Garden and spinning update!

 Gosh it's gotten cool here.  I harvested the last cucumber on the plants, and with no more flowers, that was the last for the season.  I ate it for lunch the next day.   There are still tomatoes on the vine, but they are all quite green.   We're supposed to have some warmer weather next week, so I'll leave them and hope they get a bit bigger.  There are tons of Hungarian yellow peppers, although I've no idea if they are hot or not.  There are Jalapeños left to harvest.  There are also a lot of them, however they are quite short.  The mystery pepper plant is all still green, but they are very long and slender, so I'm guessing some sort of hot chill pepper. I'll harvest them sometime soon.  Other than that, there are only herbs left to harvest; parsley, basil and soup celery.  I'm going to plant one bed with garlic this fall.   Seed garlic should be in the feed store in a couple of weeks.   

I got 100 g of lovely, deep pink roving from A.  I spun it into singles and then decided that I was going to spin up more singles to ply it, in a different colour, since this was hand dyed and I couldn't match it.   A gave me another 100g of the same fibres which I spun and dyed into a lovely soft grey.   I plied them together, deciding to make a matching hat and mittens.  I knit the mittens first, and then had to figure out how to make the hat fit the remaining bit of yarn.   Finally, after knitting and ripping out hats 5 times, I knit up a sample on a new toy, an old, but lovely working knitting machine.   I made a hat with just a few metres of yarn to spare!

The sky was quite moody on our last hike.   It looked like rain clouds, but it didn't rain and a surprising amount of sunshine broke through the clouds.  The river had a lot scummy stuff on it, which I've not noticed before.  It was a very hot summer though, so that could have been the reason.   There were a lot of dogs on the trails that day.   I generally don't mind them running off leash, as I've only had 1 incident with an aggressive dog.   However, a few owners have decided that they don't need to clean up after their pups, which sadly made for some areas where you had to watch where you stepped, rather than enjoy the scenery!

The Rudbekia or black eyed Susan's were pretty much past their peak blossoms.   The large field of them was showing a lot of spent flowers and not very many blooms.   On the home stretch of the trail, walking beside the river, I saw these pretty blooms.  They look like they should be Rudbeckia but their petals are short and roundish.  I looked it up though and it seems there is a related flower called the Brown eyed Susan and it looks like this!  Pretty enough and nice that it was blooming when it seemed like only the golden rod and a few Queen Anne's Lace stragglers were left.   

I gave away my LeClerc Fanny counterbalance loom to a friend.  She's been looking for one locally but nothing in easy access has been for sale.   The one that came through the guild went to another member.  Since I'd not used it since I strained my shoulder weaving a couple of years ago, I felt it was time to pass it on.   I got this loom with  requirement to pass on another loom.  I have given away a 36 in Mira jack loom, a tapestry loom, a 5 ft. triangle loom and a 15 inch new Dorothy.  I think I have payed it forward enough.   I gave all of these away without any requirements though, just to enjoy and use them.   When my friend picked up the loom, she dropped off a couple of knitting machines she had in her garage.  One which is a plastic bed and the other that she felt I'd enjoy more, was a metal machine.  I've been playing with it and it's quire enjoyable.  It's fast and has a fairly big learning curve like the sock machine.  Really it's just practice and being willing to take off the tangles and figure out what you did wrong.  I had a few of those.

Summer is winding up!

 The summer is slipping by far too quickly.  The ridiculous heat and humidity we've had so much of this year, is something I'm not sure I'll adapt to easily.   However, there are already signs showing how short our summers are.  I drove down a nearby road the other day and there was a tree with a lone branch already turning colours.   I know this could also be due to lack of moisture, but I'm still not sure I'm ready for the leaves to turn colour.   Hubby also brought in a load of kindling yesterday.  I asked if it wasn't too early for that, but he pointed out that we'll likely have to have our first fire in 4 to 6 weeks.  Plus there are the crickets.  They are an end of summer bug; a noisy, loud, end of summer bug.

Speaking of bugs.   I noticed 3 big caterpillars on my parsley plant.  I looked them up and they were parsley worms, or the caterpillars that turn into Swallowtail Butterflies.   The next day there were only 2 of them, and today there aren't any.  They were very slow and hardly moving and large enough that a friend who has watched some all summer, said they were ready to spin their cocoons.   I looked around a bit but didn't see any cocoons, so I'm hoping they found a safe place and weren't dinner for the chooks, who have been hanging around begging for leftovers and treats!   I also hope if they did spin cocoons that they have time to complete their metamorphosis  before it turns too cold here.

