Spring Is Here... The Grass Is Growing

I saw green grass. Yes I did! I saw green grass under a tree where the snow had melted and boy am I happy. Our road only has a few small patches of ice let and I can't wait to see the end of the snow around the yard. I do have to tell you that it is pretty difficult to get inspired to write this time of the year when it is too icy to go out walking and there's dog poop everywhere. March break starts next week and the public library here in HH is having an afternoon tea for St. Patrick's day.... I think I might go. It might get me doing something else and cheer me up. Not that I'm down... I'm just feeling a little burnt out. A vacation might be the ticket.

In the meantime the sun is shining and I want to go walking but there is just too much snow on the ground to walk safely. As a result the house is feeling rather like a cage. I still go out for knit night and recently I started working on a shawl project that I started last summer. It is woven on my 4" x 6" weavette loom with one block a multi green angora and the next block is brown llama. It is very soft and very light. I decided to pick up that project for knit night because I'm sick of lace gloves.... next fall when my hands are cold I will get back to them again. Part of the reason for doing the lace gloves in the first place was a gallery show in FSJ for which I had been preparing things for the last two years but when the choice was made for the theme it was.. "Scarves, Shawls, and Shoelaces"... yup not a one of those things that I completed in the last two years was a Scarf, Shawl or a Shoelace.... so I am now more focused on scarves, shawls and shoelaces.

Meanwhile the big j.c. rears its ugly head as I continue to spin black alpaca.... which I have to say I'm getting really sick of.

We are considering a few days away coming up here during March break which begins next week... I think Hubby and the girls are all feeling like a trip away. I'm thinking it might not be such a bad idea.... still there is a lot to do around here too. but a short vacation can't hurt right?

Well I just finished giving the small dog a hair cutthis is before the cutand this is after the cut
and he is looking painfully up at me to play with him.... the black alpaca is calling my name, and I have a dessert to make for dinner out at a friend's house. The day has begun and so must I.....

Colour.. Pink Is Putrid

Last night I was sitting in the living room at about 7:30 p.m. and I happened to look out the living room window and there before me was the most beautiful blue I have ever seen... I don't think I could even describe it. It was just before sunset and I don't know if the snow remaining in the yard was part of it, perhaps it was reflecting the colour a little, but somehow I don't think so because the trees and ground were already black. There wasn't a hint of any other colour in the sky, just this not-quite-ink-blue. It had an ethereal quality about it. I know I should have taken a picture right then and there but honestly I was enjoying looking at it so much that it never even occurred to me to get off my rump and find the camera. But I am glad I looked at it because it was just glorious.

At knit night last Thursday we were discussing our favorite colours and everyone was able to say what their favorite colour was except for me. I have a hard time choosing favorite colours because that is too abstract. A colour for me signifies as much a feeling as anything... so when I choose my favorite colour (if there is such a thing) it is always in context. I love blue but there are so many shades of blue that saying that is almost inane. I also love soft yellows like butter yellow and lemon yellow... but then if I think about a block of butter in a dish I almost want to laugh because that is not it at all.... the butter yellow that I like is a shade of a quilt that I once owned.... and I wonder if I like the shade of yellow or if it was the blanket itself that I liked. And if I think about a lemon I can't stand lemon but I love lemon chiffon fabric... it looks so utterly feminine. Red is an awesome colour but mostly because I love Stewart plaid.... then there is moss green. This is by itself actually a greyish drab colour but if you use it primarily in the bedroom it is very soothing. Mauve is lovely too if it is a lilac or if it is in conjunction with navy blue velvet. You see I love no colour as it stands on it's own but how it is in accordance with something else or with a feeling it evokes. I love melon orange but especially in regards to Cottonwood trees and how they look when the colour goes out of the leaves in autumn. So you see I have a difficult time choosing a colour that I can unequivocally say is my favorite.

Now you understand why I change the look of my blog so often.... mostly because colour is a tool... it is a tool the represents my mood.... I, over the last year or so have used many different colours on my blog, and all the time they are chosen to represent me..... I think, the colour that I least like is rose or any shade thereof.... puke! That is why the pink of the last few weeks didn't last on the blog for very long. Pink drives me nuts.... it puts me in mind of smoke and vapours. Pathetic.... I wonder if I ever threw up something pink.... hmmm.... I should ask my mother... maybe she would remember. Either way pink is vapid.

So there you have my low down on colour..... I can safely say that colour is a very personal thing... I hope I have not stepped on anyone's toes by saying pink is vapid.... If you happen to like pink and it works for you then more power to you.

My grandfather was colour blind.... I cannot imagine a world without colour.... how lucky we are to have the rainbow of them......

