Life at Periwinkle

We LOVE upcycling and reusing at Periwinkle

2011-12-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd show you a couple of upcycled projects.

First up is the little table in my weaving room.

I was tired of not being able to see my handspun skeins

so I came up with this.

A small discarded fishtank

A piece of aluminum framed window

A printer's drawer I picked up at a 2nd hand store.

Voila !

And here we have the recycled towel rail that I spotted on the back of a camper van at the wrecking yard.

It hangs perfectly on the shower door.Almost like it was made for the job !

Even the cat participates in the recycling around here.

She resides in this reusable paper bag.

(Thank you Quality Foods !)

Weaving Away

2011-09-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Despite my shameful non-appearance in blogland I have been doing stuff !

Really I have .

I just finished weaving a couple of rag rugs.

Here they are in progress, at this point I had finished the blue rag rug and just started the orange bath mat.

I made the bath mat from recycled towels, donated to me by my friend Danielle, (Thanks Danielle !!).

I dyed them using some RIT dye from the thrift store and they came out this orangey colour that reminds me of summer and beaches. I also used an old, worn turquoise towel I had.

When I cut the fabric up for the blue rug I cut it into strips and glued them, which left hard chunky bits where the glue was so for the bath mat I found another technique here. Basically I cut the edges off the towels, sewed them into a tube and cut up, but not all the way through.

Then I cut diagonally from the bottom right of one strip to the right side of the next strip and ..

ta da

a continuous strip.

I know that didn't make much sense but if you look at the link I posted, Sarah explains it a lot better than me.

The Big Reveal,

my favourite part,

cutting and removing the rugs from the loom.

Here is the bath mat finished.

I wove a narrow header and hemmed each end by hand.

And the blue rug, with knotted fringes at each end.

Of course none of this could be achieved without the help of my trusty assistant, Scout, A.K.A. The Bugger.

Red fruit

2011-06-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

... from the garden today.

Some beautiful redcurrants.

I've been picking them off the last few days and freezing them to make a big enough batch to do something with.

I'm thinking redcurrant jelly and if there's enough, redcurrant and raspberry cordial. I haven't tried it but sounds yummy.

And the rhubarb, what can I say, it just keeps giving and giving.

I picked this lot today and there is still some to pick, amazing !! I think the variety we have is known as strawberry rhubarb which is why it is so pink and looks like a strawberry at the cut end.

Here is some more info about strawberry rhubarb.

We're onto making our second batch of rhubarb champagne.

Simon got the idea from here, thanks to Nellymary. We really enjoyed the first batch.

Super easy to make, very tasty and VERY fizzy !

and look how pretty it is.

Afternoon In Pictures

2011-06-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

For once no words.....

The Garden Equation

2011-05-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

So the equation goes something like this........

TIME necessary to spend in garden to keep it tidy..

minus ACTUAL time spent in garden

EQUALS rather messy and untidy garden...

open bracket ( sigh !) close bracket.

On the plus side, there are lots of things growing in said untidy/messy garden,

redcurrants, rhubarb, beans, red onions, yellow onions, potatoes, tomatoes (lots), cabbages, chickpeas, raspberries, blueberries, grapes and strawberries.

I'll save the greenhouse for another day !

Mmmmm.... Rhubarb

2011-05-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

We have some lovely rhubarb in the garden at the moment,

Red and ripe

And ready for harvesting.

So this is what I made with it today.

Victorian Barbece Sauce from the Bernadin Complete Book of Home Preserving.

I've made it before and it's very good brushed on meat for the barbecue or just served as a chutney.

I had so much of it I made this great big jars of rhubarb and sweet cicely cordial,

recipe from here,

adapted by me to add the sweet cicely,

(we have a forest of sweet cicely so I'm always glad to use some of it up).

Isn't it a gorgeous colour ! I'm about to try it with some club soda and ice cubes.

Nuno Felt !

2011-03-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today I experimented making nuno felt. It was a lot of fun.

(Click here if you want to find out what nuno felt is.)

I made these 2 pieces with a chiffon scarf from the thrift store that I cut in half.

The one on the right was an experiment to see how different wool and fibres would work.

This piece I made to be a like a kerchief. You can wear it on your head or around your neck.

Here is a close up.

I followed fantastic instructions from Terri at http://www.feltinglessons.com/

so "Thank you" Terri.

She also has instructions for felt rocks, so I made some of those too.

Funnily enough I keep a rock on my bedside table to hold down the pages of whatever book I am reading. Now I'll have a lovely felt rock to use !

Now there's just this to deal with, (sigh, I hate the clean up)

Saltery Bay Picnic

2011-03-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

It was such a beautiful day yesterday here on the coast.

We decided to make the most of it and despite the increasing afternoon cloud, headed out for a picnic.

A flask of soup, sandwiches, Walkers cheese and onion crisps (special treat from the UK, only broken out on very special occasions) and a beer/cider to wash it down.

In past years it has become a tradition for us to have an early picnic with our friends Randy and Fern.

In past years we have sometimes had our picnic in February.

They have moved away, (we MISS you guys !) so we are left to continue without them.

Here is beautiful Saltery Bay, a provincial park

It's in two parts. This part of it encompasses the campground and has this wonderful little rocky promontory set up with picnic tables and benches and views to the south and north. This is also where the bronze mermaid is underwater and offers wheelchair accessible scuba diving. Amazing !

And here we also found the first periwinkle of the year. Just being a few miles south and near the water clearly makes a difference as we don't have any blooming at home quite yet.

A lovely sojourn and a day later, back to the rain !!

Name That Lamb

2011-02-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

This post is for you, April.
We decided this year, to name the lambs after jazz singers and musicians. The jazz afficionados in both our families would approve.
So without further ado.....
Here they are.
First up, Humbug's ewe lamb, Ella (Fitzgerald).

Here are Cashew's twins. They are Babydoll Romney crosses.
The little ewe lamb is Billie (Holiday).

Her brother is Louis (Armstrong).

Then we have Marmites twin ewes. This is Cleo (Laine). She is fuzzier than her sister.

And Bea (Wain), OK that one is a little obscure but she was a 1930's big band vocalist.

Last but not least, the Fab Four. Dandelion's family.

This is the little ewe, Peggy (Lee).

The other three are all boys. This is Django (Reinhardt).

This is Dizzy (Gillespie).

And the last little guy is Bix (Beiderbecke), again obscure but one of my Dad's favourites !

OK so did you get all them all ? there'll be a quiz later !

Feeding Frenzy

2011-02-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

That's what it is around here at the moment....

We're giving Dandelion a bit of help with her family.

She feeds all of them as well so no one is starving !

We look at this view 3 times a day.

And The BIG News is....

2011-02-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Dandelion had FOUR lambs on Tuesday evening. I was out at the Fine Arts Club when Simon phoned me to tell me that she had triplets. By the time I got home there were these four.

Do you think she looks rather surprised ?

We certainly were. Here is another picture of the fab four.

The good news is that she is being a great Mum and is feeding them all. We supplement with lamb formula but no-one has been rejected like last year, (remember lovely Pearl our bottle baby).

She is a busy Mum.

Here are two of them, (not quite sure who as I haven't quite got them all sorted out) having a rest outside on their first day out on Friday. The little one to the top of the screen has a cute little white spot on his head, he's the only one we can tell apart at the moment.

And here is Dandelion with the other two little cuties.

There are 3 boys and a girl.

Well done Dandelion !!!

More Lambs Arriving

2011-02-02T19:24:00.000-08:00

It's been very exciting around here !

After it all kicked off on Thursday we've increased the flock to a soccer team, (with a substitute) !

On Monday our Babyrom Cashew had these two little ones, a boy and a girl.

I'll get some better pics soon but just this one for now.

On Tuesday we spent the day anxiously looking at big-as-a-house Dandelion. I went down to check on her but was surprised instead by Marmite.

She had disappeared behind the barn with this result !

Two gorgeous little ewe lambs. In this picture they are just minutes old and still steaming. She is a great Mum and is cleaning and licking them. Within a couple of minutes they are up and raring to go.

Every year I am truly amazed.

Way to Go Humbug !

2011-01-28T07:20:00.000-08:00

A lovely surprise in the barn yesterday morning.

Humbug has a gorgeous daughter. I must admit it took us completely by surprise. We weren't expecting lambs until April. So much for our careful breeding plan and flushing schedule ! Over the 5 years of lambing I have learned not to be too surprised as anything can, (and does) happen.

Needless to say Simon spent the day getting the jug ready, sorting out heatlamps and hay. Not that this little girl needs the heat lamp, she is strong and healthy and it is warm out at the moment but we want to be ready in case any other lambs arrive. The camera is up now in the other part of the barn where the ewes sleep so we can keep an eye on them without the trek out to the barn. The lambing kit is ready,
and hopefully now, so are we !

2011 Bring It ON !

2011-01-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

We were very glad to say goodbye to 2010 for several reasons. Simon being so very sick was a lowpoint in the year but thankfully he is making a fantastic recovery after a scary few weeks. Losing Jack was particularly sad, (I wrote about that here) and in November we said goodbye to Tika, our 15 year old siberian husky.

It's taken us a while to get into the swing of 2011 but we're here NOW.

