whitetail

She showed up early this morning. She was hanging around all day. Does she know that tomorrow is opening day of deer season?

I have mixed feelings about deer season. They are beautiful animals and I enjoy watching them year round. I get to recognize certain deer that live around me. They have distinct personalities, like most of us. They get to know me too. There are a few deer that watch me daily, from the woods, as I do my chores and feed my chickens and rabbits. They are my friends, and I like to talk to them. They keep their distance and watch.

I could not do it. I know that it is important to manage a herd. I know that venison is better to eat than beef from the grocery store. The deer have a wild a varied diet, without any antibiotics. Their meat is lower in fat and higher in iron content. I eat venison. If I had to shoot the deer to eat it, I would go hungry. There is just no way that I could pull a trigger while looking into these eyes.

....so I chase her away...I want her to be afraid of me, for her own good...but maybe she will stay close to the house tomorrow, and maybe my friend will stick around for another day....

gratitude

These past few months have been some of the hardest months I have ever had to face in my life. I found myself dealing with situations that I never would have imagined, and had no idea of how I was to cope with them.

At the approach of the Thanksgiving Holiday, I review, quietly and deeply, and recall so many things that we have to be thankful for. And I find myself being grateful for the adversities. How can this be? Why should I be thankful for the difficulties and challenges and hardships? I am reminded of the words, "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain". gibran

How to express my gratitude to those who have helped us through these difficult times is also something that I have been thinking about. I am used to being on the giving side of a situation. It is harder for me to be on the receiving end, but I am learning. I am reminded of more words..

"And you receivers---and you are all receivers---assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings; For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity ..." gibran

And so I am thankful.

May you enjoy the thanksgiving holiday! We're going over the river and through the woods...see you next week!

w is for water x is for xylem

We have had lots of water in the form of rainfall over the past week. I have had the good fortune to have lived most of my life, (since the second grade) on or near a body of water. More years than not, I have been able to glance out a window and look at a lake or a bay or river. I love the water...I think about water a lot. It is essential. We are composed of 60 to 70 % of water... it takes many different forms...over two thirds of our planet is covered in it...it is what tears are made of and it melted the wicked witch of the west. It is powerful stuff...

Yesterday, amidst the rain, I noticed a pine tree, with sap at its base. I have seen this before, usually in the spring... the water was mixing with the sap and forming bubbles.

It made me think of the phloem and the xylem- the transport tissue... the closer my lens got to the sap, the more it looked like xylem tissue under the microscope.

or maybe a piece of lace knitting....

stonewall

This past weekend, I decided to finish the mohair/angora shawl that I had completed weaving on the triloom. After fulling it, I wanted to try brushing the mohair to see if I could achieve a nice fluffy halo.

It brushed up well enough. However, it did have some fiber that came loose completely, but I continued to brush it until it stopped "shedding". It is now very fuzzy and full. You can see a subtle difference in the nap from the outside of the shawl to the inside. I was happy about this effect because I intended the shawl to have a collar that would show the contrast.

Since my inspiration for this project was the stone wall on the hillside, I wanted a shawl pin to convey this idea, but one that would blend in and not call to much attention to itself...

I really wanted the pin to be an extension of the shawl. I had lots of fun thinking about how to create the pin, and I think I like the pin more than the shawl!

Project notes Date started -Oct. 18 Date completed -Nov. 12 Fiber Content: Mohair/Border Leicester from Judy and my blend of Angora/finn 2 ply wpi 6 size before fulling (62 x 42) size after fulling (60 x 40) Total weight~ 11 ounces of thick- plush -fuzzy warmth....

abc along V is for Vole

We have many voles around the riverrim. They reproduce easily, and can start when they are only one month old, and then have several litters a year. Voles typically have a litter of 6 to seven young, and the female can breed immediately after giving birth. It is a good thing that they have a short life span, and normally do not survive in the wild for more than a year.

I see them frequently, and this one was in the garden. I assume that it had tunneled under the fence, and needed to be relocated. Voles can do a lot of damage to the roots and tubers of certain plants. When we had the chance, we caught it while it was wedged next to a raised bed. I say "we" because it was a joint effort between two humans and a cat.

This was not the first time we have caught a vole. Many years ago while shoveling snow, we shoveled several voles...setting them aside in a wash tub for the toddler to observe ...only to be horrified when they attacked each other. It was at that time that I discovered that voles are cannibalistic.

Voles are different from moles and shrews. Moles have prominent front feet with claws to help them dig. Shrews have more of a pointed nose.

The vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus, was observed and photographed in the jar before relocating to the wooded area. We have enough predators in the way of owls, snakes, fox coyote and cat to keep the vole population in check, so that I don't have to...

barberry and bluebirds

Years ago, a few barberry bushes appeared in the side yard. They were about as big as a bushel basket. I decided to transplant them along the roadside, so that one day, they would become a hedgerow. That day has come.

There is barberry growing all over the place around here, so it is not anything unusual. I think some may even say it is invasive. It was brought to America a long time ago. There was a time when it was unlawful to grow barberry in certain states. However, it is beautiful this time of year, and many different animals enjoy the berries on it. I saw a flock of blue birds all over it yesterday...they were so beautiful, but so full of motion I could not focus long enough to get a decent photograph of them.

I once made a jelly from the barberry. I painstakingly picked the berries, avoiding the thorns...I didn't think the flavor was worth doing that again. As I recall, it tasted better used as a glaze on ham, than it did on toast or a biscuit.

