Summery projects

 I'm waiting for a parcel.   It's my birthday present and is supposed to arrive next week.   I just got the tracking number so the estimated delivery date is probably correct.   However, once in a while when I order things, they come early.  My fingers are crossed that this is one of those times.  We're also taking a family trip to Dundurn Castle.  I've been before but it was a number of years ago.  This time we'll be taking my daughter and her husband, so it will be fun.  I bought the tickets online.   I got a barcode for a ticket.   I used to be able to save my ticket stubs as memorabilia.   Barcodes just don't evoke the same memories.

I used an old sheet to fit the bodice pattern of Sew Liberty's Hinterland dress.   Then I found this piece of fabric which was enough to cut out the dress for a wearable mockup.  I've no idea why I purchased this, except that I remember it being crazy cheap on sale.  It's nice enough but not normally my style.  I do however, have a similar fabric but in blue stripes which I do like.   Once I know of any other changes need to be made to the pattern, I'll use the fabric I really like to make a second dress.

The Hinterland has been pretty easy to fit and assemble.  One of the hints was to use masking tape to mark the right side of the fabric.  Usually I use tailor's chalk, but it hasn't stopped the occasional  mistake.  But with the masking tape, I've had no issues at all.  It's now my new go to for making sure I have the right sides of the fabric marked.  Because it's green low tack painters tape, it hasn't left any residue yet.

My old but really nice Pfaff sewing machine is being cranky.  I haven't been able to get the tension set properly.   It probably needs a tune up, but since I have several old black Singers and an old Kenmore which all work well right now, I'm just using one of those instead.  This is mainly because I need some new socks, so that means a trip to the yarn store.

I found a skein and a half of this Paton's Lace yarn.  It's acrylic and a little fuzzy, so it acts a bit like mohair, getting caught up on itself.   I made a scarf on the floor loom a while ago, and had no problems.  This one though, I put on the rigid heddle loom and had to fuss about a bit to figure out how to weave it without having to unstick the shed every throw of the shuttle.   I found it needed a lot of tension and very easy beating, just gently placing the weft rather than pushing it down.   It's much faster now and I'm enjoying weaving it.

The rippenkopper cotton/hemp tea towels are still on the table loom.  I'm still not enjoying the 3/1 twill and having to use a stick shuttle..  But if I can weave them off, I have a fun tea towel project to do next.  I'm not sure I have allowed enough loom waste to do them on the floor loom, but that would be even easier.

The weather has been either hot and dry, or cool and wet.   Our pond almost dried up because we had no rain for so long.   Then it rained, and rained and rained.  The pond almost overflowed!   When conditions get hot and dry during the summer, our grass goes dormant.  It may look like it's dying, but it's just turned off until it rains.   And rain it has.   We even had a whole day of steady rain.  We couldn't remember when we last had a rain like this.  So after days of rain on and off,  the grass is green and the garden has gone wild with growth.

These are slicing tomato plants that my son in law started for me.  I don't think we've ever had fruit starting so early in the season.  The cherry tomatoes or maybe grape tomatoes are also fruiting already.   I've been harvesting zucchini already.  I staggered planting the green beans to hopefully have a continuous harvest.  However with the rain and heat, the second planting has almost caught up with the first.   I have space for a 3rd row of beans.   The potatoes I forgot to dig up last fall, have survived the winter and are growing like crazy too.   So yay for that! 

We found a fly strip that works.  It's a sticky paper, but it's not gloppy, doesn't drip and actually catches the flies.  Since we live in a rural area, there are flies.  There are so many fewer in the house this summer because of this new fly strip.   That makes me happy.

 

On gardens, and spinning and some bits and pieces

DH has been in his happy place lately.   Finally his wood supplier, dropped off 2 small dump truck loads of logs.   The loads were definitely smaller than normal, but were maple and a size which was easy to slice up.  Then he got a call that they were in the area, and did he want a 3rd load of Locust wood.   He said sure.  Locust wood is very hard, but slices and splits easily.  Because it's so hard, it takes longer to dry.  However it burns really well and for a long time when it's mixed with other hardwoods.    It took him only a couple of days to have it all sliced and ready to be split.   He does enjoy doing the wood, which is nice since we use it for heat.   

