Fiddleheads

We managed to get a lot!

43 pounds worth. Considering that I saw them for $4.99 a pound this year. I think that we did rather well.

Bitter Sweet

Almost two years ago my friend Charlotte died of ovarian cancer. She left me her large loom. I had (and still have) no place to put it. Not even in storage.
Last May, her husband and I took down the loom and put it in storage in his house. At the time he told me that I could have her yarns. Two things prevented me from acting right away. Again, I had no place to put them, and it also seemed like desecrating a shrine. I asked if it would be alright to wait a few months. He said that that would be no problem.

Fast forward more than a year. Bill cleaned out some of the stuff in the back shed, we got rid of the couch and moved the chair that was stored in the shed to the living room. And I saw vacant space. That could be filled with yarn. I would have loved to put it in my studio, but unfortunately, that room, at this time, does not exist.

Last Wednesday, John and I bagged Charlotte's yarns. I has a day full of errands to run so I borrowed my dad's truck. We managed to fill the back of the truck with yarn. I had no idea that there was that much there.
And it all had to come into the house.

It made the first stop in the living room. This was, as I mentioned, on Wednesday. After the yarn was dropped off, supper needed to be made. Homework needed to be done. No time to sort yarn and no place to put it when it was sorted. I needed to make a trip up the hill to buy some plastic containers. I bought 5.

Silly me.
I didn't get back to the pile until Friday. Nicole wasn't feeling well, so I had to leave work early and pick her up. It turns out that she couldn't have felt too badly because she became upset when I told her that we were going home and not, as she wished, out to eat at a restaurant.

I fed her lunch and put her in front of a movie so that could start sorting. Things got much worse before they got better. I sorted all afternoon Friday. And more on Saturday. And I finished up the sorting on Sunday. I also had to make a couple of more trips to buy some more bins. The final bin count was 19.
6-60L bins of DK weight skeins of yarns, mostly from Briggs and Little, a local mill (and mostly in browns), 1 mohair, 1 linen, 1 with silk, rayon and the extra cotton that wouldn't fit in the cotton bin. 3 of fine wool, another of superfine wool.
One that I called "boucle and fun stuff". It will be interesting to open up that bin again. One that has a lot of Fleece Artist and Henry's Attic yarns. One that I called "Odds and Ends". Again, it will be interested in seeing whats in it.


One that is full of full bobbins.
Charlotte was a tapestry artist and used lots of colours and made a lot of her own bobbins from paper. This was a practice that she continued with her other weaving. There are some regular bobbins that have yarn on them too. A surprising amount actually. So between the paper and regular bobbins, there is a 45 L bin full. I have a few idea about what I can do with them.

I also found out that Charlotte had inherited the yarns of another weaver friend who had died a few years ago. Nel was from the Netherlands and was also very active in the weaving community. I have a lot of her handspun yarns too. All in natural animal colours. Maybe enough for a blanket.

There was also a couple of bags that I passed on to others. The bag of acrylics and other types of synthetic yarns that I knew I would never use went to the salvation army thrift store, and the bag of yarns that were perfectly fine but things that I, again, knew that I would never use, I brought to the school for the students to pick through. I might go through some of the bins again later so that I can give a bit more to the students.

I'm sure as I haul things out to use, I'll let you all know that it was from the "Charlotte Yarn Collection". I have already used a few bits and pieces in my latest shawls. The shawls are hanging off the back of my chair begging to be fringed and have their ends sewn in. I'll get a round to it. At some point.

So as you have now may have guessed, the sweet in the title is from having a whole new stash to play with. And the bitter comes from the fact that I really would much rather still have Charlotte around doing her magic with her yarns.

Barn Raising

Note: I had to remove certain pictures because of complaints from occupational health and safety.


I was unable to be at the barn raising, but Mamoo (photographer extraordinaire) sent pictures and gave the commentary. (Thanks Mamoo)

Last week, the wall frames were built.

This is the first rafter with closed end that was attached to the portion of the barn by the milking parlor. The part that was covered with clear plastic.
The second rafter being hoisted by the crane.
This is about the fifth rafter and the boys are getting the hang of it.
The sun is shining but it is cold and breezy up there.
Coming close to the end of the 177 feet building
The last rafter is being installed
More framing going up on the end of the building.

