7 Random Things

Cyndy, over at Riverrim, tagged me with this meme. And eeps! I'm a bit behind, again, in posting.

1. Sometimes, I just can't make decisions.

2. I'm a closet clean freak. Not in a disabling mental health disturbing way, but more so then many, I'm coming to suspect.

3. Really, it's just a matter of logic. How else can I find things?

4. I'm more into the philosophy behind some religions then the religion itself. Like Buddhism - have done a lot of reading, dig the philosophy, think the gold statues of buddha are sillier then all get out.

5. Don't even get me started on Christianity.

6. I miss my kitty. Ginger just passed away this week.

7. I have high blood pressure and it worries me. But Lifestyle Change is ....tough, to say the least.

There, 7 relatively random thoughts. Funny, not a one of them about the garden or the fibre (which y'all have got to be believing is just me talking out my hat by now anyway).

Karen

Weekend Cat Blogging

Hiya, I've decided to join the Weekend Cat Blogging. Here's my first contribution:



Ginger's all curled up to sleep. At 18, she does little more then sleep, eat, and just generally put up with her mummy's use of the macro feature on the camera. At bedtime, she moves from the back of the couch to sleeping pressed up against my stomach in bed.

Head on over to The Hidden Paw for more of this weekend's kitties.

Karen

picture fest to come! and allergies

I've been sick again. I think it's my allergies playing havoc with my sinuses.

In 2003, when I was last tested for allergies, the results said I was allergic to cats, like my pretty Ginger, seen here being unhappy about being indoors while I am out...


...and on a lesser scale, to dogs, like the bundle of energy friend that is Leif the Licky.


In the last 3 years since that allergy testing, I've been having this growing passion for... growing things. Gardening. I think I may be becoming seasonally allergic as well. I'll find out on May 16, when I have an appointment with the allergist for re-testing.

Anyway, since I was home from work yesterday with a raw throat and massive congestion, I wandered around taking nearly a hundred shots of the gardens and house. In between taking out what feels like hundreds of dandelions, the hard way, before they start to self-seed. And just as many mini maple trees, just because.

Instead of my usual post once a week or more with a ton of pictures, I'm going to try to post 2 or 3 new pictures every day for the next couple of weeks... so hang on.

Here we see apricot blooms closeup, from a few days ago....



And in perspective...



And yesterday...the blooms are going away, while the leaves are coming out.



Now, I'd like to say that soon we'll have apricots growing, but sadly that isn't true. I think this is one of those fruit trees that need a partner tree to cross-pollinate with, and we have only one of them. This is a tree that we inherited from the previous home owners and they either didn't know that, or just wanted the tree for it's Pretty factor. It's not a big deal, since apricots aren't high on my list of fruits.

Karen

my how time flies...

A week has gone flying by since my last post!

I started an elm bark dye bath two saturdays ago by soaking the elm bark. Colour is supposed to be in the pink/coral range. It's supposed to be finished by simmering for an hour and adding the wool, and simmering for another another. So... I stuck it on the stove last night and simmered it, and put a test strip in...and an hour later - nothing. No colour change at all.

For the moment, I've given up. Took the pot off the stove and back into a corner to soak some more. Any ideas?

Anti-V mentioned to me in email that perhaps I need to be soaking it in alcohol. Although the recipe I'm using is from Jenny Dean's _Wild Colour_ and she didn't mention alcohol. All the other recipes have worked so far, I'm surprised that this one hasn't.

Any clues?

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I've been browsing through all the images that I've put up on the web, and quite a few of them have never made it to the blog. So here's a couple more to amuse you.


Still blooming now in our garden, I'm not sure of this one's name, except that it's an aster of some variety.


This is Ginger, being weird, and sticking her head up between the coffee table and the couch. She's returned to her normal, healthy old-lady ways after a bout with fatty liver this summer.


This is Leif, or or in this position, sometimes known as "Belly Boy". This weekend, we took him up to Neil's Mum's house, where he got to spend time with Pogo and Shelley. Now, Shelley's been spayed, but Pogo hasn't yet, being very young. Pogo has apparently gone into heat, and it was amusing watching Leif and Pogo try to get together. Leif's been neutered for so long, I'm surprised he still knew what to attempt to do.

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Also, I bought 3 'pie pumpkins' with an eye to making pumpkin pie in the next few days, right from scratch. There's a recipe in the Joy of Cooking. Wish me luck, and feel free to send other recipes my way.

Karen

blogging on the road!

Oh, this is the life! Laptop and an internet connection in a hotel. I can blog on the road.

It was a long drive, but once we hit the USA, the scenery was so interesting. Both human and natural. We're going across Route 3 through the Adirondacks, to Maine, and across the Bay of Fundy to Annapolis Royal.

