Way to Go Humbug !

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 !

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

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

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

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

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

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.