Foggy Morning Dew

I woke up about an hour ago to water dripping from the eves. It has rained again overnight which for some reason pleases the heck out of me. The house is surrounded in the quiet but impeccable blanket of fog reminding me of what it is like to be rolled in a blanket of wool. Somehow on days like this, sound seems impenetrable and everything has a little bit of a distant feeling to it. There is a quiet muffled quality to everything I do.

The leaves are fully out now and more and more I am seeing trees beginning to bloom. The choke cherry trees are unfolding their blooms and sprinkles of wild strawberry blossoms are everywhere throughout the lawn. And the horse and alpacas are beginning to take an interest in their green surroundings.

Sometimes I look at our animals and think thank God we have survived another winter. Last night I took some food out to Pouff (the angora bunny) and she tipped the whole lot out onto the mesh screen that covers the bottom of her cage. Even she had decided that enough was enough. When I came back to the cage with great handfuls of picked grass I discovered the food lying on the ground and the bunny waiting patiently for her more delightful dinner in my hands. I think she was mad that I had even deigned to give her those stupid pellets.

Generally speaking spring is a time for all things green. That is why it feels so strange this morning to wake to this grey cotton wool day. With level 5 done and out of the way I am feeling the urge for a spring adventure... but I find the weather to be a discouragement. Yesterday my expectation of a walk in the woods in search of those elusive orchids did not come to pass. I might try again today if it is not too wet. But there is nothing worse than a walk in the woods to come home with your pants wet to the knee. Oh for a pair of new rubber boots. Perhaps I should take the truck and go boot hunting. A cozy Aran sweater and a pair of plaid rubber boots is something I can see wearing as I trudge through the forest in its wet drippiness. Still the mushrooms don't care what I wear as I pick them and even the orchids will not complain when I stop to shoot a quick snapshot.

The dogs bound around the yard each time I go out oblivious to the wet that surrounds them. All they care about is the opportunity to sniff the ground on or off the trail as they crash through the woods in search of squirrels or other equally stimulating rodents. Narmin came in last night like a mud wrestler. I popped him into the tub and watched as the tub turned brown in response to the pound of dirt dropping out of his fur. I daren't think about the two big dogs and how much mud they had hidden beneath their downy exteriors. But because Narmin is low to the ground and the smallest of the lot he keeps getting tipped onto his back in the mud as the other roll him around a wrestle with him. With the mud of the vegetable garden still requiring transfer from their pen...

This is what is left of our old veggie garden which we use for the dogs now.

well you can see why the little fellow takes the brunt of the mess.

Well it looks like the fog is going to burn away after all... but still the rain stays and the wet ground remind me of the wet spring days of good old Newfy...perhaps later it will clear enough for my walk with the dogs.... and those orchids.... well, they are elusive as I said.... so wish me luck.

Here's to enjoying the spring moisture....

All Things Possible.... Now That I'm Done

Maybe now I can start writing here more regularly.... and then maybe the great outdoors will be calling me out more.... either way I won't have to worry about that pesky level 5 homework..... it's gone... it in the mail... it's no longer in my house.... in other words... it's DONE!!!!!! :D

You have no idea how much of a relief it is to be done. Sunday and Monday were spent with my head down and my arse up getting the finishing touches on my 50 hour project, the bibliography and the classroom presentation that I did last year which had to be typed up since no one in their right mind would try to read my writing. I finished it just at supper time last night and Pops came out to my house and helped me pack up a huge box with 3 fat binders. It's gone... I took it to the post office first thing this morning.

I promptly came home and put my feet up because I haven't had a day to myself with absolutely nothing to do for ages. Then I got bored.... so I had to do something.... I started a new knitting project... it may not be done til 2015 but there it is... there's new knitting on the go.

Socks....
They looked like this in the end....

