Lime Mint Syrup
Adapted from a recipe in Topp  & Howard, The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving
Makes .25 pint

Ingredients
3 limes
.5 c white wine
.5 c sugar
1/3 c torn fresh mint leaves

Method
Zest all three limes with a microplane.
Juice the limes, setting 1.5 tbs juice aside in a bowl.
Heat wine, sugar, mint and zest in a sauce pan.
Bring the ingredients to a boil, uncovered, over medium high heat.
Cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the stove top and let the syrup cool completely.
Strain the syrup through fine mesh into a glass jar.
Strain the lime juice into the jar through the same sieve and compost the remnants.
Incorporate the juice into the syrup with a small wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
The lime mint syrup will actually look like a small pot of gold!
Store any left-overs in a well-sealed container.

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Today, we finished reading and illustrating our book,  A Study in Emerald. To celebrate, we munched on Frogwiches (homemade gingerbread sandwich cookies), and we made sock puppets of all the major characters in our story. When the kids were done, we got out the old doorway puppet theatre I made way back before Bea was born, and they put on a puppet production of the story!  I’ve posted a Gallery of pictures just below, and a DIY/How-to for the puppets at the bottom of the page. 

 Snake Sock Puppet Gallery

Sir Lochrann Holmes and Seann McUaitson

Detectives Gallagher and Na’Sraide

Siobhan/Cailloan and Haggerty

The Pythons: Strangerson and Drebber

Wiggins, the snake-urchin and Mrs. Houghston, the landlady

Mrs. Limerick and her son, David

Irene Adder
 
The Nest
(Seann Clancy was not availble for a photo today.)

Our Puppet Theatre from 2003 is still in use!
 
The puppets in action!
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DIY Snake Sock Puppets

Supplies

Socks
Googly Eyes
Ribbon
Hot Glue and Gun
A large, old wooden or metal spoon

Method
Choose a pairs of googly eyes, and a few inches of ribbon into a forked tongue for each puppet.

Wiggle the sock down over a large old spoon.

Glue eyes just below the seam at the foot of the sock.
 
Flip spoon around so that you can’t see the eyes/seam of the sock.
Glue about 1 inch of the ribbon down, pattern side down down the centre towards the tip.

Let cool for a moment before removing the puppet from spoon.
 
Play!

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Summary: A Study in Emerald, Chapter Seven, A Light in the Darkness 
Na’Sraide shares the details of Strangerson’s murder.  Since he hasn’t returned to the serpent police station yet, he has some of the evidence from the crime-scene with him.  Insepcting a bakery box of Amphibian Farls, which, unlike Mrs. Houghston’s lovely frog breads, appear to be full of small bones and soaked in what appears to be some kind of syrup, Holmes exclaims that he has solved the case.  He then feeds the farls to McUaitson’s pet doormouse, Edgar Allen, in order to test his theories, exulting in the dramatic conclusio to the old mouse’s life (no worries, he’s packing an antidote!). Gobsmacked, Gallagher and Na’Sraide appeal to Holmes to reveal the name of the culprit.  Rather than naming the murderer, however, Holmes, with the help of the street-urchin Wiggins, lures the culprit right up into the coiling-room of 221B Barrow street.  But who dunnit, in the end? And who was the murderer’s wily, female-snake of an accomplice?  And just why were they bent on seeking “Revenge”? You didn’t think we were going to let the snake out of the bag, did you?  …. Ah now, you’ll just have to wait for us to edit and publish our story… We WILL tell you, however, that while the case comes to a full resoultion, A Study in Emerald concludes with the suggestion of a fresh new adventure for McUaitson and Holmes. Later that morning, the mysterious Eireen Adder steals her way into the coiling-room at 221B, begging for assistance… It seems she thinks she’s being followed.

Cover Art & Illustrations

Tobes:

Book Cover, A New Portrait of Sir Lochrann Holmes

Amphibian Farls Soaked in Poison

Edgar Allen on his little throne

Haggerty in a Neck-cuff

Bea:

Book Cover, the Pythons, Strangerson and Drebber, on a ferry to Ireland

Eireen Adder, A Very Special Portrait

Sir Lochrann Holmes in a thought bubble or a thinking fog…

Edgar Allen must choose between two Amphibian Farls
“Let’s see which one he eats.”

