Still Chasing Rainbows

Double rainbows over the farm

This has been a rainbow year. I came home from a pleasant walk with my young friend, who is house sitting in the remote valleys of Floyd, to see this lovely rainbow arching over the farm. As I reached the Parkway bridge a brilliant flash of lightning shattered the sky behind the rainbow's end. I rushed for the camera and to rescue TJ, dancing by the door.


Chasing rainbows and the elusive

Chasing rainbows is a term often spoken with scorn, but I've always had a respect for rainbow hunters. Capturing a dream is as elusive as reaching the end of a rainbow; sometimes it's difficult to know just what the dream might be. And few of those outside the dream realize the hard work that goes into making a dream a reality.

I've been watching some dreamers lately, as they pursue their rainbows. Each person or group is amazing, reaching for ideas and goals that are as brilliant as a rainbow's colors. The creative spirit soars far beyond paint, thread, paper and pen, arching up like a rainbow to lift dreams into reality. Rainbow chasers pursue a different existence, beyond self and structure, beyond safety. Catching a rainbow dream is as elusive as pursuing it; you may never quite know when you achieve success. But the real fun is the chase!

Seems that the busier I am...

the less I have to write about. I look back over the past week and think, what happened? Time flew by, and I suppose I got things done, but I can't see them! I had to make a trip to Northern Virginia and that took up two days of mostly driving time in very hot weather without air conditioning in the pickup.

Some of my week was spent working with TJ, who is growing like a weed and needs to learn some discipline. His attention span is a little longer than a nanosecond now so we've been doing some work on the leash. He's trying really hard and can manage to take a few steps with me without bolting against the choke collar now. After we get done, he flies across the field with all the energy he has to restrain so he can obey me! Yesterday we worked on how to behave in the car.

Yesterday was a great day. Because of dire weather forecasts we didn't set up the craft tent, which was a bit disappointing, but it was like being given an extra day in the week. I knocked out a bunch of work in the bunny barn, emptying trays and straightening cages. And playing with bunnies. Then I spent the rest of the day setting the twist on yarn that I had plied during the week and spinning up some odds and ends of roving. The camera is charging right now, so when I get the chance I'll post pictures at Fiber Femmes of the finished yarns.

Today it's raining; a lazy spaniel is snoring beneath my desk. We had a big storm last night and Lily woke me at 3; I unplugged the computer and brought her back to bed with me, where she huddled against my side and growled back at the thunder. TJ is playing with a toy on the sofa, and the weather is settling in for rain. I plan to paint some Coopworth handspun after finishing the usual morning bunny chores. And I hope to do some laundry, since it's cool, and maybe some more spinning. The week looks busy, again!

L is for....

Loving Little Faces (taken a few months ago)



and Lovable!

There wasn't room for more....

Covered Bridge Festival (click all photos to enlarge)

...in this weekend! And what a lovely time we had, with work and play and lots of people to see and places to go!

The weekend started early, on Friday when we went down the mountain to set up the tents for the Covered Bridge Festival. The adventures came even earlier, as we decided to go down "Belcher Mountain", a winding dirt road that switches back and forth down the mountain. A harrowing journey at the best of times, there were a few more thrills than usual because of a logging company's activities at the foot of the ridge. Wallowing around in sand that was mud a few days would have been fun with four wheel drive; with my modest little pickup it was a tiny bit frightening!

We made it safely, though, and the rest of Friday was spent getting the water back in working order (hurrah)! My house is still a disaster but at least I'm clean! Many thanks to Mom for use of her shower during the week!


Linda and her mom flicking wool

Saturday was beautiful, with cloudless skies most of the day and warm weather. I was just finishing the set up of the booth at the Covered Bridge Festival, with Mom's help, when Linda from Goin' Up Cripple Creek came up with her spinning wheel and boxes of newly dyed Suffolk wool. Linda's mom joined us, and we settled in under my canopy for a wonderful day of talking and working. I was spinning some beautiful moorit wool roving from Rising Meadow Farm. The girls spent most of the day on wool preparation and it seems that they both were enjoying the experience as purple dyed fleece became clean fluffy clouds.

