Thursday, December 17, 2009

frost

This morning when I let the dog out there was frost on the grass. His pawsteps sounded crisp on the grass. Must be cold on his pads. In the east, dawn was yellow and the sun not above the horizon. A Carolina wren was making liquid music and a couple of crows cawed. Morning traffic made a low background hiss. A bark at the bear-like black dog who lives in the yard with the swimming pool. His owners were pulling in in their van. Do they work at night?

I would have taken a frost picture, but Kamath insists on going out on the porch with me and it is easier to hold him than catch him if I let him down.

Pink streaks were rising in the northwest and a siren sounding as I let Buddy in the screen door. Dogs bathroom breaks are a lot more interesting than ours.

Monday, December 7, 2009

an attractive pearl trimming

Look at the pretty card of buttons I scored in Hendersonville Friday.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Last Harvest

Friday, November 27, 2009

trolls

Yesterday we went for a walk in the woods and found this troll house.




















And this troll

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Maiden Spinster

I believe there were days when
you could not bear to spin.
trapped on your low stool.
It became a task too cruel
while outside sunlight burned,
banners snapped crisp,
and hoof beats fell like laughter.
But in winter when dark wrapped
close and wind racked rock
you were glad of colored fire
and crimped wool with lanolin
that could not work if cold.

Autumn Gold

I don't have many pictures of Autumn, aka Fuzzy. But
Here is a poem (not a great one)I wrote about him. I don't know when.
He vanished just after Katrina devastated New Orleans and I was still frantic for Jane who was trapped in her house with a phone line that friends and family could call in on, but she couldn't call out. Bad days, those were.

Scent Lessons

lavender boiling
ripped grocery bag yielding faint blue of hydrocarbon
fruit spilling orange, yellow, bruised, cheap
You, blonde, big Norwegian
once human
now lie on the flooring of old oak and poly (whatever that is)
watching with those greengold circles
me cleaning
your litter
stale male urine wafting, marking
your place
to you an alphabet of knowledge
the a b c's of cat

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Bird



Kamath has this toy - we call it bird - that he drags around Everywhere. He even knows it's name and will go get Bird if you tell him to. Some nights we have to sleep with it on the bed and often it is stretched out in the hall when we wake up. Last night he decided to sleep in this chair and drug Bird in with him so he could sleep on top of it.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Kamath

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

fairy circle


what popped up in our garden this fall
i wanted to go out at midnight and see if any wee people were dancing there, but never made it

Monday, November 16, 2009

Little Miss by the Day

This was one of my favorite books when I was a child. I have a copy, but its cover is ripped and the spine gone. Still, I would have a very difficut time parting with it.

Friday, November 6, 2009

alpaca yarn



I have wound off another skein of 2 ply alpaca Danza. Here it is on my antique clock winder.

Fall



It's finally beginning to look and feel like Fall around here. Perhaps the cooler weather today helps.

This is a photo I took on my trip to Kentucky in October. I stopped in the grand metropolis of Crab Orchard near what I guess is the city park, or the town square. There are always a few locals selling stuff at tables there, I wanted to walk Buddy, but one guy had his hound keeping an eye on things from the back of his truck and I didn't want to stir up trouble. Crab Orchard is interesting and I like stopping there before I have to get back on the interstate.

Anyway, I haven't written much about my Kentucky visit on either this blog, or my other one, Johnson Family Bible, but guess I should start putting down the information I gleaned from relatives, Neville mostly. Or it will be lost in the vagaries of my loopy handwriting. Next post.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

goldenrod roving, Etsy


This is some roving I dyed with goldenrod and posted for sale on Etsy. I'm not sure why the photo is coming out so small.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Quiet

Halloween was quiet. I felt a bit under the weather, we went out for breakfast at McD's, Brian worked on the kitchen, I made Cushaw soup and dessert, read an interesting book, we had a few, very few, trick-or-treaters. The weather was grim Saturday, but Sunday was lovely and eventually we went for a ride to TR by back ways to look at Autumn leaves at sunset and explore. It was lovely, we found a fabulous view of the mountains, and the moon was rising, but we didn't have the camera. Well.....

Another week of physical therapy, doctor's visits and the hope the B holds onto his job. Same old scary routine.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

a bigger photo

handspun alpaca

I have been comissioned to spin alpaca. It is lovely stuff and all my free hours are spent spinning now. I have five bags to spin.