Yup I am pretty pleased over all.  They do look pretty smashing. I can't figure out what all the fuss was about... why was I so scared of turning heals?  If I can knit these suckers... hell, I can knit any socks! But that's it for the level 5 50 hour project....

So what project did I start today you ask?
Well it all began when I didn't like a shawl that I started to knit last year with this stuff...

Do you remember this stuff... It's called Optim. It is a highly processed merino wool that feels like and looks like silk. Mine has a little Tencel in it too.... very pretty.  When I finished spinning it, I started knitting a shawl with a pattern that I had never tried before... it didn't work. Actually that's not true... it did work... but it just didn't look right. Somehow the delicate little fans that were part of the pattern disappeared into oblivion. So in frustration I raveled the whole thing out and set it aside for a rainy day (it's a rainy day) when I had nothing to do (I was twiddling my thumb). I pulled out my patterns and got a bloody brilliant idea. But I'm not telling you.... I can hear the anticipation in you all now! Suffice it to say that it is a shawl....and it is for me..... by the way the socks are for my mother for Christmas..... I think.  I think she was hinting that she liked them... Anyway, the shawl... I'm looking forward to getting it done... well at least more done.

Now that I have time again I am thinking of the thousands of things to do.... there's the garden... the bedding plants and the vegetables. There's house work... like cleaning the steps which would turn your stomach... and deciding what to do about the flooring... and then there are the wood burned ceiling tiles in the sun room of which I need to do some more. Then I need to put away all the piles of level 5 fibres that are kicking around all over the place. Of course there's weaving to do for the Shadow weave project.... but we won't go there right now... that's a scarey one. The deck needs to be cleaned off....and at the rate the grass is growing I expect before too long I will be pushing a mower around.  There are alpacas to shear if it would only stop raining.... and poop to shovel in the barn yard. (Shoveling the poop you will notice is the last thing on the list... that's because somehow that doesn't excite me too much!)

The sky's the limit when you have your work done..... or I could just get back to the level 3 right away.... hmm...

Signing off for tonight... to go and watch the rain drip from the eves... cause if there's one thing I'm not going to do tonight it's work....

Under The Weather

I've had two days of illness over this May long weekend. While everyone and their great aunt is out camping, barbecuing, or picnicking I've been stuck home feeling like a raygo roller ran over me. Saturday was spent sleeping. Yesterday I worked on level 5 write ups. All my dye saples are now in my book. So I will finish today and my books will go in the mail as soon as the post office opens tomorrow morning. I'm excited to be almost finished. I'll write more about level 5 later. Right now I'm lying in bed listening to the quiet. There were birds chirping a little while ago, but now all is silent. It feels like it is going to rain frankly. That would suit me just fine since a day of computer work means that I can't enjoy the outdoors. Teapot has been busy working in the yard. He has planter 30 strawberry plant in the old sheep feeding boxes. They have been neatly placed under the eaves of the house with chicken wire over them to keep the robins away and the cats from digging. I just wish we had four more of those boxes to plant in. He is supposed to till the potato bed today. All the time he's working I sit working at the computer, just green with jealousy. I have to remember that in 24 hours I will be free too.

Daughter # 2

So lying in bed may not be the best posture for posting to the blog but it sure beats going downstairs this morning while there is still a chill in the air. Teapot is lightly snoring next to me and Narmin has cuddled up by my feet. It is quite peaceful, and so it is a perfect time for a post.

Yesterday was Daughter #2's birthday, so she got to ditch school and go shopping with me. We do this every year since I really find that we talk like at no other time. It is a kind of mother/daughter healthy relationship day.

Daughter #2 can be rather difficult to read sometimes. She can be very-keep-to-herself if you know what I mean. I am glad we have a day where we actually make an effort to spend time together.