While I have been absent in Blogland, I haven't been completely idle so here's a couple of pics of stuff I made recently.

This is Calorimetry, a free Knitty.com pattern. It was fun and quick to make. I made from a skein of handspun wool.

I enjoy wearing it. It's kind of like a headscarf and stays on really well because of the clever design. Keeps the ears warm without being too hot !

This is another little headscarf I made for our god daughter, Clara.

Pink, as usual is a bit of a theme.

It was from this Drops pattern. Another free one I found on Ravelry

Thousands of people have made both of these. I love looking on the project pages to see other people's versions.

As well as promising myself to BLOG MORE, I also want to do lots of weaving in 2011.

This was in preparation for some tea towels I have on the loom at the moment.

I'm onto the second one. It's a basic waffle weave on my 4 shaft Leclerc. I plan on doing them all in different colours to use up odd balls of cotton I have in my stash.

More coming SOON !

Mushroom Foraging

2010-10-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

Although I'm fairly new to this, we've been out a couple of times and found some interesting fungi.
Here is a picture of what I've been collecting.

And here are some lobster mushrooms, (at least I think they are) that I found at a very secret place today.

Here's a clue though, it looked like this !

And it had some lovely big old trees like this.

As well as the I-think-they're-lobsters, there was this handsome specimen.

This is the lucsious colour I got from some Cortinarius that I tested by throwing one in a small amount of water in the old microwave oven I use for dyeing.

All very exciting, can't wait to experiment some more and go foraging again.

Urban Logging

2010-09-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

Usually we go gathering our firewood with a permit up in the bush but this week we were lucky enough to get offered a tree that had just been taken down in Wildwood, (Thanks George !). We just had to go and collect those 10 foot lengths.

We were able to borrow a truck with a Hiab, (Thanks Jack !) and so were able to load all the lengths onto the truck without too much trouble and provide the neighbours on Seton Avenue with their Saturday morning entertainment.

Here we are, back at home, and Simon is just getting the chain around the last log off the truck.

Generally I did the choking part, but as I also double as the official photographer, Simon had to do it.

I'm not sure what we would have done without the equipment we borrowed !

The last log almost onto the pile. This wood will be good for next year once it seasons. A pretty good haul I would say.

And for the cat people out there, here is a gratuitous shot of Jem and Scout.

They almost look like pals don't they !

Comings And Goings

2010-08-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

All the lambs have gone to their new homes.

In July the fab four, (Sienna, Violet, China and little Pearl), were off to live on Galiano Island with Sarah and her family.

And mid-August the little boys, Umber and Amber were off to live with dogs and chickens at Joanna's in Agissiz.

All the lambs got to travel extensively on BC Ferries !

We were very well treated with priority boarding.

We have a couple of new additions at Periwinkle,

First, a BIG beautiful black cat has come to live with us. His job is to keep the pests down outside. Our old cat, Mr Sylvester, stayed from when Phyllis and Mike lived here and was with us for five years. He went out and did not come back a few weeks ago. Very sad, he was quite old.

Our new, (old) cat came from the SPCA.

He settled in right away. He's a very laid back cat.

The second additon is our little kitten.

Again, you can see she's made herself at home in amongst the knitting.

We call them Jem and Scout, as in to Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, one of my favourite books. This year is the 50th anniversary of it's publication, so quite fitting we thought.

Jack's Legacy

2010-08-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

July 31st, was a very sad day for us. My father-in-law, Jack Cudworth died in Leeds, England.

He will be sorely missed by his family and friends.

Jack left us a legacy in his paintings. He was a very talented artist. Here is a small selection of his work.

This is Wicklow, close to where Simon's family lived in Ireland.

This one is called man and sheep, (notice how I picked the sheep pictures).

And this is Dingle Bay in Ireland.

As well as being a great artist Jack played the clarinet with some of the jazz greats.

I found a clip of him playing with the Butler Fox Jazz Band at the Foxrock Folk Club.

You can listen to it at this link. If you click on the April 16th 2009 show and listen around the 38.40 mark you can listen to him playing. It's amazing !

Jack was great friends with Diz Disley and they were at art college together.

This is a view of their life there, drawn by Diz.

Looks like it must have been a lot of fun.

It's That Time Of Year

2010-07-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

When we start to say goodbye to this year's lambs.

It's bitter sweet as we hate to see them go but we're happy when they go to new homes where they will be loved by their new families.

Here are Indigo and Ochre,

ready for the trip to meet Kevin and Kelsey and the long drive to Northern Alberta.

As you can see Indigo is saying "Good bye".

Here's a picture of Indigo and Violet a couple of days ago.

And one of Ochre that same day.

The lambs are getting almost as big as their Mums these days !

In other news, it's always nice when this......

(which is Womble by the way)

turns into this......

and one last close up of nice clean Womble fleece.

There's still bits of the field in there but it will come out as I card it.

A Growing Concern

2010-06-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

As well as growing lambs and fibre at Periwinkle, there is all kinds of other stuff that grows here too.

I thought I'd show you a few.

Some pretty little pears.

Lots of figs this year, lets hope they ripen.

A beautiful Peony.

Fennel seems to grow really well here.

Unfortunately so does this giant grass !

That's it, just a glimpse of growing at Periwinkle.

I'm feeling much better now

2010-06-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

....Thank you for asking.

I've been doing lots of this which has really helped.

Here I am with my brothers. I'm going to catch them up one day.

posted by Fran on Pearl's behalf.

Triplets

2010-06-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

I tried but couldn't come up with a catchy title for today's post. Anyhow, here they are, from left to right,

Amber,Umber and Pearl.

Here is Umber, he is the one with the dark socks.

And this is Amber, he is a little lighter than his brother.

And here is our little Pearl.
She is smaller than the boys who are both voracious eaters. We are trying to make sure that Pearl gets enough to eat without being muscled out by her stronger brothers.

She's holding her own though.

Three's A Charm

2010-06-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

We were over on Vancouver Island yesterday and came home to find Dandelion had triplets ! She had them all on her own and did really well.

Here they are this morning, their first trip out into the outside world.

So far so good. We've never had triplets at Periwinkle before but she seems to be feeding all three quite adequately so we're not going to intervene at this point. Much better that they are fed by their Mum than a bottle. Two boys and a girl. We're thinking Amber and Umber for the boys and Pearl for the little ewe lamb.

There will be more updates so do check back !

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

It's not Easter without some lamb pics !

Here is Marmite and her twins, Indigo and Violet. This picture was taken a few days ago

Here they are today. A bit bigger and nibbling on some leaves.

Here are all the lambs together.

(Hard to get a picture of I'll tell you

They don't stand still long enough.)

Here are the twins, Ochre and China. They love to snuggle up together.

And this is Violet. I think she's part monkey !

So Happy Easter from all of us at Periwinkle !

Double DOUBLE Trouble !

2010-03-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

So when I left to help out at Seedy Saturday we had one lamb, Sienna.
When I came back, Cashew had given birth to twins. They were very small and weak. She was on her own as Simon was away in the afternoon too. Our power was out so I ran down the road to our neighbours to use her phone to call him home. We got them eating, a boy and a girl, but we were quite concerned about them. The girl was particularly TINY and the boy had something up with his leg, (we think Cashew may have stood on him by mistake).

But all is well so far, (day 3). Here is the little ram. His name is Ochre. His leg is fine now and he runs around no problem.

Here is the little ewe, her name is China. She's a little fighter and has been gaining weight since Saturday.

Aren't they sweet ?

Later that evening we were out with Cashew and the twins. We had put Marmite in the camera barn so we could keep an eye on her when all of a sudden I heard a new born lamb crying. Marmite had given birth to black twins. They were very lively and she licked them off and they were up and eating within minutes. A very different scenario to Cashew's twins.

Here they are on day 3 out and about in the orchard.

And a photo op with the shepherd.

Marmite is keeping a close eye on them !

And one last one of the littlest members of the flock.

I just love the kneepads

First Lamb of 2010

2010-03-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

Here she is !

Brand new, with her Mum, Humbug.

We decided on colours as a bit of a theme this year. Her name is Sienna.

Both Mum and daughter are doing great. Humbug is a very good and patient mother.

Sienna is very curious and met her first monkey puzzle tree today.

Hello from Quatchi

2010-03-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

He is wearing his Olympic red mittens that I made him. The pattern is courtesy of Pogknits who came up with them and posted a free pattern.

They are the most popular souvenir from the games so I thought it was fitting our little office mascot should have a pair of his own.

Does My Belly Look Big In This ?

2010-02-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

You look just fine Marmite ! Only a few more weeks to go now.

Cashew, you are looking quite round !

Here is a shot of Humbug, Dandelion, Pompom at the back and Cashew sporting the ever fashionable

leaf beard.

This year we are lambing a little later. Last year was quite cold in February so we decided to hold off another month. Of course this winter has been warm and wet so there goes that plan !

It's time to check our supplies, making sure we have everything on hand, get the camera set up in the barn and check the thrift store frequently for old towels.

And then we wait......

Pink Latte Anyone ?

2010-01-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

This yummy fibre is made from milk, pretty incredible really.

It's called Latte.