Monday, August 24, 2009

a better Monday

Life has been complicated recently. Grace had a bad wreck. We are grateful she did not get badly hurt, although she is still struggling with pain and tight muscles. We took our vacation to Santa Fe anyway (we had the airline tickets) and it was her vacation week. Last week was consumed by post vacation and trying to find a car to replace the white one that was destroyed. We found one in Columbia and the whole process was complicated by driving back and forth twice to that city. But there was success despite the stress and...

Just to update, we took the little red car to Fisher's this morning to have it checked out. Yesterday we drove it up Caesar's head and had a picnic of tomato chicken sandwiches. It was surprisingly cool up there, refreshing really, although we shared both the road and the park with a gaggle, roar (?) of motorcycles.

The car handled beautifully, took the hill with no apparent strain, the lighter body apparently compensating for the 4 cylinders. It took the curves nicely, hugging into them. No problems with the brakes on the return trip, either. All good news for you, Grace.

We saw a hummingbird drinking out of jewel weed blossoms and Dad, of course, was targeted by a couple wasps. But the breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay and it was heartening to see how the vegetation has recovered in this rainy year, despite the drought of the previous 3.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bubba

Bubba is suffering from kidney and thyroid problems. We don't know how much longer we will have her. We will board her at the vet when we visit Grace next week and hope they can get her stabilized. We have her on pills (ever try to pill a cat?) and special food right now and she is slowly, let me emphasis, slowly, improving.

Bubba this past Christmas

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Bat box

Well, the bat box is up. John did an absolute meticulous job. Nice guy. Kudos to anyone willing to dig a post hole in summer!

I will post a picture later as I was too tired yesterday to get a shot and it is dark outside at the moment. B spritzed the little brown things to give them an incentive to go looking for accommodations outside our attic.

The garden is not as prolific as in past years, but has been producing a steady stream of cucumbers and tomatoes. The beans have started to come in. I planted a number of home grown seeds and have a bean plant that seems to be a cross between what southerners call field peas and black beans. OK with me. Seems just right.

There is a red and yellow theme to this time of summer. Blooming are fennel, evening primrose, those native cone type flowers whose name I do not know, and red swamp hibiscus. Also some fiery hot peppers are reddening. I don't think I planted any fiercely hot peppers, so there must have been a mix up in the seeds somewhere. Of course, they are prolifically thriving, while the tamer peppers are just in a medium mode. What shall I do with all those intensely hot peppers?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

wild rabbits - bad knees

OK. So hubby spotted Ears (a wild brown bunny) in the veggie garden this morning and went out with a broom to evict him. I followed more slowly (as I do most things these days). Turns out Ears had chewed himself (herself?) a neat hole through the plastic fence. Grrrrrr.

So what is so fabulous in our garden, you might ask, that Ears with a world of wild green around him, has to go to so much trouble? Beans! Seems that bean plants are the chocolate and caviar of rabbit gourmets. Go figure.

So here is the schedule me and my hobble knees have worked out. Get up. Let dog out. Make tea and drink it with synthroid. Walk the dog a short distance down the street, trying to increase a few steps each day. Return. Make another cup of tea. Make husband's lunch. Drink Tea 2 with Sam-e, folic acid and B complex. Kiss husband goodbye. Pick up rabbit food scraps and, followed by dog, head to the back yard for a weeding, veggie picking, rabbit feeding, cage cleaning session. Return inside and make another cup of tea and grind flax seeds. Make morning oatmeal including said flax seeds. Take tea, oatmeal mix, E, bee pollen, calcium with mag and Vit C to computer to have bkfst and read emails, explore blogs, etc.

All of this is not finished until 10:30 or so. By then it is to the kitchen (in wheeled computer chair to save my knees) to process morning picked veggies, clean up kitchen, etc. Usually it is noonish by the time all this is done. And that means more ground flax seeds and whatever.

My afternoons are my own with the exception of ingesting another Calcium mag, C, and two
Ever-flex. But I am limited by the amount of pain I am experiencing on any given day and the immediacy of tasks awaiting me. At 5 I start preparing dinner and at sixish hubby returns from a hard day of slogging it out in the salt mines. We eat, watch TV, retire to respective corners to read, sew or get on the computer. Then I try to take another walk down the street with dog going a few more steps than the morning. My goal is to be able to walk to the elementary school and back, but since I haven't made it to the first cross street yet, I have a ways to go.

