Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

More on tiny carpets

This week I have been working on the second tiny carpet. Here is the design I made, adapted from an image I found on Pinterest.

Beginning the design. This time, I didn’t attempt to start in the middle. I knew the finished dimensions exactly, and just counted out the threads and worked the outline in dark red. I decided against the black on the design, because I am going to work the background for the whole needle book cover in black and I wanted to show the edge of the carpet. It was then a simple matter to begin working the border. Any extraneous bits of  design in the centre were just to use up what was left on the needle at the time. After working the border, I began on the central dividing line motif. Working with a #26 tapestry needle instead of the really fine #28 is working really well – no breakages, and it goes through with no problem.

The border and the mapping out of the “lozenges” complete, and beginning to fill them in.

All the red and black work complete.

Beginning with the green.

The green and yellow completed.

The final stage, beginning to work on the cream. I was hoping to complete this tiny carpet to show you this week but unfortunately couldn’t quite manage it.

Shoshi’s swollen head

This week I got a new bit of equipment, a head magnifier – does this mean I’m getting swollen headed? – I hope I’m not!! It’s an illuminated magnifier that you wear on your head. I have a standard lamp with a goose neck, with a magnifier surrounded by LED lights but it’s hard to get the angle right, and it ties me to working in the sitting room. I was looking for something that I could wear on my head, and I came across the MagnixFrame, which I duly ordered.

In the box was a sheet of instructions (not brilliant – obviously written by someone for whom English was not their first language), the head magnifier unit, a set of interchangeable lenses of different magnifying strength (with a natty little cleaning cloth – nice touch), and either arms, or an elastic head band depending on your choice. I have opted for the head band as it proved more comfortable.

The angle of both the light, and the lenses, is adjustable, as is the length of the head band. The switch for the light is on the top. The bright LED light is powered by three AAA batteries.

There is a nose bracket which is slightly flexible for adjustment, with rubber pads. However, I have found this quite uncomfortable and have experienced some difficulty adjusting it so that after prolonged wear, my nose doesn’t get sore. I attached some felt pads, using double-sided foam tape, and these have helped a bit, but I think this is the least satisfactory part of the whole apparatus, which apart from this, is absolutely brilliant. To start with, I tried laying a piece of felt across my nose, but all that happened was that it got in my eyes and I couldn’t see out!!

The lenses come in a nice little plastic box, with slots to keep them separate, and to prevent them getting scratched. There is room on top for the cleaning cloth.

Apart from this box, there was nothing else provided to keep the whole thing in, apart from the packaging it came in, so I rooted around among my things and found a nice little blue zip-up case which it fits into perfectly, with room to spare. I could also probably fit in a small project, but at present I’m keeping all the stuff I need in a polywallet.

I can keep the instructions and the arms in the pocket in the lid.

Here it is in use. I look like something out of Star Trek. (Sorry about the lens flare…) You can see what a nice bright little light it is.

One of the great advantages of this apparatus is that you can wear it over your normal glasses. In the past, I have tried those magnifying/reading glasses that you can buy over the counter, and they just give me a headache, because they do not correct for my astigmatism. Another great thing is that you can flip the whole lens/light assembly up in a series of clicks if you want them out of the way for normal vision, without having to remove the whole unit. However, I have found that I can look up, between the lenses and the head part, through my own glasses, and still see perfectly, so I can look up and down between my work and the TV, or at my hubby if I want to look at his ugly mug!! (No, he’s not really ugly!)

I am thrilled with this new piece of kit. For this project I am using the middle-range magnifying lens but I’ve got plenty of choice if I’m doing other things that require either stronger or weaker magnification. Changing them over is very simple – they just click into place. Highly recommended.

Food

Recipe of the Week

A few weeks ago I shared a hotchpotch of recipes that I’d made into my own, for spiced wraps. Today I’m going to share with you one of the recipes that inspired this.

Harissa Roasted Vegetable and Hummus Wraps

The original recipe has a lot of harissa paste in it, and it makes it fiery hot! Last week when I made this I reduced the amount to 2 teaspoons but my hubby said it was a bit hot for his taste – personally I loved it and could have eaten it all again! So I shall reduce the amount to a single teaspoonful next time, just to please him!

I used some of my home-made hummus made from almond pulp left over from making almond milk, but any hummus would do. This time I also added a few toasted pine nuts and some chopped green olives for a bit more texture and flavour. I made a leafy green salad to accompany the wraps, made with Romaine lettuce and baby spinach, and added a few chopped herbs from the garden, 2 or 3 chopped walnuts, a small handful of raisins, and because the fancy took me at that moment, a few chopped frozen blueberries. I dressed it with some orange hummus dressing I had made previously and which is being stored in the fridge. Basically you can add anything you want to this recipe, and you can include different vegetables too, if you have some that need using up.

This time I didn’t roast the veggies in the oven but dry sautéed them, deglazing the pan periodically with some veg stock, and stirring in the harissa paste towards the end. I did pop the dishes with the completed wraps in them into a low oven before adding the salad and garnish, because I prefer them hot.