(More about it if you are interested, here)

It's in the dypeot with some silk. This was an afterbath of some bright pink yarn I dyed.

And here it is naked, as it were.

When I was a kid at primary school in the UK we had a free milk programme, as per the 1946 School Milk Act and were FORCED to drink 1/3 of a pint each day. I hated it and have never liked to drink milk since.

This is a much better format !

Here's my little dye station set up outside.

And here are the results.

First Post of 2010

2010-01-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

Let's hope I keep it up !

Anyway, hope your New Year/New Decade will be everything you want it to be !

For the first day of the new decade we went out to Saltery Bay.

It's so pretty.

It was breezy and warm today.

Not quite a polar bear swim but Tika got her feet wet.

We went on a small detour and drove down to the powerhouse at Stillwater. It's a pretty art deco building, built in 1930. Could do with a coat of paint but quite charming just the same.

I was out looking for lichens today to do some dyeing. I found some but I'll post pictures another time once I figure out what I picked up and whether they are good varieties to dye with.

So that's it for now.

What-I-Did-Over-The-Christmas-Holidays

2009-12-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

Well not much actually !

Which is fine by me.
The 23rd of December is our wedding anniversary so to celebrate we went to Texada Island for the day.

We went to Shelter Point.

And found these little wild blueberries.

We had lunch at the Tree Frog restaurant which is a favourite of ours. As always they made us very welcome and we had a great lunch.

Here are a few more things that I did.

Carded some batts.

Spun up this skein of Babydoll/Romney plied with Angora.

I don't always give my skeins a name but this one is called Jane Eyre.

Made this pink hat which flew off to Europe.

Knitted up these legwarmers for a little gift.

And knitted this sheep hat for me, based on a pattern by Melissa Burt, using my handspun wool.

There's more, but I'll show you another day.

Today I'm back to work.

Merry "<<_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _>>" *

2009-12-25T13:26:00.000-08:00

* Please insert your own preferred holiday.

Around here that would be Christmas,

as you can see by our charlie brown tree.

There's even a rabbit under it.

And look at this lovely weaving bench Simon gave me for Christmas.

Our friend Randy made it from hemlock.

It is just the right height and feels great to sit on

so I'm feeling quite inspired to weave something !

so on that note,

Merry

politically correct ,non denominational winterfest type holiday,

and a happy new gregorian calendar reset

from all of us at Periwinkle.

A Few F.O.'s

2009-10-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

HAH ! I bet you weren't expecting two posts in two days.

Just making up for the quiet times......

I did manage to FINISH a few things I thought I'd show you.

I made this little hat from some of my hand spun wool from our Babydoll sheep.

This one is an adaptation for someone who requested a small tea cosy. It has slits for the handle and spout and a tie at the top.

I made this hat for Simon on the knitting machine, (mostly). I finished the top decreasing by hand. It is handspun with the logo of his favourite bike manufacturer on it !!

This hat is a pattern by Veronik Avery. It's all short rows and very important to keep track of where you are, (ask me how I know, which is why it stayed UNFINISHED for so long).

And a scarf from Sally Melville's Knit Stitch book. I really like this pattern it's knit lengthwise increasing each row so you get a gradual triangle then you cast on a bunch of stitches each side for the rest of the scarf. They are VERY long rows, but only a few of them so not so bad. It's very wearable.

Camping at Saltery Bay

2009-10-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

We had a great night camping with our friends Wayne and Karen Sunday night.

We went out to Saltery Bay Provincial Campground. Here is a link if you want to take a look.

This is how it looked Monday morning with the sun coming up.

Tika had a good time, doing what she does best, lying around !

And here is a constellation of starfish at low tide,

that's the collective noun for starfish (according-to-the-internet-must-be-true).

And just because I thought this looked like a starfish, here is a pic of some bread I baked the other day. I wanted buns and a loaf of bread so combined the two. We broke off the buns and then had the loaf for the next day.

All The Fun Of The Fair

2009-10-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

....Yes, it's been embarassingly silent on the blog front lately, but I'm still here, just been busy (and quiet) I suppose.

Last weekend was our community's Fall Fair. Always a great event.

Here is our Granary set up with fresh baked bread and ready to mill organic grains into flour.

Here is a very shady shot of my friend Helene at our fibre booth. All kinds of lovely woven items and fibrey goodness for sale!Here is a shot of our fine arts group who participated in a sheep to shawl demonstration.BUT, the highlight of the Fair for me was Saffy winning a first place ribbon in the rabbit competition. There were mostly meat rabbits so the organizers created a special "Wool Doe" category for her. She's in a class of her own that one !!

So without further ado..... (imaginary drum roll)......

Let me introduce you to Saffy, the prize winning bun.

She's very proud of herself. As you can see if you squint hard enough I printed up a little "Bio" for her and a sample of spun yarn and a mini knitted sweater to show people she's a fibre grower.

Anyway enough for now as Blogger is being particularly badly behaved today in the formatting department

Baby Bunnies Are Such Fun !

2009-06-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

A quick post so you can see how cute the little buns are.

Considering just over two weeks ago they started out like this.

...and then they got fur.

And started to look like bunnies.

Now they are up for visiting. (Note the blue hands from wool dyeing).

And already we have an avid motorcyclist in our midst.

That's Beady, the only one we've named so far.

I Love Days At Home

2009-06-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things I got to do.

I washed the second half of Kirby's fleece. Here it is soaking in very hot water and Dawn dishsoap.

I made a CD spindle with the grommets Simon and I went EVERYWHERE, (in Powell River, that is) to find. I had some of those CD labels so I made a spirograph design on it. It spins nicely and looks psychedelic too. How cool is that ?

I got to hold this 6 day old kit. It's hard to get the best shot one handed but you get the idea.

And here is one of the light coloured kits. They have fur now.

I experimented making headscarves on my knitting machine.

Here is the headscarf and Kirby's 1/2 fleece outside drying in the sun.

And this is the second scarf I made. I changed how I worked the decreases so it is a bit shorter, which is better. I made it with some recyled ribbon yarn.

So that was my day !

Spring In The Forest

2009-05-16T20:20:00.001-07:00

Just behind where we live are some fantastic trails through the forest. I took my camera on my walk the other day to capture some of the things I saw.

The ferns are all growing. They look like prehistoric birds somehow !

All the trees are bursting into leaf.

Some more ferns I passed.

I come to a fork and turn right.

A bracket fungus on the side of a tree.

I met a few creatures along the way, this banana slug for instance.

And a caterpillar on one of the ferns.

I'm not sure what animal would have made these prints, a deer perhaps ?

A lovely flowering redcurrant.

And the view looking up.

I put the rest of the pictures on flickr otherwise the blog might be too image laden !

Bald AND Beautiful

2009-05-13T10:09:00.001-07:00

Today was shearing day. One of my favorite occasions, as I'm sure I've mentioned before !

We had a new shearer come from Vancouver Island this year. His name is Grant and here is his website. You can take a look at their Clun Forest and Navajo Churro flock and more info on shearing.

He did a great job on the sheep, despite their small stature which is particularly hard on the back !

Here he is in action with Humbug.

And Marmite is almost done.

Here's Dandelion, just up from the ordeal ! Lovely and clean.

Kirby, our Babydoll Romney wether was determined to finish his mouthful of hay. He seemed to enjoy being sheared.And look at this handsome fellow, Womble our Babydoll ram.

I skirted the fleeces and packed them away in used paper grain bags until I get time to wash them all.

What a great day !

Comings And Goings

2009-05-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Simon took the Fab Four, (A.K.A. Lilly, Rose, Snowdrop and Primrose), down to Vancouver to meet up with Leona who was driving them back to Grand Forks.

Here is a picture of them all a while ago at our place.

And here they are up at Leona's. Lilly and Rose are enroute to Nova's up in Fort St John but will stay with Leona for a few weeks. They seem quite content don't they ?

The day before the lambs left though, we had a bit of a shock as Cashew gave birth to a little ram.

Here he is. His name is Willow.

Here are Cashew and Willow on his first day out of the barn.

Kind of odd that she lambed three months after everybody else, but there you are !

The day after the lambs left, Simon flew out for a couple of weeks in the UK visiting the family.

We miss them all !

Rainbow Bunny

2009-04-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss in blogging lately. My excuse is that I've been busy moving stuff around the house and setting up my studio room. (How cool is that ! I'll post some pictures when it's looking presentable).

Easter came and went but to celebrate I thought I'd try some dyeing with Easter egg dyes. As well as the angora fibre I wanted to dye, (Saffy) I rounded up a few little odd bobbins I had spun on my drop spindle.

I wound them up on my trusty skein winder.

I also found some llama and grey romney that looked like it wanted be colourful.

Here is what they all looked like after I added the dyes, wrapped them in plastic film and "nuked" them in the microwave. Not that appetizing ! As well as the easter egg dyes, (which were a bit disappointing really, big on packaging, small on actual colour sachets), I used food colouring.

But here is what it looked like when I unwrapped those plastic parcels and rinsed it all.

And the angora.And the skeins. At least they are all one colour now !

April Fools ?

2009-04-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately not, but this is what we woke up to today.

I know people in most of Canada will be having a chuckle, but you know us wimpy Westcoasters, a bit of snow, (especially in April) is news around here.