Wish me luck. There does seem to be some improvement with this regimen, however slight.

Monday, June 29, 2009

One fox, two fox
Red fox, blue fox.
No, wait, wait, that's not right.

The socks in fox
fall mainly in the box.
No! No!, That's supposed to be
about rain and Spain. Sigh.

Twas brillig. Oh.....not right either.

When Knox in socks
drinks whisky on the rocks
Nope, nope, nope.

Wait, I got it!

When young foxes in sockes
learn to think outside boxes
they invent new visions of eggs
and ham. Sam.

Play it again.
I am
Carolyn

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Open Letter to Depak Chopra

"I matter, I belong, I am worthy, I am safe, I can express myself, I am loved."

I don't believe any of the above.
Isn't that sad?

Life has taught me that these things are only for the beautiful, the rich, the powerful, the well placed, the healthy.

The rest of us have to figure out how to do without them.

Friday, June 26, 2009

shadows

Finely drawn shadows surround your eyes,
Night scrapes our window.
Behind dark, a penciled star.
Everything is cold now.

Still Life with Cat

Our sweet and independant Bubba.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

How did I get so old and beat up?

Why do my adult once children live so far away?

I remember the day each was born and now they have lives that seem as distant from mine as the evening stars.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Fish Bait

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Antin, Lake Lure

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Sunshine on a Grey Day

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Rainy Day Lilly

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Cosmos


A dye plant!
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Magnolia

The perfectly cool beauty of a magnolia
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Yesterday's Garden Haul

Golden beets, garlic, shallots
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Monday, June 8, 2009

doc

well, I have to go see about my knees this morning and I am dreading it.
Not sure entirely why.
I've been so much better since I made the appointment, since I've been taking the supplements Vicky recommended, that it seems wrong to go, yet....
Why are we so in thrall to doctors?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

cat art

nuf said

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Goodies


Yesterday a package came from California. But the contents were from Australia. Thanks, G. The Tim Tams are open because I sent two of them with B for his lunch. He had a tough day yesterday and will likely have another today. I feel so helpless, unable to take any of the burden from him.

Oh, and that foot in the upper right. It's Bubba. She kept wanted to get in the shot. Just as I would focus, there would be a fuzzy calico in the lens. I'd remove her and realign the shot and then - well, you guessed it. I figured this was as good as it would get.
You can't see it well, but there is a nifty kangaroo pin in the foreground.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

May


Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen and the table and put a vintage linen on it. I thought I'd better take a photo, while it was uncluttered, because soon there will be papers, etc. stacking up on it again.

But for now, here it is - a tribute to May. I know, I know, May Day is in the past a bit. But, well, it isn't June yet.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Porch


Another rainy morning, so I thought I'd sit on the porch swing with my tea and camera. Want to join me?

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Elder

It is too rainy this morning to work in the garden outdoors. So I have contented myself with sorting bean seeds and deciding to hand wash the old linens Jane gave me. The beans are sorted and I pulled out the linens, but with my usual multi-tasking, I have since had bkfst, made coffee, up potted the succulents that were given me at Biltmore, put them on the front porch, rearranged the plants B put out there before they left, decided the porch needed sweeping, taken a call from M, and gone upstairs to take this pic of the elder blooms from studio/daughter's room window. Never a dull moment. Oh, yeah, fed the cats, chased Kamath back in from the front yard as he slid through the door when my hands were full of plants. (He plots his chances.) And it is not yet 9:30. Of course, I will be sleepy in the afternoon. But in this south, the mornings in summer are the best part of the day. Sleeping in the afternoons is not a bad idea, I think.

I still need to change the litter box and retreive my neighbor's Sunday paper as they are off this holiday weekend to see their daughter.

Just because it is too wet to work in the garden, doesn't mean that there is not work to be done.

It is a very quiet neighborhood this weekend, but a few cars do pass. It is so quiet, that when I am outside I can hear conversations (not words) inside neighboring houses. That is rare here. Usually there is the hum of either heat or air conditioning to block the sound.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

elderberry


The elderberry has tons of blooms this year. Only thing, they are up high. So high that I can't get a good photo.

