Covered In Snow

The ground is covered in snow this evening... a far cry from the sunny skies of this morning when I could hear that woodpecker pounding out his mating call. Outside, snow is falling in an effort to remind me that winter is not over yet.  Sheilah's Brush I guess... always it snows this time of year. But at 7 p.m. it is still daylight.... so I know that this won't last cause this much daylight at this time of the day can only mean one thing... spring is coming.... right!

I'll go spin a while... maybe when I look up next time, the snow will have stopped. (Yeah right.... dream on eh?)

Frozen

Everything this morning is frozen... it is -5 degrees. All the pools of water that were around are now frozen over into sheets of ice, which are good for skating on. The ground which was almost bare is now white from the hail of the previous evening storm. I expect that since there are blue skies and not a cloud to be seen that by mid-day there will be a vast thaw happening. Still the storm of last night will probably have lingering effects for a few hours. Last night, I knew nothing of how cold to which the temp were dropping because I went to bed in sheer exhaustion at 9:00 p.m. and totally conked out. After nights and nights of the werewolf thing I guess I couldn't stand it any more.... I slept soundly all night and feel pretty darn good today.. all because of my wonderful night of sleep. 

In the last month since I went off to the Blueberry I haven't really written much about what things I have been doing in the way of spinning etc... but in actuality I have been working a little... not so much on homework although even a little has been going on there... though I do admit that I have really fallen behind. (I still believe that I'll get finished because I really do think that I have not that badly fallen behind but still level 5 has been hanging over my head and I do get mild panic attacks when I think how spring is just around the corner and I still have so much left to do.) However... I digress... I have been working. While at the Blueberry I spun three 100gm bags of alpaca and merino blend rovings and while I didn't quite get them all finished, I did almost see the end of the stuff. The spun fibre has been staring at me for weeks now, and begging me to finish them,  so yesterday I decided that it was high time to free up some spools. First I  finished spinning the singles, which didn't take a long time since there was only a little left.  Then I plied it once and for all and got it finished.  I must say that I am really pleased with the results. As you can see above, there are three skeins...

It is a fairly textured yarn but it is quite nice. I even had enough left on two spools after the first spool ran out to spin 75 metres of two ply yarn...

Aside from that I have been a knitting a lot lately... While at the Blueberry there was concern that our (the NPSW Guild) comfort blanket project was falling short of the desired results so I came home with a bit of a bee in my bonnet about getting some comfort blankets done.... so I started in and I have to say that there is progress in that area too...

I began the blanket project by going through my stash and finding a bunch of mohair that I hoped I could put together in some pretty way that would make comfort blankets sing... I started with a forest green mohair and knit a large triangle and when I ran out of that fibre I realized that nothing I had would look good with it so I bummed from a friend a couple of cones of mohair in brown and beige... raveled out the green that I had already knitted and started again. This time I started knitting with more purpose... and so far this is what I have...

I really like the meandering pink line through the whole project... the pink certainly brightens all the bland colours... it is a little more than 1/4 finished....

Then I got going on the pink... (of which I had the most in any colour)  and I knit a huge triangle.... and it looks like this...

 I know it kind of looks purple but its not... still it is a cool pink not a warm pink....

Anyway I was telling the Knit Night ladies about this project and one of the ladies was looking over my project and said that she had a mohair blend that I might be interested in so the following knit night she showed up with the biggest spool of mohair and a huge piece of crochet work that she had done and never done anything with and asked me if I wanted it.... needless to say my mind went wild!
Her piece looks like this....

 So I have this great idea.... I'm going to take her piece and my piece and put them together and then I will need another piece like the pink one I've already knit and two small blue pieces and then I will put them together this way....

With a white fringe around the edges... I think it will make a lovely comfort blanket....

So as you can see I have not been sitting idle... today I am making a futon couch. I know this sounds weird but it's true and since my sectional couch is now gone... we have nothing to sit on except for a couple of old ratty chairs that need some TLC.  It will have to stay like that for the moment... but I am working on level 5 today.... in between everything else I have carded some fibre in preparation for a sample... but more on that tomorrow. In the meantime I have bread ready to be put in the pans... so I had better go and get some of this outstanding work done.

See ya tomorrow with more on the wool front....