Hooray for those brave and valiant volunteer men working in the cold all day. They were partially rewarded by a turkey lunch put on by my parents church.
They were also rewarded by the knowledge that in the farming community, a helping hand is always there.

To bad more people couldn't be like farmers.

When we last spoke

of the things I do, I was doing some heat setting experimentation. On the whole I was not really all that keen on the heat setting. Part of the problem was that the elastics/rubber bands that I was using were in fact the ouchless ones that I found out were plastic. They didn't withstand the heat of the heat setting machine. As a result, about halfway through the heat setting phase, the elastics would give way and the fabric would relax making my forms less than crisp.
My first reaction to my samples was "oh. look. wrinkled fabric"
Then I wrapped some around a pole in a traditional shibori technique and found something that I was able to get a little more excited about. I also did the nail fabric which I also found to be quite exciting. I was looking in a magazine for something totally unrelated and found an article on heat setting where they use a steamer. I tried it with my wrapped pollen fabric and it worked wonderfully! I am working on my pollen still but I need to tweak it a bit. I am not 100% pleased with my results so far. More on that later.

While I was sitting around waiting for my fabric to melt and harden, I did a bit of dyeing of scarves. There are never enough hours in the day to do all of the things that I want to get done, so I managed to multi task a couple of days.



I was also asked to work a couple of extra nights last week because the night time blanket weaving class that is happening now is coming to a close (two weeks left) and a lot of the students will not be finished on time. It was thought that while other classes were happening in the evening and the security guard was there that the blanket weaving students could come and work on getting their blankets on the looms. They are also able to come during the day while classes are happening (and I am there to help) but some people work during the day and were given the night time option. Some took advantage of my being there and progressed quite nicely. Others are still behind. We will see how it all turns out.

Last Wednesday I was also asked if I was putting a piece in the New Brunswick Crafts Council show. The show's theme is "Traces of Architecture": Inspiration from New Brunswick Architecture. When I said that I hadn't thought to, I was encouraged by the curator to submit something. So I started to think and came up with a couple of ideas. The one that I chose is a direct interpretation of the theme. I decided to make a life-size doorway based on the doors is my house. I started with silk dupioni which I cut into doorway shape and sewed the edges. I knew that I would be dyeing it so I wanted to use a type of thread that would dye like the silk. Polyester thread was out, and so was cotton because cotton takes fiber reactive dyes slightly differently than silk. I decided that some of the weft thread would work well.
Ha! After faithfully pulling about 30 yards of weft thread out, putting it on sewing bobbins and trying to sew with it, I came to the conclusion (after about 10 breaks in the thread) that the weft thread wasn't spun enough.
What to do? 10 pm on a Friday night, I knew that in order to have the piece ready for Monday I had to sew it that night, no stores are open (and if they were would they even carry silk thread?)
And then I remembered some fine spun silk yarn that a friend gave me thinking that I could ply with it. I thought that I would dig it out and try it. And it WORKED! Just like thread. I was so pleased, and it was a joy to work with after the cursing that I did using the other silk. I cursed some more when I decided to pick out all of the stitches of the first attempt. But I am happy with the result.

Here are the pieces ready to dye.


In order to dye them, I first stretched them on stretcher frames and painted them with fiber reactive dyes. I had to let them sit for 24 hours and then wash and dry them. Then sew them together. I don't have a picture of the finished piece yet because I haven't seen it all assembled. The opening is this Friday 5-7 at the Charlotte Street Art Center if anyone is interested.

I hope to get a good photo of it hanging for all of you that can't be there in person.

So that is partially why I haven't been posting much. Who has time?

Article from the local paper

Taken form the Daily Gleaner

Vaughan Bourque was all smiles Tuesday as one of his prized herd of dairy cattle wrapped its tongue around his face.

Stephen MacGillivray

APPRECIATING THE TLC (tender loving cow): Vaughan Bourque laughs as he gets an affectionate lick from one of his cows. Bourque says the family has been trying to keep the cattle as comfortable and happy as possible since a barn roof collapsed Jan. 31, trapping about 70 cattle. Two cows died in the incident.

STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO

PREPARING TO REBUILD: Vaughan Bourque, right, talks with Pat Goodine as they walk through the area where the cattle barn collapsed recently.

The seemingly grateful animal was one of 70 rescued from the family's barn Jan. 31 after it collapsed without warning.