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We’re on day four of our five day Illustrate-Your-Own Book  project. The kids have been trying different artistic techniques each day to create illustrations for the story I wrote for them, The Adventures of Sir Lóchrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald.  Today, after we made our Python Masks, we read chapter six (of seven) out loud to Blaise, who was home for the day.  Since I had to leave for an appointment, he took charge of the illustrations. Now, he’s actually an artist, so today’s explorations of  MIXED MEDIA proved to be the kids’ best efforts to date!!!  Illustrations to follow today’s plot summary, as usual. 

Summary: A Study in Emerald, Chapter Six, “Tobias Gallagher Shows What He Can Do” 
McUaitson discusses the contents of his scrapbook: news coverage of the crime. The serpent papers, the television news, and the online community were in a frenzy about the “Wolfe Tone Mystery.” First and foremost, they wonder about the presence of a Python in Ireland. Then, they increase the tension by revealing that the murdered Python, Drebber, had a secretary named Strangerson who may yet be on the loose in Dublin. The two pythons stayed at the boarding house of a Mrs. Limerick, near the docklands.   Next, Holmes then receives a visit by a whole knot of street snake urchins who inform him that they haven’t yet found the serpent he is looking for.  Just as the urchins disperse to go back to their spying, Gallagher arrives, claiming that he has arrested the murderer, young David Limerick, and laughing at his colleague Na’Sraide, who has gone off after Strangerson. Gallagher reports that during his visit to Mrs. Limerick’s boarding house, Mrs. Limerick’s daughter, Cailloan, convinces her mother to “Tell the truth” to him.  Mrs. Limerick confesses that the afternoon before the murder, her son David chased Drebber out of the house with a Shillelagh after he found an inebriated Drebber assaulting his mother in the coiling room.  The young Limerick’s alibi for the time of the murder is a lie, Gallagher claims. Just as Gallagher is wrapping up the conversation about his prisoner, Na’Sraide enters with news that he has just found the other python, Strangerson, dead in a rooming house near the ferry dock.     

Illustrations

Tobes:

Tobes shows David Limerick wielding his Shillelagh.
Oil Pastel, watercolour, and ink transfer.

One of the Barrow Street Snake Urchins
Watercolour (painted over a tape image of a snake),
Oil Pastel (to fill in snake), and paper collage (buildings).

McUaitson’s scrapbook of media coverage of the mystery.
Paper and oil pastel.

Tobes and Papa:

Sargeant Gallagher eats a frog sanwich cookie and explains the mystery.
Dyed Paper, Construction Paper, crayon, watercolour, and oil pastel.

Bea:

Holmes pays a street urchin for his troubles.
Watercolour, crayon, and oil pastel.

McUaitson reading his scrapbook of case memoribilia.
Watercolour, oil pastel, crayon, and ink.

Warrior Python inflicting damage.
Watercolour

 
“Snakesung” brand television, tuned to the “Fork-Tongue Channel,” where the anchor reports a murder, with and inset video of the crime scene over at Wolfe Tone Stret.
Collage, crayon, oil pastel, watercolour.

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I

DIY Python Masks

Supplies
Stiff Watercolour OR Plain Paper
Watercoulours and Brushes OR Markers, Paints, Crayons, etc
A few feet of Elastic OR string
Scissors
Computer/Printer or Permanent Marker
My Hand-drawn Template: (just right-click on the image to the side and copy)

Method
Copy and print out the template on watercolour paper you’ve cut down to 81/2×11 size or plain paper.  OR,  Hand-draw a similar mask with permanent marker on watercolour or plain paper.
Watercolour the mask, or use the art supplies of your choice. You’ll notice that the printer ink will mix with the watercolours in interesting ways.

Let Dry.

Cut out the mask via its outline.
 
Bend the paper slightly to create an incision in each dark eye.
Cut a large circle around the black eye circle. You may want to place the mask up to the face at this point and adjust by making the eye holes a bit larger towards the centers or faraway sides. We made ours pointier at the top.

Use the tip of the scissors or a skewer to make a small hole in or near the dark circles on either side of the mask.
Insert elastic or string in one of the holes from front to back.

Knot several times at back of mask and then pull taught.
 
