Farm Photos

I've been doing some fiber work this weekend, but as of yet there is nothing photo-ready.  So a few farm shots will have to suffice.  Here's a little garter snake with blue eyes that lives in the planter where the horseradish grows.  When I approached to take this photo there was another one with him; that one seems to be camera-shy.  The snakes can be found in this same spot each morning once the sun's rays arrive.  I think they're there to melt away the night's chill.

These sunflowers, blooming far earlier than I would have expected, are volunteers that have sprung up from last summer's seeds.  I love sunflowers; they're so goofy, and happy.  They attract lots of hungry birds and are charming to look at during the winter when snow piles up on the spent flowers.

I like this peachy-bronze one.  I also like the fact that with sunflower photos it's so easy to lose perspective.  This could be the alien sunflower that was peering through my window, ready to take over my studio.

The hens are enjoying their summer, sheltered by the travelling vacation home that my husband created for them.

And this was once a pop-up camper, converted to a utility trailer by someone.  We purchased it locally from a very nice man this morning.  Why?  In preparation for the arrival of...
I'm not telling right now.

Makes Me Smile

A little off subject, but take a quick look at today's post in Helen Suzanne's Hebart Journal.

A Little Thief...

A couple days ago I checked in on my chickens just after lunchtime. This is what I saw: an opossum had found his way into the house, taken the top off the kitty litter pan I use as an egg box, had himself a tasty egg dinner, and snuggled in among broken eggshells for a nice nap. When I first saw him he was sound asleep in a ball. I was unable to capture that because I had to run back into the house for my camera.



Ever so slowly, he shook off his somnolence. He knew he was in an awkward situation and stayed curled up with his pointed snout open, showing some rather sharp-looking teeth. Most of the chickens were outside in their fenced-in area, but there were one or two walking around inside, unconcerned. There were a few eggs laid in the bedding in another corner of the coop so I'm assuming this fellow had been in possession of the egg box for awhile.


I don't want him to be a regular visitor so using a t-post I tipped him out of the box. He scurried out through the small chicken door, cowered in one corner of the outdoor pen, and eventually found a way out to freedom. He may have been helping himself to eggs all along but got sloppy in his burglary by snoozing on the job. I'll have to keep an eye on the situation and make some changes in the fencing if I see him again.


Time to show one of my projects from last summer. This is a ruglet, a small prototype for a rug. I tend to embark on rather labor-intensive projects so I like to do small samples and then make a decision about whether I want to invest the time on a larger version, or whether my idea would even work.

This ruglet was woven on my big Swedish loom on a cotton warp using several hues of hand-dyed wool roving. I didn't want the warp to show so laying in enough roving weft to cover the warp yarn was quite fiddly. If I were weaving a rug I'd probably use a nice dyed wool warp and not worry about whether the weft covered it completely. I'm also not sure about how this would function as a rug. I wouldn't want to put it in a high traffic area; it might be quite nice though as a scatter rug next to a bed.