Neglectful Blogger

Be(ar) alert!

I know I haven't been around much lately, but we've been busy digging in the dirt, spinning and selling yarn and enjoying the gorgeous weather we've been having here in Meadows of Dan. And also enjoying the excitement of the recent bear sightings in town and nearby. The folks at Lovers Leap Birdhouses posted this recently. I was walking with TJ a couple of weeks ago, early in the morning, and saw a bear of a very similar size really close to the farm. Exciting indeed!


White Rhododendron

We had a little rain on Wednesday so I took the opportunity to get away from the garden and wander around the top of the mountain a little, after shearing two chocolate rabbits. The color, not the confection. I don't remember when the white rhododendron (which is a little pinkish) has every bloomed so well. The big shrubs are just covered with blossoms. I've missed the height of the season...I was down at Lovers' Leap as well and it looked like the picnic area must have been amazing not long ago with bloom.


View from Lovers Leap at what Grandpa called "The Rock Cut"

This has been a lovely week of enjoying good friends as well as summer weather and activities. I found RJ at home while I was rambling around and we had a lovely visit out on her screened porch. Maudie the magnificent cat stalked the birds that were serenading us as we talked, planning the possible addition of a bedroom to my house. Things are getting a little crowded in the cottage on the mountain lately!


Shiny

There are some wonderful new fibers at the shop, and I fell for this Miss Babs roving hard! Love the shimmer and the colors. It's spinning like a dream on my new favorite spindle, the one Mike Clark in Colorado made for me. I finished up the California Red roving I bought in Estes Park in record time and dived into this new stuff immediately. On the wheels I've carded and am spinning up the last of a Jacob fleece that I got quite awhile back from Perfect Spot Farm in North Carolina with the little upright wheel. The Haldane is busy with a variegated Corriedale fleece that I bought two years ago at SAFF from Rising Meadow Farm. Loving how the singles are turning out!


Yarns from Unplanned Peacock, Ferrum, Virginia

And I've been bragging about these lovely yarns from a delightful new vendor here at Greenberry House in our weekly (mostly) newsletter. Natasha is a wonderful dyer and her yarns are so soft and richly colored. These yarns need to be touched!

Stories

Alix's Prayer Shawl

Where does a story begin?  Take this shawl, for example.  Does the story of the shawl I'm making for my mother begin with her request that I make it?  Or does it start with the book that Debbie Macomber wrote, Back on Blossom Street, that my mother loved and seems to make her realize something new about knitting.  Or does it start with the designer, Myrna A. I.Stahman, who created a beautiful piece with clear instructions that even I could understand.  Or does it start with the yarn, chosen and purchased awhile back from Mosaic in Blacksburg, with the careful help of Gina and the other girls?

I've been thinking a lot about story lately.  Or, rather, perhaps I've always thought about story.  In the mountain communities where I've lived most of my life, story is important.  When you meet someone here you quickly figure out where they belong in the story of the community...who their parents and grandparents are or were and where they lived.  Who they are is much more important than what they do or what their economic bracket might be.  As soon as you hear that "Oh, Mama was born down in the Bent and her mama was a Bowman" you know exactly where that person fits into the scheme of the community.  I'm sure it's funny to hear us angling for information when someone unknown crosses our path.  

And with the information there often comes a story.  How Daddy and Mama moved to Draper back when the textile mills opened, or that funny story about great-grandpa and the possum that was passed down through the generations.  Along with the stories of the people come stories about the places.  Old houses, stores, names for creeks and mountains...all of them have a story of some sort attached to them.  I once went with a native of the Buffalo section on a ride through the area....he had a story to tell about every curve, tree and bank.  The odd thing about mountain people and story is that they aren't just stories that we experienced ourselves.  I know family stories that have been passed down since before the Civil War, thanks to family members that preserved and told them.  

 This prayer shawl project will be a story.  How my mother read the book and saw the pattern, how she asked me to knit it.  And part of the story will be my determination to make this shawl....despite the fact that this is the first time I've attempted anything so complex.  The story will include the softness and fineness of the yarn and the dainty elegance of the stitches.  Part of the story will be the warmth of the Springer Spaniel at my feet as I knit the pattern, and the curiousity of the Labrador as he watches my concentration.  The tidy black paw of a playful cat will be a chapter in which the knitting bag is overturned.  It won't be an exciting story but it will be a comfortable one...and comforting, as a prayer shawl should be.

What have we been doing in January?

Snuggling 'cause it's cold!

Bitter, bitter temperatures in these old mountains lately. Meadows of Dan has seen one below zero two days in a row...not exactly normal for us. It has been quite a chore keeping rabbits well-watered and eating...I have to leave again for another round of watering in just a few minutes! This takes up a lot of time I'd rather be blogging, I assure you!


Winter Sunset

Still, there are some good things about winter. The skies are wonderful. I love the brilliance of the stars on that last walk out with the dogs at night. There's time to spin; I've gotten a few skeins done for the coming year and have several more planned. Lots of wool around the house for spinning and some gorgeous dyed silk and angora. There's also time to crochet and knit and a few projects are slowly getting closer to finished object status.


So what, dog?

Barnabas is ruling the roost around here, although he still pays appropriate deference to Lily's wishes about the bed. He parades into the living room with tail in the air and the dogs are on "stay" until he settles down. TJ has been getting some intense training since December. He still has quite a good way to go but he's pretty reliable on sit and stay. OK, most of the time.....

Small Miracles Seen in Meadows of Dan

A hawk in a tree near the Blue Ridge Parkway

A calico cat walking on water on the farm pond (OK...the pond was frozen over...)

