Foothills Folly

I checked out the radar after some heavy storms passed through this afternoon, and all looked clear ahead, so I went to the Housatonic Valley Art League picnic and annual meeting in Sheffield, MA. Had a good time, gabbed too much and enjoyed the company. On the way home the clouds were lifting and the ridge where the Appalachian trail goes, having come from CT heading into Great Barrington, MA, was visible, barely. And this bit of ridge is the one piece I have not hiked. I’ve been south of it; I’ve been north of it. Maybe this year I’ll get there!

Today, a Sunday, (no surprise, a blog day), I drove up northward to attend the Mass Sheep and Wool Festival, and had a short but great time. I drove the back roads there, as the crow flies, and it was almost 30 miles longer than the less direct but bigger roads home! Egad!

But there were sheep, lambs, goats, and sheep dog trials. This was one happy little group:

I had hoped to see some dyers from Ravelry and did see Amy, aka Boogie, from Spunky Eclectic: and here she is at her booth:

We spoke for all of 30 seconds; probably she didn’t expect a fiber-club Junky fan to be quite so old and socially inept! But I did buy two superwash merino hanks of fiber, and hope to actually spin sock-worthy yarn.

They are Soylent and Purple Haze; can you guess which is which?

Vendors (I didn’t get the name) from Northampton MA had a booth of wonderfully dyed fiber– here are the rovings dyed with natural dyes, a wonderful display of color in the sunshine:

I watched the end of this competition; it had to do with sheep, people, and what the people were wearing. The gentleman, black sheep, and child (grandchild?) won the category for adults and children, Too cute!

Again, a vendor’s name I didn’t get:

She dyes the yarns for these vests; I am a vest lover, and wish I’d gone back to get her name or to see if she sold the patterns.

I wasn’t going to but I did– buy more roving. This 8 oz. was from Gurdy Run Woolen Mill in Halifax PA; it’s a wool, ?, and silk roving.

I thought this gray fiber, and the next, from Biltmore Wool Barn from Brewster, MA. a mystery roving with sprinkles of color, would both work with yarns I am spinning for a vest. In fact, they may get plied together.

I had most definitely decided not to buy any unprocessed fleece; but a recent Ravelry thread about the spinning of Cotswold encouraged me to buy some Cotswold lamb fleece, from Heidi (the lamb) via her shepherdess, Lisa, of River Valley Farm, not far from me, in Lenox MA. I may wash some of it tonight:

I had a fine time; what spinner/knitter doesn’t enjoy a fiber fest! On the way home I shot photos out the window; some of them may turn into paintings, and if they do, I’ll blog about it here!

Another Sunday, another blog post day. I have been planting new fruit trees; trimming rampant vines and killer invasive roses, starting veggies, potting up things for the garden club sale, and potting up other things for the forest garden workshop I am taking next week. And, without any help from me, things are blooming. The Nanking cherry, now 15-20 years old:

This year it is just covered with blossoms; and nearby the Sand cherries are blooming. Much younger bushes, they are not so heavily covered with blossoms, but the cherries are a bit larger than the Nanking cherry.

Also blooming yesterday and today is my lovely apricot. And it has been warm enough for the bees to have been very active; hope that means a good crop. Of course we could have a frost, or the trees could get buggy (I skipped the dormant oil spray this year). I can’t be the only one who cheers on the honey bees; so glad to see them!

One of the early tulips is this species type:

They last so much better than the taller, more usual tulips. Year after year they come back, and bloom early. I hope I remember this next fall and put in some more. I also noticed this year that although the bees ignore the daffodils and narcissus, they love the earlier blooming crocuses; another one to plant more of this fall.

A shrub I remember fondly from my childhood was an azalea; I was always amazed at how early it burst into bloom. This is probably not the same variety, but the color is similar:

These are the daffodils and narcissus in front of the house; the white patch on the lower left edge is the cat’s chin; she loves it that the sun has warmed the earth. She also loves it that I am out there working in the dirt and she can roll around in the newly exposed soil.