Because of all the rain here it is very green and lush. I feel like I am inside a green womb. A cozy and strange feeling, but comforting nevertheless.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Berries

Soon the berries will be ripe. And I will fight the birds for every one. Oh, you say, put a net over them. But then they, esp robins and thrushes, sneak in from underneath. I level the playing field by picking the berries a bit under ripe and letting them ripen indoors. But it is a draw at best.

Yesterday evening, just after B got home, I looked out the kitchen window and saw our wild brown bunny IN the garden. Um, isn't that is why we put up the fence to keep him out? Didn't she read the memo?! So buddy and I went out and harassed him a bit. Buddy ran around trying to herd Bun from outside the fence. I was hoping I could find the "hole" by seeing where Bun exited. No such luck. She ran and flung herself at the fence on all sides before finally hitting one section hard enough it buckled. This after I opened the gate. Sigh. Buddy and I shall have to be more diligent.

It is a competitive world out there.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

today's haul


Mostly for an Thai simmer pot tonight - carrots, beet greens, dandelion leaves, leek. Also lemon balm and mint leaves for pesto.

things that sprout in the night

This morning when B came down he said, "Wow, look at the bean teepees that sprouted in the garden overnight." In the world of reality, I woke at dawn as he was tossing about with pain from the back muscle strain from moving the ficus outdoors yesterday evening and hauled them into place. But they do look as though they bloomed overnight, don't they?

One task for today is to sort through the bean seeds in the friggie and see which ones want to be planted this year.

This morning I also up potted a late crop of tomatoes that sprouted in the biodome bottom just as I was getting it ready to bring in, clean up and put away. They will do well to replace tomato plants that burn out or to fill in any spaces. If there are any spaces. I like a well planted garden.

I also wanted to post a pic of this necklace I designed for P before I mail it off to her. Poor thing, she is struggling with her health and struggling with staying optimistic. Anyway, I found this stone on the top of a mountain and wanted to give it to her. The rock is chalcopyrite, B says. For those who believe such, it helps to remove energy blockages and aids in the movement of chi. The pic is a bit blurry. I don't do close ups well. Besides the stone, there are glass beads, silver wire, and hand spun and dyed churro. P has tests on her heart today.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Strawberry Weekend

We had a quiet but productive weekend.
I cut up Beechwood strawberries and made one batch of jam -



And another.


Day

It is so lovely here today. It feels like the best of California, high mountain or English weather. Clear, clean and crisp. So rare for South Carolina in the middle of May.

I wish I could capture the light and the air in some way, to sniff and see on those heavy muggy July and August days.

In the age of portraits, no one conceived of photographs, much less digital ones. So, in this energy hogging, near bankrupt time, maybe someone will invent something that captures light and breeze and air quality. So we can feel back and remember - oh, that was the day after the front moved through when everything was so fresh, it made you glad to be alive.

Well, hopefully made you glad to be alive.

The Columbine's have almost stopped blooming -




The rose that tries to eat the sidewalk is in full swing -



Hiding behind the rain barrel, the pink foxglove raised from seed purchased a looong time ago at Callaway gardens (it reseeds) is lovely, if secretive -


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Mother's Day trip

We went to Little Switzerland area as a Mother's Day overnight treat. Stayed in a really funky, odd hotel built over an old moonshine still cave. Still retains a lot of its original character complete with the possibility of a wandering nighttime ghost. Superb view, we drank mocha beer (actually pretty good) ate spicy wings and watched a storm move away over the mountains with accompanying thunder, lightening, fog clouds drifting up, etc. Lots more interesting parts to the trip, but don't want to bore you. No pictures as the camera is being repaired.

We drove up to the top of Mt. Mitchel where I was able to hike/limp around a bit. While Brian went to the overlook on top, I explored the beginning of the Mountains to Sea Trail and found a heart rock! Well, it could be a butterfly. I am currently experimenting with hand spun and beads, wire to see if I can concoct you a necklace that looks as graceful and elegant, The geologist husband was intrigued, as it was a rather unusual rock. I won't spill the whole beans now, leave you guessing. Never know what rocks you will find in North Carolina. Rather exciting.

I think the knee is getting better slowly. Walking is becoming easier, and less awkward every week and there are fewer incidents of that acute burning pain I experienced. So, I will keep on the same - doing my best to loose weight, trying to gradually increase activity, etc.

