Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Mushroom Foraging


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.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Urban Logging

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 !

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Comings And Goings

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.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Jack's Legacy

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.


Saturday, July 10, 2010

It's That Time Of Year

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.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A Growing Concern

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.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

I'm feeling much better now

 
....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.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Triplets


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.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Three's A Charm

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 !

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter

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 !

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Double DOUBLE Trouble !

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

Friday, March 12, 2010

First Lamb of 2010

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.