The outdoors has a hold on my attention; I did spin this March fiber from Amy at Spunky eclectic. It’s called “mud season”; I spun it and then plied it Navaho style, very poorly! Love the colors tho.

The frame shop is driving me batty. There is either no new work, and therefore no money— or there is plenty to do, but, life intervenes. We’re swamped, but I am off for this forest gardening workshop! Can’t win; must figure out retirement!

It wasn’t planned to coincide with the beginning of spring,  it just happened. Old things in the backyard got up-rooted and carted away. First the old truck, kind of sad to see it go:

Next was the manure spreader, race car shell, and old snow-mobile cases. All in a big moosh:

And last was Bean’s vw, which had been acting like a rain-holding cistern for the last four-five years. It’s a toss-up which was the most quaint, the vw or the old truck. Here’s a picture (of his) from last summer, and then today:

Meanwhile the fellow moved a limb, removed some old broken garden machines, a truck cap, a heavy sink, an even heavier old bath-tub, an ancient rusted off-set press, a heavy equally-ancient air conditioner, an old wood stove, and best of all….

…when he left, he put money in my hand!

Sunday seems to be the day to post; today I drove up to Hillsdale to the Book Barn, a wonderful used book store, spent my alloted $20, and went on northward to visit the grave site of Millay. The walk into the woods is open to the public; the house and ‘artist colony’ are not (yet). The walk is marked with bits of her poetry; the woods were cold and quiet, but I really wasn’t expecting this much snow:

There were a few old footprints in the snow and some deer tracks, but the woods had a somber hush befitting the destination; there were NO signs of spring, but the young beeches were gracefully decked in last year’s leaves.

A wonderful rustic bench would be a nice place to read some of her poetry… on a warmer, dryer day.

The headstone for Millay and her husband is literally a large stone, mossy-covered and quite lovely in the snow. Fern fronds (really fern fruiting stalks) had been placed on the stone (I know they are not called fronds, but ‘fern fronds’ has a more poetic sound to it)

Nearby is Edna’s mother’s grave, marked with mountain laurel and an old truly rusting away fence. Very quaint, very restful.

Many of the poems along the half-mile walk were aptly about death, but these stanzas from ‘Portrait by a Neighbor’, 1922, could be my neighbors talking about me:

“Her lawn looks like a meadow,

And if she mows the place

She leaves the clover standing

And the Queen Anne’s Lace!”

The sky was stormy gray, so I stopped on the way home to take yet another picture of the view:

Bits of sun, rain, snow, and what-not today, but still a more spring-like day than a winter-y one. Yeah!

It’s been mostly cold, snowy, and blowing today. There was a patch of sunshine during the afternnon, and I sat in the big dining room window in the warm rays and spun some llama roving I got last fall at Rhinebeck, from the Northern Vermont Llama Co. They take folks on Llama treks, and sell their fiber. It’s two tone so it’s spinning up tweedy. I have to decide whether to ply it to itself, or to some other single, a tan or dark brown . I have a bit more to do, of the 4 oz. ‘bump’, and then I’ll experiment.

This is the fiber, about half-way spun:

I don’t know the name for this type of thin-spun roving; not ‘pencil’ spun, more like ‘ruler’ spun. Fun to work with, and looks like this on the wheel:

Here’s a photo of this morning’s snow and the old truck:

Someone left me a card in the shop door for their scrap metal pick-up business; I may take tham up on it this spring. The neighbor would love me.

After a stop at the transfer station (no picture; next time!), I went to the art show and took a shot of my three paintings:

Only one more sale; it doesn’t seem that much will sell. I find it hard to look at my own work on the wall without wanting to take it home and ‘fix things’ on it. Looks like this time I’ll be able to bring them home and do just that!

I went over to the Antique Center; the beginning of the month is time to pay the rent and collect the check; this month the latter was larger than the former! Hurrah! Here’s a shot of the interior:

This is my tiny corner:

Empty spots on the wall; empty room on my shelves. I need to hustle a bit and stock up. Think I’ll check the loft of the barn tomorrow; much to look through. Never know what the next buyer will like.