Over the years, Daughter #2 has had difficulties at school with being bullied and I have occasionally documented  that here. Sometimes I think it is because she is painfully self conscious. There are reasons for this since she is 5 ft 11(not that that is an issue as my dear friend who is over 6 ft tall would say), and is impossibly unathletic. Apparently these two thing should go together according to the school popularity rules out there in the ether. These two things make her stick out like a sore thumb in a school where being athletic counts.... I mean really counts.  On top of that, she is extremely bright, with a penchant for being sarcastic bordering on being caustic. This along with being artistic, sensitive about icky things like dissections in science class and receiving needles from the nurse when she arrives from the department of health, and being highly creative and imaginative, and slightly judgmental does not earn her brownie points. Lets just say that high esteem clearly are not on the horizon from her classmates and she certainly wouldn't win any popularity contests. As her mother, I try to look at her clearly and see her faults as well as her perfections. I am constantly amazed at how quick she is at being clear headed about things she sees and hears, sometimes picking up stuff way beyond her years and she does it faster than I can with all my years of experience. Her drawing, painting, and other art skills far surpass mine. She is quite remarkable really. Still that caustic side does not earn her friends and she can be dreadfully lazy and maybe a bit thoughtless at times. So it does not surprise me that she has this bullying problem.

 Recently the fellow who was sort of the ring leader of the bullying has been ostracized by the "popular" girls... (because he is a complete lame-o)... evidently the popular girls have recognized his over inflated ego/head and have made an effort to cut him out of the fold. Daughter #2, and a couple of other kids who are in the same boat as her, have been going to the quiet room to eat lunch and gab about whatever "unpopular" kids talk about (not smoking, or partying, or the opposite sex or any other superficial thing). They do their thing on their lap tops/iPads and generally hide out. Recently, said bully who has plummeted in the cool department, finds himself more and more with no one to hang with, and has resorted to joining the "uncool" kids. Daughter # 1 and I both think this is poetic justice! Daughter# 2 just puts her head down when he enters the quiet room, taps on her iPad and grins. In my mind I think I would be doing a little success dance and saying "What now! Sucker!" Evidently a slight competition in the marks department has sprung up between Daughter #2 and said bully.... only his math marks pown (I'm using her words... pown apparently means... this). She has been diligently trying to improve her math marks but he apparently is a math genius and can answer math questions in split seconds while others are still figuring out what the question was. Daughter #2 has always struggled with math and it is her low mark (it's still a pretty solid "B"). Still poetic justice reigns supreme and every time I hear of his fall from grace... I can't help feeling a little satisfaction... I know that is unChristian but there it is... I guess I'll have to ask forgiveness somewhere along the way.

Anyway, our day yesterday was fun. We shopped for material since she has decided that she wants to learn to sew. She ended up buying material for a sundress in a pale blue polly-cotton blend with wee ilets and lace. Then we went for lunch at Boston Pizza where the two biggest wankos sat with their children and reminded me how some women are not meant to ever have children. They spent the whole time talking about botox treaments answering texts and completely ignoring the three children they had with them. I felt sorry for the wee ones.... they will have to raise themselves and they certainly won't receive any kindness or touchy feely nurturing from their respective moms. As a result of that display Daughter #2 and I had a philosophical discussion of motherhood and I was told that I rock/pown. I am now blowing on my fingernails and rubbing them on my chest/puffing up my ego and giving the v for victory sign (And the crowds go wild!)

After that brief experience we went shopping for mattresses for both of the Daughters whose old mattresses are fit for the dumpster. Then poked about the stores looking for everything from nail polish to iPad cases. In general the day was sublime.... and after purchasing an ice cream cake from DQ late in the afternoon we headed home replete from our efforts. Sweatshirts had been purchased, fabric had been purchased, gnomes for the deck had been purchased, shoes had been purchased, abikini top had been purchased, purses had been purchased, hair clips had been purchased and best of all our relationship had been nurtured a little.

When asked if she had enjoyed her day,  I got a hug.... a rare commodity indeed.

PS.  I won't be at knit night tonight as Teapot needs the truck....

