dathliad!

I received a great email today, a birth announcement ...

That is a beautiful baby Balwen lamb and Ewe...Welsh Mountain type...and lovely, don't you think! You can head over to bwlchyrhyd and wish them iechyd i galon (best of luck) and (celebration)...dathliad!

Seeing the sheep makes me think of the vest that I am working on, and the vest makes me think of the sheep that I spun the wool from - for the vest that I am working on.

I brought the fleece from Betty Levin, a few years ago. I spun the wool from the locks, and now I am knitting the vest. I can remember standing in a line at the MS&W festival, with the bag of fleece in my hand. A knitter was in front of me. She introduced herself that way. She asked me if I was a spinner, and if so, how long would it take me to spin the wool and make something from it. hummmm, that is a loaded question to a spinner ...but to answer her question, I guess it has taken me, oh,

about 2 years....

but if you want one just like it...

'll have it for you by the morning ;-)

This is the front of the Boogie Vest, and I have come to the point of the v- neck.. and have to work with 2 separate balls of yarn and 2 sets of needles...eeeekkkkk.....

walk with me Wed, in sneakers...

It was a beautiful day for walking...the sky a bright blue, the sun warm on your face, and the wind was just light enough to play with your hair. It is the kind of spring day that begged me to put on my sneakers for a walk. oh dear, I have not worn sneakers for a walk in a long time, and I am sure to get my sneakers full of mud...but I decide it is just too nice of a day to wear my tired old boots for a walk.

You can feel the difference right away. You get that feeling...the one where you can run faster and jump higher...it's the feeling that puts a bounce in your step, makes your hair swing when you walk...it is, the feeling of springtime.

I headed down to the river to climb on the rocks...the water was high, the riverrim looked different from just a few short weeks ago...it went from this...

to this....

I found evidence of how hard winter can be on some, the bones of one who did not survive it.

I have heard that deer that are wounded during hunting season, will go to the river to die. The bones were bleached white and made clean by the sun and the river water. I saved a small thin one, to make a needle out of.

I climbed around the rocks some more...my ankles slightly weak without the support of my boots. I found some nice driftwood, some of which I saved for use in future projects...I saw some stone flies, and some of these...

which I am sure the trout are eating...

weekend spinning

The snow is leaving us, little by little. In a few more days, it should all be gone! The south face of the mountain is clear already, and the chickens are enjoying scratching up the earth again.

The garden gate is still frozen in place, making it difficult to get out there and tidy up. Rather than force the issue and take a snow shovel to it, I elected to wait for it to melt and in the meantime I decided to do some spinning on the Great Wheel.

I have finished spinning all that I had carded up of the finnsheep/angora blend. I am spinning a cop of the blend, and then spinning a cop of finnsheep, and have been plying them together.

I also made myself a lazy kate for plying the cops. I was having trouble with them when I turned them on their sides, so I have fashioned a method where I can stand them up. It is working a little bit better, but I still need to make some modifications to improve the design. The cops don't spin freely, and I think they need a disk to ride on, so I will cut them from the plastic cutting boards, and see if that makes a difference. Currently, I slip the cop off of the spindle and directly onto the double point needle, which rides in the lazy kate.

So far, I have a total of 240 yards of the blend. I'm still uncertain about what I will use it for, but one thing I do know is that I am keeping this for myself. If I get enough, I may decide to knit a sweater/jacket.

Wanda of Fiberjoy has started a new blog about weekend spinning, and has kindly invited me to post. I hope I can keep up the pace, but if not-- I can always read with interest what others are up to! I encourge any other spinners out there to sign up!

sayornis phoebe

As far as the calendar tells me, we are already 3 days into the spring of 2007, but would I know this if I didn't have the calendar as a reference? I think I would. There are signs. Sayornis phoebe returns. This morning, the call, "feeeee-beee", came from ledges, signaling the arrival.

I have not seen Phoebe yet, the photograph above, is taken from the archives. Last April, Phoebe decided to check out the eave of the hen house as a possible nesting site. Phoebe returns year after year, faithfully, to the same nest. For a while, we had one over one of the front doors, and had to use the back door for a spell, so as not to disturb the fledglings. They really made a mess. The nest was built over the outdoor light, and was constructed of mud and moss and feather. Eastern Phoebes build their nest in woodlands areas- along rivers and streams. They are almost entirely insectivorous, but I've also seen them eating elderberries, and read that they will eat small fish. Since Phoebe has arrived, it means that there must be a food source available. They stocked the river on the 16th. Taeniopteryx fasciata or stoneflys will be hatching and the blue winged olives will follow. Yes..I think I would know it was spring if I didn't have my calendar to reference.

shapes

When a particular shape keeps reappearing to me, I always stop and think about what it could be trying to tell me.

tracks from the snowplow

It is not that the shape is in any way unusual, it is the fact that I happen to keep NOTICING it,

poultry wire around the garden

in a way that I think somewhere in my soul, it is trying to make me stop and figure out a REASON that I am noticing the shape. That somehow, I should be aware of something having to do with that shape, and usually there is.

hornet nest

It is hard to think of planting when the ground is still covered with over a foot of snow. But it is time.

planting cell pack

Today, I started the lettuce and the broccoli...so that they will be ready when it comes time to set them out....and so I can rest assured that I paid attention to the reason for noticing the shape.

you know....