I’ll end with a photo of this sunny thawing day:

Think I may try to turn it into a painting, leaving out some of the foreground trees.

I wasn’t sure about putting my paintings in this show, but I did submit three. At the opening, someone asked to meet me, and she told me my larger landscape was the best piece in the entire show. She is not a buyer, but her critique was welcome ( she had had a painter husband)—how could it not be? When I left, only one little painting had sold, a watercolor of an iris—yes, it was nice for the $50.00 price tag. I will go back and try to photograph my efforts; meanwhile, of course, I await more sales. The economy is not encouraging.

The cold and snow make me hunker down, glad to be in the not-so-warm (unless one is quite near the wood stove) house . We’re burning wood from the second pile; it’s punkier and wouldn’t last ’til next year, but it’s also wet and slow to burn. So far the chimney is staying clean—haven’t had to send Sam up on the roof. I managed to get three paintings done for the art league show at Noble Horizons. Did I say ‘done’? I at least put them in frames and gave them titles and prices, but they are more like the idea of paintings than like real, authentic, finished items. Especially when I got them out in the sunlight—-I must say they looked so much better in a dark corner of my living room! Last year I sold two little ones; this year I expect I will be bringing these back home in February.

I’m loading up the palette with fresh paint, as I need to practice getting to ‘finished’ with my work. Ditto for my knitting. Have not yet begun the promised Koolhaus hat. Haven’t added a stitch to the maze hat, also promised although it seems a bit small for this large-headed family:

This is an easy way to do two-color knitting, knitting with one color on a round and slipping the other; but somehow I am off on my last round second to the last round and not sure whether to tink or push on. The maze is a bit wonky and I don’t think errors will be too noticeable. Yarn is two colors of Knitpicks Swish Superwash.

The next rumpled-hat looking project is the Hemlock Ring Blanket, through corrected row 35, now ready for longer cables. It is the next WEBS knitalong but I need a head start in order to keep up— The yarn is a thick 2 ply from Bartlett Mills, Fisherman tweed, in Dark Heather. I’m anxious for it to get large enough to keep me warm as I knit!

And lastly I swatched the Secret of the Stole ii, in knitpicks Shadow, the color of which I think is sunset heather, but maybe redwood heather, and which will become apparent as I knit on and need to find the remaining skeins. The clues will begin to be posted tomorrow a.m., so I imagine I am already behind on this, unless tomorrow is a snow day—possible, but not likely.

Watched a PBS show last night on the plasticity of the neuro-matter in our brains; I think all this knitting helps with the new synapses IF we get it right. Not so likely, either.

I love the new beginning feeling that comes with the 1/1 date. I have made some sweeping resolutions; one of which is to get outside more: (starting tomorrow!) (I am nothing if not a procrastinator!) I am up for changes in five categories: Health, Wealth, Art, Life, and Permaculture.  I think that about covers the essentials. I would have put in a spinning and/or a knitting goal, but they seem to be my default activities and don’t need any encouraging.

This is the storm of yesterday; I didn’t get a photo of today’s; kind of looked the same. I would miss this season if I ever went south for the winter. Especially that cozy feeling of a ’snow day’ with food in the house and no where one needs to go.

Mitzy has taken over the tree; I know she thinks we brought it in the house just for her. To her credit she has been a huge help at undecorating it, though I’m not yet ready to take it down.

 The amaryllis opened yesterday; the picture does not capture how red it really is. Kind of the red of this yarn:

The Fleece Artist sock yarn was part of a raffle prize from the fall Spin-Out. I wasn’t able to go, but made a donation to the Heifer Society—and was delighted with the prize package that arrived yesterday—Thanks, Cara, and all your sponsors!

I have been spinning, this fuzzy fiber I carded a few months ago—is it the alpaca mixed with wool?  Or the moorit locks from RHLindsay? Inquiring minds want to know, and I have forgotten.  Lesson learned: always label!

Lastly, Sam, and girl friend Kath, dressed for a dinner out at Bizen’s, everyone’s favorite Japanese restaurant.  I stayed home and made my own sushi!