Two cows lost their lives in the incident, but no one was hurt.

"We are just trying to make the cows the most comfortable we possibly can to keep them happy," Bourque said in describing what it's been like the last couple of weeks.

The good news for the cattle and their owners is that they'll soon have a new barn.

The Bourque family of Lincoln is planning a good old-fashioned barn-raising.

"As soon as the weather is good enough - it depends on the fellow up above - we will start building," said George Bourque, Vaughan's father.

"It depends on how things go. It might be in a couple of weeks, it might be a month. The sooner the better."

The Bourques still have about 60 head of cattle at the Lincoln location and more than 40 at the farm of Glen Pye in Mouth of Keswick.

"The cows here are doing good," George Bourque said.

"The production (of milk) didn't drop. Everything is going on schedule."

The new barn will be a permanent structure, and it will be higher than the previous building.

Vaughan Bourque said he's anxious to get the rebuilding project rolling. The only thing he is unsure of is how long it will take.

"I don't know; this is my first barn-raising party," he said with a laugh.

"It will be a couple of days, that's for sure. I have all kinds of friends who are willing to take the days off to help."

Pat Goodine of Bear Island is one of them.

"I am one of the guys helping," he said. "There's quite a few farmers who have offered to help. It will go up really quick once we start.

"Some of the materials are here now for the posts and the strapping of the rafters. We are just going to go ahead and build it."

Many people are making donations.

"We sent him cheques; farmers seldom have ready cash," said one Fredericton donor who wanted to remain anonymous.

"He is so grateful for people's assistance and prayers."

Vaughan Bourque said it's difficult to put an exact price tag on the loss, but he estimated it would be more than $100,000. He said the barn was insured but not for a collapse.

STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO

PREPARING TO REBUILD: Vaughan Bourque, right, talks with Pat Goodine as they walk through the area where the cattle barn collapsed recently.

WHAT?????????

Did you see the comment my mom made last night?????


Thanks everyone for your kind words regarding our situation.

We found out today that our insurance does not cover for the collapse of our barn.

The excavator has already torn down most of the collapsed barn and will finish tearing the rest tomorrow. Then the clean up will begin. No small task.

What does insurance cover if not accidents?

The life of a farmer

We got a call last night and an e-mail this morning detailing mom's day yesterday.

Hello girls and sister,

Finally I have the time to tell you the bad news. The barn roof collapsed today. Dad and I were at the barn early this morning and he came home about 8:00A.M. and I came home about about 9:00 A.M. [ed. it was all okay then] Dad went back to the barn about 11:30 to plow in the back of the barn so he could get hay to the heifers before lunch.
He [saw that the barn had collapsed and] called me, Vaughan and 911 and he called Mario, who is a farmer, and Mario called his list of farmers, and within minutes the yard was full to capacity with vehicles and emergency trucks. There were so many people that it was overcrowded. Those farmers who helped during the flood were all here with cattle trucks and chain saws and everything. They were amazing. They worked along with the fire department to cut holes in the wall of the barn and rescued one cow at a time. There were a lot of cows that were trapped under the collapsed roof and we only lost a couple of cows that the vet had to put to sleep.
Some heifers were shipped to other farms, and at this point I do not know where they went, and we opened up the heifers area and put in bedding for the milking cows. I looked after getting the milk replacement ready and fed the calves and Audrey came and helped me. It is a good thing that I have been feeding the calves morning and night for a couple of weeks and knew what to do as the men were so busy, they did not have the time to look after the calves.
The cows were finished milking about 9:30 this evening. I was supposed to work at the Gilbert & Sullivan Dinner Theater this evening, but instead the ladies at the church brought some sandwiches and turkey soup and coffee for everyone. We also received some wonderful turkey salad sandwiches from Mama's Pub on the North side. The owner has horses and her heart went out to us. She wanted to help in any way she could. The sandwiches were delivered by her mom.
I had better get to bed because tomorrow is another day, I have to get up early to feed the calves and then go to church and distribute communion. I am sure that some good will come out of this. I am so thankful to God that it happened on a nice warm day [ed. -3 is warm compared to the -30 we've had recently] as opposed to a very cold and windy day and that no one got hurt and that we only lost a few cows [ed. I think losing 3 cows is bad enough]. It could have been so much worse. On cold days everything freezes in the barn if the doors are opened for even a short time. Also dad was supposed to be installing some new lighting in the ceiling in that part of the barn that collapsed this morning, but the young guys who were supposed to come and help only came in the afternoon, so he was waiting for them to arrive to help him install the lighting. They could have been trapped in there too, if they had been in there. So even though we had a terrible thing happen, in the end maybe it is all for the best. Maybe we will get a new barn for the cows. Love you all and take care. Mamoo

The barn as it is now

Some farmers brought more tractors to help prop up the wall to prevent further collapse

The back door that the cows use to access the field in the summer.

