Dreaming in color / awakened awareness

There is a local commercial photographer whose business name is 'Eye of the Lady.' I really like that name, as photography is really all about the eye of the artist, not about the equipment used or even one's surroundings. Sometimes I 'see' interest everywhere; sometimes my 'eye' goes to sleep. This week my eye has been seeing in technicolor!

One evening's sunset, as seen from the front of the house and beyond as I walked around to get the best views:

A bed of zinnias next to the retirement facility where I visit old friends:

Poppy napping on the couch:

Bumblebees working the flowers in a neighbor's garden:

Ratatouille made from the vegetables that neighbor gave me in exchange for eggs:

That's it for now from . . .

Hunkering down and thankful

We are sweltering through our hottest spell of the year yet, days of triple digits. Our heat pump is running full time to keep the house at 80°, except for a few hours' break in the early morning when I can give it a breather and open all the windows. But we have a home, and we have electricity, sweet well water (which I am downing in great quantities with ice), and vehicles with air conditioning, and I recognize and appreciate that we are so very, very blessed.

All our woolly, feathered, haired, and furry creatures are doing okay. Poppy and Chuckie actually seem to enjoy the heat – Poppy because she is so fit and lean, and Chuckie because I am convinced cats are solar-powered. Yesterday afternoon I got home from work and let the dogs out to relieve themselves. When Leo appeared soon after at the deck door asking to be let back in, I glanced out and saw Poppy basking on the parched lawn in the sun; my triple-digit Decker. 🙄

I am concerned about some barn swallow nestlings in the Sheep Sheridan. I didn't realize there were babies in the nest until last night when I did chores; I heard them peeping. Had I seen the adults recently? I didn't think so. This morning I could only see one, and it was quiet; still no adults. I hope they were out catching the plentiful flies, and are finding water sources. The nearby winery does have a small pond.

I've watered all the outdoor pots once again. A big bowl of pasta salad is chilling in the fridge for supper. A load of laundry is running; it will dry quickly on the indoor rack. In between checking off items on my to-do list, I spin wool while listening to audiobooks. This heat can't last forever.

Cheaper by the dozen?

new hay – ALL stacked by my guys this year! – hiding what's left of old hay

Only if you compare it to having 13. Bridger left for his new home today, leaving me with an even dozen sheep – who are DEVOURING the new second cutting hay we got, making me worry that I won't have enough to get through the winter. I don't want to admit how much we paid for the 150 bales of first cutting and the 94 bales of second cutting from our favorite local grower (we bought all he had); it felt rather obscene. And yet I'm hoping that we might be able to get some third cutting from him, too. Not likely, though. I should ask him about getting some bales of alfalfa for lactating ewes next spring....

Left to right: Bijou, Bench, Sanson

After Bridger left, I moved Bijou and Bench in with Sanson so the three boys can hang out in the  Ram-ada Inn together until breeding season starts. I peeked at fleeces (should have taken photos); my homebred boys have much finer crimp. It will be interesting to see how their micron test results compare next spring.

my weather app this morning

We've enjoyed some cloud cover recently, which raises the humidity but keeps temperatures more moderate. It would be wonderful to find a way to wring some rain out of the clouds, but I'll take  what they give us. As you can see, by next week we'll be longing for some moderation!

Clouds always make for more interesting skies, too. I've been taking photos of skyscapes here and there and finally downloaded them from my phone to share. This first set was taken on the way home from picking blueberries July 26:

The rest of these were taken during recent walks on our hill:

free sustenance for the picking

this was Friday morning's sky from our deck

I love walking by this big, beautiful Madrone tree

We didn't pick as many blueberries from Rick's client's field this year because they are charging us the same price per pound that I can buy them for, already bagged and frozen, at both Grocery Outlet and Costco. (I advocated for not picking any, but Rick wanted to "keep our options open.") Makes me so thankful for the gorgeous plums our tree is surprising us with this year; I picked another big bowlful this morning. My garden tubs/tanks are giving me a steady dribble of tomatoes (also, the first of the Japanese eggplant are ready to pick); neighbors are keeping us supplied with zucchini, cucumbers, and tonight, Delicata squash (yum!). Both our prune trees and all four apple trees are loaded with promise, so even without a garden proper we are being blessed with abundance.

That's it for now from . . .

TdF report

I spun or plied every day of the 2023 Tour de France/Tour de Fleece, and continued through the dates of the women's race following. As a result, I surprised myself with my productivity. I finished plying the rest of the Wensleydale and suri alpaca (after spinning more alpaca), then spun and plied all the roving I had left from Rechel (the plying was done during the women's race), then skeined all the Wensleydale/suri and the Shetland, then got the Shetland washed and measured.

Now I'm considering patterns for Rechel's light grey yarn; Honeycomb is the top contender.

I washed Spot's neck fleece and today tried to prep it for spinning by using my Indigo Hound combs for the first time, then switching to my flicker brush. Neither produced satisfactory results and I ended up throwing it away; life is too short to spin unenjoyable fiber. So I switched to my 'rare breed project.' During TdF,  I acquired two colors of Harsil roving and some Zwartbles roving with the intention to make colorwork fingerless mitts or maybe mittens. Today I started spinning the Zwartbles:

In other news, I've been busy picking plums (not prunes) using my basket fruit picker. I've never gotten more than a handful from this tree, but this year it is loaded. I'm eating them several times a day, putting them in Rick's lunches, and tonight I made a lovely plum crumble. I haven't made jam in years because we don't use much, but I think they would make a very tasty version.

That's it for now from . . .