A very happy winter solstice, and a walk with Juno to the top of the mountain on this very clear bright morning, with wintery sentiment from the red toyon berries. All the new growth is overtaking the dead trees from the wildfire (now six years since), the old trees still standing appear silver and artfully dignified in their rightful place, here, there, everywhere, in the crisp winter light.
((click 1st image to go to slide show))
Never before have I used one, but I found a nice palette generator to help me begin my first weaving project, and I must say, these tools are awesome! I have needed to go to the source of my inspiration, … Continue reading
The final plied woolen spun skein, washed & dried, and my nep cloud experiment is finished !
The neps were so subtle and very difficult to get to show on the camera, so I had to intensify the color saturation of the photo just so that you could see them, the blue and green neps. The whole skein looks rather seafoam color when hanging out on the line.
This time of year the Black Oak leaves are budding out a soft fuzzy beautiful crimson velvet!
The landscape by the way, is healing slowly from the wildfire. We’ve had to cut down so many dead & dying old Black Oaks around the house, and since I was outside photographing yarn drying on the clothes line, I want to show you how the young shoots are vigorously growing from their parent trees, from root systems perhaps a hundred years old. I have been shaping the new growth, and now the tallest of these young oak trees is almost 10 feet tall. I’m so proud of these young darlings!
I was thinking of trying another variation of the technique I posted in my first Nep Clouds Recipe on my new hand-carders, but I don’t think I can really improve it, for it seems to do best I think , to achieve the affect of the traditional woollen spun rustic tweed, so drawing off the rolags from the blending board work very nicely ( I have made some more notes in the original Nep Clouds Recipe for those who don’t own hand-carders ). Alternatively one could spin from the batt, worsted technique. Anyway, this method suits me just fine, and I will look forward to blending up some more neppy colorways just as I did this skein, and that about wraps up this nep clouds experiment!
See all posts Nep Clouds.
See all posts Tweed Chronicles.
I went for a walk up the ridge in the foggy drizzle, and turned around only a short way up, where the bad burn begins. But at that turning point something I saw took my breath away! It was this bright yellow green carpet emerging from the wet black soot that has covered the dormant forest floor for seventeen months now. Beads of water hang on the tips of the moss fronds, precious and glistening, growing up from some magical deep rooted system, and truly a miracle of time and season! Just as this new moss is sprouting ever so blithely and succulent from a colorless landscape, so I want to be. I am so happy today to release incessant worries about what is not right, for thinking it only constantly reaffirms and makes it persist in being. I am prepared for weightlessness, living for now, happy, all focus on productivity of the present, and hyper sensitivity of natures regrowth, because the greatest inspiration and design element from nature is right before me.
It snowed last night! Here at 2000 ft elevation, it is sticking, and temperature is cold enough to keep it a while. Oh, but there seems to be something nestled into the snow…
It is two cakes of finished UnSpun!
of which I mentioned in the last post .
A gorgeous blackish tealish blue, 1100 yards & 100 grams, this super fine lace weight is ready to make a journey to Hamburg Germany! You can see all four of this series in Unspun For Friends
And all is well in our snowy charcoal forest.
And Emma in her car, snuggled under a blanket with her squirrel …
She hasn’t a care in the world about the snowy cold!
Walking along beneath a big umbrella in the rain that has been dumping inches all week, and I couldn’t be happier about that. I’ve got a lot of thoughts I want to write about in the coming weeks, but want to pace myself through them so I’m not spent way before my new design is ready. As I mentioned nearly every recent post, I’m entertaining myself connecting elements into a sort of sprawling theme, of veils & variations, and whatever else jumps in my way to shape it as it goes, and let me tell you, I’ve got a great heap of knitting to do before I’m finished with it, but I want to take the time it demands and give it my best.
While I knit I have been contemplating with great nostalgia to be back in my house again, moving between the rooms, and the sun beams through the windows. But the situation requires I wait many months yet, so I’m trying very hard to concentrate on the present moment. Today I’ve had a beautiful walk through the woods, retracing my old trails again and seeing the forest heal a little more, and life is good.
Photo from the archives: Fields of Gold
I was listening to an eerily beautiful song “Redtail Hawk” the other day, and remembering fondly my walks and wildlife before the wildfire. There was a pair of redtail hawks I use to see, often times I would go up the ridge, and sometimes one or both of them would fly right over me, as if to say ” hello! ” as they decended down into the grassy rocky meadow in the photo. It was in fact, in those tall fir trees at the left in the photo, where they would almost always land. Perhaps in those trees was their nest, or at least a perching place to survey, and I hate to say but those particular trees did not survive the wildfire.
I should mention that the redtail hawk is as much a part of the golden fields of California as the grass itself, because of their main diet, the bounty of field rodents which live in and among the swaying grasses. I haven’t seen this pair of hawks nor heard their wavering lonesome screech since moving back up on the mountain into our Tiny House in May, but I am hopeful they will return, maybe they already have. If you are interested in these things, you can listen to the Redtail Hawk’s cry, but I’ll close by sharing with you the song, I hope you enjoy. Oh, and very soon all this golden grassy genius of the place will come together in a new design I can’t wait to show you, so stay tuned!
Redtail Hawk – Kate Wolf
The redtail hawk writes songs across the sky
There’s music in the waters flowing by
And you can hear a song each time the wind sighs
In the golden rolling hills of California
It’s been so long love since you said goodbye
My cabin’s been as lonesome as a cry
There’s comfort in the clouds drifting by
In the golden rolling hills of California
A neighbor came today to lend a hand
As I fixed the road as best as I can
It’s just something that needs another’s hand
In the golden rolling hills of California
In the golden rolling hills of California
The redtail hawk writes songs across the sky
There’s music in the waters flowing by
And you can hear a song each time the wind sighs
In the golden rolling hills of California
In the golden rolling hills of California
See posts about Golden Fields pattern HERE.