The left side of the barn. As mom said, the cows that were in this part were easy to rescue. They just opened the gate and out they came. But you can see one cow that is still trapped.

Trapped cows. You can see two here.

They had to cut away whole sections of the walls to get to some of the cows.

Trapped cows. This poor gal had to be hauled out.

Once she was outside, she couldn't get up because her back legs were cramped. The vet gave her a shot for the pain and they covered her with warm blankets.

Dad getting a halter on a cow to lead her out.

Dad with one of the cows.

Many people showed up to help.

They had to cut through metal bars to rescue some of the cows.

The firemen put blankets and towels over the cows heads to protect them from the flying sparks.

Cow waiting to be freed. The man in the blue to the left is the vet.

Interior shot.

Another interior and more trapped cows.

More trapped cows.

This cow did not want to go back in the barn. I can't say where as I blame her.

Coffee time!

A well deserved bowl of turkey soup.

And you all remember the saga of the flood last spring and the evacuation of the cows? Because the cows were stressed, their milk production went down and was not expected to recover until each cow had calved again. The cows had begun to clave and the milk production had started to go up a little bit. Dairy farmers here have an agreement with the Milk Marketing Board that they will produce X amount of liters of milk. If they are over quota they get paid less for the milk that is over quota and if they are under quota they are fined. Because of the move during the flood and the stress that the cows endured, Dad has been under quota since last spring. The MMB has given him until the end of 2009 to make up the lost production or face a fine that is approximately the equivalent of one months production value. That would be a month in which all the the usual expenses occurred. Cows are rather expensive creatures to feed, house, and keep warm. Add to this the loss of production due to the poor quality of the hay that the cows are eating this year because last summer was so cool and wet. And add to that the fact that the 40 year old silos have deteriorated to the point where they are no longer used and have to be taken down.

Production is down so much that my parents are not even drinking their own milk. Because every drop now is precious, they are buying it from the store.

And now this.

More stress on the cows that will probably make the production drop even more. And the loss of three milking cows, which is probably 120 litres a day. It adds up.

And a couple of weeks ago during the cold snap that we had, three cows decided to calve early and did it outside! Poor dumb beasts. I believe that one of the calves froze before anyone found it and one had frostbite on its nose but survived.

So the next time that you go to the store, please don't complain about the price of milk. Just thank your lucky stars that there are people out there like my parents who keep producing it.

Mom's Clan

This is my mothers family. It was taken at the reception after my Grandfathers funeral. My Grandmother is in the center in the gray sweater.
17 kids. What a family!

Update

My Grandfather passed away on Wednesday morning. Out of his 17 children, 16 were there. The only one missing is an RCMP officer in Ottawa who had been there earlier, but was called back to work.
The funeral was today.

And my Grandmother's operation was suppose to be on Wednesday but has been postponed until Monday or Tuesday.

Bad Week

In this past week, I have received word that both of my mothers parent's are in a bad way. My Grandfather has suffered an aneurysm and is not expected to live more than a few days and my Grandmother has been diagnosed with both stomach and lung cancer.
My Grandparents live about 3 hours away and I am sad to say that I really don't know either of them very well. First, there is the distance issue and then there is the language issue. I speak English and very little French, and they speak French and very little English.
When I was a child, my family would go up yearly for at least a week to visit. Even though we couldn't speak very much, the language of love always came through very strong. I remember being engulfed in hugs and the smell of fresh baked bread. Memere Roy could bake bread in her sleep and as a mother of 17, probably did quite often.
My mother has gone to be with her parent and siblings for a while. The hospital had to move Memere Roy into a larger room because she has been having so many visitors. I guess that they waived the "no more than two visitors at a time" rule for her. I couldn't see all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins putting up with that for very long anyway.