The sheep were mighty surprised when they went out.

Still, they got some extra hay in the dry so they were happy. Here are Cashew, Pompom, Lily and Snowdrop chowing down.

Tika, of course is always happy to see snow. Anytime of year.

Also, for the record, the first hummingbird of the year arrived yesterday.

Today I bet he's wishing he stayed a little longer in the warm. He came to the feeder today though, despite the snow and the wind. Intrepid little guy isn't he ?

Happy Spring !

2009-03-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

To celebrate, I took some pictures of the lambs this afternoon. We let the mums out of the pasture for a nice fresh grass munch and the lambs stayed in the orchard.

Here is Rose who came up to the camera.

And Lily relaxing in the sun.

A curious Primrose.
And bookends Primrose and Lily.

We let the Buns out for a bit of a scamper and they got to meet the lambs.

The Buns quite enjoyed the spring weather.

Hope the first day of Spring was a good one for you too !

Dust

2009-03-06T17:53:00.000-08:00

Things have been so busy around here in the house-of-drywall-dust that I haven't been able to concentrate on any crafting lately.

All I could come up with is this one very small shoe.

I know a few girls having babies at the moment so hopefully I will be able to summon up the willpower to actually complete it's mate and they will end up on a pair of small feet.

Tomorrow though, (despite the weather forecast for snow), our fine arts group are undertaking a natural dyeing workshop. We are guiding ourselves using this book. I am really looking forward to it. On Tuesday we all got together and mordanted all the skeins. Tonight I just have to soak my 12 and get together some other supplies. The cards are for putting small pieces of everybody's skeins which should all be different colours.

I'm also posting a picture of Mr Cinnamon Buns. His story can be found here, (if you haven't seen it already). Isn't he cute !

An Early Primrose

2009-02-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

I know it's a bit early for spring flowers, but here is a lovely Primrose who arrived early Thursday morning. (4am to be precise, I know that 'coz we were there ) Doesn't she have a lovely Babydoll smile !

There is something really magical about watching a lamb being born a helpless, vulnerable, tiny creature that within minutes, (hopefully) is up staggering around looking for it's first meal.

Her Mum is Humbug. I'm so glad she had a nice lamb this year. Last year Humbug's lamb was stillborn, and, call me daft, I felt really sorry for her as she seemed left out as the others all had their lambs.

Here are the three musketeers hurtling up the field.........

........So they could have a meeting.

Only one ewe left to lamb, our Babyrom Cashew,

so how about it Cashew ?

Spring Snowdrops

2009-02-21T15:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some little snowdrop flowers peeking out in the garden.

And here is our other Snowdrop, Pompom's lamb that was born on Monday.

She had a tough and arduous journey into the world. Our poor little Pompom struggled bravely but Simon had to be "Vitinry" and help her out. Snowdrop was stuck and it took quite a while to extricate her. I was scared for all 3 of them but eventually she was out, weak, with fluid in her lungs but a strong heartbeat. This one is a fighter. She is also a VERY good sized lamb. She weighed more when she was born than Rose at 3 days old !

So after a few days recovery they are out and about in the meadow.

Here she is enjoying the sunshine.

I thought I'd show you this colourful marmalade I made while I was home today. I made it with organic oranges, lemons and grapefruits from Sunshine Organics.

It's been nice to be around today to keep an eye on the sheep. I've been keeping a particular eye on Humbug who is looking very uncomfortable and keeping apart from the others.

Hmmmm, will she be next I wonder ? Stay tuned for the latest Periwinkle News !!

Say Hi to Rosie

2009-02-17T10:17:00.001-08:00

Here she is, the second lamb of the year.

She arrived on Valentine's Day so naming her was easy.

She is our Valentine's Rose.

Her Mum is Dandelion, (who was quite relieved not to have twins this year).

And just for a bit of colour on the blog here is some pink yarn I spun up.

That's all for now, but watch this space, I'll have a story to tell you about Pompom's lamb.

First Lamb of '09

2009-02-13T07:25:00.000-08:00

This little one arrived on Wednesday morning.

Isn't she sweet ! Marmite is the proud mother. Here they are on her first trip out of the barn.

Which was just way too exciting for her so she flaked out for a nap in the sun.

That's all for now.....

Hopefully more to follow !

Things I didn't do today

2009-01-28T15:53:00.000-08:00

I was all set, a nice, quiet day to myself at home, when all of a sudden we get the call....

The electrical inspector is on his way to go over the wiring in our basement reno!

As it turned out it was not as nerve wracking as we expected and all is well.

That means we can get the insulation in and that should make life a little warmer.

Yay !

But it meant I didn't dye this lovely mixed batch of angora.

or finish these, (which have been in the construction stage for a VERY long time).

These are Mowat Mukluks from Interweave Knits Winter 2005, (that is embarassingly long ago) They should look something like this when they are finished and felted.

So enough of what I didn't do, here's some stuff that happened over the last few days instead.

I have been experimenting with core spinning,

And turned these 2 bobbins into this skein.

And here is some more of the buffalo yarn that I dyed.

And this is the cactus you can't kill that I made for Fern.

Home To Roost

2009-01-18T16:21:00.000-08:00

Although technically speaking sheep are not likely to perch, but you know what I mean ! This weekend we got our little flock home from their sojourn at our neighbours' pasture.

We want to keep a closer eye on them as lambing approaches.

Simon and I lifted them all up into the truck and here they are, all squished in the back, Dandelion is peeking out.

And here's a close up of Humbug.

It was a lot easier coming out than it was going in. They all sprang out like jack in the boxes,

And settled down immediately, like they'd never been away !

All that white wool.......

2009-01-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

... from my last post, turned into this on Wednesday.

My friend Amber came over and we had a little dyeing session.

This is a close up of the bright pink/orange unspun wool, (A.K.A. buffalo yarn), that I wanted to try. I was pleased with how it turned out.

The week before, Amber and I got together to spin and we spun up some white Corriedale. We both dyed our skeins and this is how mine looked.

These are the two little Wensleydale skeins. I will ply them together.

We still hadn't had quite enough so threw these locks into the electric frypan, (one of my favourite kitchen appliances to dye with !). We are going to spin these up one of these days.and that was all we had time for...

but stay tuned, on the hoof woolly stuff coming up !

Signs Of Spring ?

2009-01-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

Simon always calls me the weather optimist because I'm always the first to say, "it's going to cheer up". I think I must be a season optimist too as I got quite excited to see the honeysuckle with new growth the other day.

The same day I spotted a little flock of robins in the meadow.......

...... a sure sign of Spring !

We just got back yesterday from a trip to Vancouver Island. We did the rounds of the thrift stores and found this little desk. It needs some handles and a bit of repair but it's definitely worth rejuvinating. What a great find.

And here is a picture of some white wool which will be dyed this afternoon. I spun up some Wensleydale into the two small skeins. It has a beautiful lustre to it and a really long staple.

A few days at home

2008-12-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

.... and a few things were made.

I made these shoes/slippers after seeing this.

They are made from a felted recycled sweater with a pattern I modified from Martha's link above.

I made a second pair for my Mum.

I finished this little tartan bag today. I bought some lovely tartan mohair offcuts when I was in Scotland and this is one of the pieces that I felted and sewed this bag. The handles are recycled from a belt. I got the idea for this from The Wheel Magazine from Ashford that I really like. They wove the fabric on an a small Ashford loom and shrunk it, whereas I already had this piece.

I also have been doing a bit of spinning with some babydoll/angora and made this function over form niddy noddy to wind it off the bobbin. I spotted the t pieces when we were in the hardware store the other day buying parts for the LOVELY NEW WATER PUMP and Simon found the pipe so it got made in less than 10 minutes. ...yes I know it looks like it but I don't care. It works just great and will do until I make a nice driftwood-from-the-beach-model.

And last but not least a pic of the sheep waiting for some hay as the meadow is STILL full of SNOW.

More pics on flickr

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

I have been conspicuous in my absence lately. Sorry about that.....

No excuses really apart from being away in the UK.

Anyway "Merry Christmas" (or insert your own favourite seasonal greeting). Around here I like to think we celebrate the longest night/our wedding anniversary on the 23rd/ as well as Christmas which really stretches it out !

Here is our little shepherdess and her lamb on top of the tree.

And this is what we got each other this year.

Wow !

It's a water pump. We are very pleased to have it as it means we have water again. Our recent prolonged cold snap, ( -5 to -9 for a week or so which is COLD for us wimpy west coasters) caused it's demise and left us dry for a while.

Amazing how a few days without water really make you appreciate how important it is.

Now the temperature is a balmy zero and we are bathed in winter sunshine. Just like the day we got married, 13 years ago. It was here at Palm Beach.

And looked very like this, minus the snow.And here is another shot of the beach, .....looks almost tropicalWe had a nice walk along the beach this morning while the turkey was cooking and we plan on relaxing the rest of the day.

Hope you enjoy whatever you are doing today !

Weaving..... and Leaving

2008-11-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I fly off to the UK for a couple of weeks.

Before I go I thought I'd squeeze in this post.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had put up my loom in the basement.

Here are the first projects. I warped for two rugs with some recycled, dyed cotton that I had.

