Natural Dyeing, Spinning, Weaving

I got the privilege of going out to Tanglewood Farm this afternoon to take some pictures from day two of Dianne's natural dye workshop taught by Dagmar Klos, author of The Dyer's Companion.  No surprise, the venue, hostess, instructor, students, subject matter...were all beyond outstanding.  I can't wait to see their final results.

 

As I was reviewing my photographs I found a whole series of foggy morning shots I'd taken here a couple days ago and almost forgotten about.  A little of nature's colorwork with some intricate spinning and weaving thrown in to freak Karen out because you know I love my spiders :-).

Order Has Returned To The Universe

And yes, I realize just typing those words is daring the universe to "bring it"...again.



1. It's back to cold, damp and dreary. Whew! It's bad to be hit with SAD (Summer Affected Disorder ;-) so early in the year.



2. My parents were here for a couple days and did all sorts of helpful things including pruning all the fruits trees - especially The Hardest Working Little Peach Tree.



3. We got a couple strawberry beds planted.



4. Saint Tim and my dad got the garden cleaned up and tilled. There is cabbage, broccoli, spinach and sweet onions planted now.



5. Flowerweaver helped me and Stella get our seeds started and under grow lights. The (backwards facing) tags made from a cut up cottage cheese container are working well. Great tip!



6. All the fleeces are sorted (I said sorted, not skirted) and up off the ground. Only one is washed so far. I am in big trouble getting ready for the spring festival :-o.



7. The new floor in the wash room kicks butt.



8. And you can see the floor in the wool house once again.

I found a couple treasures while organizing the loft a couple weeks ago. That box holds one and the yarn on the table is another.

Tomorrow...

Help!!!

The hardest working little peach tree. Our favorite tree on the entire farm. I love to see it bloom in the spring, watch the baby peaches start growing in the early summer and by midsummer you can almost smell the peaches from the side porch. If you go stand in the branches, you feel like you too could be a peach.



What's wrong??? We noticed that several of the peaches were getting bad spots before we left for the Midwest Fiber and Folk Fair. Didn't think too much about it because we don't use any pesticides and just accept we have some bug damage. Today over half of the hardest working little peach tree's beautiful fruits are fuzzy gray and shriveled up.



I don't think they are just over ripe. What's left are all hanging on tight and still feel pretty hard. They go from that to ruined pretty much overnight. Now that I think about it, I think the same thing happened with our plums this year.

Is there something wrong in our little orchard?

Can anyone help???

The Hardest Working Little Peach Tree

Is covered in blooms :-D. (I thought I had a "tag" for the Hardest Working Little Peach Tree, but apparently not (?). Something to do in my spare time...)



As are the plums (and dandelions).



And the Crazy Esther old quince.



If your view must be obliterated, it's not such a bad thing if it's by thousands of Redbud blooms. Here's also a sneak peak at the new garden Saint Tim's putting in for me.



And look - the Doone Valley Thyme made it through the winter.

Whew!

Eat A Peach!

So, we've established that there are good days and there are bad days, but I'm pretty sure that no day is ever so bad that it can't be helped by a fresh, sweet, juicy, right off the tree, peach.



The hardest working little peach tree has just outdone herself this summer. We've eaten sink peaches (where you have to eat them over the sink to keep the juice that runs down your arm off the floor), peach fritters, peach cobbler and my mother even taught me to make peach jam last weekend. This evening neighbor Stella is making homemade peach ice cream.



I cannot wait!

Seems Like Just Yesterday

...that I was standing outside in short sleeves relaxing with my friends at the end of a busy day. Wait a minute, it WAS yesterday (well, actually the day before).

We hit the lower twenties last night and will again tonight. I crunched through frozen grass on the way to the barn this morning. The horticulturist on the news said there really wasn't anything we could do to stop the damage. We have the cutest, hard working little peach tree and it was covered in blooms the other day. Likewise the pears, apples, plums and cherry trees. While I feel bad for myself and my trees, I feel even worse for the folks they were interviewing from one of the local orchards. There is a big difference between fun and livelihood.