They're back!!!!!!!

Those of you who are my long following friends may recall the hell that I went through a few months ago when I was battling fiber moths at the Craft College. NOT good times. Well, any way, just as I was recovering from floods, flies, and weeds, I discovered moths in my own house.

Oh yeah. Moths. And you all know how I feel about that whole set of circumstances. I have lived this particular nightmare at work and I did not think that I would have to deal with these little destructive beasties in my personal life in the near future. I was very careful to keep home and work very separate as far as fiber was concerned. But alas, it has happened.

Do you remember a number of months ago when we went on a expedition to a fiber farm? I bought some locally produced mohair fiber as well as a "sampler" bag of some of the fibers that her farm had. There was Jacob, Mohair, Angora rabbit, and a couple of other fibers that I really can't remember. In any case, I bought the sampler bag and a bundle of mohair that had been processed into roving and went on my happy way home. And knowing that I would not get into processing anything in the fiber front right away, I just dropped the wee zip lock bags into my "stash" and proceeded on with my life.

Oh, yeah. I hear the collective gasp from those of you who are in the know. Any thing that comes from a new source needs to be isolated and scoured for infestation. Frozen at the very least if the source is unknown. Oh yeah. I can hear the collective gasp right now. And for those of you that do not know why I am spreading this cautionary tail, PAY ATTENTION!!!!

In my bid to support "the little guy" I purchased a sample bag of 6 different fibers from a local fiber farm. This farm has been acting as a "rescue" farm and really didn't know how to deal with raw fiber. There were bags of raw fiber lying around ( as in bags of fiber straight off the sheep/alpaca/goat) that had not been washed and not been processed into roving. And when I say "raw" I mean that the critter had been shorne and the fleece has been stuffed into a pillowcase or green garbage bag. There were at least 20 fleeces that were in the raw stages that were laying around in bags. There were a lot of other fibers that had been processed into roving from a local mini mill. I purchased some of the sampler pack that she had made up for us and also some of the mohair that she had had processed from her wee little mohair goat. She had a bit of dandruff but she was a good little goat. In any case, fast forward 7 months and cue the scary music.

Moths in my front room where a lot of my fiber is stored. Moths in my bedroom where the bulk of my fiber is stored. I freaked out and started to go through what was in my front room. Within the "sampler pack" was some Angora rabbit that has the tell tail sign of " coloured sand like particles" in the bottom of the zip lock bag as well as having bits of the bag eaten away. Not to mention the larva (ick) that I found in the angora fleece itself. How fast did THAT bunch of fiber get tossed? Everything stored in my back unheated shed is fine,(freezing kills moths and larva) but all of the fiber stored back there is my "bulk yarn". The "not- special" stuff. It was all frozen throughout the winter months. I do live in Canada , people.

All of my high end fiber is stored in my bedroom. Not frozen. Under my bed. Next to where some of the moths have been feasting (unbeknownst to me) for the past 6 months. How many times have I been into those bins and not noticed any moth activities.

I am afraid.

I am very afraid.

But I have a plan.

I can get some of the Vapona Strips for my local Canadian Tire and I am off to said store within the next few days and I am going to pick some up and fumigate all of my woolen goods. Including my hand woven blankets. And all of my high end yarns. And all of my hand spun yarn.

Anything that is not going to be fumigated will be steamed and we will see if those little bastards (there goes my "G" rating) will survive the heat.

I am so pissed off.

And I have learned a good lesson.

Anything that comes from a place that is in any way suspect shall be frozen and considered suspect.

Fiber shall be processed quickly. And by processed, I mean steamed and cooked and dyed and rinsed and processed to .... shall we say ... DEATH?????

Or maybe I just won't buy stuff from someone who has their dirty fiber stored in bags in their house.

So much for supporting the "little guy". I've had enough grief, thank you very much.

Surprise!

I was met at the door yesterday morning by the post man who handed me a parcel. I hadn't ordered anything and was quite puzzled by the box. There is only one way to find out what is in a closed box and that is to open it!


And here is what I found! A fleece alpaca blanket from baby Felicity, a sample from baby Desdemona, and a sample of baby llama butt. As well as a lazy kate! It was from the Alpaca Spinner in the UK, and I could only think of one person that would send me fleece from the UK. My sister Nicole. A quick e-mail confirmed that she was the generous giver of this lovely bit of wonder!

