Cats, Cats, Cats

Sketches, drawings, playing around in my sketchbook, charcoal, pencil, watercolour, ink, whatever felt right and was within reach... having fun with Cats... Love these creatures

Garlic Harvesting and Planting 2019

The garlic has been hanging in the kitchen since August... at first it was lying on a large wire rack airing.. it took up a lot of space so it could not stay that way for long.

turned out great.. 106 nice large "Music" hardneck garlic bulbs

the roots on a couple of them had grown through the composted tea bags... so tea bags do eventually rot.

I eventually had to trim off the drying leaves as they kept making a mess on the floor. they look a lot better now all pruned up and hung in a beam over in the corner out of the way. 

and man o man are they flavourful!

A couple scapes were allowed to go to seed and produced these little seedlets.. so cute!

and one of the seedheads grew into mini clovettes

 last year I felt I waited too long as Oct. had been very rainy and cold so when I planted, the ground was wet and mucky... not fun... not taking any chances this year and planted them the first week of Oct...( yes this is late to post) so I prepped the garlic cloves, John tilled up a space and  added compost...

 then I popped in the garlic with a good sprinkle of bone meal, covered about 1 - 1 1/2" of soil and spread straw on top.. Very happy to have them in... such an easy crop...

A farmer up the road 10 minutes had straw for sale so we got a few bales. 

 nothing to do now but wait for next years harvest.... oh, planted 103 bulbs...

On another note, as the year progressed the leaves were brilliant, wish I had more pics of them... they stayed on the branches a long time this year... at last I thought so... till the Oct storms came through.

They are gone now till the spring... 

...so to hold the memories of the gorgeous summer, we will be adding garlic to as many things as we can think of. 

Cheerio and Be Happy!

My Happy Place

 We had so much pleasure from the new perennial flower garden this year and it is still going strong... looks a bit unruly, but I like it like that... and so does the family of Sparrows, Chipmunks and other creatures that have decided to make it home... so fun to watch them scurry under the overgrown flowers, search for seeds, feed their babies, perch on the fence stakes, take baths, sing their songs... and it's in full view of our dining island in the kitchen... Love it 

Hope you enjoyed the flowers and nature near you this summer.... 

Cheerio and Happy Fall

Buried Treasure

 Discovered a rather interesting artifact when we were digging out an old tree stump at the edge of the barn...

  a worn and corroded axe head with the tree root growing right through axe-handle hole... so cool... axe head is 6" x 3 3/4" x 1 3/4"...

  think I'll keep it like this and hang it on the wall

kind of fair play, as I can only imagine how many trees that axe took down and then a tree took it back 

Blending Alpaca and Cotswold Wool

Heading into my little studio early this morning.
...One of my partner, John Ackerson's abstract paintings, done years ago, hanging on the door ~ Always loved that piece ~

Mixing teased proportions of 4 to 1, pale yellow Cotswold wool with brown Alpaca... 1st blended batt on right... will prob. give the batt, one more run thru the drum carder.
...everything's an experiment

several blended rolags

Spinning away on the Cotswold wool and the brown Alpaca on the Ashford Traditional wheel... quite a bit of grease remaining in the wool so it doesn't slide as easy as it would have if it had been scoured more... But with more lanolin left in the yarn it will be more water repellent for outerwear... spinning it a little thicker than I usually do so I have a variety of yarn weights on hand... it is tricky to get used to spinning thicker after you have spun fine for a while, but it's always good to give yourself a challenge.

 I have 6 bobbins filled with the 1 ply Alpaca and Cotswold... lots more to spin but I ran out of bobbins, so will have to 2 ply these first to empty the bobbins... so far I like it.

Beginning the plying of the alpaca and cotswold ... excited to see how it turns out. ...the little piece of art on the right is a print of a painting my partner did of me playing the piano

Plied the first 6 bobbins of alpaca/wool into 2 ply (upper right of the pic) and have spun up the remaining batts... The plied yarn mellows the colour nicely... I'm liking the blend so far.

 

 Finished with 18 skeins each over 2.4 oz. each. 

...... I used the washing machine to soak (no agitation) in hot water, Dawn and Ivory Snow for 30 min , spun out then repeated. Then another soak in hot water to rinse out the soap.

... As we finally received a warm day, I hung them out on the clothesline in the breeze to dry. It always surprises me how quickly wool dries! 

The grass has finally turned green and growing and the leaves are starting to leaf out on the trees

Finished drying in the kitchen spread out on a broom handle. The plied yarn mellows the colour nicely...

I'm liking the blend. ...Fun... and I miss working on the project.
** Spun on an Ashford Traditional on the middle ratio.

... the process took from May 7 till May 25.. while waiting for the weather to warm up 

Cheers All from Desideratum Art and Jewelry, Douglas, New Brunswick, Canada