I love a good wrap! (Is Shoshi turning into a rapper? Just a thought…)

Nutrition

Thinking a lot about my hubby’s cholesterol recently, I thought I’d mention one of the major contributors to high LDL cholesterol (the dangerous one) in the standard Western diet – eggs. Eggs are brilliant food – for growing chicks! We simply don’t need all that saturated fat and cholesterol. We don’t need all that protein either – this can easily be obtained in sufficient quantities from green vegetables and legumes (peas and beans), and nuts and seeds. People talk a lot about protein, and if us vegans/whole-food plant-based folks got a pound or a dollar for every time someone asks, “But where do you get your protein?” we’d be millionaires! It is a fact, though, that absolutely nobody in the West (apart perhaps from people suffering from anorexia nervosa)  ever turns up at a doctor’s surgery suffering from protein deficiency. It only occurs in people suffering from starvation. Actually, the standard Western diet provides far more protein than we need, and most of that is derived from animal sources which are extremely deleterious for health.

But I digress. Back to eggs.

One of the problems with vegan, and whole-food plant-based living, is managing without eggs, not just to eat as eggs (boiled, scrambled etc.) but because of their useful properties in baking. They have a binding effect and in their absence, vegan recipes can sometimes be less than satisfactory, and even fall apart.

There are lots of egg substitutes. My favourite is:

Chia seeds

These little seeds are quite remarkable. Small but mighty! Chia is the ancient Mayan word for “strength.” If you soak them in water, they exude a gelatinous substance and end up looking a bit like frogspawn – I know, doesn’t sound very appetising, does it… I use white chia seeds rather than the regular brown ones when I make my sugar-free marmalade, and they don’t show up so much – with the brown ones, it looks as if it’s full of ants.

You can use the whole seeds, or you can grind them if you want – they will soak up liquid more quickly when ground, of course. I do this when I’m making pancakes and biscuits, which fall apart without anything to bind them, and the chia seeds work a treat. MUCH better than eggs – no cholesterol, no saturated fat, BUT… packed with loads of fibre and other vital nutrients, as are flax seeds (which you can also use as an egg substitute). For a substitute for a single egg, you need 1 tablespoon of ground chia seeds and 3 tablespoons of water.

This is what the Harvard School of Public Health website has to say about chia seeds.

Kitties

Lily says, “I do like to be ON something.” They seem to love anything that provides a boundary around them – even a loop of cable on the floor will do!

What your legs are really for:

However, 24 hours later, Ruby was deeply asleep on my hubby’s leg again, and she did fall off – and landed with a bump on the floor! A rude awakening, and also rather undignified!

Clothes

Something really, really old this week! I bought this asymmetrical top many years ago in Totnes and it’s been a firm favourite ever since. I am wearing it over a pair of thin trousers that I bought last summer in a high street boutique (sorry, can’t remember which – possibly Dorothy Perkins?) and a scarf I bought around the same time which just happens to be a good match. I am also wearing some extremely-el-cheapo plastic beads and a pair of dark blue dangly earrings.

The trousers have really nice gathered pockets with a tie, and a sheared elastic waist. This shearing is also around the ankles.

Navy blue socks to finish off the outfit this week.

I asked my hubby to photograph me in front of the gladioli which are now all coming into glorious flower.

Here is a photo taken of me wearing it at Castle Drogo, way back in 2003!! I’ve had it at least that long and probably quite a bit longer. Those were the days before I got fat. The top is large enough that I was still able to wear it during my fat years, but I feel a lot happier in it now that I’ve slimmed off again. I am holding Humphrey, my little platypus that my hubby gave me in 1995 when I was in hospital having my hysterectomy. He will be 25 this year! He looks a bit more threadbare these days. (Unbelievably, I’ve still got the same glasses! I’ve had the lenses changed a few times and they always pull a face when I ask them to use my old frames, but they always do it for me. I just happen to like them!)

Health update

Bladder

After a week of not hearing anything from the physio, I emailed her again. She immediately replied, saying she had not received my first email.

She agreed I shouldn’t have to complete the long questionnaire and bladder diary the Bladder and Bowel Service sent me. She said she’d sent them a detailed referral with all my medical history, and said all I needed to do was send them a copy of my original bladder diary. I agreed to do this, along with a covering letter. This has now gone off. I am hoping they will send me an appointment for a bladder scan soon. She also asked me to make another telephone appointment with her, and this is happening tomorrow afternoon. We will discuss how I am getting on with my regimen of voiding every two hours.

Parastomal hernia

I contacted the complaints department at the Exeter hospital back in January after I’d got lost in their system. I blogged about this at the time. They replied that they would send me a response within 45 days but of course the lockdown intervened, and I didn’t expect to hear anything for ages. However, it is now six months, so I have emailed them again, reminding them that I am still here, and hoping that I had not slipped under their radar yet again, and wondering whether I would ever get my operation. So far I have not had a response – not even an automated one. I realise that my operation isn’t considered urgent but it is now 18 months since my initial referral.

Have a great creative week, everybody.