Sadly, But With Fingers Crossed

The extreme cold last month really hit my beloved rosemary plant hard.  It probably may have killed it.  I've lost track of how many years it's been living in the greenhouse, but at least seven per a "Facebook Memory" posted back in November of 2025.

 

I found one tiny green branch the other day.  It's in a random spot and there is really no other sign of regrowth anywhere else.  While I hope it may regrow from the base, I think it's definitely facing a challenge and I've been stewing on this green sprig for several days.

Part of me wonders if that's the branch it needs to feed itself to see if it can get back on it's feet.  Another part of me wonders if this is the plant's way of giving me a gift.  That it worked really hard to shelter this one tiny twig so I could try to save it.

I decided to cut it off and try to root it.  I also took three other tips that had a little hint of green, albeit dried out, but not gray like the rest of the plant, and added them to the pot.  

This window has started several injured plants over the years, so I have some hope.  The little rosemary is in good company with a favorite geranium and a tiny hoya that were both tiny broken branches not long ago.

I'll keep you posted.

Thursdays Are For Spinning

A friend picked up some leftover fleeces from the North American wool show last fall and I claimed a Romney fleece.  I think that breed is exceptionally pretty (and cute) and by looks felt like the wool would be a Sara fleece (aka Not Merino), but wanted to find out for sure.  I washed my fleece a few weeks ago and yesterday pulled out a big handful to process and spin.

There was no wind and the sun was shining so even with the snow on the ground, it was too pretty to sit inside.  I carried my wheel outside and thought this picture was kind of funny with my muddy barn boots contrasting with the pretty wheel.  I ended up using them to hold my waiting to be spun bundles :-).

Pretty (and cute :-).

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As the afternoon cooled, I moved back inside for the last bundle.

I wound my bobbin off into a center pull ball and wrapped it around a plying ball.  This is my favorite way to ply samples.  Putting the two ends together around the plying ball keeps the two strands tidy and well behaved.

Ready for a soak.

And after.

I've called some of my Cotswold/Texel crosses "fake Romneys" and now I can say for sure that I was pretty correct.  Not too soft, but not too coarse.  A nice bit of halo and a good bounce.  Definitely a yarn I'll enjoy using ;-).  

Merry Christmas!

Every now and then I catch a little glimpse of white out in the field or a flash of orange in the garden and I hope we are all still here together under Hank and Maisie's watchful eyes, the bright stars and occasionally the northern lights.  I wonder if Maggie and Big Moose see them, too.

*  *  *  *  *

I couldn't fit every beloved ghost in the scene, but ghosts are fluid and other than Hank and Maisie watching out back and Salt and Comby out front, everyone else can be whoever we are missing the most and catch out of the corner of our eye.  Remember, they might be tucked in the barn or curled up in the Wool House.

I'd love to know who you see.  

Merry Christmas!

Oh, and it's a puzzle too :-).  

Snow Bunny

Pinot was pretty sure he wanted to go out to the barn for a bit Tuesday morning, but he didn't go far before he turned back and decided to shop local in his patio by the Wool House. 

  

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Look at the snow fly.

He knows it's important to eat your greens.

And your browns.

I've had a couple of questions about if Pinot is cold when he goes outside or if he's grown extra hair for winter.  If you click to biggify this picture you can see how dense his hair is.  I've also noticed he's put on some extra weight and has a fat pooch around his neck now.  

When I think it's okay for him to run around for a bit, I leave the door cracked open so he can get back in when he's ready.  That being said, when it's really too cold to leave the door open very long, I don't let him go outside.  That's my work room, too :-).

Want a new puzzle?

 

Good Afternoon!

Everyone enjoyed the sun today :-).

The Parable Of The Broken Doors

Anyone who's visited the Wool House in the last...embarrassable amount of months has surely noticed the falling apart doors.   Feeling a bit like a broken door myself, I hadn't made any effort to even take them down, much less hang the new ones that were just waiting for a coat of paint in the garage.

The blanket flowers and salvias out front had been blooming like crazy all fall and had done their part to distract attention from the doors and we'd all enjoyed them, none more than all the bees still gathering food to pack their larders for winter.  News of an upcoming hard freeze hit hard.  Especially as, if we could just get through two miserably cold nights, the temps were heading back up into the 60s again.