With only 1 tomato plant, which was supposed to be a cherry tomato but has turned out to give large,
yellow albeit delicious fruit, I purchased a couple of baskets of tomatoes.  I quickly peeled them, chopped them up and tossed them into the canner.   I've done 2 batches this way.  It means 2 hours at most at one time for canning, unlike having a bushel and it taking 2 full days to do them up.   I remembered how easy it was that year that my tomatoes ripened slowly and I had a canner load every 3 days or so.   That was really the best way to do it.

I'm passing on my big counter balance loom.   I have a smaller jack loom which has been unused for well over a decade.  I've decided to clean it up and switch them out since the counter balance is just a bit too big to be comfortable these days.   A friend wants it so hopefully two of us will be happy about this.

I put this on the rigid heddle loom last night.   Mary Maxim is having their tent sale and while they tend to have a lot of middle of the road yarns for quality, nice but not exceptional, their prices, especially at the sale are decent.   They didn't have much sock yarn, but this stuff was nice.   The  only thing is that it is DK weight, and sort of in-between reed sizes.   It's interesting because of the way the colour changes are painted.  I thought it might be more serendipitous plaid like but it's not at all.  It's lovely in this part, with the section which is mainly white, but a little different in the next colour change with the darker blue and the little black bits.    This photo was taken at night, so despite the flash, it is dull.   The white is nice and creamy and the blue parts area. really nice shade.  The vertical black spots are great, but the part I'm not sure about is when the black and blue are in the weft, and go horizontally.  I don't have enough of this yarn to cut out the blue and black sections, and have enough yarn for the weft left and it wasn't cheap enough to grab another ball to play with, so I'm going with it.  I won't really know what it's like until it's off the loom and washed.  It could end up being lovely.

Rant and summer colour update

We saved up all our pennies for 5 years because we needed a new car.  The old truck was on the road for 2 or 3 years longer than we would have liked.   We shared my car last year because winter safety and then general safety, was more important than me getting out of the house, which was a bit difficult sometimes, but it's what was needed.   We did without a lot, stopped purchasing unnecessary stuff, used our leftovers, stopped eating out at restaurants, carefully weighed costs vs expectations  for classes etc, and I mended a lot of clothes.   It's not that we did totally without, as we took small vacations etc but were actively saving for the car first, now a new roof and to get 2 mature trees professionally removed because the previous owner planted them in a stupid spot: both of them in different stupid spots!  

 So why do some people find this an issue?   Like I'm supposed to just go and spend whatever I want whenever, when I have a budgeted amount of mad money for the year and refuse to go over my budgeted amount?    I have to pick and choose what I do, and I'm okay with it.   Somehow I don't think anyone else should be ticked off that we chose to find a way to make our budget work well for us!

Rant over and it was due to comments and actions of some acquaintances and friends.  And nope, just because we have our car now, I still can't afford to get that or do that.  By the way the car is nice.  It's not horribly special or exotic but all cars are stupidly expensive right now, so what can you do? 

This little guy, or his relatives have lived in our woodpile since we moved here.   He's not overly tamed or friendly but he's getting better about not racing off as soon as I try to take a picture of him.   I'm not a huge fan of small rodent creatures living this close to the house, but he's better than some it could be.  I do mean that I'd freak a bit if there was a honking huge rat sitting there, like we used to see sometimes on the farm!  We lived on a road with almost all dairy farms, so there were tons of them when someone tried to eradicate them from a barn.  ICK!

The black eyed Susans were out in full force on our last walk.   The field that had all the poppies in the spring is now filled with these and some clumps of bergamot.   I really wonder if someone tossed a bunch of seed out into that field, or if they are natural.  There are just so many of them.   My only experience with wild flowers in unused field areas, is from a different area, with less farming and more bush, and a colder climate, so maybe all these flowers are normal for this climate zone?

One of our favourite trails has several different trail routes you can take.  It's a mix and match thing, giving lots of choices on how long, what sort of terrain and what you'd like to see on the trail.  One part of the trail runs through this spot, with a single bit of railway track persevered.   It's fun and an odd spot for something like this, but it fits.  Despite there being 2 different working railway tracks on two sides of the conserved area, there is a little bit you can safely walk on and have fun with.

