The Reason I Love Yellow

I love yellow. I love all things yellow... even mustard..... (Having said that I do think that mustard yellow has its place and that it should be used sparsely).  The other day when I was giving this blog a new look and I saw the background that I'm using here I knew that it was the right one... reason?: 1. Because it makes me feel happy. It makes me feel like the sun is shining down on my head and shoulders and.... 2. It is the colour of the season that we are experiencing right now. Autumn is soooo yellow.

Now, I know all you Easterners know that fall is all about red but here in this neck of the country, the majority of our trees are Cottonwoods or Poplar.... and they turn yellow in the fall (and sometimes, a nice mellony yellow).  We don't get red... or at least much red (some in the underbrush in late fall).  I never felt my skin respond to Yellow until I moved here. Now when autumn (I love the way autumn rolls off my tongue) arrives, I can feel yellow.

Some of you are giving yourself a mental shake now and thinking, "How can you feel yellow?"

My answer to that is, I don't have a flippin' clue, but it's true, I do feel it.  My body is a sponge at this time of the year and it is sucking as much yellow into my soul in an effort to preserve life as I know it through the long months of winter greys and blues. I'm like a squirrel madly rushing around storing pine cones for food... only I'm storing yellow.

Each day I go out into the yellow as much as I can.... I just look around me and absorb it.  This morning there is ice on the sheep's bucket of water. (Yes the sheep are still here.) The new tin roof on the electrical shed came none too soon... there's ice on it as well and it is red-grey instead of red. But as the sun has been warming things this morning everything has begun to turn yellow again. (Except for the red roof).

I know that it is only another couple of weeks that things will feel yellow and then the yellow will fall to the ground and turn brown and the skies will darken to grey and then everything will be grey and blue.... boo hoo!

But in the meantime I'm going to suck up as much yellow as I possibly can....

A post without it just wouldn't be right.....

Wait for it....

They call me mellow yellow.... just butter it!

I'm off to remove my yellow nighty and put on a yellow shirt and take the dogs for a walk through the yellow woods.... see y'all.

The Songs And Dances Of Time (In Other Words Where Did The Flippin' Weekend Go)

Teapot just got the tin on the electrical shed and it is all finished.  It looks great. Life kind of got a little crazy this weekend.  Yesterday, our nephew (who I shall call Wonder Boy) called from FSJ where he has been living and apprenticing with a very large utility company, to say that he was coming for the weekend to go hunting.  He ended up getting put to work... and Teapot got help which was really great let me tell you.  The shakes came off easily since they were so old there was moss growing on them.

Teapot didn't have to work very hard at all at that part.

Even putting the tin on went quickly.... especially with that young 20 something nephew crawling over it like he was spider man....

Then after a nice supper they went fishing but never caught anything.... : (

This morning they were up and gone at 5 a.m. to see if they could get a moose for din din... no luck there.

In between it all I have been spinning ramie.... I finished a nice spool of plied ramie for the level 5 50 hour project and so I am set for another while to weave blocks for my table cloth/runner.

Meantime, the dear Teapot has had a dreadful weekend running back and forth between the parents house and ours with us running out of water and him having to prime the pump and Mom's and Dad's hot water tank giving problems.... he hasn't had a moment to sit... and with being up at 4 a.m. this morning when he flops tonight he will flopppppp if you know what I mean!

So there it is... Sunday evening and the weekend is almost over.... how did that happen... time is flying by... here it is the middle of September and I haven't got my mark back from level 4 yet and I'm still working on the 50 hour project which I wanted to get it done by the end of August.... like how does time do that.... it just keeps getting away from me.

Well Teapot just walked in the door so I had better go cook some supper before night is upon us and it is time to go to bed!....

See y'all tomorrow.... if time doesn't do another song and dance on me....

Little Kids...

Sometimes I miss having little kids in the house.

In Honour Of The Season

There's just no denying it any longer. Autumn is here in all it's colourful glory.

The trees are turning and what's more is that every time we have even a little wind the leaves are falling in droves.  I took a walk under the silver moon last night and the crunch of the newly fallen leaves beneath my feet reminded me that as often as I sharpen my nails, I can no longer hang on to summer. However, I do think this year Mother Nature is giving it a good effort!  The weather around here for the last few days is decidedly warm and balmy.  It makes me think that winter will be upon us soon since I'm sure that we are actually getting an early Indian summer. My Dahlias, which got hit in spring with a late frost, surprised me and came back just in time to bloom when all other flowers were dying off. They look glorious and initiated the new header at the top of my blog....

...you can see that I have been working on my pin loom squares for the ramie table cloth. It just looked so lovely together that I couldn't resist putting the picture here.

Each morning I get up to Autumn's golden glory. I am surrounded by golds and greens and oranges and browns with hints of red in the under brush.  A walk through the woods is filled with scents of rotting vegetation and fermenting berries which the birds are enjoying immensely. I see drunk birds regularly. The bats have left for the year as their diet of insects dies away, and geese fly low on the river following it to the mountains where they will turn south for another year. The horse is frisky in her pasture and runs about with her tail held high.... but I never seems to be able to capture her in a picture.