Mushroom Season, And All Things Socky

For days I have been knitting... the second sock... I thought that on Mother's Day I had it just about done... and then I discovered that I had too many pattern repeats in the leg of the sock! I had to ravel back to the ankle and start again. I turned the heel before I went to bed and then got up yesterday to knit knit knit.  It went well yesterday and my expectation was to finish before going to bed... but the great eye closer in the sky came to visit last night and being fearful of making another stupid mistake on the toe I shut it down and headed for bed where I crashed with the sock still incomplete. There are about four rows left if you can believe it but those four rows have serious decreases and I could see myself screwing it up royally because I was so tired.  I am glad I took my ease and went to bed.

Part of the reason I didn't get the sock finished yesterday was because I had to take my mother to town for an appointment with an eye specialist.... her  cataract surgery a few years ago was giving problems and she ended up having laser surgery in the office of the doctor while we were there. It was rather cool to see what was happening. Evidently sometimes if microscopic bits of the cataract are left in the eye they can begin to regrow and that was what was happening with mom. It was a very short procedure taking all of ten minutes. I had to lead her around after but in a few hours her eyes were beginning to improve.

It is mushroom season in our neck of the woods and since this is cattle country we have prime growing conditions for puff ball mushroom. They tend to like cow paddies to grow in, so finding a cow pasture is usually the best place to look. Later in the summer the Morels will be growing but I'm not a big fan of Morels... they tend to grow in sandy areas and cleaning the sand out of all those wee bits is not the easiest thing to do. Generally when you bight into a Morel then you can expect a mouthful of sand. Yuck! Generally this is rather nasty. But the puff balls are quite nice. I like to fry them in a little butter with a smidge of Worchestershire sauce and some red wine.... they are lovely. I eat them quite often when I can get them. I even will eat them for breakfast. A plate of puff ball mushrooms with a little fried tomato and bacon on the side makes for a very satisfying breakfast.

It has been a little too windy and dry for mushrooms yet this spring but I am hoping to get some sooner or later.  It looks like there might be some rain on the way today and I might be more lucky on the mushroom front then. Yesterday I had the grocery store mushrooms and while they were delicious... somehow they just can't compare to the freshly picked ones.

With all the windy weather lately the ground has been drying out more than I care to see. Still I am hoping that spring and more importantly summer, won't be the dust bath of a few summers ago. Hay of course, is ever on our minds. Yesterday, on the way home from FSJ there was another wild fire. People think that they are being smart by catching the tall grass by the side of the road on fire and then driving away and leaving it but I am afraid that sometimes these little fires get out of hand and that is what happened yesterday... the flames were shooting high into the air as it traveled up the dry and dead Pine trees. There were people there trying to get it under control... mostly farmers who own the land but I am sure that the Department of Forestry would step in if needed. When I got home you could smell the smoke for hours after. I can't smell the smoke this morning so I am thinking that it was contained after wards. Still as the crow flies I would say it was about 15 kms away from us.... still the wind should have been taking it the other direction.

Well, on that note I think it is time for me to finish those four rows on my sock and pop it into a nice dye bath. A little soak first in some synthropol and soda ash and I think I'll be finished those socks today.  That's when the real  work begins. After the fiasco of level 3 the first itme when I sent off my books having missed a number of questions.... I do a very thorough review of my work to make sure that everything is done and finished. Sometimes that review takes a day or two. I still have a write up for the 50 hour project to do and I have to write my notes up on my classroom presentation. Very important not to mention needing the index and bibliography. But by Wednesday or Thursday I hope to have the sucker in the mail.  I can't wait.

I'm off to eat a breakfast... and then finish those four rows of knitting.