Insert other end of elastic or string in the hole on the front of the other side of the mask.

Raise mask to face and pull elastic or string tight enough to hold mask to face without either slipping  off or pinching too tight.
Place a mark on the elastic/string if so desired.
Knot elastic or string at back of mask.
 
Trim the free ends of the elastic or string near the knots.
Enjoy!

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To go with the Snake Detective Mystery I wrote for the kids to illustrate,  The Adventures of Sir Lochrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald, (we’re on chapters Chapters 4&5), we made Necktie Bean-bag Snakes today!  We also had a fantastic snakey lunch, complete with home baked salt and vinegar chips, snakewiches, and shakes…you’ll find that on the bottom of the page!

Back to the snakes…The kids named their snakes after characters in the book. Tobes chose, “Seann McUaitson,” our Irish serpent version of John Watson, of course. And, Bea chose  “Irene Adder,” who makes a cameo in the second chapter of our book and (little does Bea know) shows up at the “tail-end” of our story with the promise of a new adventure. The kids can’t stop cuddling their snakes and walking arond with them wrapped over their shoulders like circus performers!
    

DIY Necktie Bean-Bag Snakes

Supplies

Neckties (We found St. Pat’s themed ties at the $tore!)
Plastic Googly Eyes
Scissors
Ribbon or Red Duct Tape Folded over on itself.
Sewing Machine or Needle and Thread or Coloured Duct Tape
Hot Glue
Dried Split Peas, Lentils or other small beans, about 4-6 cups per snake
Wide funnel or paper cone.
Meauring Cup
UPDATE: Red or Green Duct Tape for wounded snakes.

Method

1a. For an only partially lined tie like our dollar store model (there’s only lining below the wide front tip), invert the narrow tip at the opposite end of the tie, and sew the tie closed at an angle
  
OR
1b. For a fully lined tie, Do nothing

2a. For an unlined tie, just open up the tie.
OR
2b. For a fully lined tie, use scissors or a seam ripper to open a small opening in the lining of the widest part of the tie at the tip.

3. Insert a wide funnel or a paper cone  into the hole in the lined tie or into the center of the unlined tie.

4. Use a measuring cup to spoon dried beans into tie until it is full within an inch or so of the opening.
 

5. Cut a forked tongue out of ribbon or folded duct tape.

6a.1 If your tie is partially lined like ours, pull out the lining and sew it in a “rectangle” shape as below.
 
6a.2Then, turn the tie. Punch in or  invert the rectangle so that the fabric will lie flat against the tie. Pull this fabric towards you slightly and, without sewing through the front of the tie, sew across that straight line as if it is the lower lip or jaw of a mouth.

6a.3Sew the non-forked end of the tongue on the top half of this seam.

6a.4Shaking beans down away from the snake’s head, sew this seam down flat against the V of the tie to secure tongue and excess material.

6a.5 flip snake over and top stitch its V if so desired.

OR
6b. If your tie is lined, insert the non-forked end of the tongue and sew the opening closed.

7. Hot glue googly eyes on the “head” of the snake where you see fit. 
 

8. If you want a “rattler,” you can wrap duct tape around the tip of the tail for the desired effect. Our snakes are grass snakes, so it just wouldn’t do!

Et voila!
     

UPDATE: The seams on one of our dollar store ties weren’t the best, so we ended up placing red duct tape over the seams on the belly of Tobe’s snake. It seemed only fitting that our “McUaitson” would sustain an injury so soon, seeing as he’s injured at the beginning of our story, too!

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…And Lunch: We wanted to post some pictures of the fancy lunch we made today!
 

We tried the fantastic recipe for Oven-fried Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips over on the http://www.WendySeeWendyDo.com blog. I don’t think we dried our slices enough, and I think we cooked them for too long…but they still tasted fantastic! We also made indvidual sub sandwiches into a snake by adding pimento-green-olive-eyes and roasted red pepper tongue and tail. And, the kids had Shamrock-Green Vanilla and Lovely Chocolate Shakes, both with Mint Garnish, for an extra-special treat!
 