Not much time to work on fiber these past few days...but I did finish the "fetching" mitts from Knitty. I squeaked out a pair from some silk that I had spun up a long time ago. When I tied off the last end, there was 3 inches leftover. Barely enough to save as a sample for the old project notebook!... but I liked the pattern quite a bit. It is worked with multiples of 5 and falls into a nice quick rhythm that I didn't have to pay much mind to. Sometimes, I like a project that I don't have to think about when I am doing it. That way, I can talk to someone while I knit and not loose my place. (I'm one of those, "can't walk and chew gum at the same time" sort of people...)

shearing the buck

No, I didn't shear this handsome fellow...he showed up the other morning, nibbling on the forsythia bushes.

Contrary to what some may think, I cannot tell the how old this buck is by the antlers. The only way to really know his age is to look at his teeth, and he wasn't showing any. But his antlers do impress me, and I think about how he must have started growing them this past spring, and then how he shed the velvet to have them ready for the rut- typically late Oct to mid November around these parts. Yes indeed, they are impressive.

Anyway, I did shear the buck...

and he is a handsome fellow too. This is the last clip before the weather gets too awfully cold.

I was able to get about 6 or 7 ounces off of him, with a nice staple length of 4-5 inches. Lovely! I plan to blend it with the black Finn that I just picked up.

I have spun up some of this blend before, and have used it up as the darker wool in this shawl..which I have recently taken off the loom. Shown above, it is reclining in the rocker whilst waiting for its fulling bath and brushing....

blue

The rafter of turkeys (22 of them) marched down the mountain for a visit early this morning.

I was surprised at how calm they were. They did not display their usual wary attitude. After close observation, it became clear to me that the reason for this was the absence of the gobblers. So-- they have now separated for the winter. This time of year, the tom's become rather solitary. They are not attracted to the hens, and so go off to themselves or to keep the company of other gobblers. Come springtime - they will assemble their harems.

I noticed how the hens are at ease, much like my chickens are without a rooster to keep them in line. They allow me to photograph them.

The early morning sunlight brings out the color blue in their almost bald heads. Their eyes are very large. Turkeys have very keen eyesight.

And a face only a mother could love.

Booo!

october notes

Pheneology results for October

6th white pine needles yellow and drop

8th hazel nut flowering and catbirds have left

9th colors are peak

14th first frost -hermit thrush and kinglet feeding on barberry

16th juncos arrive -Goldie molts

21st turkey strip barberry

24th flock of bluebirds noted --planted winter rye today

which witch hazel

This is not the witch hazel I mean to tell you about...although, we have been having some wicked winds coming out of the west...rather, I would like to point you in the direction of this sweet smelling bloom that appears just after all the leaves have fallen from the branches.

For years I have referred to this shrub as a hazelnut. That is what I was told was it's name by an oldtimer from these parts. Only recently did I discover that it is witch hazel!The leaves on the bush look very much as if they would belong to the hazel family, and the nuts that form -bear a striking resemblance to the hazel nut we all know and love...but lately.... I have been wondering why this bush is associated with a witch. Perhaps there was a mistake, and it should be which hazel instead.

I did a little reading and found out that some articles suggest that the limbs were used for divining or dowsing. Humm, and here I thought that they always used willow branches for that! I don't know anyone who dowses, so I have no way of knowing if there is any truth to this theroy.

I also read that witch hazel grows in the shade, and if exposed to full sun it dies off quickly. Winter bloom, or snapping hazel are also common names for this bush. The snapping refers to the way the bush spreads it seeds. When they are ripe, the seed capsules burst open and can shoot the seed as far as 20 feet. I've never seen my bush shoot its seeds, the red squirrel usually eats them all.

So, as I wonder what's in a name, I will let witch hazel cast a spell on me while I watch the pretty yellow ribbons of the blooms flitter and flutter with the wind....the last blooms of the season...

abc along u is for upside down

u is for upsidedown...

because sometimes things just turn out that way.....

Go deer Go

Hello ...

Hello!

Do you like my hat?

No, I do not.

Goodbye...

Goodbye!

virgin's bower

This is what the virgin's bower looked like a few short months ago. I like this vine, it goes by several names. Traveler's joy, Old Man's beard...devils darning needle...It belongs to the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.

In summertime, it smells wonderful, and climbs all over other trees and shrubs along the riverrim. But this is the time of year that I enjoy it the most. And so I watch for it, and wait for it to bear it's fruit heads with it's long feathery plumes...is it any wonder that the spinner in me wants to try it out?

The weather today was gray and blustery. The color in the landscape is leaving and some trees are standing naked already. Last night I started an earflap hat, and almost finished it. I carried a strand of Icelandic and a strand of ummm...don't remember what it was...but it makes for a nice warm combo.

canopy leaves

This morning, just at dawn, we noticed these visitors had spent the night on the side lawn.

The squally weather these past few days has been stripping the leaves from the trees...(except for the oaks, they are holding strong.) While the canopy of leaves begins to disappear, summer secrets reveal themselves.

No Rhinebeck for me this year, and I am trying hard not to miss it. Work on the triloom continues, every once and a while I have a moment to add a few lengths. The wool has such a nice "cush factor"..the tactile experience is pleasurable! I am pondering the idea of brushing this shawl, an technique I have not yet tried. I'm thinking that the mohair and angora will make a nice halo if I do.