Elecampane.   I planted this because I'd read some natural dyeing information which suggested that you could get black with the roots.   Someone warned me you might never get rid of it once it was planted, but I thought that I was safe.   It has giant leaves on the base, with a few small leaves up the very long stalk and a rather spindly flower.  It's not full, it gets scraggly easily.  I think it will dye a yellow, but I dug up the whole patch to try the roots once to see if it gave black and got nothing but a lovely clear dye bath.   And now, after having dug up my whole plot of the flower, it's growing in other parts of my garden?  Like how does it do that?  Like madder, it's not a horribly lovely plant, but I guess at least it's not prickly like madder is!

Garden update and CSM trouble

 We've had 2 lovely summer days which were cool enough at night for good sleeping, and not hot, humid nor windy during the day.   It's been such a nice change from those crazy warm days.   It's been so hot that some days, it was too warm to fuss with weeding the garden.  While I normally water the garden beds mid afternoon, so the plants have time to dry properly to minimise the risk of powdery mildew, blight or other diseases, there was one evening I actually watered the garden beds because it had been so hot I didn't think the plants would survive the night without water.    We've had a bit of rain in between, so mostly I haven't had to water a lot this summer.   

Due to the blight issues last summer, I only planted a single tomato plant this year.   I'll hunt around at the market or see if there are local farmers selling their extras when I want to put them up.   Not my favourite way, but it gives the garden a break this year.   So the single tomato plant I chose was a sweet 100, a cherry tomato type that I plant for both use in salads and for just eating out of hand when I'm working in the garden.  While all the plants in that tray had little plant stakes declaring that they were all indeed Sweet 100, this one obviously was mislabelled.   These are not cherry tomatoes!  Nor do I have any idea what variety I might have here.  It's fruiting already though, so that's nice.

I planted more pepper plants than I usually do.   There wasn't a lot of variety choice this year, unless I wanted to spend half a day hunting through different garden centres.  The large one at the grocery store had minimal choices and they weren't looking all that happy.   I usually just go to the feed store up the road and get whatever they have unless it's something special that I really want.  So this year I planted Hungarian hot peppers, Jalapeños and one plant without a tag, in a tray with several different varieties.  I planted no sweet peppers because they are easy to find locally during the summer.

I have baby cucumbers too, from some old seed I found in a packet from a year or two ago.   It's some fancy variety I think, but since I couldn't find any cucumber seeds at the shop, I thought that it was worth the trial.  I had 4 seeds and 3 plants grew.    I also did zucchini that way, from seed in a packet that I seemed to have ripped off the variety.   I had 2 seeds and lucky me, I have two plants, one already flowering.     I planted onion sets but they need weeding desperately but I've held off due to the number of mosquitoes in the cooler evenings.

I took apart my CSM (Circular Sock Machine) to clean it.  It took several hours getting the cylinder clean due to yarn fuzz.   Then I put it together wrong and had to put a call into my mentor to send her videos of what it was doing, which she diagnosed over the phone, told me how to fix it.   It took me 5 minutes to fix, since I just put something in the right place, but the wrong location, if that makes sense.   Anyway, everything on this machine, a Legare 400, needs to be set up at 6 o'clock to be in the correct location - crank hand, yarn carrier and making sure the ribber stop is also correctly places.   So I'm going to see how it works by making my daughter hiking socks for her birthday.   She liked the shorties I make for myself for the summer, but wants them just a little bit higher to fit in her hiking boots.

I can't believe I forgot to post!

I've been spinning an awful lot the past few weeks.  I have spun about 1300 yards according to counting yardage on my niddy noddy.  It's not totally accurate because it doesn't account for the stretch that is difficult to eliminate while winding the yarn on the niddy noddy.   I finally dragged out my jumbo flyer to get larger skeins.  The downside to that is that the bobbins are double the size, or almost, and it takes a lot longer to fill them.   I do like the larger skeins though.  Anything in order to have less ends to weave in!  I still need to wet finish all these.

I've made a few pumpkins for Westfield's pumpkin day.  I don't think it's called pumpkin day anymore, but it's autumnal, we cook with pumpkins and the whole village is decorated with pumpkins and has pumpkin crafts and activities.   Some of these pumpkins are knit on the sock machine, and others are hand knit.   I have a small cylinder on the sock machine right now, and had been knitting with a fairly tight gauge, so the machine knits socks are fairly small.  Usually I've used a 72 needle cylinder with a looser gauge so the machine knit pumpkins are much larger.   The hand knit ones are colourful using yarn I purchased from a guild silent auction or had leftover from another project.

