).
The weather has been pretty amazing so I haven’t been spending as much time inside as usual, plus you just never know when it is going to start raining so we have to make the most of it! It’s good weather for getting things done, inside and outside, and one of the things I got done this week was my next batch of avocado ink. I’ve been saving these beauties for a while but I do eat a lot of avocados so the pile was getting very high and I needed to use some of them! Anyone who saw this in the kitchen would eye it suspiciously and then give me a strange look as if to say, why on earth would anyone be saving these (assuming they recognised them as avocado seeds that is and not something that belonged in the bin lol)
Some years ago, I did a course in natural dyes and inks, various mordants and additives etc. I was mostly interested in dyeing fabrics and yarns at the time, but inks were also covered. I was very interested in what could be done with native plants and especially lichens, and I did collect quite a lot of samples on my travels. If I can track down the photos, I will link to them. More recently there was an article in Somerset Studio, maybe 2017 or 2018, and even more recently, avocado ink was featured in one of the Life Book taster sessions. But of course, google is your friend – you can find many free articles about making avocado ink with a simple google search. I have my own way of doing it through my previous experiments, so I tend to stick to what works for me. I used most of what was in this bowl but kept a few of them for the next batch.
After I was done with the avocado seeds, they ended up looking like this… they are so dark, so you can imagine how the ink is going to turn out!
Here’s an accident waiting to happen lol. One of these is my avocado ink, another is red berry herbal tea and then there is my glass with the straws in it, and all of them are a similar colour. I had a moment of worry when I realised I might have poured from the wrong jug hahaha but luckily I drank the right one!
I managed to fill these two screw-top jars and this little fancy ink bottle with the avocado ink. You can see the colour of it showing through the ink bottle and also on the small tester paper strip. The colour can range from a pale pink to a very deep red, mine is leaning towards the deep red colour!
I haven’t had a chance to use it yet because of all the busyness. Peonies are looking beautiful and are really appreciating the weather. Normally they get battered by wind and rain as soon as they open up but this year is different. They also look like they are learning to survive in a jungle lol somewhere behind all that lot is a fence!
This one has almost grown at tall as the fence! And look how blue the sky is!
We are also picking strawberries every day at the moment, the harvest has never been this good!
Today’s dessert – home grown strawberries and whipped coconut cream!
I did some internal reorganising of the cat trees, and moved a big one from the living room to the sunroom since it has more beds at the top and they can sunbathe without fighting over them. As soon as I started dragging it across the house, they both jumped on for the ride! They’ve ignored it for months but now it’s moving, it’s suddenly very interesting lol.
Once the cat tree was in the sunroom, it was put to good use, though it doesn’t really look very comfortable with her neck on a funny angle but she seemed to like it.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!
Ingredients
avocado seeds,
Challenges
T Stands For Tuesday – T stands for delicious berry iced tea, homegrown strawberries, whipped coconut cream
WOYWW – #630 – What’s on my desk (I’m number #35 in the linkup) Happy WOYWW!
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What a fun thing to try, though I don’t care for the avocadoes myself. So nice to see the kittens enjoying the good weather.
Hi Elle, thanks for your return visit. Yes, the kitties were super-cute as babies weren’t they! My hubby can never believe that he could hold them in his hands like that… Together they weigh over 14 pounds now, and you really feel it when you’ve got both of them on you! Being girls, they are smaller, but my goodness they do weigh a lot!
I think it was a great shame they discontinued the melt pots. Perhaps it was a bit of nanny-state-ism and they thought we’d all be burning ourselves or something! Anyway, I expect they come up on Ebay every now and then. That’s where I got mine, actually – although they were still in production at the time.
Thank you for your good wishes for Friday. All systems go now, and it is suddenly beginning to feel all too real…
Shoshi x
Well that inky process looks quite fascinating, who knew. The peonies are gorgeous, I think they have been particularly lovely this year here in the UK though I don’t grow them myself. Have a great week, Cindy #18
Your avocado ink looks most intriguing, Elle – a gorgeous colour. I had to laugh at your kitty lying like that on the cat tree! Your cat tree is exactly the same as ours, but ours is much more of a mess than yours – they have made holes in the fur fabric and some of the scratching posts are falling apart! Ruby is really the only one who uses it – she likes going in the little houses, and loves rushing up and down the tree when she’s having a fit of skitty kitty – the whole thing rocks about and I’m sure she’s going to tip it over one day! Your kitties are so beautiful.
Happy belated WOYWW,
Shoshi x #26
I’m running a little late this week… I love the idea of developing your own natural dyes/inks, and home grown strawberries are yummy! Love the kitties in their new home. The Happy belated WOYWW. Take care and stay safe, With love & God bless, Caro xxx (#29)
I apologize for being so late visiting. You have piqued my interest about avocado ink. Somehow, I thought you were going to explain it, but I will visit the internet to see what I can find and why the pits look like blueberries to me.
Loved the cat photos. My cats don’t climb, so they would never fight over the top shelf of anything. Those strawberries look great, but the herbal tea sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing your avocados and your herbal tea with us for T this week, dear Elle.
Sorry I’m late this week just got a bit distracted. The ink looks great. I used to do lots of naturally dying when I was teaching, again mostly on fabrics and I love the way you never quite know what colour things might turn out. Have a happy belated woyww, Angela x23x
Oops? did I post the comment before I was ready? Anyway, never mind what I said before, fabulous cats! Great Strawbrries! And! really great on the die!! Stay Safe! Happy Late WOYWW!? ((Lyn)) #6
Wow what fabulous looking ink Elle – I never knew that avocado seeds made such a great colour. Meow to the kitties! Stay safe and Happy WOYWW. Sarah #9
Happy Belated WOYWW. Avocado ink! That looks amazing. I cannot eat avocado (makes my IBS flare up for some reason), but now want to find someone who does and can save the seeds for me. So glad you drank the right red liquid! Thank you for sharing the fantastic kitty photos. Made me laugh. Ali x #15