Oh and by the way since getting on this computer a few hours ago (I've had several interruptions.. ) it is now starting to melt outside and is not quite as frozen as it was.... I even hear a wood pecker working at that hollow tree again.

Thunder And Lightning...In Winter?

This has been an odd day. For starters I'm having lingering werewolf attack since last night I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. and by 12:00 a.m.I was awake again and I had began to feel the pressures of level 5 homework and not making large inroads into it... so I came downstairs and spun yarn till 2 a.m. Meanwhile the truck has conked out again because of a bad starter this time.  So Teapot spent his morning with a friend under the truck replacing the starter with a new one. I made a pot of red lentil soup with pre-cooked honey garlic sausage, carrots, red and yellow peppers and tons of garlic and pepper and a little tomato to flavour it up.  By the time Teapot and his friend were finished with the truck they were ready for a bowl of hot soup and some home made bread. Meanwhile I am teaching Confirmation class to a 13 year old gal who comes to my house each Sunday afternoon for lessons. It has been a few years since I have done confirmation classes. In some ways it feels strange to have the reigns of church business in my hands again after being away from it for almost three years. Still, I feel I am doing my part.  I had stepped away from organized religion for a few years because I found that the work of the church and the work of Christianity don't always go hand in hand... it is difficult to be a leader in the church when sometimes you just want to stand up and yell... "Hey, this is not right!!!" Too political, too organized, and not really always the Christian way taken... sometimes churches can be mean to people and they sometimes can be thoughtless, and hurtful... I'm not always sure I want to be a part of that.... Sometimes the way of loving care and thoughtfulness are not the ways of the church... I'll leave it there... my opinions are mine... and I really don't want to influence anyone except for the better through action... and only then when the person has decided to be influenced of their own free will... then it is not coercion.  I hate coercion!

The oddest thing about today though, without a doubt, was the weird storm that blew through here a little while ago. Thunder, lightening, hail.... it was just like something you would see on a mid-July day... not something you see this time of the year.  I don't think I have ever seen a mid-winter thunder storm. And let me tell you, the lightning bolts rained down in a ferocity unexpected. With the ozone depleted, and water tables disappearing, with plagues of Pine Beetles and dry summers, with wars and red Northern Lights and Dec 12 and the end of the Mayan calender pending..... it all seems a little too Armagedonish for my liking.  Makes me think I should build an ark or something.

So here it is supper is going to be ready in about five minutes. (A more strenuous gourmet supper you have never seen... spaghetti and sauce from a bottle with a bagged salad on the side... oh so tough to make.. snork!) The day has almost ended and I am happy to say that I finished the fibre that I started at the Blueberry a few weeks ago... 450 metres of 3-ply alpaca merino blend grey yarn and about 75 metres of 2-ply of the same stuff... washed and hanging to dry... now I can really start the level 5 and 3 homework again with a clear mind. Tomorrow I will be starting TPI.. oh joy oh bliss... my favorite!

I hope you've had a lovely Sunday with no thunder and lightning... unless you like that kind of thing...

Blue Skies... Where Are You!

I woke up this morning and looked out the window and as I was looking the sun came up over the horizon and was shining on the bales of hay... It looked so inviting that I got right up and looked for my slippers... (which Narmin sneaks off with in the middle of the night so that he can stick his nose in them) and it is always a bit of a hunt to find them. So it took me a little while to get myself downstairs. But when I got down here the sun had disappeared. It is now cloudy and grey. Still there is a little blue on the western horizon so we might get sun again later.  And with it being 0 degrees at 8:30 a.m. it will probably be a smashingly balmy day.... gotta love that!

Everywhere you look now, signs of spring are coming. The mud is drying and the birds are twittering and even some wood peckers have arrived... I heard them this morning pounding out their mating call on some hollow tree nearby. It's enough to make a person want to buy a new pair of rubber boots and go exploring in the bush. (...and of course new rubber boots are an absolute must for that...) I am missing the early morning checks for lambs this year... that is the hardest part of getting rid of the sheep. I knew that all year long, even though I didn't miss them, that come spring I would have a hard time with lambing season. There is nothing so tickle-me-pink as seeing a new wee lamb being born and the momma nursing it for the first time. Then a few days later when they come bouncing out of the barn into the sunshine... well you just feel that life is good.  I miss the ducks too since they were always funny this time in the year. Our yard has a large natural basin in the contours of the land, each spring there are a few days when the ground underneath has not thawed but the snow on top has, and a natural pond forms that only last a little while... the ducks always loved that and they would be charmed with their new bathing place and would spend hours rousting around in the water splashing themselves and washing themselves. I really miss those wonderful times with the animals we no longer have.

