?!WTF!?

OMG there's white stuff falling from the sky....

One Endeavour After Another

Well, with the Endeavour back on planet Earth, life gets back to normal for the Astronauts that directed that vehicle.  Once again it is sad to see a space shuttle retired. Here are some pictures of the last 16 days... and the Endeavour's endeavour....

The Endeavour's launch at the Kenedy Space Centre in Florida.

Into the wild blue yonder....

Love this pic with the space shuttle coming through the clouds.

Look how fast the planet is turning.... : )

Coming home for the last time.

We are seeing the end of an era.

As for my endeavours.... it is positively freezing out and I can't believe that it got so cold so quickly... a very brrry +4 degrees C. I have to get my buns out on the deck this morning and finish the last two barrels of flowers....but the freezing temps are definitely not encouraging me to get out there. Poor wee plants though look so cold in their little squares of plastic... I really have to grab a jacket and get them in the soil.  I might even cover them with some plastic till we get through this cold snap.

Then.... back to the 150 hour project.... and a day of spinning without a break... really!

I hope all your endeavours are going well!

Up To My Elbows In Poop.... And Loving It

It's been a lovely day that turned into a blustery grey evening... but did I care.... noooo... I have been up to my elbows in poop... and soil. It's been wonderful. All day I've been working on "My Deck" and planting all the annuals for my potted deck garden.  I still have two pots left to do but it is now raining so I'm in until the rain stops unless it doesn't... and then I'm in until tomorrow. I have my carrots in the ground too, and Teapot almost has the area for the beets, beans and peas ready. Potatoes.... well, I'm not sure how that is going to happen, but I'm hoping that we'll get time next weekend. Teapot and Daughter #2 are going on a camping trip down river, this weekend, with the work ethic and academics honour kids. Daughter #1 was supposed to go... but with her arm in a sling she's opting not to go canoeing since paddling would be dreadfully difficult.  Instead she is going to be in a Run for Cancer research in FSJ.  Me?.... I'm spinning for the 150 hour project.  This weekend will be the make or break... by Monday I will know if I will require an extension on the level 4... we'll see. (I'm thinking that an extension is very likely.. urgh!)

Squeeky (the cat) had a f---ng kitten,  (just one thank God) night before last. I didn't do anything nasty to it either.  Suffice it to say she almost had her kitten on my chest. It was only when I realized that the hunching up she was doing was not exercises but an effort to push out a kitten.  It was then that I figured maybe having Squeeky on my chest and stroking her might not be the best idea at the time. I promptly got a box for her and a nice clean towel and figured that maybe she would be best off by herself... I went to bed and slept, while below Squeeky passed her evening suffering the consequences of being a slut. She has been a good Mom and with some luck there has been someone willing to take the wretched thing when it is old enough... Damn Cat! Hi ho, hi ho, it's to the vet we go... in a few weeks.... when we get rid of this blasted kitten. Argh!

Well, it looks like the rain has stopped so I am off to finish my deck planting.... hope you're having a nice day where you are.... and to my Aunt A.... hope you are feeling well soon... walk on, oh Steel Hipped One.

Sucks To Be Me.... Especially After Picking Cashmere

Well, lots of hi jinks around here last night... before I tell you about cashmere I'll tell you all about the prison break last night....

We have been renting movies from Videomatica (which is an online video rental place) since Christmas and about every 5 days we get a movie in the mail which we watch that evening and then send it back the next day.  Lately we have been watching the series The Tudors and we have been really enjoying it... (though Daughter #2 gets grossed out at all the stupid sex scenes.... totally unnecessary for the telling of the story.) It's just too bad that they are not really sticking to historical truth. I am a bit of a history buff and my favorite era is that of the Tudors.  I know a bit and so the family keeps turning to me and saying, "is that true? Anyway, we were peacefully watching the tail end of season 2 episode 7 when Teapot glanced out the window where a prison break was ensuing. LLama, alpaca, and sheep were everywhere. They had been looking out of the paddock and I guess they were fed up with the fact that they were in a dry brown paddock

Dry brown paddock.

and there was tons of green grass outside...

Lovely green grass just out of their reach. Wish we could afford to fence more property... maybe next year.

one of the buggers had pushed at the gate until it popped open. They wouldn't even look at a bucket of oats.... not with all that green grass now in their reach.  Teapot had a few choice words... and then promptly put up some fence wire all around them between the house and shed, the shed and the the trees, and all through the trees, and then around the end of the cistern and down to the alpaca pen.

You can just see the fence wire with the red ribbons dangling from it in an effort to let everyone know not to decapitate themselves on the wire.

We herded the animals into the pen slowly by making them realize that they were fenced again though only with one wire and they could have gotten through quite easily if they hadn't been so dumb.... but thank God they were dumb. By dark we had them all back in after chasing two sheep around the yard about ten times.  I hate prison breaks... but Teapot has decided to put up a temp fence so that we can let them out on the grass. It will be a four strand fence that can come down easily but, with supervision, the animals will be alright. And the best part is they will get grass and I won't have to mow... how awesome is that.

Now as for picking cashmere... I spent the whole day indoors, picking hair out of cashmere... not a pleasant job I assure you... but necessary.  Today I will be getting the fibre ready for carding. My baggies are ready.... so it is just needing carding and then spinning.  Today I will be working outdoors which I am looking forward to.  Yesterday I even managed some knitted samples for the 150 hour project... it is looking good and shaping up quite nicely.

Cashmere before being picked...

