Spinning Day... Dyeing Day

Right now I'm plying the last of my 150 hour project... I know I've said that before but this time I know that I'm spinning the last amount. I have 450 metres of yarn coming off the bobbins in about 2 hours from now. I started to fall asleep at the wheel (ha ha that's so funny... I wonder if the cops will pull me over for that!) mostly because I went to bed really late last night after spinning the last two baggies of fibre. This morning I got up at 8 a.m. and started spinning right away. But even with a coffee in me (actually two) I found that my eyes are getting heavy so I should be snoozing instead of writing on my blog... but here I am.. all the same.

Teapot, I'm sure is sick of doing everything while I spin. He just punched down bread and put it in the pans so that I wouldn't have to wash goat stench off my fingers (I'm spinning unwashed Cashmere which is kind of rank). I'll be glad to get this stuff plied and in the dye pot. I'm looking forward to getting back to knitting.  My goal is to get this in the mail to my instructor by Monday.... and yes I will post pictures of it before it goes in the mail.

I just received in the mail yesterday a stack of books that I bought from the Interweave Hurt Book Sale. Oh joy and bliss!  Videos and books to peer at and take pleasure in.  Last night I lay in bed perusing Spinning Control (I can't remember who wrote write now and I'm not running upstairs to get it either!) and this morning I watched the video Spinning Rare Breeds. Awesome so far... loads of information that nobody would want to have except for us nutty spinning types.

It has stopped raining... though it continues to threaten. Everything is so lush that it looks like a jungle around here. Yesterday Teapot and I walked the forest trails in the wet and by the time I got home my legs were soaking wet and my feet. Jeans went into the wash because they were wet to the thighs and the runners had to be left on the deck.  The walk itself was lovely... we looked at the reams of Bedstraw  plants that are growing profusely. And Teapot pointed out the beautiful blooms of the Wintergreen plants that are also blooming in profusion. I have not seen any orchids this year but it may be too wet. Mushrooms are everywhere. Teapot brought home some giant puff balls which were yummy with steak the other night. Still my favorite are the good old fashioned regular puff balls.

I'm off for a quick snooze before I carry on with that plying... I can't believe that it is over a week since I got back from Olds and I'm still feeling pooped. Yup it's a sure sign that I'm getting old.

Well I ain't dead yet....

Slogging Through

Slogging through Seems to be an apt title today since I seem to be slogging through a bunch of stuff.  The rain has been pouring for a few days now and though right at the moment it is not raining it seems to be possible that at any moment the skies will open up for another downpour.  the forecast called for a drying trend two days ago but it has not stopped raining heavily all the same... so much for predictions!

Everywhere there is mud... have a look at this...

The water is pooled every where and will not dissipate...

This is a rare thing indeed...
Even my flowers got hit....

They look so pathetic in their barrels with the petals all beaten down.
... and through it all we're slogging through. All that praying that I did last year must be coming back to bight me on the bum. Everything is looking lush and green and I guess we did need the water but why things can't come in a more measured way is beyond me.

I've been slogging through spinning for the 150 hour project. Yes I ran out of yarn and need some more...  not much, but some, so I have been spinning for the last few days whenever I possibly can. I'm doing ok and I only have two more baggies of fibre to spin so I should have that done today if all goes well and there are no interruptions.  At least that is my plan. But I really have my mind on the next project so I'm slogging through the 150 hour project too.

For the last few days I've been helping the parents move furniture around in their house. They have decided to move Dad's chair into the spare bedroom in an effort to give him some privacy.  His chair is is home... he sleeps in it and eats in it and pretty much lives in it. We also brought him in a book shelf and desk so that he can continue working on his 3000 page book of genealogy. He has been working on it for twelve years now.  He has traced our family back to the time of William the Conqueror. so he has written a book  of our family. It's actually quite interesting... but time consuming.  Meanwhile it has been a slog cleaning up the papers and Christmas cards and birthday cards that date back ten years... real horders they are. They also had a leak in their bathroom so Teapot has been doing his best to fix that... slogging is actually an understatement for all of that.