Monday Morning

It is Monday morning..... yuck! Actually it is not so bad... the crescent moon is shining down on us this morning in a sky that is a soft blue. The sun is not quite up above the horizon but there is that yellowness on the horizon.... it looks like it is going to be a fine day. There is no snow left on the roof as even on the North side it has melted and slid off. I have noticed that a huge chunk of snow came off the roof last week and hit the lower roof and left a dent. It is now that we will discover all the problems with the design of the additions and that obviously is one. I'm not really sure what we cane do about it other than knock the snow off in the spring in smaller amounts rather than have it fall off in huge chunks.

Each day it warms up and the snow turns to slush and water.... each evening it freezes again and turns to ice. It is treacherous to walk on and so I don't try hardly at all. I will be so glad to see the end of the snow....

I have noticed green grass trying to show itself in the sunny south facing areas where the snow has melted. The deer are coming less to feed on our bails. I just love spring.... except for the dog poo which seems to be everywhere.

I have three more cotton questions done for my level 3 homework... which means that now I have to get back to the big j.c. in earnest. I have done some spinning for it but I need to get really focused.... there have been several people who have seen it and think it is very nice.But the sleeves are calling me today and so I need to wash some wool but while that is drying I need to sit at my wheel and spin, spin, spin.... Everything else has to be put on hold for a couple of weeks.

So that's my Monday morning news, and blues..... the kids are out the door and Hubby too... the sun is up now and my wheel calls.... I'm off....

Brain Dead

Ok... I can't think of anything to write about because I'm feeling way too brain dead to write. So maybe tomorrow I'll feel more like writing something....

I watched movies all day once I got home from church.... and did a little spinning.... good activities for those of us who experience times when your brain refuses to do anything. I think I'll go to bed and nurse my poor brain....
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz......

Dog Days

If I remember correctly "Dog Days" have some weather connotation, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is exactly.... For me "Dog Days" has its own connotation, and I am feeling like this day among others lately, are "Dog Days". I look out the window today and it is windy and sort of grey... with sun.... The clouds are passing overhead at the rate of 'zoom'. It is mostly grey but there are God-like clouds off on the horizon... you know, they are the clouds that are always shown in the movies to signify God. Anyway my "Dog Days" include more than quickly moving clouds. You see, Duff, the big dog, is lying at my feet after a traumatic day yesterday. She went to the vet and so began the oddysey of "Dog Days Supreme"! She first had a thermometre poked up her bum which she was quite indignant about.... then she had a shot in the hip to knock her out, and once conked out, had her face cut open where resided a rather large abscess,.... then she got a severe case of the runs on the trip home from the anxiety of it all, which fortunately she was able to contain till we got pulled over in a gravel pit where she proceeded to stagger to the nearest snow heap to hunch up in a drunken manner and expunge herself. Nice! Dog days indeed.....

Meanwhile I sit here and watch the outcast alpaca trying to eat hay that has been inundated with stuff that has already exploded once from his butt. I always said Axton was a misfit... the other alpacas will have nothing to do with him... he's as much reverred as the boy in second grade that sat behind you and picked his nose and ate it after yanking on your pigtails.... no one likes him. I would never breed him for fear of producing a whole heard of nose pickers... I wonder if he is retarded...

Daughter #1 is in complete disgust today as she and her best friend had planned all week to have sleep over this evening and things have not worked out quite as planned... said friend was supposed to come after lunch but is unable to get a ride and Hubby won't be home till late having difficulties getting computers to work for irritating report cards... try living with an overly disappointed teenager.... and to make it worse, Daughter #2 has friend and so this only draws attention to the fact that Daughter #1 doesn't.... argghhh!

Wind always irritates me and as the clouds whiz past in their ever onward migration, like a heard of elephants across the Serenghetti, I find myself feeling like I'd like to chew nails... it is not a good day to spin.... my spinning wheel may join the clouds if things didn't go well.

So here I am forced to suffer the discontent of Dog Days..... a word of advice though.... sleep through them if you can.... but don't whatever you do try to get things done.... it never works. I think I'll go pick some stitches out of a pocket..... (I bet you thought I was going to say pick my nose.... well, I'm not the kid no one likes..... I hope)!

PS... I hope you like the new look....

Ahh .... Spring maybe...?!!

The seasons just keep marching on... I look out my window by the computer here and I realize that spring is on the move. All day yesterday the snow was sliding off the roof in great thunderous slumps. Water was dripping constantly and when I went out last evening to go to the monthly JCR meeting I realized that there is very little snow left on the roof at all. The paddocks where the animals reside are now blossoming quagmires of sh-- and hay. It is the time to watch for foot rot. Our ground here is fairly porous and so foot rot is not generally an issue. Still, in the spring when the ground has not quite caught up with the sun and the snow is melting but the grounds is not accepting the extra moisture, there is always a chance that my animals will have issues with their hooves.

