Spring flowers

Spring really is just around the corner. Actually, it is here already in my yard. I took these photos today. Not a lot of the daffodil varieties are blooming yet but these certainly are. Can't you just smell them?

These sweet little yellow wood violets are popping up all over in the forest, along with lots of foliage of more flowering plants, like miners lettuce and wild bleeding hearts.  If you click on the wood violet picture you will see the detail of the moss and the rain drops.

This is vinca minor, grows like crazy here. I used to have a white variety but haven't seen that one bloom yet.  Do you see that pod hanging on the left side of the flower?  That is from the Golden Chain tree.  It puts out lots of these pods and the mice collect the seeds.  I sometimes find big stashes of them.  Also they are sprouting up all over the yard.  Anyone want some?  The golden chain seeds I'm talking about.  Not the mice, although come to think of it, if you want some mice you can come and get them.

So all of you still in the snow zone, try to be patient a little longer. It's a big circle and it's coming around again.

Five For Fighting was what I last listened to today. Wonder where he came up with that name?

Be well.

Baba Marta

Today is the first day of March, and there are a number of holidays celebrated around the world today, many of which have to do with the coming of spring.
In Bulgaria, today is Baba Marta, or "Grandmother March Day." Baba Marta is a mythical figure, a temperamental old lady with big mood swings that correlate with the Bulgarian climate. When she's happy, she brings warm weather. When she's angry, the winter frost persists. So today, people in Bulgaria go around greeting each other "Chestita Baba Marta" — which means "Happy Grandmother March" — hoping that the old lady will be cheerful and bring warm weather and sunshine. And today in Bulgaria, people wear martenitsi. The martenitsa is a red and white brooch-like adornment made of yarn. It is supposed to make Baba Marta have mercy on the wearers and allow them be happy, so that they may all welcome the coming spring as soon as possible.

I copied these pictures off the web, and the story from today's Writer's Almanac. Since I have posted information about my Bulgarian heritage in past posts I thought this would be a suitable subject for today.

Be well.

Say Goodnight, Gracie

Gracie started her life in Utah. She showed up on my neighbor Gwen's porch in a snow storm, peering in the window, looking pathetic and starving. Gwen finally gave in and began feeding her. Eventually Gwen and her family moved next door to me and brought Gracie along, being the compassionate and responsible people that they are. Gracie took up residence in their barn, preferring as always to keep to herself rather than becoming a house cat. One day she came over here and discovered that I had cat food available to my cats in the laundry room. Since Gwen had gotten another cat, Gracie decided she would rather take her chances living here amongst my Pit Bulls and Rottweiler rather than get beat up by the new cat, a vicious black cat named Choo Choo Man. Can't help but be vicious with a name like that now can you? Gracie discovered that she could live in relative safety in the crawl space under my house. At this point, she had never been named, but was called the barn cat when she lived at Gwen's, and now became the basement cat. I considered calling her BC but that didn't seem any better than basement cat. Finally, after she had already been here for 6 or 7 years, I decided to call her Gracie. She mostly stayed hidden, but came out every day for me when I would feed her. She loved for me to pet her and brush her and hold her but even though I tried to get her to come into the house, she never let me carry her indoors. No one else ever saw her, she preferred to stay hidden away. Occasionally she would come out and sun herself just outside her escape hole. That is where she was when I took this photo. She never stopped purring when she was with me. I felt she was showing her appreciation that I allowed her to live her life as she wanted, in her solitary space. Gracie shared her life with me for 11 or more years, living there in the crawlspace. She stopped purring last night. I buried her right where she is in the photo. She was a sweetie.

Say Goodnight, Gracie.

Llama quilt

Continuing with my llama theme, here is a little wall hanging I made to represent Surprise. She is the prettiest of my llamas, in my opinion. In her opinion too, I'm sure. She is the queen. I made this for my friend Joan. I showed a picture of Joan and her llamas a few posts back. Joan is the 80 year old woman I got my girls from.

She loved this piece but unfortunately when her house burned down a couple years ago, so did this gift. It was the least of what she lost, she was lucky she didn't lose her life. I don't remember the size of it, probably about 22" x 20". I used a lot of my own hand dyes on this piece. Not great art, but it was really appreciated and I enjoyed making it. Now that Joan is in her new house, maybe I should make her some new art.

Listening to Colin Hay today. He used to be the lead singer/songwriter in Men At Work.
Be well.

Spit Happens!

Whatever you do, don't click on this picture.

When spit happens, it tastes real bad.

I mean, really really awful.

You didn't click on these, did you? You'll be sorry, it is so gross!! Poor girls, it's like having...oh, never mind. You get the picture.

Mr. Mel

Mr. Mel

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived out in the country and had a flock of chickens. She chanced to look out the window one day and saw a flash of bright blue down in the chicken yard. When she went out to investigate she discovered a young peacock, flashing his feathers for the chickens, who ignored him. This peacock stayed around for about 18 years and the girl named him Mr. Mel. This was because the beautiful blue of his feathers reminded her of the beautiful blue eyes of a certain handsome movie star, also named Mel.

Eventually Mr. Mel grew old and passed on and the girl buried him in the bamboo grove where he had enjoyed spending his last days. Mr. Mel has been gone for a year now but I still miss his bright feathers, his loud voice, and his companionship. I made this piece shortly after he died to commemorate our friendship.

His beauty and presence lives on in my memory. Any time I see a flash of blue in the garden I still imagine for an instant that it is Mr. Mel. I half expect to hear his voice, screaming out an alarm every time a car drives by, or to see him displaying in the yard, the wind blowing his long tail feathers out.

Enjoy the beauty around you.
Be well.

More Nuno felting

Finally I got the results I was looking for. This time I took two very light little silk scarves, each about 34"x 5" (see below) and put some colorful roving on them, and rolled them up and felted. Above is a close up with the finished scarf hanging in the window with the sun shining through it.

Above are the two silk scarves before I laid the roving on and wet it all down, slightly felting enough so it would stick together. Then I laid the two scarves end to end with some extra roving on the overlap before I rolled the whole shebang up in my bamboo mat to do the final felting. I wanted a longer scarf than just one of the silk pieces would have made.

This is more like what I was striving for in the first place. I love the other two pieces I made but this one is more wearable. I want to do something with that gorgeous first piece I made a couple weeks ago, but it is too thick and stiff to wear as a scarf. This is a very lightweight decorative scarf, drapes beautifully.

This is our last day of expected sun. It has been so wonderful to have this spring respite from the cold dark wet winter. The daffodils have begun blooming, the robins flocked to the freshly mown lawn, and the birds have been singing joyfully. Tomorrow we expect to be back to rain.

Listening to Greg Brown today.

Be well.