I've been seeing this little guy in the garden for weeks now.   He was just barely a handful when I first saw him.   He's still around.   We had a couple of larger rabbits around for a couple of years now, but I haven't seen a large bunny since last autumn.    This guy though is all over our garden.   He's in the front, the back, and this picture is from in the fenced off garden. The last time I had bunnies in there, I was planting on the ground and my whole crop of kohlrabi had bites out of them.  Not a single one was harvestable.  However with the beds now being so high, my veggies are safe from bunnies at least.  I put in some of the solar lights, some sticks,  some really tacky dollar store spinning decorations, and a lot of straw mulch to try to protect the plants from other hungry garden pests.   So far it's kept the robins and grackles away from my young, just sprouted seedlings.   

We finally had some rain too, so I've not had to water the garden for days.  It's been cool though, so many of the plants have just stalled.   Nothing has grown much over the past couple of weeks except the lettuce and kale.   They love this weather.   I've been harvesting fresh salad every 3 days.   I planted a green leaf lettuce, red romaine, buttercrunch lettuce and kale.   It makes for a lovely salad.  In other garden news, something ate my pumpkin seeds before they sprouted, so they've been replanted.  It's been so cold though, that they haven't sprouted yet either.  

I wish I could say I've woven lots of things.   I've done a bit of spinning.   I thought I was spinning superwash for a pair of socks, but nope, just regular Blue Faced Leicester, so while it's nice yarn, not what I was looking for.  I do have some superwash merino that I can card up for socks though.   I have been weaving off the project on my table loom.  It's a bit sucky because it's a 1/3 twill and the sett is such that I need to use a stick shuttle because the boat shuttle falls though.   Since I'm alternating the twill, there are always 3 shots in a row that I can't used the boat shuttle.   The stick shuttle is slow.   I'm a lot faster with it because I usually use a stick shuttle with the rigid heddle loom, but I'd planned to use the boat shuttle, so it's taking a lot longer than I'd anticipated.

I started dressing the rigid heddle loom with a scarf.  I'm not sure why but I definitely chose the wrong reed, so will have to pull out the yarn from the reed, change it out and rethread the whole thing. Maybe this is why I don't weave nearly so much during the nice weather.

I've been doing lots of research on Circular Sock Machines.   They are expensive.   I don't want to make a mistake.   I may have a line on a functional antique one, but I'm getting impatient waiting, although it's really not that long a wait.  It would still be faster than waiting for a new one and at least I could afford it  more or less, and have a larger fund for yarn available.  New csms cost thousands of dollars, plus they are either coming from the other side of the world, so take weeks to get here, or come from closer, but have months long wait lists.   I'm still hoping for the antique one though.   Hubby thinks the antique one would be best, or if I need to get a new one, to get one from the US, with a long wait list, but more accessible parts.  Plus there is the whole political issues locally with people having had bad experiences with the ones from the other side of the world.   I don't want to get involved in that stuff. 

I was at the Marr shop at Westfield Heritage Village.  Because the day started off very slow, I didn't bother to untie the great wheel.   That was a bad decision though as it turned out really busy.  As well, a lady from Maryland I think, came by.   They were visiting for a few days.  She brought her drop spindle and some flax that she'd grown in her garden.  It was lovely stuff.

I had to make Dion kitty some kitty kickers so he'd leave my baby wombat stuffy alone.   We're both happy now.   I did make baked donuts, filled with jam.  They were delicious.  We ate half of them before I found some ants on them.   I thought they'd be safe in the glass cake stand.  It has a domed cover and keeps baked goods fresh for days.   Obviously not safe from marauding ants though.   I'll also have to replace the sugar as they're in the bin too.   Everything at risk will now go into the cupboards for the summer and not on the counters.    They don't seem to find the ant traps inviting so I'm not sure what options I have other than putting things out of reach and wiping down the counters every time I see an ant.