For A Change

With spring so clearly here, I have been thinking about myself... a lot! I really wanted to have weight off by this time but that is an ongoing struggle and the bulge seems to be winning. Though I haven't gained weight over the winter I am not losing either. So change will have to come from other sources. With the temperatures rising I have had to take stock of my wardrobe. Mostly what I find there is old and worn out and drab. So today I spent a bit of Teapot's money, and blew a wad on some new things for me. Two new pairs of cotton pants.... a lovely white skirt with lacey tiers that look lovely and feminin.... three new linen blouses in pretty colours (blue, coral, and turqoise)... and a denim coloured cardigan.I have two new pairs of pants that I bought a few weeks ago and a redish orange long sleeved top and a black tiered skirt from last year. Next week I will have level 5 done and then I am going to try my hand at sewing. It's been a few years since I did any sewing for myself. What I really want are goucho pants.  Does anyone remember goucho pants. I love them and they seem to have gone the way of the Dodo bird. There's not a pair of goucho pants to be had. Now for those of you who have never heard of Goucho pants here's a pic...

These however are NOT gaucho pants...

True gaucho pants are pants that when worn look like a very full skirt... most gaucho pants being sold today suck.... they are a nasty version of expanded yoga pants... that's all I could find today when I was online shopping. So I will make them instead.... I really would like to make mine out of rayon... rayon drapes nicely and is flattering too... but we'll see.

Daughter #2 will have her 15th birthday coming up this week... she has decided that she would like to learn to sew. So she will get a day off from school and we will go to a fabric store where she can purchase material and notions and then we will spend the summer sewing.... her learning and me teaching.This should be interesting.... and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to look for my rayon material for my gaucho pants. At least that's the plan.

Among my desire for changes... I have been fighting the battle to once again cut my hair.... I kind of have decided that my face is too jowly to go short short but maybe something chin length.... at least that's what I'm thinking at this point.

All this thought of change is brought on I'm sure by the fact that spring should be a time of positive, happy, uplifting, encouraging, cheerful, self improvement.... don't you think?  I'm not sure the vibe is on me though... I look in the mirror and want to hide under my bed. This I think is not a good vibe at all. Still a little self improvement might make me feel better even if I'm not actually becoming better.  In the end the only thing that is going to make me what I want is a whole lot of weight loss and at this rate I'll be in my grave by the time that happens!

I'm off to knit a sock...

2nd Post For Today... Wow!

I don't do this very often anymore... usually I have nothing to say but somehow today I have thought of a billion things to say and then when I sat down to write here I suddenly went completely empty headed and so I decided to talk about next to nothing. Sometimes suddenly becoming empty headed scares the poop out of me... I start to wonder if I'm following in the footsteps of ancestors who showed symptoms of Altzeimers.... I don't even want to think about that. The first time I totally lost my train of thought, is a  memory it like a crystallized photo. I had just given birth to my second child and I was so distracted by what they were doing that the conversation that I was having with another young mother totally flew out of my head and died a natural death.... it scared me and embarrassed me and I tried not to think about it. Then it happened again a few days later... and so on... at first I thought, "it's just because I am so distracted by my children.... what in the world are people going to think of me." But it continued to happen and as I get older it happens more and more.  Sometimes I think that I have too much to think about and so my head does a natural filter job and tosses all unnecessary information... but then I don't know if that is true.

So here I sit and I'm staring at the screen wondering what was so all fired important that I needed to write a second post for the day. Obviously my brain did a quick filter and decided, "no, out that goes."

I'm off to Knit Night in a very short time. It's still blowing a flippin' hurricane and I'm sick of the wind... but I am looking forward to getting together with the gals.  We will only meet a few more times and then we will shut down for the summer. Most of us will be so busy getting gardens ready that even an extra night out to knit will be irritating at best and a downright pain in the ass. I do have to say that going out on a night when the sun is still shining and the world is turning green makes me feel like a million bucks. I think I will have to take a Diana Krall CD in the truck so that I can play some tunes and make my world a little more awesome.... if that's possible.

So I will try to remember what the heck I was going to write about and maybe... just maybe... I'll write about it tomorrow. I guess I'm getting old....