The first rafters.
About a week ago I posted first of the posts & beams in Timberframe! I think the most photogenic and magical part of building a timberframe house is when the posts & beams go together, against a hopeful blue sky.
Most days have had thick smoke in the air from yet another dreadful wildfire northeast of Napa County, but yesterday the breeze shifted and some blue sky was showing, and the tops of many of the trees are somewhat healthy looking in spite of their charred trunks.
The timberframe should be finished this week and I am already totally and completely in love with our new house.
Watch this space for old familiar interior shots, as next the house will become enclosed, racing the clock as rain is expected next weekend.
♥ ♥ ♥
See all posts about our building our timberframe house HERE.
Now that the posts & beams of the house are going up, I am in a creative mood about what will go inside the rooms. A couple of days ago I found this old oak double bed frame, and I’m really enjoying fixing it up. It is very solid, relatively inexpensive and worth every bit of work I put into it.
It will go in the Loft Room, replacing an old tarnished brass bed I had forever, but I have convinced myself that I love this much better than the old one, for I love the feel of wood, so sensual and natural.
I spent several hours scrubbing every surface with #0000 (finest) steel wool and a beeswax citrus cleaner, scrubbing off a layer of dirt & old lacquer, resulting in a satin finish with golden oak highlights! Although it could use another scrubbing, I am reticent for I don’t want to lose the depth of patina in the grain & crevasses.
A few cracks in the posts and flakes lifted from the veneer of the side boards, but I am absolutely totally in love with it. I will be looking for old quilts now to dress it with, perhaps making another someday, but for now I am envisioning blocking out lace stoles the whole length of it!
Best thing I’ve seen all year, our Emma laying on her floor , and back home.
Now for a little catch up on the house construction!
Do you recognize my signature view of the mountains?
Foundation poured, and floor joists going up , photos just taken less than an hour ago, during the workers’ lunch break.
Then a few hours later….
Watch this space, things are really happening now. Next week construction starting on the road (we’re forced to put in a road to rebuild!) and also starting next week will be the posts & beams of the timberframe going up!
♥ ♥ ♥
Emma is thirteen & a half today!
Yesterday I took Emma out for a little walk, although not very far. I’ve been rather quiet about things going on with Emma, but now she is on the mend, I will mention that she seems to be slowly recovering from a serious illness which came on in the first days of September rendering her completely unable to move on her own, and with very little appetite. I thought I lost her and was enormously miserable for weeks as I nursed her , but now she’s able to walk a little on her own, getting stronger every day, and eating a lot!
My constant companion Emma ~~ she’s such a soldier!
I was out walking on the ridge this morning, and missing my favorite old majestic oaks killed in the wildfire, but now finding new ones to admire. I think this one is a new favorite, but I can’t tell from the photo whether it is a blue oak or black oak, both which thrive side-by-side in this tiny micro-landscape of the mountain. Pushing myself further & faster now, focusing on speed up the ridge in the morning, and relaxing knit-walking in the afternoon. I hope to share more of the changing landscape as I’ve decided to take my phone with me every time I go out now, which is a completely new thing. Oh, and I have a knitting & fitness “game” I’ll be sharing soon!
Out walking I see the Mayacamas mountains rolling southerly down into their foothills.
I am enjoying Autumn now that the leaves are beginning to cover
the blackened forest floor from last year
This sparse ground cover is only the beginning of the leaf fall,
they will continue to flutter down until winter is here.
I woke today after having seemingly dreamed almost consciously about a new fresh start in life walking a little more every day, away from stress of the wildfire, restoring a positive feeling about myself and my life, so that when the house is finally ready for us to move into it, I will be rebuilt too. Its been a rough year for me, hands down, and I have existed in a self spun cocoon trying to not think about the stressful things, but I really do believe committing to walking increased distances will cure all that is wrong in my world. Just one walk at a time.
Today is the one-year anniversary of the historic Northern California Firestorm which burned through two counties and thousands of homes, including our own. Such an anniversary of loss seems to be a time to test resilience, rising above hardship, and moving beyond the grief toward healing happier times. As I walk on the mountain, I feel the loss, and regrowth in such an overwhelming way.
There are so many dead trees, but surprisingly, there are many that are alive. A favorite Blue Oak, alas it has died.
Vineyards thriving.
A favorite rocky meadow.
This Autumn comes as a relief, now I can focus on what is ahead, and what is new, fresh, and positive. Life is short, its over in a blink, and we have every ability to control our attitude. I’ve learned one very important thing through the experience of this last year, and that is the only thing we can truly own is our attitude, and the accomplishments of our mind. The rest is just material & prone to ashes.
♣ ♣ ♣
Introducing the Hillwalker sweater duo…
(and photographed with my walking stick!)
I have now finished both the pullover and the cardigan,
and that means Hillwalker is now two patterns for one download !
Its the last days of summer, finally. I thought I’d never get through them.
The Autumn Equinox is near, and I thought I’d enjoy a nice afternoon walk up the ridge and take some photos of the landscape in the waning summer.
Wild peas continuing to bloom unusually late…
As I got higher up the ridge where the bad burn is,
I notice so many sprouted trees, as this baby knob cone pine, about 8 inches tall …
Sprouted right beneath the scorched parent tree, full of pine cones….
In a blink it will be the Autumnal Equinox , only four days! Knowing I am near to being in a far better place mentally with the anniversary of the wildfire so soon to pass, I am so very eager to be grateful again and excited about life’s good things.