All the potted plants were moved inside; the orange tree carried in as well.  That job gets harder every year!  The greenhouse, with its falling apart roof panels (yes, it's a farm trend) was patched back together and the resident writing spider tucked in.  The plants in the ground...just covering them with a sheet was not going to do much good.

If it had just been a few flowers, I'd have accepted the inevitable.  It was a lot of flowers.  If I could just build a "greenhouse" over them... 

A couple of old lambing jug pens, an ancient rusty puppy exercise pen, some miscellaneous tomato supports, three beat up Wool House doors as a roof and some booth tent sides later...a little fairly large "greenhouse" covered everything in hopes that there might be enough residual ground warmth trapped to keep everyone safe.

And cold it got.  21 degrees and snow.

And two days later...

...the bees were back at work!  

I am sentimental to a fault (maybe/probably) and I hate to throw anything away because it's old or broken or just used up.  Those old doors didn't want to just get chucked into the back of a truck.  No one does.  And like the parable of the leaky bucket, without those broken doors, we'd have had no temporary greenhouse.

Two weeks later, the flowers are still blooming and the bees are still around.  The old doors are safely tucked into the barn.  The lamb and puppy pens are in frequent use here, but those doors are beyond repair and will be replaced in the spring.  The old doors can stay though, because I may well need their help again sometime.

 

For Once I'm Happy To Be Stuck Behind A Desk

The view from here this afternoon.  After a warm and beautiful fall, today's cold and snow is hitting pretty hard.  I'm glad I have a big pot of soup ready for dinner and the fireplace is keeping the Wool House warm.  Whether or not Bea and I take our afternoon walk...is up for debate.

Everyone is pretty well tucked in for winter now even though it's going back up into the 60s for several more days after this cold blast.  I still had a bunch of blooming blanket flowers and salvias out front and as they've been pretty cold tolerant all fall, I decided to try to save them and built an elaborate "greenhouse" over them.  

If it works, I'll share a picture.  If not, I'll just take it all down and lick my wounds and know I at least tried.  I lost touch with the caterpillar so I can only hope that story has a happy ending somewhere.  If I could keep the bees fed for another week or two, it would help.

I am working on the 2026 farm calendars today.  

 

Garden Visitor

While I'm partial to butterflies of all sorts and sizes, I have a special fondness for hummingbird moths.  I heard the distinctive buzzing as I walked around the back of the Wool House dye garden and was able to locate this snowberry clearwing moth working on some zinnias.  

Bees, butterflies and actual hummingbirds love zinnias.  I do too :-).

 

Zen And The Art Of Spinning Wheel Maintenance

The first thing I tell someone who's having trouble with their spinning wheel or weaving loom is that while these tools are definitely specialized, they are at heart, basic tools, and when they aren't functioning well, probably just need something adjusted or simply fixed...

...and then I spend Two Weeks of the Tour de Fleece fighting with my own wheel, not having the most fun, whining about the trouble I'm having, stressing that I need to start saving for a new wheel...

Luckily our small, but mighty Ravelry group is full of experienced and helpful spinners...who still had to suggest to me twice that maybe my drive band was just slipping, and sure enough, five minutes later I am back to spinning with a well working wheel.  

Do as I say, not as I do.  

Sigh...

This is an odd picture, but I was working with blazing too hot, too bright sun and this spot in the shade worked perfectly for a yarn shot.  Neither the wheel or Bea are in prison.  They are both just trying to stay cool.  The fence is for Pinot...who is enjoying the AC in the wash room.

Love this light silver and it's so soft, lightly spun and fluffy - Sara yarn - and I think I might just go ahead and spin the rest of what I have left of his roving and make a souvenir from one of the sweetest sheep ever.

This is what a touch of Cotswold will do for your yarn.  Drape a shawl would die for :-).

This picture just struck me funny.  Do you see two eyes, a silver wig and my poor downtrodden wheel sticking her tongue out at me?

I probably need to go sit in the AC with Pinot ;-).

