Fiber and fishing

I've been pretty good about posting 4-5 times a month, about once a week, but as I said in my last post, summertime is hectic. Still, last Sunday we took family time to smell the roses river. I took my tiniest spindle to spin up the last of the blue silk while my guys tried and failed to catch but one fish; still, we all enjoyed the peaceful setting and perfect weather. A scolding kingfisher followed us along the way, and I managed to capture one decent photo of it (along with all the other shots).

In other fiber news, I have skeined, washed and measured more handspun – the two blue-silk-plied yarns I spun up earlier this year. I think I'll use them in a two-color Buggiflooer Beanie, after considering the FFSSA Sheep and Spindle Fair Isle Hat.

Yesterday was apparently Tiny Snake Tuesday. The first of the two I saw, up by the garage, was shockingly aggressive for being the size of an earthworm – it coiled up and repeatedly struck at the toe of my boot!

I have been considering the qualities of my ewes as I ponder the possibility of breeding a few this fall. In recent years I have selected for typier tails; only Bridget, whose only offspring has an excellent tail, and Bitsy, who I don't intend to ever breed, aren't quite up to snuff. Bernadette has the best earset; the rest are closer to horizontal. The fleece quality in my flock is good-to-excellent but I will always strive for better if/when I breed. As for the "if," that depends on the results of the mid-term elections....

Bernie and her "uppy ears"

I'll close with recent sky shows, always good for perspective.

First August fog?

Sara says August fogs predict summer snows!

this morning's cloudscape

That's it for now from . . .

Sunday, fun day, and a ton-of-work day

When I learned that last weekend was the last weekend of the Canterbury Renaissance Festival, I decided that if at all possible for both of us, I wanted to take a friend on Sunday as an early birthday gift to her. So I picked her up at 9:00 a.m. and off we went. We (mostly window-) shopped, took in parts of several shows, watched the herding dog demonstration and all of the jousting. We didn't eat a single thing there, but did both buy olivewood kitchen tools. And Debbie got to meet Caesar the No-Drama Llama for the first time and thought she might want a couple llamas if they are all like this. (Ha! They are NOT. Caesar is seriously the chillest creature, of any species, I have ever met. He works the State Fair for four days straight every year and never looses his cool!)

Debbie loves dragons

Notice the stare-down between Caesar and the cat!

Because of honoring the Sabbath and Rick's unpredictable work schedule, Sundays are our main opportunity to 'get things done.' So while I was off playing, Rick and Brian (the latter under duress) picked 89 lbs. of peaches (17 lbs. for my MIL). Then Rick picked up a load of hay and made a start of freezing peaches. When I got home we unloaded that hay and a second load, too, then worked on prepping and freezing the ripest peaches that would not wait before falling into bed shortly before midnight.

Needless to say, I didn't have time to finish the last of my fiber on the final day of TdF. I did take it to the festival and spun some, but my spindle was getting too heavy for safe casual spinning. I spun the last of it Monday morning; then I have to decide how and with what to ply my two IF Mushroom Blend colorways.

In 'maybe' news, I have an opportunity to acquire a ram with new genetics and a pattern I don't have in my flock (he's a dark katmoget). Unfortunately I don't have a good place to keep him unless I can sell one of my two rams, so I am going to take new photos and post them on the Facebook Shetland forums to see if I can do that. Now is the perfect time, while people are planning for the fall breeding season.

That's it for now from . . .