Thoughts and observations from life around the riverrim.... ...including spinning weaving, knitting, gardening, flax, chickens, rabbits, alpaca.............. and whatever wild life wanders by
All the signs are there. I'm preoccupied, and think about doing it even when I'm doing something else. My heart flutters ...my palms sweat, but don't worry, my husband understands my new infatuation. He even made a short video of me in action.
Spinning from distaff to spindle. I am hooked. It is hopeless, I am addicted.
Soft singles fall off my fingers and onto my spindle.
I would do this all day if I could. It is an intellectual infatuation.
The yarn is spun from the point, and the spindle can be held and flicked in the same manner that a supported spindle is traditionally held. The tension from the yarn that is attached to the distaff, along with winding on in a fashion to prevent slippage.. allows me to avoid making a half hitch, before and after each make. here is a brief close up of what is happening...
And it is productive. When I fill a spindle, I'm winding off onto a nod, and skeining about 80 yards on average.
yes, I am smitten. happy valentines day!
Star of Wonder in the heavens...
Wonder what you want of me..
Should I follow you tonight?
Star of Wonder, burning bright.
a cappella written by terre roche ~may your holiday season be filled with peace, love, joy and beauty~
.... from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan
The weather. There is lots of it today. And while I am removing it from the walkways and automobiles...let's talk about it.
First up...Our resident groundhog from the great state of Pennsylvania has announced and twittered an early spring!
Thank Heavens!
This does not happen often...I believe this might only be the 16th time since they have been keeping records....
If the groundhog had looked around a little bit longer, he may have noticed one of these snow spirals from spaceweather...
Such curious spirals! - The wires were spun clockwise, while the snow formations were spun anti-clockwise. The hardened snow spirals were rotated opposite of the metal wire's weave. How could they have been formed?
Readers with explanations are being invited to submit their ideas...
I suggest that Frau Holda was having fun. Every good spinster know who Frau Holda is...
Certainly looks like her hand work to me!
The Eastern Bluebirds came today. They found the bittersweet berries.
We did not get the heavy snows that our friends to the south experienced, but we did get some and it brought with it the winter wind. The wind was howling last night, and continued on into the day. The bluebirds come to eat the berries as the wind subsides.
Bluebirds eat mostly insects and small invertebrates, but during the cold winter months berries are a good supplemental food source when the insects are hard to find.
Bluebirds are a welcome sight in winter. I was happy to watch them eat the berries.
May these bluebirds bring you cheerfulness, prosperity, good health, new births, renewal and happiness in the new year!
Well, of course, you probably do...but would you know one if you saw one? Would you be able to tell the difference between a Tomten and a Troll?
I think I have a Tomten. But maybe he is a Troll? I'd rather he was a Tomten. I think he might be. Mostly because he fits the description. He is an old, old Tomten, who has seen the snow of many winters...and no one know when he came here...he has always just been here. And sometimes, we see his footprints in the snow. Some say that Tomtens have features like animals. My Tomten has a nose like a pig. I'll show you a picture of him. Here he is.
But he might not be a REAL Tomten. You know, because I have him. And I can see him. And take pictures of him. You are not supposed to be able to see real Tomtens. But maybe my Tomten comes to life when I am asleep.
Someone made my Tomten with their hands. They carved his feet.
They patched his pants.
They knit his socks. And they knit him a hat.
His hat needs mending, but I don't dare touch it. I don't want to disturb the Tomten mojo.
I take him out of his house sometimes and put him near the window so he can look outside. His house is in the bottom portion of my Victrola cabinet..just in case he is a troll. It was pointed out to me by a friend- that living in a VicTROLLA is a good place for a Troll.
When I set him near the window, he takes on a strange shape in the moonlight. He must be Tomten. He talks to the chickens...in a silent little language chickens understands, "lay me an egg my jolly chickens and I will give you corn to eat." and he talks to the sheep...in a silent little language the sheep can understand...
"all my sheep, all my lambs..the night is cold, but your wool is warm and you have aspen leaves to eat."
Yes...I like to think he is a Tomten. Winters come and winters go...
If you don't know the story of the Tomten you can listen to it here.
May you have a very happy Christmastime, Yuletide, Wintertime or Holiday..whatever you celebrate... watch for the Tomten!
Early this morning...as I was walking the indoor trash to the outdoor can, I noticed the spiders were busy last night.
Dew had formed on their webs, and sunlight reflected off the drops like little gems. It was quite beautiful.
There were sparkling images and designs on each strand.
I took lots of photos, but the camera really didn't capture the same beauty that I saw with my eyes. Wandering around and noticing the webs made me realize there must be hundreds -no- thousands -no- millions of spiders in the woods...and with Halloween just around the corner, it seemed a bit spooky!
But then ...spiders aren't really all that scary to me...I can relate and even admire them...we have a few things in common.