Route 3 is a fascinating contrast in poverty and wealth. Mobile homes that aren't so mobile anymore next door to century old houses. So many not-so mobile homes...

The speed limits are different, even after the conversation from miles/per to kilometres/per. The common limits are 30, 45, and 55 miles/per. This translates to 50, 70 and 90 k/per. In Canada, the common speed limits are 50, 60, and 80 k/per. Not that anyone drives the limit in either country 'though.

But driving over the limit in a familiar area is a little different then driving over the limit in a foreign country. I kept expecting a friendly State trooper to leap out from behind a bush somewhere.

And driving 90 k/per in these twisting mountain roads - fun! Even if it does take too much attention away from the scenery at times. Fudge, handwoven baskets, leather artisans and blacksmiths - oh my!

Yes, I did manage to get through the cat and dog departures even if Ginger did try her hardest to guilt me out when we left her at the Cat Hospital for boarding.

There's a pool at this place - an important feature in choosing a hotel - but we were too tired to use it. Just curled up in front of the tv and computer. Maybe in the morning.

Karen

Long, full weekend

I'm getting somewhat tired of feeding Ginger through her tube, but she is getting better. She's drinking on her own, and holding down her food, for the most part. And there was even the tiniest bit of poop - woohoo! The things one gets excited about, eh?



Started working on the new deck, designed and implemented by the man himself - my very own hubby. Those are my toes. :)



I stained my new deck chair, and started on the deck pieces, but there's no pics. The chair was a first-date anniversary present. :)

On saturday, we went out for dinner and a movie, and ended up doing dinner and an hour or so of browsing in Chapters instead. I'd mentioned to Neil awhile ago that I had been wanting to spend some more time then our usual 'magazines and sci-fi' trips, browsing other sections carefully. And *sigh*, after a very thorough trip around the store.....all I ended up with was one magazine.

I want to find - on the shelves - books on herbs that include growing, harvesting and using them for natural dyeing, medicinal purposes, and the kitchen. I want to find books on spinning, dyeing, weaving that aren't all about the modern versions thereof, without a lot of technobabble. I want stories of why people do what they do in the fiber crafts. I want to find something new and thoughtful and intelligent in the pagan sections - right now, it all seems so cheesy and cheap. And I want to find books whose information I can trust. Especially about health issues - I support alternative medicines, in theory, but it's so understudied, and overwritten. Everyone and their grandmother with a theory that knows a publisher....

I can find many books online, even on the Chapters website, and I'm less resistant to online shopping then I used to be, but still.... I want to find them on the shelves! The damned stores are certainly big enough.

Feel free to make recommendations, by the way. :)

And of course, did more weeding and flower shots and watching season 3 of Babylon 5. We tried to finish the mulching project but the place where we've been getting the mulch decided to close for the holiday weekend.

Brown-eyed Susan. I prefer the brown eyes to the black eyes.


And two shots of the echineacha.




I think I'm out of words now. :)

Karen

Ginger's home! and golden marguerite.

Ginger came home tonight! Now we get to feed her via a feeding tube, installed in her neck. Oh joy, oh bliss.

And she's healthy enough to resist a bit. More joy, more bliss.

But she is home, and seems happy to be here. And the feeding tube should go away in a couple of weeks as she starts to eat on her own again.

I've also been dyeing, with the golden marguerite (aka dyer's chamomille). Flower heads in one pot, and their leaves and stalks in the other. The wool rovings that went into the flower pot was pre-mordanted two nights ago with alum, and the yarn that went into the other pot was accompanied by a rusty iron nugget.

I came home at mid-day yesterday, after the contents of my stomach left the building, so I turned on the dye baths, and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Woke up an hour later to find them boiling, and turned them off. Fortunately I hadn't added the wool yet. I tested the flower heads dye bath with some cheap yarn to see if I'd ruined the colour but it turned out okay.

When the dyebaths had cooled sufficiently so as to not shock and felt the wool, I added it and turned the heat up again to simmer for a few hours.

The colours are delightful. :)


This is the results of the flower heads dye bath. Originally white icelandic rovings, pre-mordanted in alum.


This is the results of the dye bath from the golden marguerite stalks and leaves. Originally white mysterious yarn, iron nugget acting as mordant, in the dye pot.

Next on the list - elm bark.

Karen

Funnies, and philosophy

Ginger, a few weeks ago, before her current illness, checking out the new plant to eat.


So that's where I put the calla lilly bulb.... I'd forgotten where I planted the bulbs when I later planted the golden oregeno.