 

 

Great Blue Heron surprise, and garden stuff

 One of the trails we like is a circle trail, in that you start, and walk the whole trail and end up back at the entrance.  However half of the trail is fairly open.  It's a nice enough walk, but not nearly as nice as the rest of the trail which meanders beside the river.   This time of year that part of the trail feels like you're walking through the happy part of a fairy tale.   The trees reach across the path creating a green arbour in places.  Huge swaths of wild flowers flank the sides of the trails.  Right now it's Queen Anne's Lace and Dame's Rocket, with just a pop here and there of Buttercups.  It's stunningly beautiful.

It's just on the edge of a fairly populated area, so it's amazing that there is quite a lot of wildlife which wanders through the trail too.   Of course there are song birds.  There were young robins looking for treats and hopping ahead of us as they weren't quite confident at flying yet.   There were squirrels and chipmunks and a big old raccoon wandered across the trail in front of us, down to the river, without a care in the world.

We had walked to the end of the river side trail, and turned back to walk to the entrance, thus avoiding the
other half of the trail.  We were close to the riverbank when there was a bit of noise coming from the few ducks on the water.   This great blue heron landed right in front of us.   They are very large birds and usually fairly timid.  This guy though, let us snap some photos and watch him for a few minutes.  Eventually, it was either the ducks, who were still making a bit of a fuss, or maybe he tired of us watching him, or the very noisy, loud kids who were just tromping into the area scared him off.  Regardless, it was a lovely treat to be quite that close to a blue heron.  They are majestic birds, although the noise they make doesn't quite match their looks -  GRAWK!

The garden is almost all planted.   There is some space for a second planting of beans and some space that I left for succession planting of greens.   However, they aren't always successful with the way our summers have been so hot, so I'm second guessing myself now and thinking that maybe I should plant something else in that spot.

My spinach and arugula went weird this year.  I'm guessing it's the late frosts we had.  Both of them went to seed before they were even large enough to eat.   I've replanted the pots though.   In one I've put some summer savory, since the chooks scratched through my last patch and in the other some catnip.  It used to grow wild, but there was none around last summer.   Everything has been watered, fed and what's large enough to have a straw mulch, has been covered.   If I can find a replacement pepper plant for that tiny pepper that hasn't grown since Easter, then I'll replace it.   It feels good to have most of the work done.  Now it's just watering, feeding and weeding if necessary until harvest.... yay!

Down Time and Relaxing

 The SCA event FOOL was last week.  It's always tiring, and having put so much into it before hand, the week after is my time to recharge.  It really felt like I did nothing all week.  I got my camping laundry done and put away.  Luckily it was sunny and dry, so the linen tunics dried quickly on the line.   I finished up another crochet hat and started another.  I think I'm getting the hang of keeping my rows even now.    I planted a few seeds, weeded the blueberries, or at least started weeding them.  One evening it was warm and still.  I enjoyed my tea outside while the smell of the lilacs wafted through the air.   It was lovely.

I found the mistake on the loom before I went camping, so took the time to fix it when I got home.  I had to re-thread a quarter of the heddles because despite counting each bout twice as I threaded it, I missed a thread.  Now to just finish tying it on.  I'm hoping that weaving the 3 towels won't take that long.  This is because there is currently a fly strip hanging over my loom.  All of a sudden there have been a lot of flies outside, which means flies inside. 

I've been doing a lot of research on circular sock machines.   I really do think that I need one of these amazing machines. I've no idea what kind that I want though.   New?  Old?  If new, which one because there are advantages to all the different ones, and different price points as well.  One way or the other it's a huge investment, and one I'll only make once, so I really want to make the right decision the first time.  

 I read a couple of trashy novels in my down time.  I went walking out on some trails and just my usual trail in the back yard. I'm getting caught up on my Historical Food Challenge group bi-weekly cooking tasks as well.

 I also found out today that I've taken an extraordinary number of photos this month.   This is one of our favourite trails.  It isn't long, but has lots of side trails that you can use to make every time feel different.  There used to be a picnic table at this spot, where we would eat our lunch.   It's been moved, and we were a bit sad because it was lovely to eat look at this view.