Pulled a bunch of churro roving (wonder where that came from) out of various dyepots this morning. The avocados are starting to give nice colors in reds and the tulip petals are still yielding yellowy greens. Amazing amount of color in them. I shall have to start cultivating tulips.

Lots of gardening going on, rabbits hopping about the front and back gardens, exploring fence perimeters, etc. Ants starting to multiply. Everywhere! I've even got a problem on the front porch. Luckily they are sugar ants, not fire ones.

This is the loveliest spring here for many years, probably due to the extra rain.

Buddy says hello, and, oh, yeah, we went to a Powwow, but he Hated the drums, even though a cute Indian toddler exactly the same height shared potato chips with him.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

There is Nothing

There is nothing like a thunderstorm. After three years of too few, I no longer take them for granted and celebrate each one that I can.

When the rain is deluging down and hitting the kitchen windows so hard it sounds like hail, when the dog haunts my footsteps because of thunder, then the world condenses. Everything becomes milky green, a washed combination of water and growth. Everything narrows and widens into this one thing, something more than water and wind and receptive soil. Twisting and beating the storm forces barriers to drop and life becomes a roar and a wetness.

There is nothing else.

Then

it passes.

Drops sparkle like original diamonds. A robin shakes herself on the fence. Thunder individuates in the east. Two birds call in stereo, liquid gurgles and splashes from the eves and downspouts. An airplane can be heard, a squirrel investigates a wet bit of pine bark, traffic splashes up and down the street.

Life breathes and resumes.

Friday, May 1, 2009

wild bunny

This morning I held a baby wild brown bunny in my palm. He, yes I checked, was small hardly able to hop through our lawn. Somehow he had gotten out of the nest too early and gotten separated from his mom. Buddy alerted me to him by sitting beside him and guarding him. There was another that was dead.

I didn't know what to do. He was young enough to still need to nurse and it is always dicey taking a wild one and hand rearing it. And what would I do with him afterwards? I have five, count them, five angora bunnies already. One of whom is a female who needs to be breed.

And why did we bother to put the fence around the veggie garden last weekend? It was specifically to keep little brown bunnies from noshing on our peas and beans and lettuce and carrots.

I held him kicking in my palm and looked into his just opened eyes, saw his tiny transparent claws and beginnings of a beautiful coat and I put him into the weeds by the fence with a wish and a hope that whatever should happen would.

But even from that brief contact, I miss him and wish him well in a world where he is Prey to most everyone.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

This morning a squirrel carefully checked the perimeter of the new fence trying to find an egress point. No luck so far. Last year one climbed the sunflowers that come up every year from seed the goldfinches scatter and chewed sunflower heads. We had a very dry year last year - the third in a row - and I imagine some of his food sources weren't available.

Even though the sheltie chases birds and things, it is more in the nature of herding than catching and the wild things seem to know it.

In addition to the usual tomatoes, I am trying various squash again this year. Usually the borers get them before I get much, but I haven't grown them in a couple years, so perhaps the in ground population has died. I can always hope, right?

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Amazing New Spring Colors - Natural Dyes

Some great colors from Lichen, tulips (of all things), marigolds and hibiscus. Can you tell which is which?

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

a Wren for Easter


This card is by a local artist - Bruce L. Bunch www.brucelbunch.com
We bought this at Trillium Saturday when we went for the opening new work there. In case you don't recognize the bird, it is a Carolina wren. We have a pair nesting every year near the back porch. For several years, they made a nest in the old gas grill that came with the house. We'd leave the lid propped open a bit and they seemed to think it ideal. The pipe rusted however, and since then, they've been nesting under the eaves and in the bushes near the back porch. They are very companionable and little afraid.

The first year Buddy the sheltie came to live with us, I would leave the back screen door propped open for him with his water and food on the porch. Somehow a bunch of flies got trapped inside the screened area. Our pair of wrens, not ones to miss an opportunity, flew in to feast. Somehow the wind blew the door shut and the birds were trapped.

By the time I noticed and went out to release them, they were so full, they couldn't fly. I could actually see the bulge in their crops. They had to waddle to the door, giving me the beady eye over their shoulders, hop down the steps and sidle into the boxwoods.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Its tough to believe how hard life is.
I can't get a firm footing, everything slides.

Monday, January 19, 2009

dahlia dye

cochineal exhaust, mix, pomegranate dyed roving