We took a walk by the Thames river while waiting for a play to start.  We got there early to get free parking, but there was a soccer game, so parking was in short supply. We ended up having to park at the end of the parking area.   It was a perfect evening though, so walking wasn't a problem.   Walking back from the theatre though was interesting because of course everyone else who had parked there was leaving too.  The lack of sidewalks on the parking side of the road meant you either walked on the road, or the grass.   We chose the grass, because neither of us were wearing light coloured clothing and didn't want to risk not being seen in the dark.   We could have crossed the road to the other side, where there was a sidewalk, but didn't think of it until we got to the car.

I poorly planned our theatre trips this year, mainly due to seat sales and not thinking about it properly, so 3 shows are crammed into 5 weeks, and 1 saw one in May with my daughter.  We're seeing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels later this summer.

  Sense and Sensibility was well done, fun and fluffy.  It was enjoyable.  They stuck to the story quite nicely and the characters were believable.  

  Anne of Green Gables made me wish we'd gotten tickets to the show in Charlottetown last summer.   It was really well done, but the ending bothered me a bit because they modernised it and moved it to central Canada. I still got teary when Mathew died though.  I know it was part of the Children's programming, but I'm a traditionalist when it comes to Anne of Green Gables.  

 The last one we saw was MacBeth - yes, the one with motorcycles -  When I mention it to anyone, that's what they say,  Oh the one with motorcycles? Yes, MacBeth was moved to modern times, with e-bikes decked out to look like motorcycles, a grungy motel and a modern motorcycle club.  The not traditional setting worked really well.  The performance was good but also very nicely enhanced by fabulous stage settings and dressings, incredible special effects both visual and audio.   

With careful planning and watching the Stratford Festival website and social feeds, there are enough really good ticket sales to make it an affordable outing.   I was really a bit dismayed though by the partially filled theatres.   I've no idea how many there were for the Anne show, because we were near the front and I didn't look backwards, but MacBeth had a lot of visibly empty seats, and I bet Sense and Sensibility was less than half full.   That was sad.  I hope attendance picks up because all the shows were worth seeing, despite the late 8 pm starts which gets us home closer to midnight.   If you are only going to see one, I highly recommend That Scottish Play, with Sense and Sensibility coming in a fun and fluffy second place recommendation. 

  

 

Wild Flower Bounty

 On a short hike today, there were lots of wild flowers.   This particular trail looks different in every season, and different with whatever trail or paths you follow. The terrain goes from field, to woodland, to wetlands to lake side, with softwoods, cedar, pines and some deciduous areas as well.   The fields on both sides of the trail were full of wild poppies.  They were so pretty and the little dots of red, with the white clover and purple alfalfa.   There were pops of bright green spurge as well.

Canada Anemone was blooming all along one of the riverside trails.  It was so very pretty.

The Fleabane has started flowering there, well before anywhere else that I've seen this year.  I don't think that fleabane actually deters fleas.  It sometimes takes over a bit in places in my garden, but it's pretty, so I don't mind too much.

I think this is some sort of Coreopsis, but I don't think it's a wild flower.  However there used to be a pollinator garden plant display, so I wonder if some of these flowers have been seeded from that garden.  There are a couple that seem more like garden plants that wild flowers.

Like this Dianthus, or Sweet William, which I think must have been seeded from the old pollinator garden, or someone sprinkled some wild flower seeds, or other flower seeds in some areas last fall.   

Ox eye daisies were blooming on some of the sides of the trails in sunny areas.   I remember making daisy chains as a kid and braiding them into my horses mane and forelock.  He was a very patient pony! The walk today was so much fun with all the flowers.  I'm sure hubby was a bit frustrated at times because I stopped an awful lot to take photos.  It was so lovely to see the pops of colour along the trails.

This is one tiny part of one of the fields of wild poppies.  The spurge is a bright green, in behind the poppies.   It seems like something I should try to paint, with all the greens and pops of reds.   

Fleece Prep Steps

I've been working with the Dorset/Friesian fleece that I was given. It's not a super long staple length,  or super soft, but it is long enough mostly just over 3 inches  and soft enough to make it fun to work with and really nice to spin.   The first step to processing a fleece is washing.   I've taken to doing a cold water soak to remove and loosen the dirt before washing with soap, degreaser and hot water to remove the remaining dirt and the lanolin.   It's worked beautifully in getting the fleece very clean, using fewer hot water washes and rinses. This is the cold water soak I started earlier today.   It's amazing how quickly the dirt starts to soak off.  The water is really, dirty now.   I'll drain it and wash it tomorrow.  After an overnight soak, it should be good to go.  I don't want to leave it too long or it will start fermenting.   This is good, if it's not in your laundry tub, in the back room of your house

I set up my laundry rack on the deck.   I have a roll of fibre glass window screening that I spread over the top bars and spread the fleece out to dry on top of it.   If it's breezy, I put another piece of screening over top of it and peg it down with some clothes pegs to keep the fleece from blowing away.   A bit of breeze will help it dry quickly, as does using a salad spinner, laundry spinner or even just putting the fleece in a mesh bag and whizzing it around quickly in a circle to extract the extra moisture.   It was nice enough out that this dried in a few hours.  I did check it part way through and pulled the few damp spots left, to expose them to sunshine and air.   It was all dried well before supper time.  This was good as I needed to have it for the spinning gathering the next day.  

