The long and winding road

Spinning and winding away at . . .

Crazy May

Wow. It's been in the 80s. Our garden is in and needs frequent watering. Hay is being baled. Spring sprang away and summer has landed solidly in the Willamette Valley – it's a bit of a shock to the system! For my system, that is; for my mother-in-law, the weather has provided an easy transition. She arrived from Mesa, AZ last week to live in the area for the summer (a retirement "test run").

We spent today "shopping" for and moving furniture and other essentials into her apartment, and I'm bushed. But everything came together beautifully. My dear friend who is in Saipan offered the use of her furniture, which was being stored at her dad's place. Everything you see here is a result of that generosity:

A queen mattress and box spring were located through an ad in one of my clients' newsletters, and in the process, Rick and I scored a lovely sofa table for ourselves:

We went to Goodwill to look for some dishes and kettles. This china was as reasonable as any dishes there, and fit my MIL's tastes to a T:

I didn't make much of a dent in MY to-do list today, but what I DID accomplish was enjoyable. This Wednesday my homeschool Textiles students will work on plying their yarn, so whenever I've had any downtime, I've been busy adding yardage to their singles (hopefully they will have enough for their woven samples) and then winding center-pull balls. My husband commented on how bad some of the students' singles look ("like rope"), but I think it's pretty cool art yarn!

That's it for a long, hot day's work at . . .

Of feathers and fiber

The chickies (I should say "pullets," since I call all the chickens "chickies") are learning to perch:

A boy and his bird:

Beautiful feathers:

Surprisingly wonderful fleece:

Why "surprisingly"? Last year Bramble was sheared during the rise and needed to be trimmed up – which I never got around to doing. So I thought she would have nasty felted tips, but her fleece actually looks and feels very nice and soft! It remains to be seen how it processes, though. I'm sending it to my friend Deb, who bought (and loved) Bramble's 2012 fleece, to play with.

I started scissor-shearing Bramble late Sunday afternoon, beginning with the end. Another surprise; she seems to have a rooable rise! She was jumping around a lot and I was running out of daylight and patience, so I covered her back up and will finish her another day. I hope she's not embarrassed....

That's it for now from . . .

Sunday, sun-day

Last week we hired a neighbor to rototill our garden with his tractor. The result is the nicest soil preparation our little plot has ever seen – and the earliest, thanks to unusually dry conditions for this time of year. Sunday we planted the seeds we had on hand – bush beans (saved seeds), carrots (organic "Scarlet Nantes"), radishes ("Sparkler," left over from 2011?), cucumbers (organic "Sumter" and "Tendergreen"), zucchini (organic "Black Beauty, Bush," left over from last year), watermelon (organic "Blacktail Mountain," saved seeds), and yellow squash (organic "Early Prolific Straightneck," left over from last year) – and immediately needed to water them.

Next we cleaned out the overgrown flowerbed around the blooming cherry. It looks sooo much better now, and will look even better once we get that barkdust spread. Here is a close-up of the rhodie that's blooming at the back of that bed:

In my island bed, I was delighted to see this:

My dahlias are coming up! I didn't dig them out last fall, so I wasn't sure what I'd get.

Sunday I also got my "big batch" of yarn dyed for Buds and Blooms:

Wet blue spaghetti!

I would love to wind this and cast on, but that probably wouldn't be prudent. Lots of things going on here right now, not the least of which is assisting with (and adjusting to) my MIL's relocation to our area for the summer. She flies in tomorrow, and will stay with us for a few days until she gets settled into her apartment.

On second thought, maybe a big, involved knitting project is exactly what I need to keep my sanity!

That's only some of what's going on at . . .