Teapot and Daughter #1 leave at the end of the week for summer camp with the JCRs. They are headed for Cochrane, AB, for ten days of fun so we are trying to get done everything that we need to do before they go. It is an intensive time for sure. Too much to do in too little time... but we're slogging through.

For family member who want to see them I leave you today with another picture of the girls... on the eve of that graduation ceremony of two weeks ago.

Can you tell that Daughter #2 doesn't think much of getting her picture taken.??? Yeah kind of...

Have a great day and hope you're not slogging through like I am... and no more rain.... at least for a few days... not likely!

Rainy Days

We've been having a few days of rain and a few weeks ago while I was in Olds, certain areas in our region were dealing with flood-like conditions. The rain we've been having again this week is really making life difficult for those who were hit not so long ago. Teapot and I remain dry as we are on higher ground but our poor alpacas are suffering in this rain. They are in the new paddock and though there are tons of trees to get under, they are all soaked through to the skin.  I really wish we had a shelter for them in there. But you can't put shelters everywhere, so they will just have to suffer through this wet weather.

This rainy day started with me waking early and not wanting to wake Teapot I felt that perhaps I should evacuate the bed in an effort to let him sleep.

Normally rainy days in summer means that I would haul out a puzzle and go to work on it but not this day. I've been reading blogs and passing time on the Internet. (I'm giving myself a free day from spinning as I twisted my ankle again last night and thought that a day from treadling might aid it somewhat. And it was getting better too...) I happened to read a blog post that quite interested me... it was a review with a philosophical bent of a movie called The Tree Of Life. I've not heard much about this as I'm not getting a whole lot of information regarding current movies these days... (with no T.V. movie info and for that matter popular culture news is not really a prevalent part of life.) So after reading the review I went to IMBd to check out whatever info I could find regarding the movie.  It seems to be a somewhat philosophical look on life in the 1950s and familial relationships in middle America. So having read the review and watched several trailers I'm about to embark on a commentary that might be somewhat off base.  I will have a look at the movie at such time that I can find it on video... until then I must be patient.  So bare that in mind as you read what I have to say...

The movie opens with this quote apparently:

"The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow.

Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things."

Opening lines from the movie, Tree of Life

I ran into trouble right away. The one thing that I have noticed in life is that Aristotle still reigns supreme in our concepts of how life is or should be... for I do believe that it was he who initiated the idea that the realm of the spirit and the realm of the passions... i.e. nature... i.e. our baser nature.. should be completely separate. 

I have a very different view of nature... I believe that nature can bring us closer to the spirit. I believe that the two cannot be divided. That they are intrinsically connected and that in trying to separate the two, it tears us apart and turns us into anything but the truly human. By exploring how the two are connected and by keeping them connected we are able to be more human. We are undeniable a source of both nature and spirit and when we try to separate them that is when we get into trouble. 

For example;

I see a dish of ice cream... I want to eat it but I know that if I do I will get fatter.

In Aristotle's way of thinking... I have two questions before me. Do I deny my self my physical want, thereby reaching for the higher moral of the spiritual, or do I succumb to my baser nature. 

I think that way of thinking is just plain wrong. When we deny one or the other that is when we get into trouble. It is the Middle-Road Theory that I prefer. 

For example: 

I see a dish of ice cream and know that if I eat too much it will make me fat and possibly sick in the future. So I eat some but not a lot, thereby not denying my physical wants but also reminding myself that too much of a good thing can be bad.

Nature and spirit are neither denied and in the end it is a healthier choice because I've learned to bring both together, denying neither part of my humanity.
 

This is a somewhat simplistic example but it helps to make my point.
 

If we were taught this from our youth the world would be a much happier place I think.
 

As we go along in life so much comes into play. The more we learn, the more there is to consider in each and every challenge we face or decision we make. In the end we only entangle ourselves further by denying that which is a part of us, be it spiritual or natural.  The natural is not the enemy. Just because we run naked in the rain is not a bad thing.... (I don't do that really!!! I might get a black eye. LOL) But neither is the spiritual the epitome of the enlightened life... have you ever found an intellectual to be someone you really want to spend time with?!  Even the Dalai Lama eats ice cream.

