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.

RIP Cat

 So yes, we had a cat named Cat.  His name was actually Mu, as in the Greek letter, but when he was young,  he was the only cat we had, and whenever anyone commented on him, or his whereabouts, it was always something like "Where is the cat? or Has anyone fed the cat?".  One day we realized that he responded to the word cat.  He'd look up. Sometimes he'd come when he was called and so his name changed to Cat.

He was almost 20 years old.  He was really my daughter's cat.   She was a good cat mom, but suddenly found herself in a situation where she had to work 2 jobs and I think she was still taking classes at uni, and Cat was still quite young.  He wanted attention, but she was really only home to sleep.   She came home for Christmas, and asked to leave him with us for a couple of months, while she got back to a normal situation.   Of course we said yes, but when she left to go back, we couldn't find Cat.  He was in hiding and had determined he was staying where he was.   As soon as she headed out, he popped out of hiding.  For years afterwards, she come home and he'd hide.  It was kind of funny.

He was a good cat.  He was playful for many years.  He loved playing with a hand under a blanket.  When we lived in a home which had a gap under the bathroom door, he would play for ages just chasing a finger back and forth in the gap.   He had no idea how to play fight or wrestle, but he'd chase a guitar string around the house if you pulled it along.

 When I had my hip replacement, he parked himself on my new hip and stayed on top of the incision until the staples were removed, when he moved to my feet.  Two days later, when the little staple marks had healed, off he went back to his normal routine.   He regularly looked after me like that.

He didn't like strangers, thunderstorms or mice.  He'd run and hide.  Except for when the farmer next
door was combining.  He'd sit on the table, looking out the patio doors, watching that combine go back and forth, with no fear at all!   

He crossed the rainbow bridge on Sunday night. He will be missed.  He was handsome, caring and a very good pet.  

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house

The last time I was at Westfield was for the afternoon Christmas Program.   After loading the wood box, sweeping and getting water, I filled up the cast iron kettle and put my lunch on to cook.  I always end up eating lunch there or do without because of the timing of my drive.  That day I had freshly laid eggs and back bacon.  It was a very yummy treat.  The kettle takes a while to get warm, but we had hot water for dishes and cooking in fairly short order.   Otherwise, I made english muffins on the gridiron and soda bread in a dutch oven.

The tea towels are off the loom.  The huck lace worked out really well and I cut the towels off the loom, leaving enough waste to tie on another warp.  The disappointing thing is that the 2/8 natural cotton I was given, turned out to not be cotton at all, but some blend, so there was no shrinkage in washing .   My tea towels are large enough to be utility hand towels or small bath towels!  Guess what I am hanging in the bathroom over Christmas?

This is Harper.  He is a 10 year old German Shepard cross, with probably Border Collie or Aussie Sheepdog, because of his colouring, hair texture, tail and personality.   He is needing a new home because of a sad divorce situation where Dad took him and then dumped him on Mom, who can't afford to keep him.   He is a sweet mama's dog.   Unfortunately Kevin doesn't like him and chases him around the house, hissing, spitting, growling and attacking him all out with teeth and claws.  Hubby doesn't like him because a) he doesn't want another dog and b) his first night anxiety caused a few issues.   However with me, he is sweet as anything.   I exchanged the 4 ft long heavy leash, with a weighted spring at the clip end that he came with, for a 6 ft. long lightweight leash and all his leash issues disappeared.   He is friendly, warm and when he is trying to get away from Kevin attacking, he does do the lap dog thing, where he climbs on me for safety.   He is a pretty large dog and definitely not a lap dog.   His house manners are pretty darned good though.  He doesn't beg for food, doesn't eat the cat food, which is on the floor and sits nicely at my feet when I am sewing or spinning.   As long as Demon Spawn Kevin isn't in the room, all is good.    Will he stay with us?  I don't know but he is slowly settling in for now after a bit of a traumatic start.

Farewell my friend

Toby was a pound rescue who came in with a box full of what looked like purebred Newfoundland puppies.  He had a Newfie tail, and webbed feet, but was obviously sired by some sort of collie by the looks of him.When we brought him home, he was 16 weeks old and had rarely been outside.  He was afraid of almost everything.  He was great inside and with the family, but outside, even a bird call he'd never heard before would send him running back in to safety.   The neighbour used to babysit a huge yellow Labrador Retriever and one evening she asked if we'd like to go with them for a walk.  Toby walked carefully by the Labs side and soon started imitating his behavior.  It was really interesting watching Toby suddenly not be quite so afraid of things.  After that evening, he was quite the brave little dog. 

While he enjoyed agility work, his favourite thing in all the world were tennis balls.   He was a mouthy dog and chewed them after he'd played with them for a while. We never pursued flyball for that reason.  He didn't just want to chase the balls, but when he was tired, he liked to chew them.  The expensive ones would last forever but once a week, the two of us would climb in the car and go grocery shopping.  Beside the grocery store was a dollar shop.  I'd pop in there, pick up a packet of cheap tennis balls.  I'd leave them in the car and he'd stick his nose in the bag, just touching the packet of tennis balls and not move the whole way home.   He'd carry his packet of tennis balls into the house or wait excitedly until he got one to play with.

He was a good was a good pet.  He was good with people and kids.  He never did figure out that he was bigger and stronger than the cats though.   While I never had to do formal obedience training with him, he learned so quickly that it seemed he was well behaved without training.  His house manners were impeccable.    When we lived in town, the neighbours once asked me if he actually was able to bark as they knew we had a dog, but had never heard him bark in over 2 years.  He did bark, when it was necessary but only then.  He was active up until the last couple of weeks of his 13 years.  He will be sorely missed.