The dogs arise each morning ready to frisk in the early morning coolth

and Little Monster strolls around the yard as if she has done it for a long time (she was only born in the spring)...

She pounces here and there looking for mice, attacking the pooches bums and climbing trees, and catches the last of the moths and butterflies munching on them as if they were a buffet placed there just for her.  Her mother is not so lucky as she is in jail awaiting the time of her spaying.

After a walk out the driveway last night with the leaves crunching under my feet....

notice the leaves on the ground....

 ..... I sat out till almost 11p.m. watching the aurora borealis in the light of the almost full moon. It was truly glorious and made me feel big... like how great it is to be a part of this wonderful world and at the same time small.... like how insignificant we humans are in all the surrounding glory....

Now the harvest begins...

Daughter #1 picked crab apples with a friend and brought home a barrel... I've pulled some of the carrots and they are as tasty as can be. I think I showed those to you all a few days ago. Then a friend came by with a sack of potatoes from their garden... Yukon Golds and they are delicious.  I must remember to grow them next year.  There are no blueberries this year, though, due to dreadful amounts of rain in the spring that knocked the blossoms off before they got started... which I find is just too sad.  So anyone out there who would like to send us some blueberry jam from Newfy would make it to the top of our favorite people list in very short order. : )

Teapot is having a quick cup of tea before he heads out to put the new tin roof on the electrical shed which is a job that has needed doing since 2008 when we did the renovation on the house.... at least that is how long we have had the tin sitting on the ground measured and cut and ready to go on. I will be helping him as he will need help... So that is our agenda for the day... it seems like a very normal autumn day.... busy in a good kind of way.

Hope you like the new look of my blog which of course is in honour of the season.

Gone With The Wind

It is nice and calm this morning... a beautiful fall morning with a soft breeze coming in from the south. But that was not the case last night. Although it was warm last night and beautiful, and while I went out at about 8:30 p.m. and decided to put a fire in the fireplace on our deck, I really didn't feel like summer was over yet... actually I think old Mother Nature is trying to convince us all that summer is going to try and hang around for another few weeks yet. I stayed out till  11 p.m. watching the fire and several times had to throw water over it as it was getting a little out of hand with the wind that kept coming up.  The strange thing is that when I first lit the fire there was hardly any wind at all. But bluster, it did, all night long and it was coming in from the south east. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't end up with rain though since any easterly wind usually brings rain within a day or two. Why am I talking about weather... you'd think that I was Dorothy Weather girl!  Still it's hard not to notice warm wind when it doesn't get below +24 at night. It almost feels bizarre. But I'm not complaining as I love this kind of fall weather.   I sat out last night with the pooches running around in the dark, below the deck on the ground.  They were passing through my peripheral vision every so often chasing each other either with a ball or with Jiggs' frizby, with Narmin chewing on Little Monster every so often. It was quite pleasant... especially when Daughter #1 came out to join me on the deck in the balmy night air.

Today the warm air continues and Teapot was quite astounded when he walked out the door first thing this morning and had to come back in and put on a short sleeved top because it was so warm.  Teapot and the girls have once again left for school this morning.  After yesterday and getting back into our morning routine things were a little easier this morning.  Even the dogs seem to be settling into what I would call a regular routine.  Get up and while everyone has showers I'm getting a healthy breakfast. We all eat and then Teapot gets lunches for the girls and himself while I shower.... then they head out the door after a parade of makeup and hair dressing (not Teapot). The dogs know they have to stay inside till after they are gone so that they don't chase the truck down the road.  About mid-morning I take them for a short walk through the bush (weather permitting) after washing dishes and cleaning up in the kitchen and writing on this thing.  It's a pretty good routine and it usually works for us unless there's a boomerang.  This morning there was a bit of a boomerang. I'm dehydrated, and weak and shaky, after a night of a nasty results from food poisoning. Things seem to be better but it was fairly violent while it lasted. I'm not sure what I ate but it was classic food poisoning... we have been eating lots of left overs so I'm putting it down to that. Still nobody but me had it.

Today, will be a classic day of dyeing... I hope as long as my stomach doesn't do anything nasty again. I'm finishing up the last of the plying for some alpaca for the 25 shades of logwood. I've finally decided to go ahead with that project.  The dye is ready to be stewed and the alpaca is ready to be skeined and there's a nice jug of oxalic acid in the outside fridge. I think I have everything ready and so it begins... another question to be done for the redo on my level 3 homework. I am tempted to hold off for a day and spin and skein some merino to put in the pot too... should I do you think?

I have the whole day to dye today... Teapot and the girls face a full day of school today, unlike yesterday when the girls had a half day of school.  Teapot had a meeting last night in FSJ with the Union since he is the school's union rep. There will be a withdrawal of services for a few weeks before they go to a full out strike.  The big thing right now is a withdrawal of recess supervision which the province is making out to be the worst things since devil workship... all it means is that a few parents will have to bight the bullet and go watch their kids and a bunch of other kids for two fifteen minute periods throughout the day... not a real hardship if you ask me especially in this weather. I think the whole teachers union should call rotating strikes school by school (not district by district) when it comes time to pull services.... just think of the inconvenience for parents who are trying to figure out whether or not to get their kids up for school.... it would be awesome and the government can't legislate them back to work if it is only a rotating strike.... and it beats walking a picket line and getting paid $50 a day.