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Today, after we made our Necktie Bean-Bag, Snakes, the kids illustrated Chapters 4 and 5 of our book, The Adventures of Sir Lochrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald,  using Pointillism, Gel Pen Strokes (or, the kids named it, Picture Pixels), and a few of their own tricks.  I showed them an example of “Marker Pointillism” by dotting out a snake of my own. Tobes asked if he could do his Pointillism with Oil Pastels (his fast favourite medium of the week), and I agreed. I also asked them to employ a similar technique with gel pens. With each different colour gel pen, you would use a different small image – a circle, a star, a dash – drawing tens or hundreds of those tiny images to create a portrait of a scene. Bea loved the idea, but Tobes was a little overwhelmed by it, and chose to do more work with the Oil Pastels. Their illustrations follow today’s plot summaries, as usual. Only two chapters to go!!!!

Summary: A Study in Emerald, Chapter Four, What Seann Clancy Had to Tell
Holmes and McUaitson travel by illuminated cab to dingy Lower Exchequer Street to visit Seann Clancy, the constable who discovered the body of the python in the abandoned house in Blarneyston Gardens. During the drive, McUaitson asks Holmes how he came upon the idea that the serpent who had killed the python was of a certain length, had a certain shape and texture of tail, and smoked a certain brand of cigar. Holmes also reveals that the murderer and the victim traveled to the scene in an illuminated with 3 old tires and 1 new. McUaitson is once again awed by Holmes’ reasoning.  At Clancy’s flat, Holmes questions the constable about what he saw and heard around the time of the discovery. Clancy brings new evidence to light when he reveals that a drunken serpent was singing and lollygagging about the fence beside the house  just after his discovery of the body. Suggesting that the murderer must have attempted to return to the scene of the crime for the tail-ring found near the python’s body, Holmes reprimands Clancy for letting the murder slip right from the grip of his coil.

Summary: A Study in Emerald, Chapter Five, Our Advertisement Brings a Visitor
Holmes slithers off to listen to an afternoon recital below a famous concert hall while McUaitson travels back to the flat to rest. He can’t rest, howeve. He can’t stop recalling the dreadful, evil looking face of the murdered python and wondering about the identity of the python’s murderer and his rationale.  When Holmes returns, he shows McUaitson an advertisement in the “Found” section of a newspaper, an ad he says he has placed in all the papers and online. Holmes has purchased a ring that looks remarkably like the one discovered on the crime scene, and he hopes to attract the murderer to their own apartment by promising its return to the serpent who “dropped” it on Wolfe Tone Street.”  To their surprise, an old female grass snake appears, an aged serpentina with red-ringed eyes, who begs that the ring be returned to her daughter, the owner, before her son-in-law returns from performing his service for his country. Holmes allows the woman to carry it off and immediately dons disguise, following after her. When Holmes returns to his flat, he reveals that he slid onto the back of the illuminated cab the female took to get home. However, when the cab-snake opened the door to let the serpent out and collect his fare, the old serpentina had vanished.  The murderer has an accomplice, Holmes recognizes, and a smart one, too! 

Illustrations

Bea:

Pulling a drunk snak(e) out of the fence

Seann Clancy stares at a gold Coin

Tail dipped in blood

Print of a new tire

Tobes:

Sean Clancy staring at a gold coin

snak(e) coiled in the fence

 
Fake ring

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We’ve got three recipes on the go today: 

Mrs. Houghston’s Famous Irish Soda Farls 

Mrs. Houston is the housekeeper in the story I wrote for the kids this week, A Study in Emerald, (we’re currently reading Chapter Three).  She prepares her famous individually sized Irish Soda Breads, or “Farls,” for Holmes and McUaitson on a regular basis.   A less successful imitation plays a key role in the story later on, when syrup- (or is it venom-?) soaked farls are found at one of the crime scenes…Of course, grass snakes don’t eat bread. So, I had to imagine that Mrs. Hughston’s “Farls” were more like little frog-meat loaves than mini-soda breads. In the book, they’re more often called “Amphibian Farls” than Soda Breads.  But we’ll take the human version, please and thank you!