I puttered in the garden.  I filled the last of the large planters and totes with dirt and compost, and top dressed the new raised bed.   I planted 2 types of cucumbers,  another zucchinni and some carrots.  The one tomato that got frost bitten was replaced with savory.  In a small planter bag, I put some nasturtiums.    This year the only flowers are marigolds for both bug repellent use, and for dyes, nasturtiums because they're edible flowers and a single hanging basket with pink geraniums.  The two jalapeno peppers are doing well, but the serrano pepper is still as small as it was the second week after Easter.  I'm hoping that it's putting out roots.   It's been under a cloche, so at least the day temperatures have been warm and the tiny pepper plant has been protected.   With the summery blast we're getting this week, I'm hoping it helps it get growing.

Our apple tree was loaded with flowers.   I'm not sure what effect the late frosts had on it.   They were light frosts and hopefully at least some of them got pollinated.   The other tree only had 3 flowers this year and I don't know if that is enough to give us an actual apple harvest this year.    This tree looks a little wild now because I wasn't able to get out to prune it this winter.   I'd love to have enough even just to make a single pie or apple crisp.

Hmmm... I guess I accomplished more than I realized last week.  Regardless, it was a lovely, relaxing week, which was very nice. 
 

Circular Sock Machine Luuvvvvvv....

 I'm totally in love with one of these.   I went to a "crank in" on Saturday and saw vintage and modern circular sock machines in action.  I got to try a couple as well.  People showed me how they made heels, i-cord, started socks, how to fix skipped stitches more.   There was a machine from 1896 still making socks!    I was so busy talking with people that I forgot to take any photos at all.  

Now the issue is finding one of these that is within my budget.  I've been toying with the idea of getting a circular sock knitting machine for years, but never found anyone who actually had one, that could show me how they worked.   I was thrilled when a friend suggested  that I come to the event, which was local.   This confirmed in my mind that a machine like this is for me!   

This is a page from the catalogue from the Canadian company Creelman which made sock knitters from 1872 - until 1926. 

I wandered around the yard this morning and the zucchini plant which was started too early was flowering.   I don't know if it ever got warm enough for the bees to be out and about today.  I was thrilled though that there was both a female flower and a male flower at the same time.  

There are 3 cool nights this week, one with a risk of frost, so I'll have to cover the plants in hopes of keeping them safe. I should have waited to plant my seedlings, but they were starting to outgrow their little pots again, and I didn't want to have to re-pot them again.   I'd planted one tomato which I'd already put in a new container and was obviously not happy.  I found a bunch of plastic cloches that I'd used with success before and planted everything in the planters.   The only two which haven't fared well are the cucumber seedling which got pecked by a grackle, and the Serrano chile pepper which wasn't doing well in it's little pot either.   But there is a new leaf on it, so my fingers are crossed that it will survive.   My son-in-law gave me the seedlings, and they are varieties which are harder to find around here.

My son kept adding solar lights to the garden for days.  There are solar sunflowers, solar tulips, solar dandelions, solar wheat stalks, some strings of lights like in the gazebo, and a whole bunch of firefly lights like these, all around the garden.  The firefly lights are nearly invisible during the day but the rest sort of stand out.  But at night, the whole back garden is lit up in one crazy way.  A little tacky, maybe, but also so pretty and fun.

Garden work and surpises

We're changing up our garden this spring.   Right now it's a 20 x 20 foot regular bed plus 4 x8 foot low raised beds.   Because there has been a lot of growth in the surrounding trees, the 20 x 20 foot garden bed no longer gets enough light.  The last couple of years harvest was hardly worth the effort of working that large a space. We're letting it go back to grass and yard.   

The 4 x 8 foot low beds are being changed out to 3 higher raised beds.  Less actual garden space, but I've been adding large pots and containers so I'm getting more harvest from less space.  I used to plant the pots on and around the deck with flowers, but they're almost all veggies now, which are easy to care for and productive.

This is the first raised bed we're working on.   It's galvanized steel and was on sale for a crazy low price, which is why we've got it, instead of a third wood one.   We've layered the bottom with branches and bark.  Over that I've put a layer of composting straw which was last year's mulch covering the beds.  On top of the straw are fresh grass clippings.   The grass is so thick that hubby had to use the push mower, which has a bagger, so it was easy to collect them.  Hard to mow though, as the lawn is way too thick and long, due to all the cool weather and rain.   On top if it, once the whole lot settles a bit, and after the rain we're supposed to get for the next couple of days, we'll put the garden soil from the previous raised beds, and manure.   