  

The fleece does have a bit of vegetable matter, mostly bits of hay that are fairly easy to remove.   The worst VM that I've experienced was either in some Shetland fleeces, from barn kept sheep which was overwhelming to pick out, or the Jacob fleece I was given that had huge bugs in it,  Keds I think, and they were dead but oh, that was so unexpected and awful to deal with.  I gave the fleece back!

Anyway, much of the VM falls out while carding or pulling the locks apart before carding.  The rest mainly falls out or can be picked out while spinning.  The few bits that remain, are just part of the process.    

I've been mainly hand carding the fleece.  Although it's a little hard on the hands due to repetition and arthritis, it is still a lovely preparation.   I've put a bit through a drum carder too, which is faster, but a bit different to spin.   The skein is my sample and the bobbin is my next try at a slightly thicker yarn.

Short forward draw, not counting really, but 1 treadle per about a 1 1/2 inch draft.

This is my second sample.  I did two full bobbins and plied them together.  It's a slightly thicker grist that my first sample and will work for a sweater.   I'd planned on dyeing it after spinning as I don't know what colour I want yet.  Then today I started second guessing myself, thinking that I should have dyed it in the fleece and carded it together for a more even colour.  I'm almost finished another bobbin though, and have the remains of the second one as well,  so do I knit a patterned sweater?  Maybe a simple fair isle type design?   Or do I keep going as I've started.  

  Regardless, it's fun doing. a big project like this with a fleece this nice.   I got a bit distracted and a bit burnt out from the Master Spinner class, spending 6 years spinning to class requirement.  I've heard this is an issue with a lot of people who do that course.   However, having people to spin with again has re-ignited my passion for spinning, which I'm so happy for.    Now to find a knitting pattern for my new sweater.

A Crazy few weeks, but still things get done.

 What odd and icky weather we've had.   Sunday we had frost warnings and apparently there was a frost delay on the local golf courses.   It's been cool, so cool that we've had to run the wood stove until the very end of May, which has never happened before.   Today though, was lovely and I got to hang laundry, dry fleece and spend a lot of time outside, without a toque, mitts and sweater.

The garden is half planted.  The beds aren't warm enough yet to plant the beans and I'll need to get a few more onion sets as a raccoon got a few the first night I planted them.  I've now got towers of tomato cages protecting freshly planted seeds and seedlings.   I've a couple of pots left to clean out and have a few more bags of composted manure to spread.  The cool weather though, means that everything else I'd like to plant is delayed anyway, so I'm not really behind.

Today I saw this pretty butterfly that I identified as an Eastern Swallowtail. It was gathering nectar from a late flowering lilac bush, a Persian Lilac.   Its scent is different from a true lilac, but it always flowers.  Since it flowers after the true lilacs, it nicely extends the season, which is good for extra colour in the garden.

I've started washing Dorset/Friesian cross fleece that A gave me.  The first batch was done my usual way, which was 3 washes and 3 rinses.  It works well and the dirt and lanolin was all gone.  Today, I soaked the fleece in water for a couple of hours before washing it.  I was going to  soak it 24 hours, but then A called up asking if I was available for a spinning day tomorrow.  To make sure I had enough fleece to spin, I drained it, washed it twice and rinsed twice.   Instead of using my salad spinner to spin out the water, I whizzed the laundry bag of fleece around outside.  I was amazed at how quick and effective this was.   I laid the fleece out on the deck,  between sheets of screening on a laundry rack.  It dried in just a few hours.  I've now run a few bats through a drum carder to use tomorrow!

It's really dark black, not grey.

I made a hat for a Christmas present for my daughter.   It's black.  I was going to make black mittens to go with it, but have decided that I really don't like knitting with black yarn that much.  It was commercial dyed black and the stitches were so difficult to see.  I think I started it 8 times before I bought a new, very short needle to make it work.  I'm very happy with how it turned out though.  I over exposed the photo so that the pattern could be seen, because it looked solid black otherwise.