Meanwhile the title for today's post was inspired by of course the wind that blew all night... but also the movie that Daughter #1 borrowed from a friend.... yup, we watched the whole thing yesterday afternoon after she came home with it. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh never go out of style.... I watched it again after many years and Daughter #1 watched it for her very first time.... and yes we both boo hoo'd into tissues at several points.... Daughter #2 typed away on her stories and ignored us....

And so I come to the end of todays blog post... I'm off to walk the dogs.... and then do some dyeing... so, with that gentle breeze blowing in through the windows of my sun room, I guess you could say that I'm gone with the wind.....

Well! This Is Different In A Similar Sort Of Way

I have been taking a break from blogging (maybe you have noticed). It hasn't been because of anything serious just that for the last little while life has been a bit of a roller coaster, with shopping for school supplies and sharpening my nails each morning so that I can cling to the last vestiges of summer. But I can no longer say that it is summer in this neck of the woods. While each morning I get up to soft breezes and warm temperatures, there has been a definite shift away from summer towards a cooler fall. All the leaves have changed around here now and the winds have been blowing enough to even take some of the leaves off their limbs.  There is a stand of poplar trees down by our old chicken coop that are completely bare.  Mom's and Dad's reno is now completed. And the sheep have been sold (though not picked up yet).  Daily, I'm heading off for short walks with the dogs as the temperatures cool. Two nights ago Teapot and I sat out on the deck with a little fire in the fireplace and watched some Labour Day fireworks.  That was when it really hit home that summer was coming to a close. I think I went through a little bit of depression then and just trying to write something here that would be pleasant and worth reading was beyond my reach....

Today is another new beginning for us as the Daughters head off for their first day of school and Teapot heads back to work. We always take pictures of the girls on their first day of school and so we did again this morning... as usual with any picture-taking, things degenerated into a nutty free for all..

So then I had to give the girls a good talking to.....

But as usual things always go south in our family when we are trying to do something good... and it all becomes a Laugh-olympics....

So the only way to combat this is to do one picture that is all about us having fun....

And then finally we were able to capture an image that wasn't sooooo bad!

Though it is slightly uncentered.... but then that is just like us now isn't it!

And so I sit here in front of the computer with two hours stretching out before me. I had planned on doing some cleaning in my bedroom this morning since it is only a couple of hours before the girls are home again.  Tomorrow... now that's a different story. It will be a beautiful day... I will be dyeing.... and I can't wait.

And so you see... life gets back to normal... well as normal as it ever gets around here....

It feels so different to be here all by myself with a day stretching out before me and no one at home.... it's different in a similar sort of way... thus the title for today's blog post....

See ya'll tomorrow....  when life is strangely normal.

Not Allowed On The Internet?!!! Never...

So here it is 3 a.m. and the Northern Lights are beautiful. I woke from a nasty dream and couldn't get back to sleep so what do I choose to do to help pass the time. Write for the blog.

I have been avoiding the internet for a few days because our usage has gone way over our allotted 5000MB. Teapot put the boots to the girls using the internet for a few more days when the clock rolls over and we reset back to 0.  If the girls can't use it then neither can I. But here I am hoping to help pass a few hours and take my mind off that disturbing dream I had.

 In the last few days I have seen the end of Mom's and Dad's bathroom renovation, seen Teapot through another birthday, (he was 48 this year), gone shopping with the daughters for school supplies and clothes etc., had fires in the deck fireplace three evenings in a row, taken my Dad to the hospital for an ultrasound, sheared the ram and gave all sheep shots before the guy who is buying them takes them away, rounded up one love sick alpaca who insists on jumping the fence into the paddock next to his girlfriend, gone for several walks, finished some of my level 5 50 hour project, and worked on some tiles for the sun room. I've even been going for a few little walks with the pooches. They've enjoyed it and so have I.

One thing I have noticed while on walks in the last few days is that somehow in the last week we have been beset upon by autumnal weather for sure.  There is no doubt that camping days are at an end... I've had warm sweaters out and I even wore a pair of.... dare I say it?!!.... socks! I had to because when walking one must wear a pair of descent shoes... and it follows that one needs socks inside descent shoes. I can't believe it... I caved. Socks before October... unheard of....

With September here we cannot, no matter how hard we try avoid the disgusting word... sch--l!  Teapot heads out daily now to work in his class to prepare for those little snot nosed beggars darlings. We have stirrings of strikes in our future as Teapot heads back to school with no contract and bargaining broken down... I dread the thought. I hate with a passion strikes as they stir the blood for a big fight for rights and then nothing ever comes of it. Everyone gets legislated back to work and then meanwhile families bare the brunt of it by suffering worry and tribulation as we wonder if we will meet our regular payments. I hate strikes... everyone loses.

Anyway, it is now heading for 4 a.m. and I'm starting to feel pooped... this is a good thing as I'm supposed to be pooped at night and not in the day... I'm off to bed, this time hopefully to sleep peacefully with better dreams...