Since this festival was in Patrick County I saw lots of people I know, received some nice compliments on my work and sold some wool to a couple of young women that use drop spindles. There was another spinner there that I was able to speak to; Janet Thompson from North Carolina. I didn't get the chance to find out much about her, but she was doing some lovely yarns! Sue was there with her gourds, and there were lots of other vendors. I didn't get out to see many of them, although Linda graciously minded the booth while I found my way to the food vendors for lunch!

We were between the covered bridges, and watched the horse drawn wagons pass all day. A hay ride pulled by a tractor and a lot of antique cars also went back and forth, and a group of motorcyclists on a poker run all waved at us as they passed. The festival was a lovely experience, thanks to the hard work of our tourism and chamber of commerce departments.


A foundation at last!

Meanwhile, back at Greenberry House, things were busy as the foundation finally went up, thanks to my step-father's connections and a block man he found for us. The job was done well and quickly, and now we can start some carpentry work and start store keeping sometime soon. Maybe!


Haymaking!

And still more work went on at the farm, as the farmer came to bale the hay he cut on Thursday. A nice family effort, resulting in loads of fresh hay for cattle, horses and maybe even the bunnies! If anyone out there wants good hay in square bales let me know! There are four beautiful wagons full sitting down by my driveway.

Sunday was quieter, spent at the craft tent. I sold several items and we had a blacksmith demonstrating. I finished spinning the moorit and started on some Coopworth wool in a natural silver that I love working with; it spins up so fast. This week I'm planning to do some plying, in between other jobs. We're really getting things together with Fiber Femmes, and should be well on schedule with the July/August issue. It's wonderful to see the enthusiastic response from fiber folk!

K is for....

Keeping Journals

I don't remember when I first starting keeping journals, or diaries, as they were called when I was a teenager. I have one that is very sketchy and incomplete, with no dates and large lettered entries about cats, that must be from childhood. The teenage years are full of the usual angst and self-centered rants, while the journals of the next few years are mostly story ideas, poems and bits of description and dialogue. Some journals have only a few months between their covers, while others span a year or so. I notice that when things were difficult I wrote less, and that I wrote much less when I was married.

Journaling is a most conceited thing, especially blogging. Putting down thoughts and experiences, from such a simple, ordinary life. But sometimes I think that examining the ordinary, taking a closer look at the why, who and how, makes the ordinary become unique. My favorite blogs, listed in the sidebar, are the personal journals that reveal day to day life, and the special way each person has of looking at their lives and the quiet rhythms of passing days.

Staying in touch

Round the Mountain Conference

Monday Sue and I headed out again, this time to Abington for a joint conference with Round the Mountain and The Crooked Road projects. We set up as demonstrators, along with quilters, carvers, a blacksmith, a broom maker, and several musical instrument makers. Most of the people there were folks that had been working with the steering committees for the projects, but it was a nice opportunity for more casual interaction with the group. I had a lovely time talking to a member of the quilters' guild, and Dave from Ripples, who is now Executive Director of the Jacksonville Center, stopped by with his lovely wife. Dave has posted an entry about the purposes and results of the meetings on his blog. I have a little more about the day posted at Fiber Femmes.

Yesterday I woke up early, ready to tackle lots of backed up chores, including laundry. And found out that there was no water. Wading through wet grass a few times to the springhouse and shutting things on and off, I finally determined that there's a broken pipe under the bathroom. So I'm running down to Mom's for showers and stuff. I can keep the water on to the kitchen and outside faucet, so the bunnies are OK. Country life!

The rest of the day was spent on computer chores, spinning, and shearing a lovely bunny. Had a nice walk with friend Kym and then dinner at a local restaurant, where we discovered that our favorite guy is no longer involved with the business. Kind of a bummer, although the food was still good. This particular young fellow was quite an asset to the restaurant, and we could tell that the other patrons missed his presence, too. Favorite cousin and several of her lovely nieces came in just as we were finishing, and it was great to see them and find out what was going on.

Home...and Gone Again

Putting together corners for a foundation

It seems that June is going to be as busy as all those other months that have flown by. Since my last entry we've had some work done at the store and gone to Savannah and back. The block man never showed up, but my excellent step-father came out and set the corners for the foundation so we can finally get going on the shop project. Then he found another block man who is coming next weekend to help finish the thing. Much relief here!