The human-centric idea in the initial quote from the movie is what has gotten the whole world in trouble in the first place.  We cannot separate ourselves as being above the animal world. It is the idea that we are better than animals that I have difficulty with...  I believe that we are animals. We are as much living beings as anything else on this planet and denying that is truly the mistake. We are no better or no worse than anything else... (which could lead me into a whole other area of this philosophy... maybe I'll expand on that tomorrow... or maybe I won't!)

So though I have not seen The Tree Of Life... I look forward to seeing it and exploring what was the view of the person who conceptualized the movie.  But always I will bare in mind that nature and nurture come together to be beautiful... in every aspect and should never be separated.

And that's it for waxing poetic on this rainy day... I'm off to move furniture at the parent's house... and maybe do a little spinning depending on this ankle of mine.

Hope you all like the new look of my blog...

While I Was Away

While I was away the kitten grew and started to really walk and play.

There was a terrific downpour which over flowed all the rivers, and washed out many of the roads.

 

And Daughter #1 attended the Graduation ceremonies this year. She was a candle barer for one of the boys that was graduating....

Thanks to my good friend G who was a mom to Daughter #1 and helped her with her makeup etc while I was not able to...

Sometimes I wish Fibre Week at Olds College was a little later in the year. (sigh)

Delightful Days

With summer here in full force I find myself stuck in the house.... which really isn't fair. I want to be out on the deck but the mosquitoes are heavy enough to carry me off and that's saying something since my backside is pretty mighty these days. During the day the wind comes up and drives those mosquitoes off in the direction of who-knows-where-land. And if I try spinning out there then the current fibre wants to blow away from me too.

While I was away at Olds there was a mighty downpour. It rained and rained and rained so hard that in two day there was more rain than we had all of last year. The rivers were full, the ditches were full and soon the water was trying to go in places it doesn't normally go. Everything is green and beautiful this year, everything is growing well. But in Chetwynd, a town some 63 kilometres to the south of us, trains were derailed and roads were washed out and they were hit very hard indeed. Hudson's Hope almost got cut off completely.  If it weren't for the diligence of one really good tractor operator who had his machine down on the banks of our wee creek building up the banks with rocks, the bridge would have been washed out for sure.  The strange thing is that everything went back to normal fairly quickly after the rain stopped... but now the forecast is predicting another rainfall like the previous one.  This morning the sky is blue with nary a cloud in sight. The farmers in the valley are starting to mow their hay. Rain right now is really a burden and not a good thing at all. Now we want sunshine to dry the hay that is already cut. Rain will just mean bad hay in the fall.

Sometimes I wonder if the weather will ever be right.  Dry summers like last year are devastating. The grass hoppers thrive and while they don't bother you much when you are on the deck, they do decimate veggie gardens and hay fields.... and drought is never good for gardens. Then if you do get rain in the spring everything grows nicely but the mosquitoes are plentiful... and you had better hope the rain stops when it is time to cut hay because if the hay gets wet your animals still suffer through the winter with moldy hay. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth having a farm at all.

Teapot has weeded our carrots and beets but for some reason the beets are not doing as well as they should be. We didn't get the potatoes in at all... that will have to be for next year.  I would be out there in the garden each and every day but I'm working on my 150 hour project and in a hurry to get it done, so I'm not being a farmer at all it seems.

Still, farming aside, you couldn't ask for a more pleasant summer. Teapot and I walk each evening a short walk to the highway and back on the trails through my beloved forest. A 2.6 kilometre walk and slowly I can feel that my ankle is strengthening.  These are the delightful days of summer. There are strawberries to be picked and eaten, and hopefully with all this rain the blueberries will do well this year.  We might not have potatoes in the fall but we will have carrots and some beets. And if all goes as well as I hope, the animals will be well taken care of this year too.