What gets picked out....

Cashmere after it has been picked...

Cashmere in baggies ready for carding.... in 10 gram allotments. 2 grams of silk, 3 grams of cashmere, and 5 grams of merino.

My spun yarn ready for knitting.

Two knitted samples.... the one on the left was knit with a 3.5 mm knitting needle. The one on the right was knit with a 4mm knitting needle.... I will be using the 3.5 mm knitting needle... the gauge will be slightly off but I will make adjustments for that.

Teapot is away and off to FSJ for a day of meetings and won't be home till very late tonight... so we are on our own today, and with Daughter #1's arm in a sling, Daughter #2 and I will be working doubly hard feeding those animals and making sure there is no other break out.

So there you have it... I'm glad I will be carding today... I'm positively sicking of picking disgusting hair.

Feelin' Groovy

"Hello lamp post what cha knowin'... no deeds to do, no promises to keep.... life I love you." 

Yup you know what I'm up to again.... gotta love the music. 

Well, yesterday I took 250 metres of spun yarn for the 150 hour project off my wheel and it looks awesome.   I will be spinning a ton today again as I have to get this done. So it is all about the project in the next few weeks.  I'm down to the wire since there are only three weeks left before I leave... ack!  If I get this done it will be a miracle...

there's not lots to talk about today so I'll just post a quick update on Daughter #1's arm as i know there will be family wondering.  She is doing ok... there's still lots of swelling but it seems to be improving each day.  It is not as tender and we hope it continues to improve....

Tomorrow I might have some pics of that yarn I just took off the wheel.... for my spinner friends.

Things That Swell.... No Not That

Poor Daughter #1. She fell down at sport day on Friday, at the school and came home with her elbow looking like a softball. She couldn't move it hardly at all so Teapot and I felt she should go to emergency and have it checked.  It is not broken... thank heavens... but it is in a sling for the next little while and she has to ice it and take anti inflammatories.  The poor kid. I feel sorry for her. She looked quite miserable when she got home. So yesterday I took her with me when I went to get groceries. She wanted to go shopping and so did Daughter #2. We had a great time shopping though I did not find anything that I really wanted. Neither Did Daughter #2, but Daughter #1 found a few things that she liked. We went for lunch at a Chinese food restaurant and had a lovely day. Still it was quite dreadful for me after the first hour since my foot had doubled in size. This swollen ankle is starting to really worry me... I'm thinking that it is swelling for more than just treadling. After I am on my feet for a while things get really bad and it starts to look alarming. The weird thing is it is only in one foot so I'm pretty sure it is swelling because of injury. I'm just not sure what the injury is.  My father thinks that it might be a fallen arch.... but I can't remember doing anything to it.... so now I am thinking that this has gone on long enough.... and I guess I will have to bight the bullet and go to the doctor. Hmmm..... and what worries me most is how on earth I'm going to get through fibre week with a gimpy foot. Usually we walk across campus to our classes ... but I can't see how I'm going to be able to walk that far with my foot this way. Sucks to be me.... but then fibre week is still a few weeks away so maybe it will be ok by then.

Today I am going to be plying the first of my 150 hour project yarn... I'm looking forward to seeing what it will be like. It should be interesting.... but for now I am going to have some breakfast with the Daughters.... Teapot is away on a camping trip with the Junior Canadian Rangers.... and I am going to be taking very good care of my foot. In the meantime Daughter #1 has just come into the sunroom and said that her elbow feels much better and the swelling is down quite a bit this morning. I am so glad it is not broken... now if I could just sort out this ankle of mine.

Lost For Words

Poetry has always been a wonderful outlet for me... usually I express myself through poetry and art...but for many months the words that I love to push around into poems have escaped me. Usually poetry comes unbidden to my mind, but recently, in months gone by, whenever I thought of poetry, it somehow seemed forced if I tried to get something on paper. Daughter #2 has been taking art lessons from a local artist which I am happy to say has renewed my interest in all things art.  She has had some interesting exercises to complete for homework and I have been happy to watch with the feeling that I would really like to participate too. But I have not had time. With the 150 hour project looming I have had to make that my priority. Last evening, though, Daughter #2 brought home a book on drawing super heroes from the library.  We had a hoot looking through the cartoons and then I said I could draw the Daughters as cartoon super heroes.  Once I had finished the Daughters as super heroes, I felt the need to draw Teapot and moi as super heroes too... the results were hilarious...

Daughter #1 as Spike Lady. She has an ability to jump really high and really far and can use any type of weapon.

Daughter #2 as  Lightning lady who can fly and uses lightning bolts to knock out her opponents.

Teapot is Flash Man who uses the light of the sun to blind his opponents and can run extremely fast.

And Moi as Super Viking Lady who can knock 'em over with a smack in the face with her boobs and can stir any water to turbulence with her duodent (not trident) and can slam her opponents with water and surround them so they are encaged in water and can knock them over by running at them with her helmet.

We roared with laughter at my renditions of us as superheroes and then went out for dinner.

After I went to bed and had slept for several hours, I woke quite suddenly as the birds were beginning their morning chirping in the early dawn hours.... which got me to thinking about poems... and suddenly the words that had not been with me for so very long, were with me once again. Needless to say that I got up right away before the words escaped me once again. I wrote it down and they rolled off my tongue quite easily. You can see them at my other blog ... just click on the link.

In the end I'm not sure if it was the hilarity that brought words to my mind/mouth but I am thankful for the words because I thought I had lost them...