There are two main methods of making Irish Soda bread. The first is to bake the bread in the oven, the second is to prepare it on a skillet.  There are also two ways of “styling” a loaf, either baking it whole, with a cross cut into the top, or slicing it into four sections, known as “farls,” and venting them individually.  The notion of baking farls or even smaller, individual soda breads with the kids intrigued me, so I took a look around for a few good basic recipes. The first recipe that caught my attention was the classic Cook’s Illustrated recipe for soda bread. Then, on the Smitten Kitchen blog, I found an “Americanized” version of the CI recipe (“Americanized” by the additions of eggs, sugar, raisins, and caraway seeds). These were divided into 8-smaller sized “scones.” I thought a version of this sweeter, creamier recipe  would suit the kids’ palates a bit more, so I experimented with it and adapted it to my liking. We also decided to go on and do something highly “un-Irish” ourselves by adding chocolate chips to half the batch. We’ve suggested some other more sophisticated additions below.  In the end, they come out like oversized buttermilk biscuits…No one here’s complaining about that!

Mrs. Houghston’s Famous Irish Soda Farls
Adapted from the receipt for Irish Soda Bread Scones, Smitten Kitchen 

Ingredients
3 c flour
1 c cake flour
.25 c sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda, or, as we call it “b.s.,” or, on this occasion, “blarney soda”
1.5 tsp cream of tartar
.5 tsp salt
7 tbs butter (soften 5, and reserve the last two to melt and brush on the farls)
1.5 cups buttermilk (we don’t like to substitute sour milk here! do so only it if you absolutely have to!)
1 egg, bashed about with a fork
Optional Mix-ins: Choose One (Add the smaller amount for a half batch, larger amount for a whole batch)
.5-1 c butterscotch or chocolate chips 
.5-1 c chopped dried figs soaked in rum or cognac and drained
.25-.5 c each chopped candied ginger slices & orange peels 

Method
Heat oven to 400F.
Whisk dry ingredients in a bowl.

With their fingers, have the kids cut the 4 tbs of soft butter into the dry mix until they have coarse crumbs.
Add the buttermilk and the egg, and stir until the dough begins to come together.
If you’re not adding any mix-ins, just overturn the dough onto a floured work surface.
If you’re adding mix-ins to the whole dough, barely incorporate them now and turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.
If you’re adding mix-ins to half of the dough, do your best to divide the barely formed dough into two parts, and overturn the non-mix-in dough onto a floured work surface.
 
Then, BARELY incorporate the mix-ins into the portion of dough you kept in the bowl before overturning onto a floured surface.
Knead the dough(s) for just a few moments (each), just until ilumpy and bumpy and rough and tumble looking, like the face of a drunken sailor in the sudden storm.
Form your dough or doughs into one large or two smaller lumpy ball(s).
Use a knife (we like those big plastic lettuce choppers) to slice the large ball into 8 farls or the two smaller balls into 4 farls each. 

If desired, make each farl a little neater by forming it into a ball of its own. 
Put your farls on a parchment lined pan.
 Use a frog, shamrock or similarly festive cookie cutter to make an impression at least an inch deep in the center of each farl.
 
Bake 15-20 minutes (ours took 17). [SK suggests testing with a thermometer for an internal temperature of 170 F.]
Remove farls from oven.
Brush with melted butter.
Cool a bit, about 3-5 minutes, or until you can’t stand it any longer and you just have to take a bite and burn your tongue!
Wrap the still-warm farls in kichen towels (2-3 per towel will suffice).
This will keep them soft and help them last a bit longer, as they’re only really good for a day or two.
If you’re desperate, you can place an old hardened loaf in a moistened paper bag and warm it in a moderate oven for a few minutes or in the microwave for a few seconds to soften!  This softening effect does not last long, however, so eat up!!!
The plain farls taste great with even more butter and those extra spoonfuls of hot Lime-Berry Jam that didn’t fit it into last jar!!!!

Lime-Berry Limerick Lower-Sugar Jam (Made with Pomona’s Pectin)
In our story, A Study in Emerald, Mrs. Limerick keeps a boarding house. She’s not necessarily an honest or a savoury woman, but she’ at least “semi-sweet.”.   Pomona Pectin, which is available at most organic or healthy grocery shops, is a pectin formulated to alow you to use considerably less sugar sugar when making jams and jellies. We re-named this lower sugar, limey jam in Mrs. Limerick’s honour. The recipe below is our multi-berry adaptation of a favourite recipe of ours for Blackberry Lime Jam from the hitchhikingtoheaven blog and also featured in one of our favourite cookbooks, We Sure Can!, by Sarah B. Hood.

