I will give you some photos tomorrow. Meanwhile I have had my stitches out (after waiting over an hour in Clinic I was steered out for nurse to deal with them) and cleaned the bank and had my last trip into Oatlands for the weekend. I gather the work will be continuing through the night, though presumably won't involve the very big crane they are using.

The detour adds 10 minutes to the trip but goes through some lovely country so was worth the inconvenience. It is only one car wide, so I watched out for approaching plumes of dust and parked up off the road to let them by. You can only do this on one side of the road, however as the farmer seems to be gradually encroaching on the road reserve with his fences.

I have been admiring Vera's roses lately - they are blooming as they have never bloomed before. So this morning I wandered up the road with my trug and started dead-heading them, to collect petals for dyeing. Realising my every movement would undoubtedly be reported to Vera, I carefully picked a large bouquet which has subsequently been delivered to her at the nursing home. We had a nice chat and I now have permission to enter at will and pick what I want. So I went back and finished deadheading, with the result I have more petals than I know what to do with. So I am experimenting.

100g has been added to 50g of chopped rhubarb leaves, water added and 100g of yarn added (this is Patons Azalea in a pale cream colour which I have by the hundreds of grams). I will solar dye this lot. I gather rhubarb leaves give a mordant that does not distort the colour. Another 200g of petals is steeping in water for 36 hours following which I will add 100g of yarn and boil it for 40 minutes to see what happens. Then 50g will be added to some yarn soaked in copper mordant and solar dyed, some more will be dried to see if they retain their colour.

I will ferment some more of them in a 1-2 ratio of ammonia and water to see what colour happens.

The petals are being chopped (bruised) with the pizza wheel to release the colour faster.

I will doubtless continue this process tomorrow (winding off 25 gram balls of yarn into skeins is tedious and takes a lot out of your arms).