Tuesday, July 17, 2018

A day from door to door

Yesterday morning I awoke early, got up to close the windows and blinds (our east-facing wall of windows/French doors gives us a LOT of solar gain) and found this:
Squeeeee! A pretty sunrise! Lately the sun has come up in a cloudless sky . . . or I'm still asleep. I stepped out on the deck to take a picture and enjoy the cool(er) morning air – and a female Anna's hummingbird flew in for breakfast an arm's length away. I held my breath, slowly rotated my iPhone, and started snapping away. She must have been really hungry, because she mostly kept eating/drinking. I didn't get great photos, but for me they capture a special experience.







Yesterday evening a coast breeze cooled us down enough that I could think about riding for the first time in days, so Lance and I chased a sunset.

Then I spun awhile on my spindle (I had finished spinning Braveheart's roving on my mS the night before) until bedtime. I let Jackson out one last time (Dozer didn't want to go) and thought I heard running and rustling. Hoping it wasn't another skunk, I gave him a couple minutes and called him from the front door. He slowly walked onto the light porch with something in his mouth. When I informed him whatever it was wasn't coming inside, he dropped a big, almost dead gopher!
Needless to say, he got lots of praise and a treat for that.

Today dawned cooler and the house stayed cooler longer. And tonight, thanks to another coast breeze, the temperature in the house is below 70-something for the first time in recent memory; woot!

I started another turtle on my horn spindle today (here she is in a 'string bikini'; ha!), and wound the Braveheart singles into a ball for plying. Then I decided to use Rick's newest creation to model the yarn. He got a new tool that allows him hollow out bowls through a small hole, which is holding the pirn. It also has some copper accents, along with the 'wings.' Something different!



I needed something else to spin on Miss Maple for the rest of the Tour, so into the stash I dove again. I found this 8+ ounces of dark chocolate roving with no identification. It's from one of my past sheep, but I'll have to do some research to figure out which one. I also found some medium brown roving from Bramble, almost a pound, and got to thinking what a beautiful Fair Isle cardigan I could knit with these three shades. Hmmm....
That's all for this post from . . .

9 comments:

Michelle said...

Hey there; comment away!

Retired Knitter said...

Don't you just love when a pet brings you a "gift" - but in this case it actually was a gift of a sort!! Does the bulldog ever do that? Generally as a breed, they don't 'hunt' or catch things. They leave the heavy lifting to other dogs. :-)

Theresa said...

Lovely begings and endings as long as you aren't a gopher. So, I'm waiting for Rick to start making some awesome yarn bowls so I can buy one...or two.
I thought for a moment he had made a yarn holder like this one only betterer! :-)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/168676413/yarn-holder-lazy-susan-ambrosia-maple?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=yarn%20spindle&ref=sc_gallery-1-2&plkey=b299c66efea5bc9b5b485eeca40c2ece0964c5aa:168676413

Mama Pea said...

Really enjoyed this post from dawn to dusk (to dead gopher)!

Susan said...

I love hummingbirds - how thrilling to be that close! They are magical beings. Your spinning is wonderful - and you've gotten so much done! I'm with Theresa, let me know when the yarn bowls commence. Lovey once brought me an almost dead chipmunk, but that is the extent of their 'presents'. Enjoy your cooler weather and glorious sunrises/sunsets - thanks for sharing them with us! xo

Michelle said...

RK, Dozer has gone after raccoons a couple times in the past (unsuccessfully, thankfully), but these days he mostly naps. ;-)

Theresa, he does have a few smaller bowls he's willing to part with. They don't have a yarn channel cut into them, but I've used some of them as yarn bowls and they work great. Pricing is the difficult part....

Thanks, Mama Pea.

Susan, see my comment to Theresa. I would feel bad about a chipmunk; gophers, not so much!

Debbie said...

Your hummer photos are wonderful! Likewise for the sunrise photos.

I'm waiting for wooden bowls too.

margaret said...

I love your hummingbird pictures!

Claire MW said...

Such a beautiful experience with the hummingbird! We only have 1 species here - the ruby throated. I would love to see other species someday. The gopher makes me sad because I'm such a rodent lover but I know they are considered a pest species. All your beautiful natural shades make me think you should participate in the nature's shades-along that is currently happening (http://www.knitbritish.net/natures-back/) I'm too slow of a knitter to participate in such things.