This morning even the trees are starting to bud.  Very small buds that will take weeks for them to fully form are beginning to show themselves, but the trees begin to not look so bare and grey. With the wind of yesterday the deer seem to have decided to leave our bales alone in the efforts of finding the first shoots of green on all southern slopes. For now they have gone away... and I'm ok with that. Jiggs discovered yesterday a newly shed antler among the hay on the ground by the bales that the deer have knocked down. She seemed quite pleased with her find and gnawed on it for hours growling at the other dogs when they came to investigate her new treasure. For a day or two the buck that threatened Narmin last week, will be carrying a lop-sided head and I hope he enjoys his days of discomfort... because he was such a nasty bugger.

As the days get longer I begin to think of the garden... I am soon going to have to think about getting some planning done for that since we have to move more soil and spread the remains. That means thinking about my raised beds and trying to lay out a plan for that It also means that I need to start thinking about the hot beds and where I'm going to put them. A south facing wall would be best if I'm going to have successful tomatoes. I am hoping to use the old sheep feeding boxes for the hot beds... they are wooden boxes that are about tenor twelve feet long, about 18 inches wide and about 2 feet deep... perfect for my tomato plants and for growing beans and peas. Up against a south facing wall I can maybe get them in the ground about a week or two... maybe even three ahead of schedule.

Well since it is only March 10th maybe I'm starting to get a little ahead of myself. Hey... I just looked up and now even the blue skies on the western horizon have disappeared too.... poop! Maybe I'm hoping for a sunny day that just won't happen... but then you never know. I'm off to spin... yes I'm actually going to get back at it today... for real!

I hope you're having blue skies where ever you are.... see ya!

Windy Night

The inner me.... yeh?!

I'm beginning to wonder when I started to dream so much. I never used to dream a lot... but here lately...

It is 4:00 a.m. It is a full moon night and the werewolf in me is once again rearing it's ugly head. About an hour ago, I woke with my heart pounding after I had been dreaming that the school I was in began to burn with me in it and as I tried to get out I could see into a dark night, that the lights of the last vehicles were going away from me leaving me to die with no one to help me get out of the school. My heart was just racing and my mouth felt like something had crawled in and died. However, I knew as soon as I woke that it was all a dream and that I was safe in my warm and toasty bed. Still, it was a disconcerting dream and then when I tried to cool my bedroom by opening the window, I discovered that the wind outside is howling and the window began to creak as it blew. Finally after an hour of tossing and turning and listening to the window creak, I realized that that full moon was once again chasing me out of bed.  A good thing to... for when I got downstairs I discovered that whoever let the dogs in last night, must not have made sure the door was closed properly, because it was open for every mouse in the neighbourhood to come for a visit... not that the mice would be out on such a night. Tis a blustery one for sure. So here I sit in the newly neatened dining room tapping away at the computer. Yes I spent yesterday cleaning house not that it did much good! Spring like conditions are also rearing their ugly heads because each time the dogs go out they come in with a wheel barrow load of dirt attached to their undersides. I have been chasing dogs with the mop for two days. I'm fit to be tied! (Newfy saying which means exasperated). Oh how I wish for a deck on the west side of the house so that the dogs could sit on it and wait for a few moments to dry off before coming in with all that mud. As it is now... they bound through the door, after having just run through alpaca poop and mud up to your neck.... oh well at the rate we are going, by next week there won't be a drop of water and the mud will be a dry barren wasteland in all this wind.

Later this morning... after it actually has become morning... I am going to clean up the blasted studio and the sunroom and make life a little simpler. I have already made up my mind that I can't keep pissing away my time. I actually have to wrap my head around level 5 work and get it done. Can you believe that a week of March is gone? I'll be gob smacked if I know where this last week went.