So thank you so much Nicole! It really helped brighten up a rather dreary January.

Woah Nelly!

Well! That was a busy day! Saturday is usually market day for me, but not today. Last week, I had a bamboo basketry workshop to go to and I had so much fun that I decided to have fun this weekend too.

First came the Farmers Market. I was there early enough to stand in a small (10 people) line for samosas. There is a lot of history that is attached to the samosa vendors at the Farmers Market. They actually made National news in Canada because there was a fight between the Samosa vendors and the market managers. The samosa people were/are so successful that other vendors complained that their customers were blocking their stalls and the samosa people were eventually kicked outside where they have set up shop in a trailer. For now. They have said that they will probably not occupy the space in the mid-winter because being an outside vendor in January is a rather painful experience.

But I digress.

After my purchasing at the farmers market (I did get a few other things) and did a bit of socializing, I made my way to the place where my market takes place and had a coffee and did a bit of socializing there too.

Then it was back home for a bit and then S came and picked Mira and me up and we went off to a fiber farm that started out as a rescue farm and has ended up as much more. The farm is run by Kim, who is also a nurse and has 3 kids and is pregnant with a 4th. The woman astonishes me! She is one of those people who has managed to find a way to stretch the number of hours in a day and has the energy of 6 of us lesser mortals.

Here are two of her three rams. They are all of different breeds and of course she knows all of their names. They are like her children.
Then we went on to see the ladies of the house. She had Corridales and Shetlands (of many different colours) and Jacobs. And here my brain hit overload. I know that she has other types, but I couldn't tell you what they are to save my life. I couldn't even count them. I'm going to guess that there were about 20 or so. Including the babies.Sooooo cute!
And speaking of cute.... here is one of her Pygora goats. This little fellow is a few months old. She also had Angora goats. I can't begin to describe my reaction to these little guys. All I can say is "I want". I want a few of these goats. ME! Who has enough kids and responsibility and not enough room. I will have goats in my life some day. Not for a number of years. And not until we live close enough to someone responsible enough who is willing to trade critter care so that we can each get a bit of a vacation in the summer. I am not willing to give up our time at the lake, but I want fiber goats.
And she also had an alpaca. I want one of these guys too. This fellow gave Kim three garbage bags of fleece this year. And of course the first thing that ran through my mind was "Baa baa black alpaca, have you any wool?" Apparently, he also bites. She said that he never used to bite until she got word that there was a lady alpaca that she could have. She told this guy (sorry, I forget his name) that he was going to get a wife. Told him all about her and then a few weeks later, the man that had the lady alpaca told Kim that he wasn't going to sell her the gal and Kim told her man, and shortly thereafter, he began to bite. Coincidence? You decide. And I haven't mentioned the rabbits and chinchillas.
Here is part of her fiber room. More continues around the corner and .....
Into the front hall. Right about here my mind stopped working altogether. And my allergies kicked in. She likes to spin "in the grease" and most of the fiber that she had was straight off of the critter. And my allergies really let me know that raw fiber is not a good thing for me to be around in such massive quantities. I bought a sample pack of bits of different types of cleaned processed roving, and some processed mohair roving.

Then when we got home, mom came and took us apple picking
We got quite a few. The kids and I picked 3 1/4 bushel baskets. Mom picked 8. And them Liam asked about the apples on the ground. The lady that ran the orchard said that the ones on the ground were free. So Liam, Mira, and Simon ran off and picked a couple (or three) grocery bags of windfall Macintosh. In about 3 minutes. Some were given to my brothers Belgian horse team (only a few) and the rest will be made into sauce (or hard cider, if we get our act together). This is one of the times when I am actually glad that Liam is a bit of a scavenger. Small boys, eh?

Then it was back home where Bill had been working on chili all day (among other things). Last night it became a family effort to deal with all of the tomatoes at hand. I had suggested a chili for today and the idea received unanimous agreement. Last night we washed, peeled, seeded (or de-seeded) and chopped any tomato that was in any way, shape, or form compromised, and boiled all of their little carcases in a large pot. Today the simmering continued all day and the volume was about half by the time Mira and I returned from the fiber farm. When we returned from apple picking, it was almost ready. Tonight, supper was a wonderful thing.