The grey and black sock yarn scarf is off the loom and needs to have the fringes twisted and to be wet finished.   I'm not going to pass judgment on it yet, as I think wet finishing will remove the spinning oils and could end up with a different feeling project.

The SCA A&S event on the May long weekend was a success despite a bit of rain and some very cool weather.   It took me almost a week to unwind from it, which is mainly because I picked up a couple of good novels,  an Ann Cleeves mystery and a hilarious sort of romance by R.J. Blain.   I do enjoy a few days just to read.    

Dyeing and Spinning

 My friend A gave me some white roving to go with the pink she'd given me a while back.  She'd dyed some Dorset/Friesian fleece a lovely dark pink and processed it with her awesome Brother electric carder.  I sort of claimed it when she was showing me because it was really a perfect colour.   I'd spun it up and brought the full bobbin to show off at a spinning day.   She asked what I was going to do with it and I'd said I was going to find some grey to go with it and then hopefully have enough for a hat and mittens.  I think 200g should do that.  It's worsted weight though.  Anyway, she grabbed another 100g of the same fleece and gave it to me, offering me some grey dye as well.

In January the rug hookers have a silent auction and I purchased a bag of old, some really old Cushing's dyes and a book of dye recipes specifically for rug hooking.   I also have a a set of base primary colours of weak acid dyes and of fibre reactive dyes, so I figured I had enough to get a decent grey.   In the Cushing's dyes there was a packet of "silver grey", so I decided to try it and see if it worked.   

I was a little worried at first because first, dyeing roving, beautifully airy, ready to spin roving can be difficult to get it evenly dyed without any compacting or felting, and second, I'd never used any Cushing dyes before so when the dye mixed up a purple-ish colour, I wrestled with my decision.   However, I was brave and gently dribbled the dye mixture around the edges of the roving and gently lifted the roving and tilted the pan a bit to get the dye dispersed.  I was worried that I'd start felting or breaking the wet roving if I removed it from the pan.

I did a good job though.  While some of the air from the roving was definitely removed, so it's not as light and fluffy as it was, there has been no felting.  It came out of the pot with a hint of pinkish grey, by the time it dried it was a lovely grey.  

It's spinning up very nicely.   I've had no areas which were compacted and no felting, so I'm incredibly happy with both the colour and the good dyeing that I did.   I very rarely dye roving unless it's superwash, since you can't do much wrong with that in terms of felting.

The grey colour is maybe a tad uneven, but not so much that it's horribly noticeable.  Also, not really knowing how much dye I needed for 100G, since I didn't actually find the details to do the math until after everything was in the pot and simmering away made colour depth a little bit of a guessing game.  I was maybe trying for a slightly lighter grey but it's a really nice grey all the same and I'm very happy with the whole process

The grey goes so well with the pink.   As I'm plying the pink with the grey to get a marled yarn, (barber pole striping), it has a similar depth of shade so it's not overpowering and noticeable.   When this is knit up, I suspect that it will be more of a tweedy look or maybe even more of just a slightly subdued pink.  I'm really happy with the results and am looking for suitable patterns for that hat and mitten set.

A good start to May

We've had a very slow time easing into spring.  We've had snow storms, ice storms, wind, rain and cool weather.  We're even still loading up the wood stoves because the evenings are cool or uncomfortably damp.  However, that doesn't seem to stop Mother Nature from keeping things from happening.    There is a green haze on most of the trees.  We have baby leaves!   The oak trees and a few other very late  leafing deciduous trees aren't quite there yet, but they never are this early.   Some of the flowering trees are in bloom.   We always have leaves on most of the trees by Mother's Day, and despite people's worries about the trees leafing out late this year, it's happening just like it should.

I got my little tray of watercolour paints out and played around with some new techniques to make non-wintery scenes.   I've played with flowers, winter scenes obviously because I paint my Xmas cards, and have started experimenting with summery scenes.   These 2 worked out well enough that I'm happy with them, but I'll practice some more. While I've seen a few sunsets like this one, with pale colours, many of ours tend to be a bit more dramatic with deep oranges and purples.  Sunrises though, often have pale pinks and lilacs, if you catch the right time.  They are fast and the colours don't last all that long.   I decided to send out a few birthday cards though, so I figured I should practice about bit for summer cards.