I used Jane Stafford's method for warping back to front. I don't have a raddle so I used a comb I had for my knitting machine. It worked really well.

Here's the first rug,

.....and again.

I used some assorted rug wool that I had hanging around for the weft.

I changed the tie ups for the second rug and played around with some twill patterns.

Here is a close up of the twill pattern.Are those Yeti feet weaving away ?Actually these are my warm and cosy socks my mother-in-law, Jean, sent back with Simon when he visited last time. I love 'em !

Here is the first rug, off the loom,and the second.

This is before tidying and finishing, but you get the general idea.

See you in a couple of weeks !

Guy Fawkes Night

2008-11-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

I can't let November 5th go by without a mention of that great British alternative to Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night.

You know, that nice family tradition where kids stuff a few old clothes with straw to make an effigy of an old fellow who tried unsuccessfully to blow up the Houses of Parliment, who is later put on top of a blazing fire as friends and neighbours gather round eating sausages and baked potatoes amid the setting off of potentially eye or limb injuring fireworks.

It's great fun !

We didn't really do the effigy thing but we had sausages and a little fire out back.

I took this picture in the sunshine a few days ago.
We have lots of ladybirds/bugs around at the moment.

And just to show the beautiful colours of Fall/Autumn,

these lovely yellow maple leaves.

Our Forsythia bush turns this vibrant red colour.

Please note, this post was bilingual, .....Canadian and British.

The Wonders of Weaving

2008-10-20T17:43:00.001-07:00

Look what I've been doing for the last 4 days.

We were lucky enough to have Jane Stafford come over from Salt Spring to teach us a 3 day weaving course called Lacey Places,

You can find out more about Jane here,

.......but there's more,

We got an extra bonus day of her great course, Honing your weaving skills.

Of course as a novice weaver my weaving skills will take a lot of honing, hah hah !!

but Jane is a fantastic teacher and I came away from the 4 days with all these lovely samples that I WOVE !

Plus an amazing amount of knowledge and some of Jane's passion for weaving that she shared with us.

So much so that this is what I did today !

The old work horse is up and functional. I bought some cord and just have to make new ties for the treadles but other than that she's ready to go.

She bears a lot of scars but came by them honestly as she has been around since 1944 and has woven many items through the years. I am very proud to be the owner of this LeClerc Mira loom which is a piece of Canadian history and tradition. The original owner, (I am it's second owner), bought it through a program where the Searle Grain Company traveled through the prairies during the 1940's and provided weaving instruction and equipment for the women in rural communities.

BTW there are more pics on flickr of the individual samples and the rabbits are still not talking to each other.

Wabbity Woes

2008-10-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

Up until now Sally and Saffy have lived their whole lives together in peaceful harmony.
Until today that is,
This morning they woke up and decided they really couldn't stand the sight of each other ANY MORE.
Worse than that they spent the morning beating the crap out of each other to the extent that Saffy has a couple of nicks under her nose and Sally has a chunk out of her lip.
Of course we were horrified and sad at the same time. What happened to our sweet lovely Buns ?
Hormones that's what. So consequently we went out today and bought another cage so they will be separate at night and we will reno the hutch into a single-rabbit-duplex tomorrow. Here they are, Saffy gets the new digs as it somehow is bigger, although we thought we were getting the same unit. She actually prefers the old digs and jumps in there to eat Sally's hay at any opportunity.
Now we're considering seriously the thought of breeding them as that would take their minds off the Bunny Welter Weight Extreme Fighting Contest and give them something else to think about.

In happier news here is a skein I plied up yesterday.

And some lovely blue Babydoll/Angora mix. There are three little skeins that I will ply together

Tent City

2008-10-08T08:55:00.001-07:00

As you can see The Buns have their tents set up in the garden. Although they have one each they like to sit together.
Apparently they are protesting the lack of camping around here. We got the tents at Fall Fair, courtesy of Rainbow Valley Pet & Farm Supplies in Powell River. They are supposed to be for cats, ....but sssh, don't tell.

Here is Sally in hers,

And Saffy in hers. They are considering taking up Campanology, as the tents come complete with bells.

And one last picture of some geese heading south, (if you can spot them in the picture, that is !)

Reminds us we're in Canada, eh !

Fall Fair

2008-10-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

Due to some boring technical difficulties I haven't been able to edit pics to put up on the blog but today I found the time to work around that problem.

I couldn't let the Powell River Fall Fair pass by without a blogentry.

(I just made that a word ! I like the way it sounds)

Especially as it has occupied so much of my time lately and therefore the other part of my excuse for not blogging.

The first Fall Fair was over 70 years ago and it is an important part of our community. It is hosted by the local Agricultural Association.

http://www.agriculturepowellriver.org/

For this year I think the best part was that our co-ordinator, Val, persuaded the City of Powell River to sponsor a free park and ride from the Town Centre Mall to the fair on a city bus as well as handy dart service to and from people's homes. So a big thank you to Val for the GREAT job she did as well as Mayor Alsgard and the City of Powell River for rising to the occasion and recognizing the need for accessible transit in our community...

..... (Gets down from soap box)

Here is our little granary wagon set up. You can see the community oven on the left hand side.

Here is a picture of the batches of bread and scones we made for the first day of the fair.

We sold them all and came home to repeat the process again for the next day.

Helene and I set up our fibre arts booth next to the granary. We had handwoven pieces, spinning supplies, knitted and felted items.The buns came along to help, (they always draw a crowd !) We were set up next to Manzanita and their lovely apple press. Sall and Saff liberated this apple before it got to the press.Here is Amber with her colourful hand dyed clothing for big and small people.

And here are Zoe and her dog during a sheep herding demonstration.

There were all kinds of events happening at the fair this year. You can see more pictures here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinw1/sets/72157607619077685/

Thanks for those Kevin !

And even a movie here at the Peak.

http://www.prpeak.com/articles/2008/10/02/multimedia/video/doc48e5740669cd5579967575.txt

Happy First Of Fall

2008-09-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, today is the first day of Fall.

Just so you know it's official, a little patch of Fall Crocuses in the garden came to announce it.

We've still got lots of colour in the garden with these rowan trees.

The birds just love these berries.

We just got back yesterday from Coombsfest 2008, (a.k.a. Nancy and Dany's wedding celebration).

They live here http://www.coombscampground.com/, so you can imagine it was a great spot for the party.

We made up the Powell River Contingent, so here we are enjoying the day.

The Buns got to run around on the table that the model boat people use. (ssssh, don't tell them !)

Tika is relaxing, as she does most of the time.And Saffy is sitting by the lake that Dany built.

It was a great party and nice to see friends, old and new. We all enjoyed it thoroughly.

Thanks Nancy and Dany !

Now we're back, and as always, "It's nice to be home".

A Day At Home

2008-09-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

FINALLY, I got to spend a day at home, ALL day, without having to go anywhere.

So this is what I did.

Not in any particular order.

I dyed some Romney locks, some greens and some brown and blues.

I plyed up this skein.

And carded these batts.

I was on a roll, but had to stop to become a baker and get ready for the Open Air Market tomorrow. !

I like the title for this post. It sounds like it should be a chapter from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. A favourite book of mine, (well, one of many anyway !)

Witchhazel Goes Camping

2008-09-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

Before we see what Witchhazel is up to,
this is one of the things that we accomplished this week.

When I say we, actually what I mean is Simon, lifted out and moved the hydro pole with the help of the forklift. I was absoloutely no help, running around worrying about it hitting the house !!

Anyway it didn't and the guy we sold it to has it at his place and we are glad to see it go from in front of the window.

Yeh, no more hydro pole !

We had another camping trip to Dinner Rock. Here is another sunset shot.

Good job beauty is never boring, as we have lots of shots of this scene !

And here is the lovely Witchhazel. Although she always comes with us, usually she is stuck in the motorhome, bringing us good luck and that sort of thing.
I thought it was high time she came out, so here she is, magically flying around Dinner Rock on her broomstick.

She was made for me by my friend Mave. She is very sweet and not a bad witch at all.

Here are a couple of shots of the camping Buns.

And last of all, this building that we pass on the way to and from Lund. I finally got a couple of pictures of it.So that's it for now.

Math Magic

2008-08-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

I've been missing from Blogland lately.

That's because we got a new desktop and it's taken a while to get it all functioning, (at least at a basic level).

Anyway I'm still aways from posting some pictures but in the meantime I thought I'd amaze you with what I learned today from my work colleague, Graeme.

He told me about CASTING OUT NINES.

there are many references if you ask Mr Google, here is just one of them that explains the theory of CASTING OUT NINES a lot better than I can.

http://www.jimloy.com/number/nines.htm

My bookkeeper side came out when I found out what a great tool it is for checking calculations and it's a great day when you learn something useful.

Camping at Dinner Rock

2008-08-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

We managed to squeeze in an overnight camping trip last night. We wanted to go to Dinner Rock, but were a bit worried it would be full at this time of year. However when we got there we were pleasantly suprised to get the PRIME SPOT !

We have a great fondness for Dinner Rock as we were camping there when we decided to move to Powell River. Of course it is also famous for the tragic wreck of the Gulf Stream, which you can read about here,

http://divermag.com/archives/sep98/pacific_rpt_sep98.html

We all had a very relaxing time. Here is Tika, waiting for someone to light the camp fire.