Tonight was Knit Night and for the first time in months, we all made it out for the evening!  However, Knit Night is once again moving digs. Since last fall when the Public Library bailed on us, and we had to move, we have been using the library at the school for our meeting place. But unlike the reading room at the Public Library, the library at the school is a large warehouse-like room that is cold because there is no heat on after hours and the windows have metal blinds over them for glass breakage protection, somewhat reminiscent of a prison or a barracks at best. So it is not the most pleasant space for us knitters. We decided a few weeks ago that better digs were required. So we have all been wracking our brains trying to figure out where else we could meet.  In the end I checked out a couple of ideas and concluded that the upstairs room in the church hall would make a perfect choice. We are going to go up there next time we meet and it was a unanimous decision. It is a lovely second story room in a log building with a beautiful view out over the river. It should be really nice up there for us ladies to knit and gab and laugh and drink tea.

Speaking of tea I think I'll end here since the wind is still howling and a drink of tea wouldn't go astray. With the chimes rattling in the wind and things blowing around outside, with the coolness of the room around me, it is time to wrap a warm and cozy blanket around me on the couch and curl up with my knitting needles and try to warm up... who knows I may even head back to bed at some point... that is if I start to feel my eyes getting heavy... Too bad I forgot to turn up the furnace when I first came down.... still a cup of tea while I wait for the furnace to do it's job wouldn't go astray... see you in the morning.... sleep well... don't let those werewolves just outside your door get a chance to pounce... or you'll spend an eternity sitting on full moon nights by yourself while everyone else sleeps peacefully!

Toodly doo.... (have you ever heard a werewolf say that to ya?)... : )

Running Amok

Running amok: I decided this morning to look up in the dictionary, the phrase "running mok". Apparently this most useful phrase comes to us via southern Asia... it apparently means killing spree but has recently been watered down to just going crazy. I was going to use it because I thought it meant going crazy... I had no idea that in reality it meant going on a dreadful killing spree.  This morning I feel like Running amok in the traditional sense because we have deer out ripping our bales of hay to shreds and acting like we're intruders when we try to drive them away from the bales.  One buck even tried to turn and nail Narmie to the ground with and antler.... as a result I look at him and see...

...and of course running amok seems to fit pretty well with that image.  It's just too bad that hunting season is over....

Now running amok also applies to life these days in the more modern sense.... I seem to be going crazy. I get up in the morning with my day planned out before me and I think, I can get this done. But more often than not night arrives and I have nothing done and I am left wondering where the hell all the time that lay before me in the morning has gone. See... running amok.. that's me with time. I have not worked on my level 5 homework for days... and it is seriously starting to stress me out. The sad thing is I can't figure out what it is that keeps me from getting it done. 

This is Wednesday for heavens sake and Teapot and the Daughters will be heading back to school tomorrow. No, the strike has not been resolved but the teachers are only allowed to demonstrate for three days. I'm not sure where they go from here. I think they are trying to disrupt the schools enough to inconvenience  the government so that they will do something about getting them back to work... but it's all so political that it is hard to figure out what the heck they are trying to do. I just wish that a negotiated settlement would be made once and for all. I blame the government for this terrible situation. They have resolved to take away the rights of teachers... rights that are promised to us all under our constitution.

I could go into why the teachers are their own worst enemies and talk about how most teachers like kids... they like helping kids.... they like teaching them not only in school but out of school too... they like doing extra curricular things with the kids... most teachers are conscientious people who like to improve their teaching capabilities. They spend hours of their own time doing professional development courses and workshops that better equip them for teaching. They do all kinds of extra curricular sports programs that they don't get paid for. They go into school before classes and after classes to tutor kids who need extra help.... and they do this so frequently that the public and the government take it for granted that these "extras" are all part of the job. I have had to really remind Teapot of this. Last winter the school district that he works for, wanted him to do extra math courses but he would have been expected to give up Friday evening for two months... and because he lives so far away from FSJ where the district would be holding the course, he would have had to leave here about 4 p.m. What was he getting for this... nothing... not even a pay raise at the end of it which is what any other business would have offered. Friday night is valuable family time and I reminded him of how the last time they went on strike they had an imposed contract... he thought about it for a few days and turned them down.  Recently we found out that the Shop teacher at our school has no funding for the high school shop courses... so there are no materials to work with for these kids. Then we found out that the shop teacher was going in to FSJ to buy supplies from the lumber yard because it was cheaper and he was paying for it out of donated money since the school was not giving him any budget for supplies.... in addition, he was picking it up on his own time and using his truck and not getting re-embursed for the gas money. When asked why, he said that they would lose the program if kids didn't enroll in shop (no supplies?!... why bother enrolling) and he would be out of a job and as well as, our small school couldn't afford to lose any more programs.... The public needs to know how bad things are becoming here in Canada for public education. Sometimes I want to smack these teachers in the head and tell them to smarten up. Stop being so damn giving.... Teapot regularly has to put in extra hours doing homework packages for kids who are off sick or, what really gets his gonch in a knot, is when parents come to him looking for a homework package for kids who are going on vacation... because they are taking their kids out a week before March break or taking a week after Christmas holiday to enjoy the Carribean or a cruise or where ever.... they always come back with none of it done.... like WTF! It's just a big waste of his time. But he does it because it is expected. Just once I'd like him to say, "no... there's no point... the kid won't do it anyway". The proverbial shit would hit the fan that's for sure. But parents never take into account that that's maybe an hour of extra work for the teacher when he could be correcting...