I've been spinning up some of the leftover bits and pieces from my "stash" of leftovers from over the years.   This is some green ramie.  I had purchased 1/2 lb of it, and spun up maybe 3/4 of it and left the rest.    I remember it being quite slippery and an effort to spin.   Obviously my skills have developed because instead, it's just effortlessly sliding off my fingers into lovely, fine singles.    I should have divided it into two equalise pieces of roving before I started though, so I could have spun two bobbins for plying.  Instead I'm going to have to much around with either guessing or plying from a centre pull ball.   While that is how I first learned to ply, I've found over the years, that you have to be very careful when plying fine yarns from centre pull balls, so that they don't collapse in on themselves and tangle before you finish plying.  It's been fun to spin though, because I don't seem to have to really think a lot about it while spinning.  It means I can chat or "egads" watch the hockey game at the same time.

This is my friend A's dog Teddy.   While he's getting older and a bit greyer, with thinning fur, he still blends remarkably with the rug.  He's exactly the same colour as the rug and in the right light, and angle, the parts of him that are his original colour really could be the rug.   He's a sweety and a very cuddly dog with his kids.   Today though was funny as he was sleeping when I arrived for spinning day and he didn't notice for about a 1/2 hour.  Then of course, as the good watch dog he is, he made sure to let everyone know that I was visiting.. too funny.

A Quick Holiday

 

This part of Manitoba is really, really flat.

We took our holiday early this year.   We went to Winnipeg and despite a few warnings from friends that there wasn't a lot to do in that Central Canadian City, we were busy pretty much all the time!  It was a mostly fabulous holiday.  The piece de resistance would have been a BTO concert on our last night there, but it was rescheduled due to a Winnipeg Jets play off game.   That was a bit disappointing, but in no way made the trip any less fun and interesting.

We visited the Royal Canadian Mint and took the tour.  It was super interesting and the guide was very knowledgeable on the process.  We were told the story of why we have a loonie one dollar coin rather than a voyageur canoe one dollar coin, the story of the worries about spyware in the first painted coin, which I totally remembered it from it being in the news and more.   They apparently use a different process now.  I missed the glow in the dark coin , with the Aurora Borealis which glowed.  That was cool.

We saw the Leo Moi sculpture garden, which was nice because it wasn't too long.  It was the day we arrived, had had a very early start, put in almost 8000 steps just in airports, and had the stress of a misplaced piece of needed identification, which was found.  So we meandered through the garden thinking that in the summer, it would be so pretty.  The sculptures were interesting, and it was a nice break before we could actually check in to the hotel.

We saw the last Winnipeg Jets game of the year.  It was my first NHL hockey game although hubby has seen a few.   It was really fun and though I did miss the commentary you get on televised games.  

The Manitoba Museum is a natural history museum, which was well done despite being under construction.   We missed the planetarium, which we wanted to go to, but hadn't thought we'd need more than 3 hours on the parking meter.   However there was a great display on a reproduction 17th C boat called the Nonsuch, which was built to celebrate the 300th birthday of the Hudson's Bay Co.   It was hand built in England using original plans,  shipped over to Canada on a boat, sailed around in celebration, and finally retired in the museum parking lot where they build a building around it.   It was an amazing display and I probably spent a bit of time there.   The information on the development of our planet was also where we spent some time.  I will admit to hurrying through the bat cave..ugh... small flying things...

The Aviation Museum of Western Canada was fun.  It was bright and we happened across a volunteer who wasn't involved in school trips, who answered lots of questions and gave us a lot of information about the planes.

The Assiniboine park zoo took the morning and a bit.   Despite a lot of exhibits under construction or the animals not out because of the weather, it was well worth the trip.   A few of the enclosures were small and probably not really large enough, but others were well done.  The polar bear display was one of the well done ones, and the seal display was fun.   I highly recommend the short movie in the Journey to Churchill Pavillion, which was captivating and awe inspiring. 

We went to see the Mennonite Heritage Village, but it was still mainly closed.  We got to tour the inside galleries and wander around the site, which was pleasant.  We got permission to peer through windows.  On the way back to Winnipeg, we stopped at the Centre of Canada monument, because how could we not!

This was a great trip and there was much more we could have done if we had the time and energy.   We had so much fun!

More Hints of Spring

 

It snowed yesterday, all day.   It snowed 2 days ago as well.  It snowed every day this week  but Tuesday.  So far it's not snowing today either.  The fields and gardens were covered in snow this morning.  Thankfully most of it has melted and there are just a few patches left.  There is snow in our driveway too, which is odd as it is a sheltered nook.

We're supposed to keep our snow tires on until the middle of April and its springs like this which make us appreciate them.  It's supposed to be spring, and the cold weather and snows suggest it's not quite there yet.