Lime-Bery Limerick Lower-Sugar Jam
Ingredients
4 cups mashed mixed berries
(Berries aren’t really in season, so we defrosted two 600g frozen mixed pack of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries and mashed them. It provided just over 4 cups!)
zest of 5 limes (we used a microplane)
.25 c lime juice
1.75 c sugar
2.5 tsp Pomona’s calcium water
2.5 tsp Pomona’s pectin powder

Method
Prepare Pomona’s “Calcium Water” following the instructions in the box.
Sterilize 6 -.5Pint Canning Jars or the equivalent according to preference.
Whisk the sugar and pectin powder together in a bowl and set aside.
Place the mashed berries in a pot on the stove and add lime zest, lime juice, and “calcium water.”
Bring the berry pot to a boil.
Add the sugar-pectin mixture to the pot.
Stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes to dissolve the pectin.
Return to the jam to a boil and then remove it from the heat.
Ladle the hot jam into sterilized jars, leaving .25-in head space.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Note that Pomona’s pectin takes longer to set than other pectins. The jam might not really appear set in the jar for several days.

Popping “Pot o’Gold” Mustard
Bea was really into a “popping” mustard she purchased at a local farmer’s market over the summer. It was a grainy mustard, and the seeds inside seemed to be full of liquid and “popped” in your mouth. We’ve tweaked some of our summer recipes in order to achieve the desired effect. The trick seems to be to soak the mustard seeds in the vinegar mixture for at least 48 hours! To make this mustard truly “golden,” be sure to use only yellow mustard seeds and white vinegar. We didn’t quite have enough on hand, so we did a mix of dark and light mustard seeds, and we added balsamic vinegar to top off the soaking liquid. Call it “Tarnished ‘Pot o ‘Gold’ Mustard” or whatever you will…it tastes fabulous!


Popping Pot o’ Gold Mustard
Ingredients
makes 2.75 pints
1 c mustard seeds
1 c vinegar (white, cider, and/or balsamic)
2/3 c water
5 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs diced garlic
1 tsp tumeric
1 c honey or maple syrup (optional)

Method
Mix all of the wet ingredients EXCEPT the honey/syrup in a bowl.
Add the mustard seeds.
Cover and let soak in the refrigerator for 48 hours. (24 hours makes for a fine cheat!)
Sterilize 3 -.5pt and 1- .25pt canning jars.
Divide the mixture in half and use a stick blender or a food processor to pulverize one half of the mixture until thick.
Re-incorporate the pulverized mustard into the bowl of grainy mustard and pulverize for just a moment to incorporate.
Put the combined mustard in a pot on the stovetop.
Add the optional honey/syrup, and boil for 1-2 minutes.
Ladle hot mustard into into hot jars.
Process cans in boiling water for 10 minutes.

If you like this post, you might also like to see the Serpent Mobiles & Stick Puppets we made today!
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Today, while our Irish Soda Farls were baking, I asked the kids to illustrate the third chapter of our story,The Adventures of Sir Lóchrann Holmes: A Study in Emerald.  They did three illustrations with permanent marker and watercolours, and a fourth with a plain black marker. Bea added highlighters to the final drawing. Tobes added oil pastels. The illustrations are below today’s plot summary.

Summary: A Study in Emerald, Chapter Three, The Blarneystone Mystery
Holmes asks McUaitson to read aloud the urgent message he received from the skateboard messenger.  Police snake Tobias Gallagher has written to Holmes to report that a body has been found in an unihabited building known as Blarneyston Gardens, Lower Wolfe Tone Street. Notably, the deceased is not a grass snake, but a large, venomous python. As Pythons have not been seen in Ireland since the days of St. Patrick, this comes as quite a shock. To McUaitson’s surprise, Holmes takes his time deciding whether or not he should travel to the crime scene to help with the investigations. However, he is delighted when Holmes asks him to grab his hat and scarf and come along. Holmes carefully inspects the slither-ways outside of Blarneyston Gardens before entering in to meet with Gallagher, and his companion, Na’Sraide, and to view the crime scene.  The coiling-room may be blood-spattered, but there is no evidence of a wound, not even a single fang mark, on the dreaded python. Holmes carefully inspects the victim and his belongings before allowing the python’s length to be removed.  Just then, a female serpent’s wedding tail-ring drops to the floor, and all are astounded. Na’Straide then discovers a mysterious word, EIRIC, written in blood on a far-off wall. He thinks it is the beginning of a female’s name, and suspects that the murderer has written it there.  Claiming that he is going to leave the case to the police-snakes, Holmes, nonetheless, asks for the name and address of the sergeant who discovered the body in the first place. And, before he makes his exit, he reveals the means of the murder: poisoning, by the venom of the African Puff Adder, to be precise. He also warns Na’Sraide  away from searching for any sort of mysterious serpent murderess by revealing that the word on the wall is actually a lesser-employed Gaelic term for “Revenge.” 