And of course, we couldn't go camping without the Buns.

They quite enjoy running around "free" on the picnic table. In actual fact they are both wearing harnesses and dog leashes just in case they make a mad break for freedom by leaping off the table.

I got a chance to practise with the new camera. As you can see I figured out how to do black and white. This is the same shot of Dinner Rock as the top one, but in black and white instead.

Very atmospheric !

We came home this morning after a very nice trip.

The Other Flock

2008-07-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd show you this picture of our smaller, quieter flock of sheep. As you can see it's a fair sized flock. Truth be known there are actually a few more larger sheep around the house in many guises, ............plates, cups, teapot, mugs, stuffed ones and several pairs of pyjamas, to name a few. Next thing we'll be overflowing with rabbits too, I just know it's only a matter of time.

I took this picture of our cute bobbing bird the first day we got the camera. Isn't he sweet ? He sits on his perch and the breeze moves the sail at the back which in turn makes his head bob ! I bought him from my friend Jackie in Coombs, who sells other birds like him on behalf of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. You can read about what they do here, http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/

So, from bobbing to bobbins,

I've been doing a bit of spinning. Thought I'd just show you these two.

We had a Periwinkle jaunt out to Saltery Bay this afternoon, so here are a couple of shots.

We found this smaller, secluded beach and spent a pleasant time down here.
That's it for today, I'm off to wash MORE fleece !

First Shots

2008-07-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

...........with our new Canon camera.
Just curious to see how the novice photos will look.

A hydranga in our garden. The lovely PomPom. Always our poster sheep !
Saffy Sally
And the dynamic duo.

I really like it so far. Now off to read the tome that poses as a manual, double tome coz it's in french too.

Camping Critters

2008-07-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that we have been particularly busy lately, we managed to sneak in an overnight camping trip last Friday.

We went up to Okeover, a provincial park. Here's a link, in case you want to have a look.

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/okeover/

Here are The Buns. Depsite being the smallest members of our family, somehow they require the most stuff to bring. I think they are just contemplating what to say on their holiday postcards... oh no, they are eating the local Okeover bushes instead.

Here is Tika, doing what she does best. She's had years of practice.

Of course the spinning wheel had to come too ! (As yet I don't have a name for her, my other wheel generally goes by "the contraption") . Anyhow, she's very pretty, and spins like a dream.This is the wheel that our friend Dave found and bought for me at a garage sale in North Van. for $10. Amazing !

Here's a pic of what I did while we were there. I spun up the light singles and plied it with the reddish/pinky yarn for a 2 ply. The light one has some angora and llama mixed with some soft romney, so the whole thing is very soft.

And just to continue with the red theme, here is a patch of flowers I found that had this vibrant coloured foliage. Not sure what the flowers are but the colour is lovely.As always, it's good to be home again.

Pastures New

2008-06-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

The day after the terrible incident of losing their fleeces, we took the ewes down to their summer pasture.

Sounds simple.... but not quite so easy.

Simon and I finally corraled and lifted all the girls into the truck and off we went.

It's just down the road to our neighbours who have this lovely pasture.

It might take them a while but they'll do their best to get through it !Here they are taking a break, before the next munching shift.

We wanted to wean the lambs a couple of days before they went to their new homes. After a WHOLE DAY of bleating, the lambs woke up the next morning and appeared to have forgotten all about their Mums. They seem pretty much OK here don't they ?

So finally, after the vaccination booster shots, foot trimming, deworming, ear tagging, paperwork recording the lambs were ready to go.

Here are the dynamic duo, Rolo and Opal, ready for the trip to Shambala Farm.

Simon and I loaded the lambs into the truck and got the first ferry over to Vancouver Island. Here they are at the ferry terminal. It's very nice, you get preferential treatment if you are carrying livestock, so "Thank You" to BC Ferries for that. Here are Smartie and Wurly in the line up.And another shot of them all. They were very calm and well behaved on the journey and managed to keep people entertained in the ferry line up.So everyone is settled in their "pastures new", which incidentally I looked up and means this,

"if someone goes to pastures new, they leave their job or home in order to go to a new one."

So it's very quiet at Periwinkle Farm these days. We managed to manhandle the rams down the road and the flock seem quite content in their luscious pasture and don't miss us at all !

The rabbits are going to have to step up on the entertainment factor.

Bunch Of Baldies

2008-06-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

There's been lots going on around here lately, but for today I'm just going to mention that last Wednesday was shearing day. Always one of the highlights of my year.

Here is Tom this year making short work of Cashew.
For some reason I only took one picture of the process, and I see that last year I also posted a pic of Tom and Cashew here, http://lifeatperiwinkle.blogspot.com/2007/05/shearing-day.html,

Here are the fleeces after the flock, (unwillingly in some cases) gave them up.

I have since skirted them and packed them away until I can wash them. There will be posts in the future about fleece, LOTS of it..... but I digress,

back to the baldies.

Here they are looking like wee goats. Tom is Scots and calls them "the wriggley little buggers".

They were quite crabby with one another after shearing, so there was lots of head butting and posturing, and that's just the girls with the lambs, who were completely flummoxed by the change in their Mums.

Marmite was consoled by a tasty morsel of Hazelnut leaves while the rabbits look on, concerned, "Are we next ?", but no, I have hopes of plucking them rather than shaving them for their contribution to the Periwinkle fibre fund.

Everyone got used to each other pretty quickly and peace once again reigned in the meadow.

Odds and Sods

2008-06-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

A fairly "normal" week this week.

You know...

work at the museum, baking, open air market vending, animal ministering, gardening, that kind of thing.

Here are a couple of things we did.

Saturday we went to get another load of firewood up by Lois Lake. It was a hot day so we stopped at the lake after we were done. Tika had a nice swim-with-her-feet-on-the-bottom.

Here they are having a bit of a rest.

Also this week, after a rocky start I got my latest warp on the loom at the Fine Arts. I am making place mats. This picture is the horrible mess I had made of it. Threads crossing over each other are not good to have. That's what happens when you try to do things alone, that require supervision from more experienced weavers.

And this is what it looked like after expert help and Marty taking the SCISSORS to it. Which is much more what it should look like !

Here is Val's lovely warp with the cotton that was recycled and dyed.

The Buns seem to be settling in very well. Here they are having a bit of an outing in the orchard. Once the sheep/lambs/dog are safely out of the way we let them loose, (although they are wearing harnesses with leashes, just to give us the edge when it comes to catching them !!) They are very fast and can get through quite small holes in the fence, so you have to be on guard at all times but they quite enjoy hopping around and kick up their little bunny feet as they run.Today was a bit of a grey,rainy inside day so I made marmalade with some organic oranges, lemons and grapefruit we got in our Sunshine Organics bin a couple of weeks ago. They needed using up so I tried a recipe from the Bernadin book. It was very easy, as you put the fruit through a food processor, (I used the blender, not quite so good probably, but satisfactory) before boiling with the sugar so there was no prolonged cooking. It set up very well.So that's it !

Please Allow Me....

2008-05-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

To officially introduce you to the new Periwinkle Angora rabbits,

A.K.A. The Buns

We finally decided on their names, this is Saffron (Bun). As you see, she is a very pretty light fawn.

And this is Sally Lunn (Bun). The photo doesn't really do it justice, but she is blue/tan/grey colouring. They were born Mid March, from different litters and are both girls.We've been pretty busy over this weekend, but we managed to get a couple of shots in the back yard. They seem very calm and quite enjoy being petted, (or am I imagining that ??? who knows. I just looked up the word for that, it's anthropomorphism, nice word !). Here is Tika, meeting them. She has just realised they are around, and I'm not sure if her intentions are good ones. We'll be keeping an eye on that.

We couldn't leave the lambs out so here is a shot of Wurly, Rolo and Curly's butt.Now I'm off to take some of our fresh ground flour into Sunshine Organics, a very cool local business, here in Powell River.

Here is more info,

http://www.sunshineorganics.ca/

Four Words

2008-05-15T21:18:00.001-07:00

ANGORA

RABBITS

LIVE

HERE !

I just love this ear shot.The sheep are acquainting themselves with the new arrivals.The Buns seem to have settled in at Periwinkle,

more to come soon .....

Field Trip

2008-05-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a nice afternoon out in the motorhome. We didn't camp overnight, (difficult at the moment with small critters at home), but we still have a great time on our day trips.

This week we went to Gibsons Beach, just north of Powell River.

Here's a glimpse into the forest trail.

Here are the picnickers, as you can see, it's pretty relaxing.

I wandered around and found lots of wild flowers and plants. Here are some of the ones I photograhed. Here is a colourful salmonberry bush.These are some sweet little bluebells.These are the flowers of Miner's Lettuce.(Claytonia perfoliata). Pretty, and the leaves are edible. This one is Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa ssp. pubens) The flowers of elderberry can be used to make elderfower cordial, champagne or wine.I know what the last two plants are, thanks to my knowledgeable friend and plant lover, Rod Innes. He takes amazing photographs of plants, some of which can be seen here. http://www.eflora.bc.ca/. Thanks Rod and Deb !