Falling stars so bright they burned through the clouds above the hills on Concord Road

A brief glimpse of the sun this morning before the fog rolled back in

A regal Great Blue Heron flying low across a narrow creek in Mountain View

A flock of wild geese calling as they swept across the gray sky above the farm as Lily and I walked the morning field

Early Morning

It's lovely to wake up early in a cozy warm house, feeling well after a few days' bout with a disgusting, unromantic head cold. I was up before dawn this morning, with no walk scheduled and a feeling of having lazy hours before me. The moon and a brilliant star hung low over Burnette's hill in the east in a dusky dark gray sky, with only a hint of morning on the horizon.

It was fourteen by the porch thermometer; which seemed so much warmer than the four degrees of the morning before. I slipped into the dark kitchen and made a pot of tea, then crept back into bed with the collected poems of Auden and Earl Grey. A warm and sleeping spaniel pressed against my knees and a faint trace of guilt over the cancelled walk didn't keep me from enjoying the quiet of the early morning as I watched one bright star fade into silvery dawn.


Early January Morning

Peace doesn't last long after daylight here, of course. Soon after sunrise an impatient Lab begins to whine to be let out, and feeding chores begin in earnest with the dogs, cats and rabbits. I still had to haul water for the rabbits instead of taking down their bottles. It was twenty degrees at 8 o'clock. Walking out with the dogs was pleasant. Frost crystals etched the grass and sparkled into flowers in the early light. TJ bounded across the fields in his usual head-long fashion, while Lily stepped dainty in the frost and sniffed for night intruders. George sniffed, too, but with a "I'll find it! I'll find it!" wildness in his attitude. The cats sat tucked up in the sun waiting patiently, blinking in the brightness.

By the time I finished the rabbit chores the sun had banished the frost except in the deepest shadows, and I noticed on the way up the hill that the catkins on the pussywillow were already swelling. Some things look so dead this time of year, but even in the deepest winter there is still a hint of color in the woods. Wild doves soared over the corn field and chickadees called from the twigs in the quince, and three happy dogs greeted me as I came in the door.

Such a week....

Ducks on the icy mill pond

We're having typical November weather here in the mountains; of course it's December so it seems a little strange. One day icy, the next sunny and warm, then fog moves in and wreaths the trees and grass with ice, while the pavement gets slick in the shady spots.


Tidying Up

I'm in full nesting mode. This happens to me every year in the fall, when I get discontent with the way the house looks and have to change everything. Lily doesn't appreciate the activity at all. She likes things to stay the same, drifting dog hair and all!


Re-decorated

Lily soon settles down, though, with the new situation. She's not supposed to be up on the new futon, of course. Sorry about the ghost drifting across the picture; either I haven't learned to work this camera properly or I've captured the family spook!


My Sitting/Reading/Spinning/Knitting/Working Room

A long time ago I had a lovely sitting room in here, and I've really missed it. When I started working at home I turned it into a computer room. Now that I have the shop I can have my sitting room back. It's a nice little space, with lots of sun pouring into the southern facing windows (usually) and a beautiful view across the farm. And of course no house is complete without a cat snuggling in a comfortable chair!

It's icy this morning and I expect a quiet day. A nice bunny just went home with his new family; I'm really pleased with the lovely young people that have him. Last night was stitching group, and we feasted and talked and knitted with some delightful fiber friends!

Wendell is home from the hospital; thanks for all your good thoughts. I haven't been able to get a report this morning but yesterday he seemed to be doing well!

Somber

A misty mountain morning

Somber is the way the sky looks right now, after a sudden shower that didn't last nearly long enough. It's pretty gloomy out there right now. Good thing I'm surrounded by gorgeous brightly colored yarn and fiber, or I'd be somber, too!

Sandra at Thistle Cove Farm emailed early in the week with sad news that her mother's sister is failing. I know the family would appreciate your prayers. And my stepdad Wendell is having some surgery today; he should be fine but a few good thoughts directed his way would do no harm.

Not Complaining...

Autumn at last!

And it's been raining almost since I took this picture. But that's OK. Really. I don't really mind that we're getting all the rain we should have had this summer right now.

Do you believe this one?

More knitting. Honest. This is supposed to look like a sock someday. We had a sock knitting workshop here last Friday. All those little pointy sticks were pretty scary, but thanks to Jane's patient teaching, which continued through a visit to Christopher's Pizza for dinner and music, I was able to get this far on one sock. I have to wait until she comes back to tell me what to do next! I've never gotten this far before, though.


Cards and Projects

Naturally I have to have a crochet project going. This is the beginning of Seraphina's shawl, crocheted in my hand spun "Drama Queen" silk and merino plied yarn. At first I thought the yarn might be too busy for the pattern, and I still have some reservations about my yarn choice. The pattern is lovely; a bit fussy at first but then it settles down into some nice easy repeats. The shawl is pretending to be a bat and threatening Sandra's lovely hand made note cards that she brought over the weekend to the shop. She also brought beautiful stitch markers and some awesome hand dyed yarns.


Seraphina's Shawl

And here's the shawl again, looking a bit more like a shawl and less like a lurking creature of the night. I took it with me to the knitting group meeting at the Floyd Country Store last night. What a lovely group of wonderful knitters! They were very kind, despite the fact that I can't knit and talk at the same time yet and brought my crocheting along. One member, Cheryl, demonstrated card weaving. I had done it many years ago, a little, but nothing as grand as what she was working on!

Just down the road...

Pretty, viney, flowery stuff; don't know what it is.


White Yarrow


Sweet Peas


Lovely Lilies in Mom's Garden

And here at home:


Bunny at breakfast!