Kept Her Quiet for an Hour or Two

First there was that bit with the knife, the bit that makes all the little wood chips on the balcony.  Then there was some scratching away with sand paper and finally a rub over with rice bran oil.  All that work for this.

Then there was the digging out of string.  She opted for this big ball of brown stuff.

You can see that bleaching bone in the edge of this picture, so if you have read a week's worth or so of this blog you know we went to the butcher and got that bone last week, and can work out that this shuttle bobbin thing dates back a week or so.

Mr B made the little gauge thing.  That cobweb of string eventually became a bag that is currently being explored by some oranges.  A bigger version of the same thing accompanied us to the butcher's shop this week.  

Wrapped in butcher paper, my chicken explored the inside of that one on the way home.  

The butcher's wife (who mans ...womans?...the till, collecting money as customers exit the shop) got lost in excitement over the string bag when F declined the plastic one and produced this to receive the wrapped chook.  Maybe her Grandma had one and she was doing lost in nostalgia..  Whatever she was saying had the word 'old' in it - several times.

"It's a string bag, lady. Now gimme the chicken..."  Of course F didn't say that - she politely smiled (behind her mask) and tried to explain she made it.  I was thinking it though: "Stop messing about and load the chicken."

And because someone asked: here's a link to spiral net bag making. Uber-tuber has loads of this stuff.  I know because I have closely supervised the finding of and skipping through a few of them.  (A second shuttle bobbin thing got made and Mr B has been tying knots in bits of string too.  I tell you lockdown has a lot to answer for.)