More of our pine trees are dieing. The pine beetle has had its way with another generation of Pine trees and so now when the sap would be flowing back into the tree and branches would be starting to put out their new buds instead the pine trees are dieing and turning red. It is sad to watch. I look out on the deck and see that I am going to have to start watering the cedar trees that I have in my planters. I won't pull out the old annuals yet because that is an open invitation for the cats to use it as a bathroom. We get stuck just driving into our driveway as the snow turns to slush each day before returning to ice in the evenings.

Yep Spring is in the air.....

In house there is a turn back to the big j.c. as I start spinning once again black alpaca fibre and black wool... I also have been playing on the Inkle loom and have had a terrible time getting that sucker warped.... but I think I finally have it finished. It was fun having some of my spinny friends come by on Tuesday and see what they have been working on. One was working on plied yarn for sox, another was working on an Inkle loom like me and the other was prepping fibre for spinning on a charkha.... all is good on the spinny front.

Meanwhile Duff the big pooch still continues in agony with eye issues.... I am off to the vet today with her in another effort to deal with the problem of swollen face and obvious infection. I will be driving my way down highways that are at last dry.... no snow.... how great is that! I can't wait till the quagmire of my paddocks and yard are clear and dry once again.

It's at this time of the year that I miss my ducks puttering around in the pools of water.
Ducks in our yard in 2005

Bust A Move

I like small things.... I'm not small so why I like small things is not necessarily apparent. Perhaps it has something to do with wishing I was small.... I like my hands, they are small even though one hand has no thumb and the other hand has a fused pinky knuckle and looks as ugly as hell. I like my ears.... they are small... when I got my ears pierced the lady said my earlobes were so small that she wasn't sure she could pierce them.... eventually she managed.

I like small things like my spinning wheel which is one of the smallest wheels on the market.... I like small paths through the snow and not big plowed roadways. Last week at the Blueberry I saw a nifty little item.... I saw a cute little Inkle Loom made by Ashford. It is called the Inklet. I saw it and wanted it so I ordered it for my birthday.... No it is not my Birthday yet!

I like little small fishy crackers.... they make me feel young and happy. I like little weavette looms... they're small. My house is small even after all the renovations... it is barely 1000 square feet.

With all the small things that I like, it is odd that every now and again I bust out of the usual small-ness of my life and go big, big, big. My deck is big. At 441 square feet, it is almost as big as my house. My bike is big.... fat tires and a nice fat cushy seat on it... And my children are big as they tower over me.

I mean every now and again I bust a move and do something big.... like my tri loom. Most people were buying/making 3 foot tri looms for the tri loom workshop last year, and while I have one that size I thought, why not go all the way and buy the biggest tri loom you can get.... so I bought a 7 foot tri loom. I have a small house but I have a big couch. 9 feet to be exact and a sectional to boot.

What I have realized is that there is a real dichotomy within me. It is the yin and the yang at battle. It's not really an impractical/practical thing in me.... it's more like I'm made of all the contrasting desires and sometimes one wins out while at other times the opposite wins out.
When I was in University and studying philosophy one of the subjects that really caught my attention was that of a trinity.... and while THE TRINITY came to interest me later on it wasn't so much THE TRINITY that I was interested in then, but trinities in general and how they work..... I've always seen trinities as two opposing forces (though opposing might be the wrong word maybe two forces) and the opposition between them as the third.... so to make this easier.... I want smallness.... I am bigness.... what's in between is the reality of me. Has your brain now done a flip flop.... I wouldn't be surprised! Chinese philosophy explains it like this.... an individual has both the yin and the yang.... male and female (I think).... but the reality of what you are is a combination of the two.... perhaps you are more yin.... or more yang but you are still a combination of the two. Yin (one force).... yang (another force).... you (three in one).
What it all comes down to is acceptance.

I accept that I like small things.... I also accept that occasionally I have a need for big things..... that is what makes me who I am.... hopefully solid (Hubby says I'm not solid because I'm too spinny!) So maybe you are more yin or more yang but once in a while it is nice to bust a move and be the thing that you are not normally. So if you are female maybe once in a while you like to put on black leather and get a roaring motorcycle between your legs and hog it for a while.... or maybe you are a man and once in a while you like to get a fairy tale story out and read it to your kids. Either way it is nice to be in touch with all aspects of who you are....

We are all complex creatures... acceptance is the key....

And that's my waxing poetic for today..... I can't wait till I get my Inklet... : )