Pedaling and Treadling Along

My Tour has not been amazing this year, but some spinning is better than no spinning so I'm pedaling on and enjoying what I'm doing.  If you are discouraged by your progress, keep going.  The back of the pack is not the worst place to be ;-). 

I wanted something fun and easy to work on yesterday so I headed up to the fleece loft and pulled down an old favorite, Hershey.  As I looked back through the archives this morning to find my favorite picture of him, I see that he's a frequent choice for a fun spin during the Tour.  It's good to have friends who are comfortable to hang out with.

I posted a cell phone picture on the Ravelry group last night and had a comment about how white he'd gotten so I pulled out the big camera to capture the tiniest bit of gray still shining through.  I think the yarn, with the fibers twisted to compress the colors, will look at least a little gray...

...but nothing like his original lamb fleece...which was definitely a Hershey chocolate :-).  What a grand old sheep.

I mostly love scrolling back through decades of old blog posts, but in doing so I always know I'll shed some tears so some days I just can't.  Today was no exception, but I also came across this picture, which is one of my favorites.

This was the day Hershey and friends arrived from New York back in 2013 and that's my friend Julie waving from the road.  So glad to have these old pictures.

A Morning Tour

Cat shenanigans, rabbit runs, lots of flowers and a good cup of coffee.  Good morning!

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Pinot's Porch

So glad it's at least a little cooler this morning.  I've regretted every complaint I made about being cold last winter.

Looking for a new puzzle?  I think this one might be fun :-).

I Mean, What Else Would You Do When It's Nine Million Degrees?

I don't remember why I started flipping through my natural dye books looking for a green, but I did and came across comfrey.  I'd been given a start of comfrey this spring to add to the B Garden and was pleasantly surprised to see it is also a dye plant.

I messaged my flower giving friend (who's also into natural dyes) and she said she had a big patch ready to be cut back so we decided to put a dye pot together.  Another natural dye friend was coming into town so it was perfect timing...and then the August heat dome arrived.  We had fun and learned a lot, but it would have been more fun if it had been a more reasonable temperature.  

 

Did you know that the screen drying rack flips up to access a perfect work table underneath?  I love this set up.  

The freshly started comfrey in the B Garden.  See the bee?  Mine was still blooming because it was a bit behind Rebecca's due to the transplant.  

It's a beautiful addition to the garden!

After a brief soak.

And a little bit longer.

The gray on the left and the white on the right were where we started.  The gray became pretty army green and the white, with just an alum mordent, became the light yellow green.  I wasn't super excited, but was instructed to reserve judgment until we had added in the iron modifier.

And that's when we got the two greens on the left :-D.  So those two skeins were mordented with alum, simmered in the comfrey dye pot and then dipped in an iron modifier bath afterwards.  Much better!

Another plant that could give us a dark green was ivy and I thought I had a source for that, but when we prepped it, we didn't get any color so I must not have the right variety.  We'd already mordented a couple more skeins so we looked through the book for other plants we could find and set up quickly and chose goldenrod.  

It's too early for blooms, but the leaves work well too, so I headed down to the creek in the blazing sun and picked a pot full.  The leaves started green and cooked to a greenish yellow color and when I dipped out a cup of dye to see where we were, it was barely colored.  I thought it was another fail, but was cautioned once again to give it a try.  

 

See the bright yellow strand on the end?  That was our test strand. The book cautioned that cooking too long might dull the color...and that's what happened with the skein.  The dark yellow had been in the dye pot for about 5-8 minutes.  The skein, closer to 15 minutes.  Yep, it faded it right out.  A good lesson. 

The other good lesson learned was to mark your skeins better.  I no longer remember if the middle skein was with the copper modifier added in or the iron.  At one point we lined the skeins up in alphabetical order (alum, copper, iron), but I don't remember if we did that before or after I took this picture.  It was hot.  

Overall it was a fun experience.  I got a green that I think will work well with my walnut dyed yarn from last fall.  And now, looking back for the link to that post I see it was the fall of 2023.  At least the blog remembers to put the "tags" on.  

If I want to wear that sweater this fall I better get knitting!