Textiles and Tea, fungi. Misfits and snowdrops

Textiles and Tea this week featured Deborah Chandler who helped found WARP, Weave a Real Peace, and wrote a classic book for beginning weavers. 

She's in Guatemala where she now lives permanently, her signal was weak and intermittent, so I just managed these pictures, with enough information for you to follow up if you would like to, both WARP and her book well worth checking.

Then Misfits box arrived on yet a different day. They're so flexible with delivery that I just order when I need to now rather than on a regular day.

And the chickpeas will be today's lunch, a chickpea stew recipe from Spain on a Fork, involving what you see here

Almonds and the last of the garlic are in the bowl. First I need to make a vegetable stock from the bag of trimmings in the freezer.

Then this little box arrived

The tiny bags of tiny snowdrop bulbs to plant, probably today, as my sister's tiny memorial. They're wildly expensive, hence the small number. 

The one person who would have cracked up laughing at the tiny miniature memorial is the person in whose honor I'm doing it.  So that's a bonus.

On yesterday's walk I saw this fungus, newly emerged, wasn't there two days ago, spectacular color couldn't miss it. 

I guessed it was Chicken of the Woods, an edible fungus supposedly with a chicken-like texture, though I didn't test it. It's a form of bracket fungus, from the growth pattern.

When I came to check my little beginner books at home I found they were a fat lot of use. The Chatto one supposedly for beginners, assumes you already know the botanical name before you check, no common names or help

The little Golden Book not much better

A good picture and a different version of the name.

Finally a site about wild food came through with the common name 

I wonder if the others were terrified of liability if they gave the common name and someone ate a wrong one and disaster ensued.  I know fungus people are very careful about descriptions for safety reasons.  However this one's pretty unmistakable, pretty much no look-alikes.

Anyway I'll visit this one again to see if it develops. 

And I'll leave you with this peaceful corner of a neighboring garden

Happy day everyone, may all your memorials be tiny and powerful.