I even found a sleepy snake who slithered off into the creek. I just caught this shot of him.

And here are some wild spindles.... oh no, they would be mine !
I also managed to squeeze in some spinning. Black llama and angora on the top spindle, angora on the bottom.
What a great day !

Wurly's Big Adventure

2008-05-07T14:48:00.001-07:00

Here she is, looking like butter wouldn't melt....

But this morning she escaped,

under the fence,

into the horses' field next door.

I had to go and rescue her when I heard panicking lamb noises.

I have to say horses make me a little nervous, specially large ones, and as she charged up and down the field Beau started to chase her and I had horrible visions of her getting kicked by him, (or me being kicked as I tried, unsuccessfully to calm him down).

Anyway, eventually I managed to grab her and get her back over the fence. Dandelion was not at all bothered by the whole affair and barely greeted her daughter when she came home, panting and rather freaked out, but none the worse for wear.

Good job she's cute !

Market Day

2008-04-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the opening of our local farmers market, officially known as the Open Air Market.
Here is our wagon that we use to bring our mill to the market where we mill organic grains into flour and sell our bread.

On the left side is the outdoor community oven built by Simon, Randy and John in 2005.

If you want to find out more about the market you can check it out here, http://www.agriculturepowellriver.org/

Here are a couple of pictures of lambs eating !

As you can see they finally have figured out they like the creep feed we give them.

I know it's really difficult to see but I was wondering if anybody knew what these birds are that have been in the garden the last couple of days ?The male is blue/black in colour, the female a pretty brown. They have a very nice song. I looked through my bird book and couldn't find them. Hmmmm.

Springtime and Finished Objects

2008-04-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

Although it's hard to tell with the cool wind blowing, I think Spring is finally here.

We've seen several flocks/gaggles (I like that word !) of geese flying over.

Here is one of them on their way north.

And today I saw a swallow, so that's very encouraging.

So much so that I actually planted stuff ! Not out, of course, but I started some tomatoes, lettuce, kidney beans, peppers and some flowers. I used recycled cake packages that come with the black base and clear dome like top. I thought they would make good little greenhouses.

As I said in the title, I have actually FINISHED some stuff.

First of all.... (drum roll please), my first weaving project, a scarf. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

And here is a close up just so I could show you the lovely colours.

And look at this, I finished these clog/slippers for Simon. They have taken an embarassingly long time to get done. Good old Fibertrends pattern. They always turn out well.

Here are a couple of skeins I spun up from the dyed roving I did last week with food colouring.

I plyed the greens and the pink/purples together for the top skein. I had some of the pink left so I just Navajo plyed it for the small skein.

Here are some sheep and lambs today. As you can see the lambs are growing !

The Week That Was

2008-04-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

It was a fairly usual week,

with work, bread baking, , shepherding featuring in it.

This weekend we went to help with the clean up for the Open Air Market which opens April 26th. It was nice to be outside on a fairly warm day, (for a change).

Just to illustrate that it has warmed up we had quite a flock of hummingbirds on the feeder.

This cute little red guy, (a Roufus maybe ?)

Here are two sharing !
And this little green one. I just love watching them.

Anyway I thought I'd share some pictures of some stuff being made this week.

Here are some yarns I've been working on. Some black llama/angora on the drop spindle, some beige llama/angora on the top bobbin and a mix of romney/llama and babydoll on the spinning wheel bobbin.

And here are some rovings I dyed today, just with food colouring but I wanted to experiment with dyeing the rovings I made from a drum carded batt, thanks to Rexanne's UTube vid. http://youtube.com/watch?v=LMEDB9FK2vM.

She has some fantastic videos. I learned all kinds of things.

And here are the rovings, which stayed remarkably intact, drying in the sun. I will be able to spin them as soon as they are dry.For the OLP's today we have black sheep. Here are Pompom and Smartie.

And here is Rolo. He is a little lighter colour than Smartie but still a black sheep.

And in case you were wondering where I got this post title from, you can read about it here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Was_The_Week_That_Was

Weaving Women

2008-03-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

I am really happy to get my first project on the loom at the Fine Arts Club. I picked a loom (there are several choices), which is the same as mine at home so I would get the experience using the same loom. Makes sense huh !

Here is the loom I'm using. It's a 4 harness Leclerc.

And here is a close up of my very simple first project, guess what..... it's a scarf !!

I'm using some wool I dyed for the warp and the weft is a nice purple mohair with pink shiny slubs in it.

And here is Val winding her bobbin for her first project. Guess what, it's a scarf too !

And now for today's OLP, (that's Obligitary Lamb Pic in case you didn't know).

Here is Cashew and Opal, who sits on her Mum's back A LOT.

And in the front, our sweet, smiling Wurly, (Curly's twin). What a lovely girl she is.

A Busy Week

2008-03-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

....it's been, what with one thing and another.

Here are a couple of pics of things that got made this week.

This is a skein of yarn that I spun and plyed from the fleece that was in the dyebath last post.

I put pictures of it in the making on flickr.

And then I made this batch of laundry soap. This may sound really boring but for some reason I find this gratifying. The ingredients are very simple and this big batch cost so little to make. It will last us quite a while ! Mine turned out more solid than the batch made by PeaceLovinMoma who made a great movie tutorial. It can be seen here. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/821928/make_your_own_laundry_soap/

I think mine was more solid because I used Lye soap that I found at the $ store, 2 for a buck. I tried the home made laundry soap with clothes in the washing machine and it works really well. The real test will be when I wash fleece with it, which is why I made it to begin with as I dislike what happens to my hands after having them immersed in harsh detergent laden soapy water.

As you can see it's pretty solid but it dissolves in the wash no problem. I'm planning on making fabric rinse next.

And I can't post without including at least one lamb pic...

So here's two.

Here I managed to catch them all together.

And Simon just caught Opal before she got off Cashew's back. She loves to sleep on her Mum's back and it's broad enough for now.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T09:30:00.001-07:00

What would easter be without a chick ?
Here is a felted egg and knitted chick I made for my Mum.
He flew off to England in time for Easter.
And of course there must be an easter lamb picture, so here are Curly and Wurly enjoying the sunshine. And here was yesterday's dye pot. Some food colouring and mixture of Babydoll/Babyrom fleece. I'm looking forward to spinning it up.

And a pic of some Babyrom fleece I washed up this week. I was pleased at how nicely it cleaned up !

Lamb Central

2008-03-17T19:08:00.001-07:00

It's been pretty crazy around here, with lambs appearing at all hours !

The last one was born in the early hours of today, March 17th so we're officially done.

Here are Dandelion's twins, Curly and Wurly, boy and girl.

Here is Marmite, with Rolo, her little ram. He got stuck with his legs back and Simon had to be the Midwife and sort him out. He's great now though !And this is Opal, Cashew's lamb. She is a pretty grey colour. She was very new here.And this is what our kitchen looked like at one point in the proceedings !Lamb paraphenalia everywhere. The brandy is an old shepherd's trick for weak lambs, although we could have done with a tot ourselves !

Smartie's Day Out

2008-03-11T13:46:00.001-07:00

Today was warmer and drier than yesterday so it seemed a good day for the young 'un to be outside.

"Off you go" says Pom Pom.

We decided his name is Smartie, as all the lambs are going to be English sweets !

A close up shot.

And here they are checking things out in the orchard.

And here is a little movie of him in action.

Pom Pom Had A Little Lamb.....

2008-03-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

whose fleece was black. Due to unfortunate gestation arithmetic, we were surprised to find this little guy in the barn this morning. Actually it wasn't so much the arithmetic, more due to being calendar challenged. I had convinced myself that we put the ram in with the ewes at the end of October. I should have checked, as in fact it was the 10th October. So almost to the 150th day Pom Pom obliged with this lovely boy.

Mother and son are doing well.

Needless to say we spent the day sorting out the maternity ward !

Just a quick post. There will be more pics tomorrow on flickr.

Today is Tansy's birthday

2008-03-06T22:34:00.000-08:00

She is 1 year old today. Here is a picture of her when she was just a few minutes old.

Cashew is just cleaning her up. Tansy had a poor, neglected twin that Cashew didn't really know what to do with. We got him going and I had high hopes for him but he only survived for 3 days. I was very sad. Poor little scrap didn't even have a name.

Anyway, here are the Mum and daughter.

And here is the birthday girl herself. Isn't she sweet ?

Tansy lives on Vancouver island with Anise, April and David

.......more lamb pics on flickr.

Lang Bay Picnic

2008-02-26T17:47:00.000-08:00

This is what we did yesterday.

It was a lovely day with the sun shining, so off we went to the beach with our handy little barbecue, dogs, buns and fixins for a picnic. This isn't our first picnic of the year. We were out a couple of weeks ago, with our friends, Randy and Fern. I didn't get a pic of it unfortunately, but it was a good time just the same and the sun was shining just like this.

Lang Bay is always so beautiful.

This bald eagle joined us for a while. You can just see him perched on the tree behind the arbutus.And one last shot looking the other way along the beach and Tika, enjoying the outing.

Bits and Batts

2008-02-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

Today we worked outside in the yard again.

And I'm pleased to report this.......

But, I hear you say, that's a photo of nothing,

Which is why I am pleased because before, it looked like this.

