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Hi Shaels, thanks for posting - I'll be interested to see how things go. I only brained mine for 24 hours, as I was afraid the damp and bacteria would make the fleece fall out - do you get that problem with yours? Or do you find it holds ok anyway? Is it very cold in Washington at the moment?

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66289&p=802891#post802891

Wow - thanks all. Sounds like it's most likely frog jelly then, and one of our local predators is eating them.

The jelly certainly looks like frogspawn without any eggs in it, but the jelly I've seen is nowhere near a pond and was in fairly large quantities - more than I'd have expected from one frog...though I'm not sure how much it would swell up after being removed from the frog's body? We do have...

Yes, there's lots of the lumpy jelly stuff. But the squiggly stuff I think you're probably right and they're intestines? It was separate to the lumpy stuff although around at the same time. Next time I see it, I'll take a photo of a larger area so you can see quantities a bit better.

Wow, mystery star-jelly! Amazing what people come up with when there is a hint of unknown - thanks locum76. I guess maybe the squiggly jelly could be frog intestines, as Jonathan suggests, I only saw one area of those. The other jelly is in rather large quantities and is up the top of one of our...

I've noticed bits of jelly lying around in tablespoon-sized heaps and wonder if any of you know what makes it? Mostly, it's lumpy jelly a bit like frog spawn with no eggs in it: but I did see one heap of squiggly jelly as well:

Absolutely beautiful! Stunning pics Josh and Stuart. Glad you guys had a good time. :D

I confess I didn't exactly follow the quantities in the recipe, but I seem to have made a successful black dye, so thanks for all your help John. I ended up putting a heap of rust and old nails I found in one of the sheds into an old aluminium pan with a load of vinegar, then filled the rest of...

You star John! That's really helpful :) Making dye is now in process. I picked an entire carrier bag full of oak galls, as they aren't doing my mother's oak trees much good so I figured I'd remove them from the trees. If anyone wants any to play with, let me know and I'll send some over...

Thanks John, that sounds like the stuff. I've got oak galls, rust and vinegar (I guess the rust acts as a mordant?). Haven't got gum arabic or pine resin - what do they do? Is it vital or can I get away without using the resin?

That's nice of your dad :) I guess it depends what you and your dad would enjoy doing together. Being as I've got a spare few minutes, I'll try and think of as many ideas as possible: Look out a map and go for a walk around a nice bit of countryside - your dad could treat you to a pub lunch...

Thanks nuggets - onion skins are usually known for yellow dye, but I guess it's worth a try.

I forgot to say that - I tried crushing some old walnut shells and boiling them up, but just got dark looking water that didn't stain. I think you need the fresh green husks to get the really dark dye?

I am currently carving a spoon shaped as a snake wrapped around a stick I'd like to stain the stick and the snake's eyes a darker colour. I tried painting them with coffee and tea, but that washed out...does anyone know any natural wood stains and how to apply them? Thanks! Susannah

Afraid it doesn't look safe to me either.

It's only as accurate as the contributions people make, so if their finger slipped and they missed out the decimal point, then it'll be a false reading. I still reckon it's an interesting map.

Having been with you last time, I know what I'm missing now...aaaarrrgggghhhh!! Some superb pictures there guys :D Glad you got back ok.

I found this the other day on the meteorological office website: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/observations/snow/map.html It's a map of snowfall over the UK, and you can contribute information from your own areas.

That's great farmershort, glad you like them too :)