I found these crocuses hidden by an old barrel that had been used as a planter eons ago.  Usually it's hidden by lilacs, mallows and an as of yet unidentified fuchsia perennial so I don't really notice it.  There is a lilac growing out of it, so it's going to be difficult to remove the old barrel until it completely falls apart.  Still this little patch of crocuses was a joy to see.

I was also surprised by  this tiny patch of Glory of the Snow blooming.  Two days ago it was just a few green leaves just starting to show.  With yesterday not even getting above freezing in temperatures, I thought it could be next week until they bloomed.

The squill or Scilla is also starting to bloom.  I love the dark blue of the flowers.  There are so few true blue flowers that I find these special.   They are early bloomers for sure.   The planting instructions suggest that they need well drained soil.  They have volunteered themselves, and moved to the bed in front of the barn and chicken coop, which is where all the snow melt and run off drains in a winter and spring like this.  Hardly well drained, yet still they bloom.

 The ground around the whole place is still soft and boggy in places.  I've worn my wellies more this spring than in ages, just because a) I found a new pair that are acceptable and b) the ground has been soft, wet and squidgy for weeks now and not fun to walk on or wade through, depending on the day.

I've spun 100 g of this gorgeous pink yarn.  My friend A gave it to me and I've decided that I'll make a pair of mitten from it.  It's a colour of pink I really like and mittens will mean I get to wear them for months and months next winter.   I've 2 bobbins of it.  I haven't decided if I want to ply them together, or ply it with another colour.  I'd prefer not have barber pole striping on the yarn though, so I guess that suggests what I should do.

I'd like to knit the mittens in pink and grey, but I only have grey Icelandic on hand right now.  Icelandic is a dual coat, so this one has a very soft, pale grey undercoat and a darker grey outer coat which is fairly harsh.   It's a striking fleece, but I'm not sure I want to deal with it right now as it still needs washing and processing, which seems like a lot of work for a pair of mittens.

Nature's Promise Revealed

 

Last Crocuses - such a pretty colour

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, I light a candle to help light the way for longer days.   We've had a rather dramatic winter this year, with the winds, lake effect snows, and variable weather.  It was an abnormal winter for us and after several fairly mild winters, this one really seemed to hit us with a vengeance.   Finally though, with a few glitches in between and weather that the prognosticating rodent (ground hog) said would be an early spring, we finally have evidence that spring may truly be on its way.

The crocuses or croci if you prefer have bloomed.  Yesterday these few were in their prime while the rest have faded.  Only one of the Siberian Irises came up this year and that was during an ice storm, so it didn't last for long.  But the leaves and greenery for many other spring plants have started to push forth from the finally thawed ground and are showing the promise of spring.

The daffodils started just when the crocuses first bloomed.  In the beginning, they were just tiny green sprouts.  Now though there are early flower buds which catch attention and the longing for spring flowers.   I usually try to buy a pot or two of forced bulbs in the spring, but there weren't many in the shops this year, catering to those of us who desperately need that early hit of spring.  Now of course, with daffodil flower buds starting to show, it's worth the wait for them to mature.

My iced over kitchen window

The weather  has not been all favourable this spring.   Areas to the north and east of us were hit with a major ice storm.  We were lucky enough to miss out on the first one but a smaller second one hit us a couple of days later: not even enough time to recover between the two of them.   The area police were issuing warnings to people to please slow down on the high ways.  Hubby's co-worker took 30 minutes to cover what was normally a 10 minute drive.   We had lots of power flickers and a short outage, but quickly resolved, unlike areas in the rest of the province.  Everyone I talked to were thankful for that, and dismayed about the havoc that the storm wreaked elsewhere.  With rain, snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, more snow it was a few days to hunker down.   I can't remember seeing the snow plow go down our road multiple times  in April, plowing the snow on the road, the shoulders and laying down salt to try to keep the roads safe.

Lone Siberian Iris

Today though, the sun is shining and the winds have finally eased off.   I was able to go outside to practice the banjo yesterday as I found a sheltered spot which was warm enough and while I could hear the wind around me roaring through the trees, it didn't hit the spot on the deck where I was sitting.  Today, I let the chooks out and might even bundle up a bit and take my tea out to the deck.

Mother Nature sometimes is delayed with her promise of spring, but she's never failed to produce it yet.  That darned groundhog though, I'm sure spent weeks rolling around in his den, laughing at us all with his faulty predictions this year, that we all so desperately wanted to believe.