It took a lot of clearing up to get rid of that lot.

In other news I've been carding batts.

Of various colours, as you can see. There are more pics on flickr.

It was a year ago today....

2008-02-20T22:33:00.000-08:00

...that I went into the barn to let the sheep out and give them their brekky and found this.

Our lovely Anise, just new born. We were all taken a bit by surprise. The ewes all came charging out of the barn and she was left on her own. It took a little investigation to find that Marmite was her Mum and had just forgotten her momentarily.

Here she is again, sporting her rainjacket which she wore when the weather was inclement.

Here is the proud Mum Marmite as she showed Anise off to the rest of the flock. They were all quite impressed I think. This was a cold day so she was wearing her woolly jacket.

So Happy Birthday Anise from us all.

Anise has gone to live with April and David, along with Tansy. You can see more of their adventures on April's flickr, which is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/10498905@N00/

Spinning into Spring

2008-02-16T18:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was quite a busy day.

Here's what I did in the morning.

The Powell River Library hosted this session. The idea was to show people how to make a drop spindle out of "what you have". People brought a variety of fruit, oranges, apples and potatoes, (yes, I know a potato is not really a fruit !) and volunteers from the Fine Arts group showed them how to spin. It was very successful, and as you can see everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

In the evening I attended the Rod LeMay photo exhibit, put on by the Powell River Historical Museum. It was a wine and cheese opening party for the exhibition which is open for the next week or so. It was very well attended and the photos are absoloutely amazing. I would thoroughly recommend going to see them. - I didn't take any pictures of the pictures !

I just had to include these shots of some first signs that Spring is on the way.

The first Periwinkles at Periwinkle.

These dear little snowdrops.

And these little purple primulas that flower year after year

They all make me happy to see them returning at last.

Saltery Bay Sunday

2008-02-11T08:07:00.000-08:00

Today we decided to head out to Saltery Bay in the motorhome to cook our breakfast and just hang out. When we left the sun was shining but it did not stay like that. Never mind, we had fun anyway !

Here is Tika having a bit of a wander around the park.

This was what I took for entertainment, some of the dark Wensleydale fleece Simon brought back from the UK, some romney fleece and some grey angora. I plan to blend them together on the hand cards, just to see how that would work. Also you can just see a couple of drop spindles poking out of the basket. I will spin up the blend on a drop spindle.

Here's a picture of the blend on the card. Aren't the colours lovely together.

While I was carding and spinning, Simon read his motorcyle magazine. All in all we had a very nice day.
There are a couple more pics I put on flickr, if you care to take a look.

The Traveller Returns

2008-02-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

Simon got back from England yesterday. We are all very pleased to see him.

I had to take this picture of all the stuff he brought me back.

There are all kinds of sheepy things, lovely pink wellies, walkers crisps, Bovril, among other things.

And then there is this.

Gorgeous Wensleydale fleece. Greasy with that wonderful smell of sheep.

I've been washing it and it is now drying by the woodstove. The black fleece is particularly lovely.

Lights, Camera, Action

2008-01-29T17:56:00.000-08:00

..... Well not quite, but I thought I would experiment today by posting a movie.

So here is a lamb movie, that hopefully will make you smile.

With a cast of thousands, (or make that Dill, Pickle and Mint), the star of the show is the chunky monkey herself, Anise.

Snow Day Sun Day

2008-01-27T12:29:00.000-08:00

Today, when I got up it started to snow like crazy.

I felt sorry for the sheep and gave them some hay for breakfast.

Tika, of course, quite enjoys this weather.

Just as I was thinking it was going to be a staying home kind of day, this happened.......

So now the sun is shining and I hear the dripping of melting snow all around.

Home Sweet Home

2008-01-24T14:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the sheep came home from where they have been pasturing at one of our neighbours for the past few months.

The reason for this is that we are having some cougar problems. A young pair of them are around at the moment and we think took our neighbours' cat. They have been spotted with alarming frequency the past few days.

Needless to say the sheep didn't exactly come home on their own. Ken and Corey and I bundled them ALL in the back of the Suburban, with much huffing and puffing on my part as chief sheep wrangler.

Coming out was a lot easier, and here they are home again enjoying the nice green grass that has had a chance to grow in their absence. I must say it's lovely to look out and see them again.

Here they are again this morning in the orchard.

I've posted some other pictures on flickr, take a look !

Beach Bums

2008-01-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

Today was such a gorgeous day that Tika and I went to Palm beach. It is beautiful. Simon and I got married here, on the beach, 13 years ago on Dec 23rd. It looked like this then too.

Here's Tika sitting on the sand.

This guy was out making a little boom up of salvaged logs off the beach. There's lots of wood around at the moment because of the storms and high tides.

Here, the sun is reflecting on the ripples in the ocean.

And here's Tika after her paddle, drying off in the sun.

It was fun and nice to be out in the sunshine, (sorry Simon!)

Colour My World

2008-01-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Colours have been very prevalent recently. On Tuesday Fern, Katrina and I got together to dye wool using acid dyes and today I was over at Val and Chuck's for a dyeing session using fibre reactive cotton dyes.

This is some merino top Katrina dyed red and black in the steamer.

We get a lot of use from this electric frying pan. Here is some more merino top with chartreuse and fuchsia.
I threw some of Kirby's fleece into a pot on the stove with fuchsia and violet.There seemed to be some colour left in the dye bath after the first batch came out so I threw the rest in which ended up to be more muted.
I have put some pictures up on Flickr of the carded batts I made with these two batches of fleece. It turned out to be really pretty. I put sparkles and angora in too as I carded it.

Here is the fabric from this afternoon rinsing in the sink. Val used an interesting technique called Parfait from Ann Johnston's Color by Accident book. The fabric looks really cool.I thought I'd try some of the Soy Silk that Fern and I have. It came from Fibreworks, which you can check out here.http://www.gunboatbaylodge.com/fibreworks.html

This is what the 3 different batches of soysilk looked like while they were rinsing.

Well that's enough pics for now. The rest will be on Flickr if you want to take a look. There'll be sheep pics too !

I'm a lumber jack

2008-01-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

Actually Simon is the lumber jack here.......although technically a lumber jack is someone who fells trees. We don't do that. We have a firewood permit so we go up and cut wood left over from logging close to Lois Lake.

This is the view from where we were cutting. It's really nice to be up there.

Here is a really big, burly, old stump in the pile that I thought looked kinda cool.

Tika came along in a strictly supervisory capacity. As you can see she's not impressed with the work output.

Unfortunately this is not our log stack. I took this pic on the way back down where they are actively logging. There was some nice wood in these piles. We came home with a truck load which we'll chop and stack tomorrow. It's always somehow satisfying to add to the woodshed and enjoy the fresh air and exercise at the same time.

Dabbling in Dyeing

2008-01-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

Here is a pic of the dyed fabric I did yesterday at Chuck and Val's.

I will post some more pics on flickr but I just wanted to post this one to see all the great colours together. Very vibrant. I rinsed them out this morning, (took a lot of rinsing) and ironed them. It was quite magical as they dried under the iron, the colours look a lot different when they are wet.

As you can see Tika had a tough day today ! She loves lying around in the snow.

That's it for me, I'm going to post a couple more pics of FINISHED objects on flickr.

Puni Epiphany

2008-01-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia.

"Epiphany (holiday) January 6, the Christian feast commemorating the revelation of Jesus to humanity, specifically the visit of the Magi (see The Holy Bible, The Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter 2, verses 1-12) "
or

"Epiphany (feeling) a realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something or someone. An inspired understanding arising from connecting with profound insight, awareness, or enlightened truth."

I'm talking about the second one, but is it a coincidence it happened today.......?

I was having trouble keeping that wispy angora together enough to spin on the drop spindle. Then I read an interesting article in the latest Spin Off talking about the different names and types of fibre prep.....and there they were, punis !

Cotton and fine fibre are best prepared by rolling the fibre around a puni stick as it comes off the hand card then rolling on a flat surface.

I tried it with this result.

Sure enough, the angora is way easier to spin like this. The fibre clings together much better.

Here's what else I did today.

Washed some black llama to blend with angora hopefully.

Here it is in all it's glory, veggie matter,guard hairs and all !

And this afternoon I went over to my friends', Val and Chuck and we dyed some cotton fabric. I decided to "wing it" on my pots so it will be a surprise when I rinse them out. In the meantime this is what they look like sitting with the dye setting solution for a few hours.

Hopefully I will post pics of the finished product tomorrow or the next day.
AND I finished a scarf made from some hand dyed merino I got from Katrina.
Wow, am I productive or what ?!!

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

How was 2007 for you ? For us it was a good year on the whole.

It was the year I learned to spin. Here is my first very twisty skein. I came out of the Fine Arts building in Powell River, where I learned to spin on a wheel, so pleased with myself, and my mind reeling with the possibilities.........

It was the year we got our Motorhome and now camp in complete luxury.

It was the year our house was raised and doubled our floor space.

It was also the year we lost Tia, one of our 11 year old Siberian Husky sisters. We still miss her greatly.

Here she is sitting on the deck.
And here she is on one of our many camping trips. This is Jones Lake, out by Hope,BC.