Soggy Saturday

It's grey and horrid here today; we have seen some sun but it's long gone now. We've played with the hamster and put her in the dolls' house where she explored and happily did not relieve herself. Mr DC is off singing and the Smalls and I have exhausted all the usual Saturday options, so we decided to dig through the kitchen cupboards to make a teatime treat. The health police
need to look away now.





All this and Lenny Henry as Othello on Radio4 - oh Lordy, he's just done for Desdemona. And now I am off to clean the kitchen floor (again!)

Dancing raisins

I have Tall Small with me today - she had a tummy bug which is all better now but our school sensibly has a 24 hour quarantine policy after little ones stop throwing up, so she is feeling fine but stuck with me.

What to do? We've done multiplication squares and fed the birds, and then she asked to 'do some science'. Well, am I likely to say no?

So, here's a old but good recipe to entertain a small not-very-ill person:

Take one glass and fill with something clear and fizzy - we used tonic water but lemonade or soda water would be fine too.


Add a raisin.


Watch as bubbles of carbon dioxide form on it and carry it up to the surface. The bubbles will burst and the raisin will fall, and then rise again, and fall again over and over till the liquid goes flat.


And if one raisin is fun, why not try a handful?


Just don't try to drink it afterwards ...

Edited to expand the science bit:

Fizzy drinks fizz because the CO2 in them only stays in solution whilke the drink is under pressure in the bottle or can; when you open the can the CO2 comes out of solution and escapes as bubbles of gas. The raisin - or indeed anything else - forms a nucleation point for the bubbles to get caught on. Once enough bubbles are formed on the raisin, it becomes buoyant and floats up to the surface. When the bubbles reach the surface of the drink the CO2 can escape into the air and the forces holding the raisin up are overcome by gravity so it sinks again. Hope that's a bit clearer!

Seven ways to make me feel special

In the dark days at the end of last year I signed up for Ali's Seven Days of Specialness swap, along with half the blogosphere, it seems! My partner was Jo from French Knots, and she put together a fab package of gorgeousness for me - well, seven packages actually. I was amused to realise we had both forgotten to label our carefully wrapped packages with the order in which they should be opened, and found it even funnier that we'd independently chosen the same wrapping method - pink tissue and pretty ribbons! Clearly we were well paired :-)

Shall I show you? Oh, go on then.


Sleepy tea (invaluable last night as the smalls shared my bed and wriggled); a lovely little tin for buttons and beads; an adorable tiny embroidered picture which is now by my bed; a buttony heart to cheer up the kitchen; some flower seeds ready for me to reprise my Sarah Raven impersonation of last year.


A proper needlebook, and I know it's mine because it has my name on it; and a tiny, beautiful thimble with a hidden panel of exquisitely small embroidery. Jo says she did it herself but I think she must have a stitching fairy as I'm not sure how else she could see to make such minute stitches!

Thanks Jo, your parcel made an otherwise grey and dull week seem like the first week of spring; and thank Ali for being a swap organising genius!



PS If you want to see what I sent Jo has posted about it here. But you should go and visit her anyway, because she's lovely!