I read a really good blog post of a teacher the other day that is really worth reading... and it was an eye opener for even me... if you would like to read it then you can go here. She talks about her situation in Port Coquitlam and if that doesn't make you realize just how bad a situation teaching is here in this province then we might as well all quit.

Ok I'm off... now that I've had my speel about the teachers I promise to keep my mouth shut on that subject again except for maybe an occasional update on Teapot. Now see I've been writing here for a good hour.... yup... once again I'm running amok. Next thing you know it will be lunch time ... for heavens sake the day will be half over and I'll have nothing done. I'm outta here....

A Few Days

Yes, I do realize that it has been a few days since I wrote here last... problem is that there really hasn't been enough going on to talk about. Teapot has been striking... I have been knitting... and a little spinning. I have been doing some research on furniture... but these are all really mundane things to talk about. I will say that I have been enjoying the more spring-like conditions and noticing the birds that are returning every time we have a sunny day. Yesterday it snowed though so I kind of got busy trying to move things around in the house... I'm on a spring cleaning bend these days and thinking of getting my living room back out in our sunroom and moving our dining room back inside again.I did a little moving around yesterday and today I will do a little more.  Teapot and I agreed on some new furniture. We are going to sell our sectional couch because it doesn't fit in the sunroom. I do realize that we only bought it three years ago but I miss sitting out in the sunshine that's offered in the sunroom where this couch can't fit. So I've been looking at options for furniture.  I really want a wingback chair in my living room and have wanted one for quite some time... the reason: because it is a suitable chair for spinning... Most of the chairs that you buy today are far too low for spinning comfortable... you either have to have your knees up under your chin or your stretched out way too far. Spinning in anything other than an upright chair is not going to happen because my back will end up hooped again. In this day of leather sectionals and other types of low slung furniture... it is difficult to find a wingback that is nice.... and I tend to want funky things as I get older. This surprises me since I always leaned toward wanting more traditional styles in home decor. Instead I see different things like Jackson Pollock paintings and I'm swooning. Definately different from the Monets and Victorian furniture that used to turn me on. I also love Salvadore Dali. So as I grow older I tend more toward odd and modern... though I can't say I get Damien Hirst's stuff though I wouldn't mind owning the jewel encrusted scull if for no other reason than to pull off the jewels to sell them! Anyway... I ended up yesterday deciding on some pretty cool things for our living room... wanna see?!

I absolutely love this kiwi green wingback... and the cool thing is that it comes in several colours...

We have red....

And orange.... like how cool is that...

I was really struggling with which colour I liked best and then Daughter #1 said just get one of each.... I'm thinking about it. Still my eye keeps coming back to that kiwi green... I really like d that one.

Then I picked out a realatively normal couch....

Too bad it doesn't come in purple or blue!

And this rug would be nice...

and I even found Zebra skin ottomans...

So in the end, Teapot made the decision... he decided that kiwi green chairs would be right... cause the red with it would make it look like Christmas and the orange would be too much like brown... and since that kiwi green was my favorite... that's the way we'll go. This will take some time to do but I am determined to have the coolest sunroom ever....

Anyway that's what's been consuming me over the last little while... I'm off to have tea this morning with my dear boy before he goes off into the great white north to protest... right I still haven't written why teachers are their own worst enemy... maybe I'll get to that later today. Toast first though...
See ya.