Your conference has highlighted so many important issues. Is there a plan to boil down the raw outputs into summaries, digests, recommendations to government etc? I haven't seen much commentary in the mainstream media yet.
Some shades I got from home-grown madder roots last year. I'll try to get some better ones using Turkish powdered madder this year
I thought you might like my thread on this subject.
bsky.app/profile/pmcg...
Seen in Ely yesterday. Heavy duty French flax hackle. I doubt anyone's hackled any flax round here for a good while.
This is Cory @doctorow.pluralistic.net at his lively, fluent, cheerful best, giving us all a much needed shot of optimism.
pluralistic.net/2026/04/20/p...
Some of last year's walnut husks still giving up some useful colour
Finally uncorked that flagon I'd labelled "Unknown Liquid."
Turns out it was a useful substance for creating an indigo/woad vat. Since it was collected at least a year ago, I may need to move that operation further down the garden :-)
www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/urine_i...
Treasure available
The visible spectrum concept is to colour what statistical probability is to language.
Pasque Flowers, Pulsatilla vulgaris, on the Devil's Ditch, Newmarket, contrasting with the Oil-seed Rape field behind. #WildflowerHour
Palantir: “There’s no time to debate the implications of this technology we need to beat China (where there is no free speech).”
It's also worth being clear about who's doing the arguing. Palantir sells operational software to defence, intelligence, immigration & police agencies. These 22 points aren't philosophy floating in space, they're the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it's advocating.
I wonder if it's possible to Brexit from "The West" - the concept eternally touted by Putin, Palantir and Trump but which no longer has any meaning at all.
Twelve small skeins of wool dyed in different shades of yellow. Top row, weld, bottom row goldenrod and dyer's greenweed.
First results of the new dyeing season. I used up some old dried materials from last year to make yellows.
Brighter hues when I harvest the new stuff in a month or so.
A large Qashqai rug in faded tones of Red, ponk, yellow and purple.
A corner of the Qashqai rug shown I'm detail
Central motif of the Qashqai rug shown.in detail
Rug of the Day
Heavy Qashqai Gabbeh
A big softie.
We don't normally see single colours defined by their singular wavelength, but tangible coloured objects from which we detect combinations of different wavelengths at the same time. In the case of magenta, this happens to be a mix of red and blue but not green. Uts real, not invented.
But magenta remains as tangible and useful as any other colour, fixed in food by dyeing with lá cám, or in textiles with fuchsine or in the printing and digital world through the CMYK system. I'd contend that the "visible spectrum" is the (limited) concept that the brain invented, not the colour.
I'm trying out three different shades of undyed 2-ply British wool yarns I got from a local weaver who makes blankets. Mostly Cheviot, Portland, and Wensleydale x four dyes x three different mordants x two modifiers. Theoretically, 72 shades! Will need notebook and pencil this year.
It's been building up over a few seasons. I think I might be able to dye properly this year!
Sorted out the old stuff in my dyeing shed ready for a new season of (more scientific) colour making. Watch this space
Useful Byzantine Pattern Book
Hmm.. Good leaders, focused on what matters to the majority of the population, delegate. I know newspapers need to be loud and contentious, but I prefer leaders who make the uncontentious progress that helps the whole economy. You could see Mandelson as a known quantity sacrificed on Trump's altar
Time well spent
Good man makes good point.
Interesting picture selling locally. Weaver on a four shaft handloom, presumably making twill. Her companion trying to keep up with input by winding pirns. Are they up early or working late?
It's also an historical curiosity that the chemical dye Fuchsine, rebranded as Magenta after the battle thereof, was as fugitive as its etymology. French rebranding of the Vietnamese food dye plant Lá cám as the "Magenta" Plant is a further linguistic frivolity.
I like that magenta is both commonly understood as a colour but also impossible.
You can make it with chemical and natural dyes. That "visible spectrum" idea and its application in rainbows is only one way to understand colours :)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchsine
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diclipt...
Big Data:
Did you order a Mayo Chicken meal deal (lettuce only, extra cheese) with nuggets from MacDs at CB5 8WL through Just Eat (03442437777), collected at 11.13 on 13th April by Uber (driver 371057172 on 08081785517), the fox enjoyed your leftovers and distributed the packaging around my garden.
I wonder if it would help if UK Defence Procurement tried crowd-funding some of the more appealong modern equipment like the Ukrainians do so successfully.
Important Work