Psychotropic qualities - Monday 23/08/10

Beer recipe research. Am keen to find homebrew recipes that don't require ingredients i don't have to hand i.e malt extract, hops, barley etc. To that end most of the morning and early afternoon was spent on the internet in the 'clamp'.
The only distraction came in the form of two boys who'd found a jar of vintage 2007 sauerkraut and were eager to make a stinkbomb using that and a crisp packet...
The only promising lead with recipes came from herbalbeers.com but aside from yarrow, i have no idea where to find mugwort or wormwood. Wormwood has psychotropic qualities so am most excited to hunt that badboy down!
Am on taxiing duties so off to Whitland to collect Ayres after his business trip.
Was rather intrigued by what had to say. How he's recently come to realise how in conversation, we all speak half truths. Not that we're dishonest but its also down to the questions we ask and are asked. One of these i personally have always had trouble with is "How are you?" And this is Ayres's point. Relative to what? "How are you?" - Well i'm not dead, so yes i might be considered medically sound. So the answer "I'm well" could be considered truthful...
Ayres's analogy was along the lines of observations or statements such as "It's cold isn't it" You might agree even though you perceive it to be warm. Again this can be measured but the question "Relative to what?" The Arctic? Hawaii? The Sun?!
That conversation has stuck with me and made me think.

I like that.

M Jones

Duvet Day - Wednesday 02/06/10

A famous Diarist by the name Pepys once wrote "a day unrecorded is a day wasted". I do agree to an extent, but i also think he was pretty biased towards his fact recording hobby. If it wasn't for Pliny the erm..Younger? Elder? one of them anyhow, the eruption of pompeii would remain that much more mysterious.
I have resolved henceforth to record my days activities. For posterity, for wealth (i think not), for fun, we'll see.

I am a 24 year old, currently employed with a partner and child. There are a fair few of us out there, thankfully, not all like me.

So. This morning, i overslept. Despite only being ten minutes after the time i should've arrived, i took a day for the queen, otherwise known as a duvet day... although there wasn't much duvet today. Took Emma, my partner, to work, then went about researching the recipe for nettle beer, and proceeded to pick 100 nettle tops. Why? Because i'm currently reading The Tree House Diaries
by Nick Weston and have taken it upon myself to test the recipes he describes.

Nettle beer

• 100 nettle tops (with leaves 4-6)
• 12 litres (2 ½ gallons)
• 1 ½ kg (3lb) sugar
• 50g cream of tartar
• 15g brewers or beer yeast

After my foraging i returned home to realise i was without Cream of Tartar. The whole 50g of it that was required. So off i went to town. The problem is i'm a great believer when it comes to burning my black gold aka fuel/oil in always getting more than one job done, so soon i had a long list. Chuck in some impulse buys like a wind up torch/charger, sixteen AAA batteries, a large stock pot, and by god you've just spent nigh on eighty pounds!

To make myself feel better for the expenses and todays loss of earnings, I've listed my 'as new' SAT Nav on eBay. Lets hope it does well!

My mate Luke popped up to kill time and help me scout a good campsite for this weekend. In the end we collected the women and made an evening of it by ordering pizza. The highlight also being my opportunistic shooting of a jackdaw perching on our aerial, sadly i only winged it. Before i could despatch it as quickly and humanely as possible, Bill, the nextdoor neighbours cat nicked it and finished it off somewhere in the bushes. Bugger me did the rooks and other jackdaws go NUTS! Was like a scene for 'The Birds'.

Knackered now and best not lose any more of next months paycheck!

M Jones