However, there is always the chance that this shape is trying to tell me something else....

songs

Today there was a lot of birdsong....and house hunting.

The bluebirds came through, along with a flock of 9 robins.

dude--where's my car -again?

Last month, we experienced the St. Valentines Day snowstorm digout. Today, we are having a St. Patricks Day snowstorm digout!

It is a heavy 18 inches of snowpack...slushy at the bottom, but we have to shovel it out of the way...the temps are going down to 9 degrees tonight, so it will all freeze.

The birds are nice to listen to as we shovel...the fox sparrow has parked himself beneath the feeder.

Not much in the way of anything other than snow removal getting accomplished today, but there is corn beef and cabbage simmmering on the stove. Happy St. Patricks Day! We should be seeing Grada tonight...darn snow....you can see them on youtube by going here

fickle

My Webster's defines the word fickle as: "given to erratic and even perverse changeableness syn: see inconstant..."
as in the month of March...

Yesterday, my snowdrops greeted me at the doorstep...today, well today the "other" snowdrops are quickly covering their namesake.

In between trips outside to sweep it all away ( I go out every hour or so I can sweep....in a storm where they call for 16 inches, sweeping is easier than shoveling)...so I sweep and come inside and knit....I have been working on the Boogie Vest.

I started this pattern at the beginning of the month. I have completed the back and have now started on the front. I'm using the BL that I spun from the locks of the fleece that I brought from Betty Levin. I have just enough left to make a vest (I hope). I found the pattern online in the Knitty Archives. I liked the idea of a quick knit with a little cable up the front. Recently, I googled the Boogie Vest, to see how many other people had made it, and what all the different versions of the vest looked like. Blogs are wonderful the way the record things.

I have also been spinning up the last of Jack's angora. I am spinning it on the great wheel ....so far I have 118 yards, approx 10 wpi.

walk with me wednesday March mud

March, mud and mudpuddles...

.... quagmire, spongy earth, gushing run off...

overflow...the ledges release their heavy ice packs...

water trickles through opague and then translucent snow...slush, dripping pools, gurgling brooks...

...you may have noticed the melt today. Tonight the thunderstorm will wake up the woods..

stealing

Imagine my surprise today when I found two, not one mind you, but two blogs that have taken my words and called them their own. I am so glad to have this brought to my attention, perhaps I can do something to stop it.

First we have this one http://cincyverspig.duskdiary.com/ They have copied directly a post of mine from September 24, 2005. It is about wood warblers. I was posting about the fall migration. They simply copied and pasted my text. It seems to be the only entry.

Far worse is this page: http://xienloathesy.duskdiary.com Here I have found entry after entry composed of my work. Does anyone know what I should do about this? I tried to leave a comment on the blog, but it wouldn't take it.

be it ever so humble

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain; O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! The birds singing gayly, that came at my call,-- Give me them,--and the peace of mind, dearer than all!

Let others delight mid new pleasures to roam,But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home!

To thee I'll return, overburdened with care; The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there; No more from that, cottage again will I roam; Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." John Howard Payne: Home Sweet Home

I am glad to be home. It was a difficult trip to make. The wood thrush was here to welcome me. I haven't seen him yet, he is still deep in the wood. I heard him singing at dusk.

I thought that he was early, and yes, I am sure it is a he. The males always arrive before the females, to claim their breeding territory. The season of his song begins. His voice was coming from the top of the trees. In a few weeks, his voice will come from the forest floor, and it will be a shorter, simpler song. By mid summer, the season of song will come to an end. If you have never heard a wood thrush sing, you are missing out on one of the joys of life. If you want to hear a recording of a wood thrush singing, go here. It won't sound as pretty as it does when you hear his voice resonating in the woods, but you can get a general idea of his melodic, flute like tones.

The voice of the wood thrush has often been written about :

Thoreau wrote of it: "Whenever a man hears it he is young, and Nature is in her spring; wherever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates of heaven are not shut against him."

Robert Browning wrote of it:"That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, lest you should think he never could recapture the first fine careless rapture!"

...and John Greenleaf Whittier wrote of it ..."And where the shadows deepest fell,the wood thrush rang his silver bell."

Yes, I am happy to be back and live where the wood thrush calls home.

Now, begins the chore of unpacking....

down time

I will not be at my computer for a little while, so there will be no posting for a bit. Enjoy the respite!