Yes, absolutely delightful.

I'm off to spin a little cashmere/silk/wool for that blasted 150 hour project. I'm so close to being done I can almost taste it. And guess what... I'm going to try doing it on the deck! Mosquitoes here I come...

By The Sea

Well, it has taken me a few days to realize it but summer is upon us. It's the time of the year when Canadians everywhere fit out their RVs or trailers or campers and head to the bush for weeks of mosquito munching fun.  As a child summer meant long trips to my grandmother's and grandfather's house where we would spend dreamy days on the local sandy beach body surfing in the crashing waves and re-diverting the brook that meandered behind the beach and eventually crossing the sand to the ocean waters. I would spend hours with my cousin playing in the water that entered the ocean from the brook because there and only there did the brook water mingling with the ocean currents make the temperature anywhere near bearable. The water of our local beach was cold... really cold but we still managed to have a wonderful time in the shallows swimming with the jelly fish.

My first swim suit that I can remember was a green two piece and I was really proud of it... it looked good on me... I looked great.

When I got older this did not appeal quite as much... I began doing what every other person it seems likes to do. I started camping. Swimming was still a large part of it because usually you would camp by some lake where you would tear down to the waters edge with your boyfriend at midnite to frolic in the cool depths.

I remember a yellow swim suit passed down to me from my sister and then a navy blue one with white that to this day reminds me of Jackie Kennedy... I don't really know why.

Then I moved to Ontario and camping became canoeing... and still I swum. We would grab the canoe on hot days and paddle to the nearest island (and there were plenty) where we would promptly remove our clothes for a skinny dip in the warm waters and cool ourselves down also taking our skin off the market for the abundant clouds of mosquitoes and black flies. As long as we were in the water we would not need deet.

Then I had a miserable bikini in a orange and purple multi colourway... Ick!

Then I moved here and was pleased to discover that though we lived next to a unswimable river there was a local outdoor pool for our amusement. The kids were little and so Teapot would stay in bed each morning as  rolled out of bed and head for the pool. An hour to swim and then home for breakfast. Soon the girls were old enough to come too... and so we all went swimming. After years of this we moved a little further out of town and I find that I have lost my interest in swimming daily. Occasionally when I can stand the heat and sweat no longer I will convince Teapot to load up the canoe and the kayaks and we head to the Cameron Lake School Centre for an evening of water activities and hot dogs on the fire... but we don't do that often.  Somehow, somewhere I have lost my summer need to submerge myself in water.

After that I remember a lime green bikini, and a black and white polka dotted bikini, after that there was a red one piece....

I never took official swim lessons... I learned the old way.... trial and error. First I learned to float... and that was in the shallows of a beach off the coast of Massachusetts. Then I learned to doggie paddle in the waters of a swimming pool where my father insisted we go each Sunday for a couple of years in my very young youth. Then I learned to spread my arms and do the breast stroke in the waters of that local beach by my grandfather's house.... where I also eventually learned to body surf. Soon I was diving and swimming under the water and acting more otter than human. I love swimming... and I miss it dreadfully.

Then there were numerous black one pieces... and now I have this aqua blue strappy one piece that probably is too small.

Yesterday I splurged... I bought a season pass to the swimming pool here and have decided that a swim a day would do me good. Adult swim to be exact... 6:30 -7:30 p.m.

Now I just have to get a swimsuit to fit... like pulling teeth that will be!

Things That Go Bump

There has been a slight bump in our otherwise smooth road... Teapot is not going to Australia after all... thanks to the passport office my dear one will be missing out on the biggest chance of his life. He's taking it in stride... on the other hand I'm super pissed off.... ( I even spelled that last bit out so that means I'm really really ticked)! 

It's just not fair.  He needed his passport yesterday ... he will get it next week.

I think I'll go kick Murphy out... he's been under that china cabinet too long... he's formally getting a dismissal from our lives.

That's it... that's all I've got for today... I'm just to spluttery at the mouth to say anything of any use to any one!