bonded

I do not allow him to be torn from me without immense grief (if I may say so) and to be separated from my sight across such great distances of land and sea.
000000But, on the other hand, because love knows no cost, nor faith any detriment, and no distances on earth separate those whom the bond of true love binds, I have most willingly agreed to the request made by you, to whom I can deny nothing; nor do I begrudge [it] to you in whose advancement I rejoice as in my own. For I know that one God [love] is being served in all places... whether it is [here] or across the sea.

-- from the letter of Fulco, Archbishop of Rheims, to King Alfred of Essex, c.886

ginger beer!

I don't know why I felt the need to take pictures of the whole process, but I did

grating the skin of two lemons and a large ginger root

lemon, ginger root and sugar in an air-tight plastic barrel

with water and yeast added... yes, it looks appetizing, I know. Then left for apox. 48 hours

rinsing and sterilizing glass bottles with water and thin bleach (then rinsing again, thoroughly!)

'priming' the bottles - adding a half-tea-spoon of sugar to each empty bottle before adding the beer. This lets the drink continue carbonating in the bottle

filling the bottles from the barrel above on the worktop with a simple hose - the pressure feeds the beer into the bottle easily...

...well, except for the last bit which I filtered and poured by hand

capping the bottles with fresh crown caps

and the finished crop: roughly 15 pints of ginger beer :)

a response

Choosing sunrise

after ‘Eternity’, Blake

He who the winged life destroys
Has only force which to employ;
But he who waits will ache and yearn
Yet see his joy, perhaps, return

I choose sunrise

 He who binds to himself a joy
 Does the winged life destroy;
 But he who kisses the joy as it flies
 Lives in eternity’s sun rise.


    -- 'Eternity', William Blake