 

Today I went out to lock up the chooks and saw these poking out of some of my deck pots.   My son had "planted" them to surprise me. They are very bright and definitely cheerful.  We won't have real plants with colour like that for weeks yet.

  They will be a fun addition  this summer.    I usually get a few solar lights to define the back deck steps because it gets very dark in our yard.  These are fun and pretty. 

We have one of those little gazebos on the deck.  Yesterday my son put up the canvas roof and netting.  As we were prepping for my hip replacement, a few things were moved to new spots, to make it easier for me to get around the house for those first couple of months.   One of those items was the box with the gazebo lights.  We had a couple of strings of bulbs which were nice to use at night.   All three of us hunted around, but none of us could figure out where they were moved.   Below is the photo of what I found when I popped out on the deck to take the picture of the sunflower lights at night. I was surprised by the flower lights, but was totally not expecting the gazebo lights.  For as small as they are, they put out quite a bit of light.  Not quite as much as the picture shows, that's the camera's doing.  Enough light though that the evenings out there would be enjoyable.   

 

 

Happy May!

 We've had day after day of wet, grey, dreary weather.   I'm looking forward to later in the week when we're supposed to get some sunshine.   I've been trying to move some plants from the old raised beds in preparation for the new ones being built.  I'm half done, but it's been too wet to finish up for almost a week now.

Twice now I've seen a bald eagle flying over us.   They are huge and fly very fast.  At least they fly quickly when the crows appear out of nowhere to chase them away.     We also heard an odd bird call the other day.  We were in the garage and this odd trilling was very loud. It was a sound I'd never heard before.  I popped out to see what it was, as it was definitely close, and there in the tree was a Raven.  Then several crows appeared and chased it off.   I checked the Raven call on-line and it was exactly what we'd heard.   I've seen it a couple of times since then as well.   Large predator birds overhead  does make me a little more careful about letting my chooks out though.   The hens don't like the wet weather though, so I don't feel quite so badly about keeping them locked in for the day when it's cold and rainy.

The plaid shawl is finally off the loom.   Really, I got busy and chose to do something other than weave.  It's pretty and I love the look of the plaid, but it is really a pain to weave.   It's a very subtle combination of colours.  More subtle than I'd have normally chosen.   I'm not sure what type of lights were in the shop where I purchased the main colour.   It looked grey in the shop.   I realized that it would be very dull unless I had an accent colour.   I found the same yarn  brand at a local store, and thought the grey they had was similar to the one I had at home.  It wasn't. While there was lots of contrast at the local store with their grey, mine is a different shade.  Maybe that's why it was on super sale!   So back to the store to pick up the yellow, to give the whole look some definition.   Regardless, I do like it.   It's 23 inches wide and 72 inches long, so a good size for a shawl.

I'm thinking it's time to warp up the floor loom and give it a go.  My hip is healed up enough and as long as I don't over do it, it should keep any swelling and inflammation down according to the surgeon.  

  We went to a concert on Saturday and I got to play with the camera on my phone.  We got our tickets late and had crazy nose bleed high seats.  We had a good line of site, so we got to see the show quite nicely.  Plus there was no-one beside us as we were tucked away in our own little alcove, so there were benefits.   We were about 200 metres away from the stage though, so I'm pretty happy that my little phone was able to take half-decent photos from that far away.   This is Joss Ross who was the opening act.   He had a good raport with the crowd and put on a great show.

The main performer was Lee Brice who also put on a great show.  I really liked the fact that the bass didn't over shadow the music.

There were a lot more people checking their phones during the concert than I normally see.   That was because it was game 5 for the Maple Leafs playoff hockey.  When that winning goal was won, right after that song ended, the crowd spontaneously erupted in "Go Leafs Go", which was particularly funny.  It lasted until he acknowledged the play off game win and thanked people for coming to the concert instead of watching the game.

 

Gratuitous cat photo of Phil, who sometimes gets cold and dives under blankets until he gets warm.  At night he either sneaks totally under the covers, or he just sleeps at your side, with his body under the covers and his head either on, or near the pillow.  He'll sleep that way for hours, but only until he's warm if he's completely under the blankets.