Fluff and Stuff

Too bloody hot out there - so glad I'm not out working today. Instead, I'm out at the parents' for the weekend, in the country. Granted, I did go out and weed the dye garden after breakfast, and cut back the madder and the bedstraw - they were flopping all over the path, and the bedstraw was in flower, and I don't want it re-seeding all over the place - but right now, I'm staying in. Even the porch in the shade is on the warm side; I was picking fleece out there, but have given up and moved that in also.

And if you really want a picture that will make you sweat, this morning I finished the alpaca gloves I was working on, and got them blocked. They're nearly dry now.

This year's shipment of chicks arrived last week, including a few of different breeds and colours that will be kept for laying hens.

One of them, a Barred Rock chick, is a little smaller than the others, and she wasn't very lively this morning, and looked like she was panting, so we brought her in to keep an eye on her and keep her from being squashed or trampled. She's perkier now, and is back with the rest (she was feeling lonely, and making plenty of noise to let us know that), but we're keeping an eye on her, since she's still panting and not running about as much as the others. Hopefully she's going to be OK. She's very cute, and has a bit of an owl or a penguin colouring right now, dark on top and a creamy belly.

Steeped in Color

OK, so apparently I managed to skip a week, after promising pictures of the goings-on here. Thing is, the computer is the easiest thing to put off doing. But tonight I get a bit of time, and actually had a chance to upload some pictures.
The berries have gone to nearly full production, so lots of picking, and I made shortcake with some this week - yummy!

The chicks are enjoying their new home, and go take dust-baths outside in their run, and fight over the clover I bring them for treats. They're in the ugly stage, where they look like little vultures or something.

I haven't touched my knitting since last Wednesday (shock!), and have been spinning only to get done what needed to be dyed, and to say I've done some spinning every day for the Tour de Fleece. Really, it seems the week has been about dyeing. After I did my mordanting Wednesday and Jo did hers Thursday, the clothesline looked like this:

Friday we started on the duller tones and the lighter colors. I prefer doing those and the experimental ones first, so if the result isn't great, it can get overdyed in one of the brighter shades. Case in point: the rose shoots I was testing. The book said it was supposed to give a yellow-green, but the result was a tan straw-color. I ended up throwing it in the coreopsis bath to get a richer gold for the final color. Anyway, we did burdock, and greenweed, and bedstraw roots, and madder tops, and Jo had lots of fun, and was very excited for Monday, and the bright colors.

Saturday I did the stuff that I wanted which was not on Jo's list. Nettles, and blackberry shoots, onion skins, and butternuts (we were lucky enough to have a tree fall last week, and there were nuts already on it).

Monday was a long day of dyeing. Five dye-baths, but mostly strong ones for doing multiple dips in darker and lighter tones, and including indigo as the piece de resistance. Jo arrived at 9 and left after 5, and the clothesline was a thing of beauty.

Today has been more! dyeing. Mostly filling in spaces, as it were - things which I put off yesterday, as the important thing was to get Jo's stuff done. The line is full again, and there is a pile of finished stuff. I haven't thrown out the dye-baths yet, though. Several still have color, and I hate to waste it, so want to make sure everything I want in a color is done before I dump it.

Down On The Farm

Back in the city, after a lovely weekend out at the parents'. A busy visit, but enjoyable for both me and the cat. She's napping, worn out by all that hunting she did - I don't think she settled down in the house for more than a few hours the whole weekend. And I'm nursing the usual assortment of mosquito bites and stiff muscles garnered in the garden and field.

The strawberries are ripe early this year, and the wild strawberries are amazing. I never remember there being this many or this big. Usually you get a couple handfuls to nibble. But Mom and I spent part of Saturday afternoon hunting them, and came out with a few cups of them! Enough to make strawberry shortcake with the wild berries only, which has to be the height of summer decadence. Real shortcake, none of this sponge-cake stuff, and freshly-whipped cream.

The year's batch of baby chicks have arrived. This bunch is more curious, or less timid, than the last, some of them being willing to come right over to you instead of running away, and not fussing if you pick them up. One even didn't want to get off my hand, but sidled up my wrist, with the apparent aim of perching there for a nap. The dog, Rex, is in his element. He loves the babies, and has to come and see them, and herd them with his big nose, make sure no-one wanders off. Poor Rex looks like an accident victim right now, though, and very sorry for himself:

It's his own fault, really. He had an insect bite or something, and he licked it raw. Mom put the purple livestock disinfectant on it, and he licked that off, and made the spot twice as large. Bandages wouldn't stay on, so it's a pad now with antiseptic salve, taped on. Fine as long as he's supervised, but overnight he got an old t-shirt as makeshift pants, held on by cloth strips for suspenders, to ensure he didn't remove his bandage. His dignity was so injured that I didn't take a picture, but think of Eeyore. He was so sad and insulted he sat on the lawn with his back to the house, and didn't come in to clean the dinner plates!

And then there was the gardening. The weather has been very good for the plants, it seems. I took an entire wheelbarrow of tops off the madder patch, and spread them out to dry - I'm looking forward to trying the fresh tops, given that the bits that had spent the winter on the ground had color enough to dye with. The bedstraw was close to flowering, so I cut that down to compost. Dug out a couple dozen baby pokeweed that were de trop, and set out my Japanese indigo seedlings. Amazing how many fit in the one small pot I started - I dug over 20 holes, and planted 2-4 seedlings per hole. Happy to have plenty, though, since I came across a new technique for dyeing with them that I'm anxious to try - it uses vinegar and water only, and no heating.