Illustrations

Bea:

The contents of the python's pockets

Tobes:

The victim serpent

We also made some pretty cool Serpent Mobiles & Stick Puppets today.
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The Lunchbox Season : Summer of Funner : In Defense of Burning

Serpent Spiral Mobiles * Snake Stick Puppets* “Leprechaun Gold” Skip Counting Game

Serpent Spiral Mobiles

Supplies
Stiff Watercolour Paper
Watercoulours and Brushes
Holepunch
String
Kid-Safe Scissors
My Hand-drawn Snake Template Just Below (Optional)
Computer/Printer (Optional)
Permanent Marker (Optional)

Method
Copy the template above and print it directly onto your watercolour paper.
(You may have to trim the paper down to fit into the printer.)
OR
Have the kids use a permenent marker to draw a circular coil on their paper with a snake head at the end, just like the picture above.
On the side of the paper with the snake image, have the kids watercolour the image to their liking.
 
Let Dry.
Flip the paper over and have the kids completely fill the page in a more abstract style of watercolouring.
 
Let Dry.
Cut out the shape of the serpent via its outline.
  
Then, from the head inwards, cut along the the spiral until you reach the centre.
 
Punch a hole near the tip of the tail.
Gently knot the end of a long string into the serpent’s tail.
Hang from a high place.
 
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Stick Puppet Snakes

Supplies
Pipe cleaners
Wooden dowels or pencils
Tape
Scraps of pretty paper.

Method

Twist two pipe cleaners togther so that they form a double-strength pipe cleaner.
Attach the doubled strand to the end of a single pipe cleaner.

Coil the single pipe cleaner and the first 1/2-in of the double around the top of a dowel or pencil.
The double strength pipe cleaner should be sticking out at a right angle to the dowel.

Cut one scrap of pretty paper into a trapezoid 1 in wide/tall, 2- and 3-in length, respectively.

Form this into a cone-like shape with a wide enough hole at the tip to allow the double-pipe-cleaner to pass.

Tape this cone together.
Cut more scrips of pretty paper into 1×2-in rectangles or thereabouts. You’ll need 6-10 per snake.
Fold shorter ends of each scrap together, forming each into a tube. tape each tube.

Thread the cone piece, small tip first, onto the double pipe cleaner.
Then, thread tubes onto the pipe cleaner until you have about 1/2 in left at the end.

Turn up the end of the pipe cleaner and double it over a bit to keep the tubes on the length. Enjoy!

 
Leprechaun Gold Skip Counting Game

Supplies
4 sheets of paper per player
10 Golden Chocolate Coins, Plastic “Green Leprechaun Gold” Chips from the dollar store, poker chips per child.
Template below (Optional)
Computer/Printer (Optional)
Pen (Optional)
   

Method
Copy the images above and print out 1 set of the four pages for each player.
OR
Using a marker, trace your coin or chip in a snaking pattern 25 times per page and label the circles with the numbers 1-100.
 
Play
Have the kids place coins on numbers in the pattern you call out.
We tried 3′s to 30, 6′s to 60 etc.
You could also start on a number such as 2-9, and ask the kids to mark every 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. number afterward.
We ended up using the plastic chips for play, and a few golden coins for rewards on particularly difficult patterns!

All done? Never! Check out the Soda Bread, Jam and Mustard Recipes we followed today!

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The Lunchbox Season : Summer of Funner : In Defense of Burning