I got nothing....

It has been hot, and I really haven't felt like doing much in the way of fiber stuff. I did however, bike out to the garden last night and let me tell you.... those plants really like the heat! The tomatoes have grown to Jurassic proportions, I have a few tiny eggplants and tiny peppers on the appropriate plants, and we are seriously into broccoli season. The cucumbers have started to grow into a reasonable size and the dill seed heads are coming along nicely. Even the beans have made a nice recovery from the little trim that a wandering deer gave them. Thankfully, there must be enough other stuff for deers to eat because they have stayed out of my garden for the past few weeks. I hope that they stay away. Cute as they are, they are sort of hard on the vegetation.
I wish that I had the camera with me as I went out because I actually had quite a few wildlife spotting's. The first was a family of ducks on the river. Then a groundhog was snacking on something along the trail. He quickly ran away when he saw me coming. Then I passed by the osprey nest and someone was perched on the edge stretching his/her wings. Then while I was in the garden, three birds that were either herons or storks were flying and circling overhead for a couple of minutes. And lastly one of the eagles flew overhead on the way to pick something out of the river for the chick that they have. Mom says the chick is flying now, but it is obviously not hunting yet.
We won't mention the flies, mosquitoes , and other various bugs. They are too plentiful by half.

Bill had a bit of a mile stone on Tuesday. And I meant to honor him with a "Happy Birthday" blog entry, but, like so much else in my life these days, it just didn't happen. So Happy Birthday Bill. And as he likes to point out, it is also Harry Potter's birthday. So happy birthday to Harry too.

Tomorrow is a very special day in my house. Tomorrow, Uncle Sandy is coming. The kids have been driving me nuts by asking about 16 times a day, "How long until Uncle Sandy comes?" We have it marked on the calendar, the kids can read a calendar, they can count and add and all of that stuff that would make it possible for them to figure it out themselves. I think that they just like to see me frustrated. But soon...soon, I shall have peace and quiet. Soon Uncle Sandy will arrive and the migration to the lake will take place, and I WILL BE STAYING BEHIND!!!!!

You see, I am doing my artist in residency this week coming up. And I know that I am going to miss the kids at odd times, but for the most part, I think that I shall enjoy the quiet and lack of demands on my time and energy. I will hopefully get a lot of weaving and spinning and dyeing done this week. Someone will be coming to get me next Friday and then I shall have a bit of lake time myself. I just hope the weather holds!

Could this week please end?

Please?
First thing Monday morning I was up at the hospital for colposcopy. If you are male, clicking on the link may fall under the heading of too much information. Just warning you.
Tuesday, most of the day was pretty good, but in the evening I was stung by a hornet or wasp. I was more interested in getting it off me than to see what kind of a nasty stinging thing it was.
I thought that I was going to get away with only a normal reaction, but instead I had what is called a mild allergic reaction to the sting. It is described as "allergic swelling around the sting area. It usually starts the next day, and can persist for up to 5 days. The area is red, raised, hot, itchy and tender." That started Wednesday. And my little finger (where the sting happened) is indeed, red, raised, hot, itchy, and tender.
And today? Today, on Thursday, I found maggots in the bathroom. Just one at first. I can deal with one little maggot. Then I found a couple under the throw rug. And a couple in a face cloth that someone had dropped on the floor. And then a couple in a pair of shorts that had also been dropped on the floor. After shaking them out into the toilet or bath tub, I went to put all of the offending articles in the washing machine (which is right next to the bathroom) and found a bunch on a plastic bucket lid that was in front of the washing machine. I lost it. And I mean really lost it. I yelled for Bill to come and deal with them, ran away, and indulged in a fit of hysteria in the computer room. Which is the room that is the farthest from the kitchen. And as such, farthest from the maggots. After about 5 minutes of tears and wailing (I can't remember the last time I lost it like this) I calmed down and made my way to back to the kitchen where we then pulled the washing machine away from the wall and we believe that we found the source of the problem. The washing machine is right next to the kitchen table and anyone that has lived with kids knows that kids drop food. Something must have been dropped and then kicked under the washing machine where a fly or two found it and thought it a good place to set up a nursery. The weather has been hot here and the perfect temperatures for the disgusting little thing to grow quickly. Ick.
And tomorrow is Friday. Tomorrow morning, I get to go back to the hospital and see a surgeon about the removal of a fatty lump on my head. I hope that my lump removal isn't as traumatic as Dave's was.
I am really looking forward to the weekend.