We dashed down to Savannah on Friday for a Civil War collectibles show. Quick trip; we didn't get to see much of what I'm sure is a lovely city. But it's a long way and I had to be back yesterday to check on bunny litters and get ready for the Round the Mountain Conference today. We had a good show and met some interesting people. It was much hotter than we are used to, though, and nice to get back up on the mountain to the fresh breezes!

The rest of the week and weekend were about making things and dyeing. I finished two purses at the show and painted some roving and dyed some angora on Wednesday. Pictures of the dye projects are over at Fiber Femmes.

J is for....

Joy's New Bunnies!

Explanations

For the past two years, maybe a little longer, Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm and I have been casting around for a way to use a terrific name that Sandra came up with, Fiber Femmes. First we thought about a guild, then a calendar, and several other ideas but nothing ever jelled. Early this year we were kicking it around again, with an intention of trying to get a grant, and the idea of an on-line magazine floated in. This rang true, and Sandra has been working hard since on getting together articles and getting the word out of our intention. The response has been wonderful, thanks to all her efforts and marketing skills, and we're well on our way to 'publishing' our first issue on line at Fiber Femmes on July 1, with a July/August issue. My responsibility is to do the computer work to put it on-line and write an occasional article. Sandra has done all the hard work already!

This is the notice that Sandra has been putting out for the last couple of days:

"Fiber Femmes e-magazine is a joint venture between two women who share common interests of all things fiber. Each issue, beginning July/Aug 2006, will include women involved in all aspects of fiber, a particular fiber (animal and plant), articles on spinning, knitting, crocheting, weaving, felting, dyeing, pricing goods, festival visits, guilds, shops, fiber in the news, photo contest, book reviews, calendar of events and an Enhance Your Stash Marketplace.

July/Aug 06 issue includes a feature on a Fiber Femme involved in the fiber industry for more than 3 decades and articles from experts in the areas of: spinning cat hair for a shawl, intro to needle felting, pricing handspun yarn, fiber festival tips, a Femmes First Fiber Festival, Fiber Focus, Spinning History and MORE!

Fiber Femme Firsts - please send photos of your first hand dyed projects and we'll include them in our first issue; deadline June 15, 2006.

Potential readership stands at 1,025,507 and growing; if you'd like to be part of this exciting new (ad)venture, please contact us ASAP. We're looking for Fiber Femme writers, photographers, advertisers. First issue contributors receive FREE business card ads in Enhance Your Stash Marketplace! Lest you think we've forgotten those Fiber Fellows...send in recommendations for same.

Sandra Bennett & Leslie Shelor
www.fiberfemmes.com/
http://fiberfemmes.blogspot.com/"

The main question that we've been asked is "How do you subscribe?" You don't have to, when the issue is up on July 1, simply go to http://www.fiberfemmes.com, and read everything for free! We're hoping to pay expenses and pay writers through advertising. Our joint blog, http://fiberfemmes.blogspot.com, will feature updates about our business projects as well as provide a means of putting out notices about the magazine.

If this venture succeeds, and I think it will, it will be mostly because of Sandra's expertise at promotion. Marketing is a field I know very little about, and Sandra has navigated the tricky waters of this area for some time. I'm really looking forward to working with her; we've had a lot of fun already!

Some Days are like this....

Woolybuns silk/angora blend yarn

Some mornings just start out complicated and go downhill from then on. I wanted to sleep late(r); woke up at 6 and that was that. Dad was already up, on crow discouraging detail for the corn maze field, so I took the dogs out and put Lily on her rope in the yard. When I came back in I discovered there was no water in the house. Waded through the field in grass over my head to the spring house; couldn't get the pump started. Dad had to go, which means some maneuvering to get him down into the spring house. He managed to get the pump started, but as we came back out he saw my precious Lily running up the road. Fortunately she thought it was interesting that we were wandering around in the field so she came running to see what was going on. The rope had broken and she took a ramble!

This is the kind of morning when a soft skein of gorgeous yarn is a comfort, after you've finally dealt with everything you have to deal with and have your best spaniel back in her place under the desk. The skein of yarn above has been lying on my compter all week because I can't let it out of my sight. It's a wonderful blend of silk and angora from Woolybuns. Chris says I won a secret contest on her blog that I didn't even know I entered! The color is just amazing, too, but the softness and shimmer of angora and silk are not to be described!

