Whitsunday, weaving, red lentils continued.

 Yesterday I featured may, aka hawthorn, in my post title, followed by a picture. But evidently the meaning didn't carry over since I've had a couple of questions about what the flower is! It's may, folks! Not the month, the shrub.

And here's Edith Holden and Chaucer's take

Yesterday's blogging was full of glitches, but here's the catch-up on what blogger didn't save for reasons involving probably ny phone dropping the signal and blogger not liking some of the pictures.

I made the red lentil croquettes from various recipes on YouTube. They call them patties which I think is like that cooking babytalk crispy, yummy, melty, and I'd rather not.

The YouTube cooks all have food processors which I don't, but done in batches in the ancient blender it works fine. Pictures of the ingredients in the previous post.

I fried a couple, to go with the soup. It's all very artistic, there being cannellini beans in both soup and croquettes, also lentils in the soup. Echoes, as in painting where you introduce the colors all over to create harmony.

Anyway I fried a couple, rolled in panko crumbs 

And whoa are they filling. One would have done it. 

A couple of notes if you try these: they can take any amount of seasonings, being bland despite the ingredients, onions, carrots, parsley.  So don't hold back.

And, as you finish with tools and bowls, rinse them instantly. Red lentils harden to immovable in no time, and you'll hate me if you leave the dishes till later and need a drill to get the debris off.

These are also great for dipping in plain yogurt, which is what I'll do today, along with soup.

I baked the rest of the batch, 25 minutes at 385°f. 

They didn't brown, but did cook without falling apart, and they're in the freezer for future soup accompaniments. Or friendies, as babytalk cooks might say.

About falling apart, this can happen with red lentils. They're all set up in nice little cakes then, once they hit hot oil they collapse. That's why I added in the mashed cannellini beans, as a binder, which worked fine, and a sprinkling of flour. I let the mixture sit in the fridge about half an hour. So try that.

About weaving, I've learned a whole lot with this project, thanks to Joanne, Caro and a lot of YouTube videos. 

Here's where we are, a few more inches to complete panel two.

You'll notice that it's falling into regular stripes. That's because I didn't do any fancy stuff with the weft as I did on the first one, which disturbed the stripe pattern. I liked it and with four more panels, I can do the fancy weft again.

I'm also getting better selvedges for two reasons, one the tip from J and C about threading through holes at both edges, not slots.

The other is that I realized that the advice to slant the weft threads at 45° before beating down applies to wider fabric than this. 

You do that angle so as to accommodate the under/over path of the thread across the warp. If you just traveled straight across, the warp threads would be drawn in and you'd get an ever narrowing fabric.

But here's what I've found works much better for this yarn and this width, a smaller angle

This way I get a firm straight selvedge with a lot less trouble and tugging about. Another one of the things you find out as you go, like learning your own rhythm and how it works.

Speaking of which, remember my discovery of whistling? I've been trying it now and then and find  I can definitely whistle, a lot of tunes. Not a big range, and not always dead in tune, but I can do it. Even chromatics!! 

So I'm adding it to my list of instruments! Piano, violin, flute, recorder, voice and WHISTLING! Taking bookings for June weddings. I can do you a tuneless Mendelssohn's Wedding March. No? Everyone's a critic. 

On to less consequential things, today is Whitsunday, the original reason Brits and other European folk have a Bank Holiday. 

Also known as pentecost, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles sitting around glumly after the Ascension. 

They were wondering what now? He went off and now who'll give us the user manual? Which the Paraclete, another name, came down with tongues of fire, and did, and they went from there. Or so I'm told. 

Big feast in the English Catholic church, processions around the church, kids in white dresses or shirts and shorts.   Illegal for Catholics to process outside the building even on church grounds  without special hardwon permits. One of the laws passed during the reformation and still in force.

Moving right along, that doesn't apply to the municipal Whit Walks I learned about when I was at uni in Manchester. They're pretty secular, but still in white and with social backing as you see

All caught up now, unusual for Memorial Day  weekend to coincide with Whit. The second follows the Church calendar, seven Sundays after Easter, rather than the secular calendar of the first, which is the last Monday in May. 

Official summer opening of the Jersey shore, pools, park passes, summer concerts, all that. Bracketed in early September by Labor Day, where a lot of things close back down again.

So that's us all caught up, and I had other thoughts about Padraig O'Tuama and time, but I'll save that. Enough for one day.

Happy day everyone, weather permitting!