The answer, my friends....

is blowing in the wind.

Well, actually, it's not. It wasn't windy out when I took this photo. But for some reason, that song is stuck in my head today. This is all my new roving. I am pleased with it. It makes me happy to such a big pile of beautiful fluff just waiting to be spun.

Today is also a special day in our household. 14 years ago, Bill and I had our first date. Good food, good wine, lots of talking and laughing, and a huge box of kleenex are my memories. Bill cooked me diced chicken with peanuts. Tonight's dinner is much more humble, because to be honest, I forgot all about today until I saw the date on the computer.

It has been a glorious day here. Sunny and warmish. Definitely not too hot. I'm looking forward to a few more.

By the way, did any of you notice anything interesting in the picture above? Anybody have the feeling of being watched?

Happy Mother's Day

To all of the mothers out there!



Especially my own. Mamoo is the best mother anyone could have. I don't know what I would do without you mom! I love you!

list of dones (or crossed off to do's)

I have been busy lately. Much has been finished and somethings have sat untouched. Sadly my silk is in the latter category. But thanks to Sara I shall hopefully have a bit more luck with my spinning of it. She suggested that I spin from "the fold". Which, as far as I can tell, means that you fold your fiber over your finger spin "from the fold" It is apparently easier to draft. Sounds good to me.
1-I may have mentioned that I am taking a class. It is about ideas and concepts in fiber arts. It is great. However, there is this thing called homework that tends to take a bit of my time. This Friday is our last class and our final project is due. I have decided to make a needle felted bust of myself and stitch in the grey hairs that Mira so lovingly plucked out of my brush. If I run out of those, I know where to find a few more. And I know who to ask for the help of plucking them. In any case, I have been working on my little head and when I was almost complete, I decided that it was too white. I needed to dye it a bit. It turns out that I dyed it a bit too pink. Into the pot of colour remover and now I must wait for it to dry in order to add the eyes and finish felting it. I think that I am going to have a long night Thursday.
2-This weekend was a beautiful sunny warm weekend, so, not surprisingly, I spent most of it outside in the yard. Raking and bagging up 15 garbage bags of leaves that didn't get gathered last fall. Cleaning out the flower beds (where there are actually signs of life!) And discovering things that the kids had left outside before the first snow, or hauled out sometime during the winter. Some of that was bagged too.
3- 8 oz silk dyed
4- 3 scarves almost woven
5- warp for 2 scarves and their weft redyed (I didn't like the results from the first dyeing)
6- attended and opening for a show of the Fiber Arts Studio at the Craft College Gallery. Because I took a few classes, I was eligible to have a few pieces entered.
7- Finished all the supporting material for the Beaverbrook show.
There are also countless things at work and home that needs to be done, but don't bear mentioning. Except that I will say that I am almost finished inventory at work. Not for the faint of heart.
And I have a craft show this weekend. I hope that it is a profitable one.

What is left on the "to do" list?

I really don't want to think about it.

The Great Egg Hunt

I wish that I had a video of the egg hunt in my house yesterday. But then again, if you remember high school chemistry and all that talk about molecules frantically bouncing around, then you get the picture.
The kids had two egg hunts this year. One here first thing, and one at my Mom's house in the afternoon. Can you say "Sugar High"?
We were 13 at dinner last night again. I know that it is suppose to be a bad thing, but I think that the superstition arose quite a while ago when the death rate was much higher. As I recall, if you sat 13 at dinner, one of you was suppose to die within the next year. Thank heaven for modern medicine.
Along with my crew, there was mom and dad, My brother Von, his fiance Audrey, his daughter Jordyn. and Craig and his girlfriend Heather. Craig is a student at the university who helps Dad and Von at the farm.
Lots of food was eaten and lots of wine was drunk. All in all, it was a great time.

How long...

Before I resort to something like this? She does, after all have three younger sibblings. Click the image to see it larger.


Mira is twelve and, so far, uninterested in boys. At least that is the impression that she gives. She is interested in reading, making cool stuff, and has started to take an interest in cooking. I hope it stays that way for a little bit longer.