Elderflower Wine Part I

A bucket of fresh elderflowers, picked while the sun shone on them, add 2 gallons of very hot water, sugar, lemon juice and raisins, stir. The kitchen is filled with the most wonderful smell, fresh and light with a slight perfume. I've added something to kill any bacteria, tomorrow I shall add the yeast and transfer into the fermenting bucket. Can't wait!
We're getting ready to say bye bye to Little Fink for a week, she's off to Scout camp in York on Saturday.
Mud-larking on Sunday was brilliant, the expert guide was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, lots of tat and rubbish brought back to sit in a box until the next time we go!

Here are some of the odds and ends Mr Fink and I collected - reading from left to right, top to bottom. Clay pipes - single use items, buy them pre-filled, smoke em and chuck em in the river. Mother of Pearl, pottery fragments. the donut object is a medieval pot lid, there is also a dark glass one, a glass rod, a couple of oyster shells (Victorian fast food) with strange square holes in, just under the centre pipe is a tiny fragment of Bellarmine Jug (the beard I think), the round stone with a hole in is a geode.

If you'd like to go Mud-larking, there are days in June where you don't need a licence and the expert is on hand, go to this website to find the dates. There is also a 'must not miss' opportunity to walk and look (no digging) for items on the beach outside traitors gate at the Tower of London in July. Check out the form here.

Thames Mudlarking - round 2

Myself, Mr Fink, Little Fink and Nanny will be going mudlarking on Sunday May 2nd. If you are interested in coming along, drop me an email and I'll send you the details of how to get your permit.
You'll need to phone up for the application form to be sent to you and return it with a passport sized photo and £12. So don't leave it too late. hornetfish@gmail.com
Bel xxx

Mudlarking

Just some of our finds, various bits of broken pottery and glass, clay pipes (one with an eagle's claw decoration and one with grape vine decoration), bullet, glass marble stopper, avocado stone and many others.

We arrived in London at 9am with our permits in our hot little hands, met up with some of the guys that offered to show us the ropes, some seasoned mudlarks and some new to it as we were. We made our way down a green and slimy staircase to the foreshore. it was gritty, stony and muddy. Everywhere we looked there were fragments of pottery, parts of white clay pipes, bent pieces of metal and bones. We scraped and dug (no deeper than 3 inches as permitted by our licences) and peered and examined. We found all manner of things, one of the experts called Little Fink over to look at some Tudor handmade pins he had uncovered, "where there are a group of these, you often find something else" he advised. Little Fink and Leethedig started digging and Little Fink found a Tudor clothes fastener, a decorated hook and eye affair. The experts were very appreciative of the find and said it out to be recorded on the UK finds database. Little Fink was made up! (Here's the link to the entry on the national database... (UK detecting database of finds)
We spent 4 hours on the foreshore and we enjoyed every minute of it, at every scrape of the trowel there was the opportunity of treasure, very exciting.
The people that had been before couldn't have been more helpful or generous with their knowledge, so informative and enthusiastic.
After we walked back to the vehicles and cleaned ourselves up, we spent a very agreeable afternoon chatting at the local pub in the glorious Spring sunshine.

We posted some pictures of the adventure on Facebook (Mrs Fink's pics) on the Detecting forum (detecting forum), today Leethedig told me that we had made it on to the Mudgod's website. He is the most well known of the Thames Mudlarks (they are the detecting club affiliated with the Museum of London and afforded special digging and location privileges). (Hardcore Mudlark website)
When I told Little Fink the news, she said, "I want to be a mudlark when I grow up."