Yesterday's craft tent was quiet, but the whole town was a bit slow due to a weather forecast of showers. A bit windy, but not as bad as the day before. An early afternoon shower made things chilly, but it was fun to sit under the tent and spin, while the rain pattered on the tent roof. Not so bad as when the thunderstorms came! The sun came out and warmed things up. Then, as more clouds gathered later, we packed up and I went down the mountain to shear friend Kym's rabbit, Hannah, and walk in the late evening.

For more about projects and bunny house news, visit Fiber Femmes blog. I'm replacing my Greenberry House Days and Dreams blog with this one, so y'all just don't even start about interventions. Sandra of Thistle Cove Farm and I are working this one together, in support of a new project, which is sort of explained on the blog.

New Blog in Town

Check out the new Jacksonville Center blog at http://jacksonvillecenteronline.info/. Promoted by the new Executive Director David St. Lawrence, with lots of updates on what's happening at the Center and great information about the artists, galleries and more.

Summer Mornings

Shadowed peonies in the kitchen window

Things start getting so busy this time of year, with bunnies in the nest boxes and coats that need to come off to keep everyone comfortable. I'm much more aware of the need for cleaning the bunny house with warmer weather and flies buzzing around. The craft tent gears up and the store that I do paperwork for all get busy, so I hurry around tackling each chore as it comes, enjoying the hectic times as much as I enjoy the quiet of winter.


Morning mist over the fields and pond

Sometimes, though, I just get stopped in my tracks. Rescuing a pair of beautiful peonies from a rain shower, stopping to pet a lively litter of beautifully soft bunnies, or pausing to enjoy the rising mist over the cool fields in early morning. Quiet moments on the living room sofa, watching the rain through the ivy as thunder rumbles and a nervous spaniel nestles against my side, and an intriguing book lies open on the coffee table, ready to entertain me as the rain falls. And feeding time in the bunny house, rain rattling on the roof and rabbits cheerful with the cool breezes, nibbling their carrots and perking ears toward the soft whisper of feed poured into their bowls.


Quarry Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway

Even on a long trip yesterday, there was time to enjoy the beauty of the mountains. We traveled to see my ailing great-aunt and uncle, along the heights on the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed the blazing bloom of flame azalea. Mountain laurel peeked out shyly from the deep green at the edges of the woods, and a few rhododendron bloomed proudly. We paused to look out over a deep gorge at an overlook, and drove easily back under cloudy skies. The storm broke just as we reached Meadows of Dan, and settled in for an evening of rain and coolness.

Suddenly June

Felted Angora Scarf and Iris

It seems impossible that I just turned over the calendar to June. Unsettling; seems like just a few days ago the year stretched long ahead of us. Now the time is just flowing by.

Flowering trees are fading now with the new heat of summer. A few locust are blooming still. In my yard my viburnum has already passed, along with some of the iris. The roses that have survived the winters here are blooming, and so are the rootstocks of the roses that were killed by the winter. They still make a show of sorts. The camera charged up so there's a picture above of the lovely scarf Chris felted with some of my dyed Angora. She also gave me the iris a couple of years ago; beautiful colors!


Climbing Rose

It has been a busy week after the festival, catching up on work that needed to be done. I spent Tuesday down in hot, hot Stuart at the hardware store, working on receivables. It was really nice to get back up the mountain to the cool breezes. Yesterday I spent the day putting together the Blue Ridge Gazette magazine for June. Long day but I think it turned out nicely. I'm uploading it right now, directory by directory. Seems that too much at once chokes out the transfer.

In the evening I was invited to visit with friends at their lovely new house just down the road, down a long winding driveway into a shady, cool woods. The oldest road in this area makes up part of their driveway, and it's interesting to think about the generations that traveled down the narrow lane by foot, horse and wagon. The house is beautiful, simple in design, light and open with a spacious feel. And they live surrounded by books and a few carefully and well chosen treasures to delight the eye. We settled onto the wide front porch after touring the house, looking out over a small lawn into the new green woods. Dinner on the porch and much discussion of common interests and ideas made for a refreshing and relaxing evening.

Today I need to get some bunny haircuts done, but first I have to go to the antique store and do some more paperwork. Tomorrow we're scheduled to visit relatives in Rustburg, then back to the weekend with the craft tent if it doesn't rain. Seems that it was a short week, somehow!