So anyway... had a little pissy moment on thursday, not having gotten any comments on posts for well over a week. So I had to start thinking about why I blog.

I think I have some unchallenged creative energies, that perhaps blogging is something akin to an artistic endeavor. Maybe more of a crafty one.

Fiber geeks will recognize that arguement - is it an art form, is it a craft?

But I digress. I have creative urges that I follow. Sometimes it's in the garden, sometimes it's in photography, sometimes I spin, weave, dye and sometimes I blog.

And I'm that weird mixture that many creative people are - wanting to share that creativity with the world and be recognized, and wanting just to _do_, and being too shy and self-conscious to actually advertise myself.

I blog because I want to stand out somehow ('though with millions blogging right now, one wonders) and yet I'm too shy to put myself into all the right places to get the traffic that would get the comments.

I'd be a starving artist, or crafter, if I didn't have a day job.

I won't be giving it up any time soon. Day job, or the creative urges.

Karen

Ginger, and getting a bone off my chest

Ginger's recovering slowly, still in the Cat Hospital. She has something called 'fatty liver', which is apparently entirely curable.

Thanks one and all for your concern. The drought of well-wishers has been memorable.

I suppose it's a good thing that I just like playing with gadgets....

Karen

Ginger, and garden pics

Ginger cat went into the Cat Hospital on thursday. She hasn't been eating or pooping for a few days, and apparently she was very dehydrated. Poor kitty.

I'm of mixed feelings - some of which aren't so happy-making. I miss her and I know she's in good hands, but my allergies are better without her, and it's nice to not have to yell at her for scratching the carpet and curtains in the middle of the night, or to have to carefully watch the door while loading in groceries.

Her prognosis seems to be good, we'll learn more today when we vist, but at 17, she won't be with us all that much longer. 20 is the average age for most cats. I honestly don't know whether I'll get another when she does pass on.

On another note 'though, it may not have been the wisest idea to visit Chapters after dropping her off at the Cat Hospital. 4 books, 2 magazines** and a Godiva bar later - only 2 days before the Harry Potter release - I might have been working off some empty space anxiety. Ya think?

Anyway, it's been a few days since I threw ya a few pics of the garden.


This is the Calendula, my current favourite. What a wonderful collection of bright orange flowers! You can dye with this plant, but the colours are insignificant. More important is it's medicinal use as an antiseptic for burns, cuts and bruises. Not that I know how to get from plant to medicine just yet.



Now, the Golden Marguerite, aka Dyer's Chamomille, is an excellent dye plant. And I have more then enough of it this year to experiment with. I'll start collecting in a few days when the blooms start to dye off. It's also just plain stunning in it's abundance, spread and beauty.



I'm also enjoying the Yarrow this year. I think this is the original variety, but there are apparently many new cultivars on the market this year and some of those colours are quite pretty as well. Yarrow is also a medicinal plant - a quick Google search lists liver, digestive, menstrual and antispasmodic uses. Again, I'm no expert.

** Tanya Huff's "Valor's Choice" and "The Better Part of Valor" - hmmph, she's a Canadian author and she allowed the publisher to spell "Valour" in the American. I just noticed. How annoying. But's she's an excellent author, nonetheless. I'd just been putting off these two books because I tend to like fantasy better then military sci-fi.

Julie Czerneda's "Survival" and "A Thousand Words for Stranger". Both are first volumes of trilogies. So if I like them, I'll need to go get the rest of the set. She's a new author to me.

Bitch mag and Canadian Gardening, which is where I found out about the new varieties of Yarrow.

Karen

yet more gardening

You're not tired of reading about my gardening yet? :)

Today in the garden, it was really freaking hot. And muggy. The weather prediction was for 30°C - I don't know what it actually ended up being.

We did an hour of weeding and mulching and cutting the front lawn grass and then gave up because of the heat for several hours. Went shopping - bouncing from air conditioned store to air conditioned store - but didn't buy much.

Came home and fixed the screen door. It's the first time in my life that I'd ever put a new screen in. Funny the things I'm learning as a (relatively) new home owner.

Puttered around the house gathering garbage for putting out tomorrow, and gave the cat's home room a thorough airing and cleaning. Ginger seemed to appreciate it.

And then it was finally cool enough to go back out into the gardens. I weeded and mulched and planted new annuals in the front garden while Neil weeded and mulched the front of the fence line garden. I only got half of my garden done while Neil completely finished his, but mine is bigger. :)

Watered bunches in all the gardens - I felt like I was baking, it had to be needed.

Oh! And the veggie garden actually is showing growth! Carrots and beans and peas and corn and garlic - oh my!

But I have to ask - does the dirt ever actually get out from under the fingernails?

Karen