They like to spin and weave, and so do I.
While most people were searching for Easter Eggs, I went hunting for a different kind.
Amamniotic.
You can usually find them in the vernal pools...
they are the eggs of the amphibians.
the ecological indicators....biphasic...creatures that spend their youth under water breathing through gills, and then emerge ...metamorphasize...and breath air through lungs. the dark ones are wood frog eggs I believe, but I'm not so sure what the white ones are.
the actual size...about a fourth of an inch.
I even found a few that had already hatched, and were hitching a ride on litter- in the form of a plastic milk jug.
Yesterday afternoon we took a drive north to see a favorite Irish Band. Grada!
We saw them once before, years ago, and have been waiting for a chance to see them again...that chance came yesterday evening. For those of you who have seen my YouTube Great Wheel Spinning video, Grada is playing that beautiful music.
The Center for the Arts, located in Homer NY, was a great place to see and hear Grada. The building itself is the former First Baptist Church of Homer, and is the location of a terrific organization with wonderful educational and performance initiatives. They have a very informative website that offers slide shows and streaming music of past performances.
As for the music, well it was just the best! These musicians are so talented- they are amazing to watch, and sometimes their melodies are so beautiful that you are tempted to just close your eyes and listen.
Sing Out Magazine writes: "If this talented quintet appears anywhere within 100 miles of you, hi' thee hence!"
We drove over 140 miles to get there...and it was well worth it. If you like Irish traditional music GO see this band if you get a chance, they have taken it to a new level....here is a handy link for their tour date information.
Although this song was previously recorded...they did play it last night-- I snagged it from YouTube:
Happy St. Patricks Day!
Yesterday was Fastnacht, Shrove Tuesday and according to German and Pennsylvania Dutch folklore, if you didn't make the fastnachtlauchen, your flax crop will fail...and you might even get a few boils...
Fastnachtlauchen is a little cake made from sweet yeast dough which is fried. According to "Eastertide in Pennsylvania" by Alfred Lewis Shoemaker--fastnachtlauchen "possessed virtues beyond the nutritional".
Leaving 3 fastnachtlauchen on the windowsill to be consumed by a little man ensured good luck and apparently, if you fed fastnacht crumbs to the chickens, it would help them to lay well,and protect them from hawks.
The leftover lard (used to fry the cakes) was saved for greasing the wagons and spade --it was thought to keep the insects from the fields.
But most interesting to me, were the customs and beliefs that centered around Fastnacht and Flax. First of all, no spinning of flax on Fastnacht. It was day for dancing...and the higher a couple could leap, the higher their flax would grow.
If it froze on Shrove Tuesday..it would be a good year for flax. If icicles on the roof were long, even better...the flax would grow long too.
And even "more complex- if the sun shines in the morning... the flax would be planted early in the year...if it didn't shine till the afternoon, it would be planted late."..humm...sounds like they are confusing that one with groundhogs day.
Not being one to destroy traditions...
I dutifully made a small batch of fastnachtlauchen...and I left 3 cakes for the little man, fed some crumbs to the chickens, saved some of the vegetable oil in a jar and stashed it in the greenhouse, did a little dance, and jumped as high as I could. It was freezing yesterday, but only a few icicles were on the eves.
I was the first one out of bed on Fastnacht, so I was known as (der has lumba- or the cleaning rag!) or (die gluck - the cluck!) or worse (der schpeel-lumba-suckler - the dishrag sucker!)..but I didn't go stand in the yard stark naked ...(that was said to prevent one from getting sick that year)...humm..standing outside in my birthday suit in 22 degrees at 6:30 AM didn't seem like a good idea, so I made fastnachtlauchen instead.
By the way, would you like some Fastnachtlauchen? They are great for dunking..
If you would like my recipe, email me and I will send it off to you.
Oh, just to be on the safe side...I didn't do any spinning, but I did do some weaving on the RH, which I finally, successfully warped..so this is for Judy, who requested a photo....
And surely you’ll take your pint cup!
And surely I’ll take mine!
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Happy New Year!!
With faithful leaves unchanging.....
....Not only green in summer's heat...
...but also winters snow & sleet....
...your leaves will teach me also....
...that hope and love and faithfulness
are precious things I can possess...
Earnst Anschutz
It has been a tradition in my family, to play an April foolery on unsuspecting members, that in some fashion, involves a frog.
There have been (false) frog news stories, plastic frogs (strategically placed), freak frogs, funny frogs, frogs in beer, frogs in boots (and strangely enough), frogs with beards.
As the years pass, it becomes more challenging. The mere mention of the word "frog" this early in the spring is a heads up....or two! April Fool!
Happy Spring!
(ok, so I cheated and forced the cuttings! It is spring on the windowsill!)
(no cheating here, the easter bunny always delivers to the henhouse!) Let the egg avalanche begin....
