Cherry Jubliee

 Since spring came so early this year (breaking all temperature records day after day), the famous cherry blossoms of DC peaked a full two weeks early.

 To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the planting of the trees and to celebrate two of the girlfriends' birthdays, five of us biked down to view the blossoms.

 They did not disappoint. I've never seen them fuller or more dazzling, with each and every flower in the cluster fluffed out to it's full glory.

It was a perfect place to meditate, soaking in the sun, gazing at the water of the Potomac River and basking in the pinkness of the trees.

Someone had shown their affection for the blooms and created a heart out of the pale petals
on the lawn.

 Some of the old timers are a century old, with burls and gnarly bark.

 They stand sentry over the new whipper snappers that are planted to take the place of the ones that have died.

 We parked our bikes at the MLK Memorial and walked from there. I hadn't seen this memorial yet and it is quite powerful. I thought that he looked a bit stern for as compassionate a man as he was.

 We meandered through the extensive FDR Memorial with its many waterfalls, rock outcroppings and copper plaques.

 The Tidal Basin is surrounded by the cherry trees, with many of the famous monuments gracefully showing themselves in the background. Washington, DC really is a beautiful city and I feel lucky to live close enough to visit.

 We parked at the Roosevelt Island lot, biking from there. We had all brought food and wine for a picnic. We walked across the foot bridge to the island, on a short path through the woods to the center where there's a huge promenade with stone benches, monuments, all very civilized for just being in the woods. I had never been to the island in all the years I've lived here so it was a treat to finally see it.

We filled our glasses with wine, toasted the birthday girls, nibbled on brie, hummus, sandwiches and talked and talked. Looks like Teddy is raising his hand to add something to our conversation.

With full tummies and a satisfied smile on our faces, in the setting sun of another beautiful spring day, we crossed the foot bridge once again, looking up river to Key Bridge near Georgetown.
Thank you, cherry blossoms, for bringing us down to the city and to girlfriends for making it all worthwhile.

Bonkers for Boas

My felting group met last week and I was fortunate to learn a different approach to the regular nuno felt scarves that I've been making. One of our members, Renate, has been experimenting with this technique and was gracious enough to share it with us, guiding us along the way.

I usually use shorter Merino wool fibers laying them down the center of the chiffon scarf. But in this process, long wool fibers are used. I had some Blue Faced Leicester wool and in the future I'll use the wool from my Cotswold sheep that has a staple length of about 5".

 This photos doesn't show it very well, but the silk chiffon scarf is down the center of the wool fibers. The wool is laid out perpendicular to the scarf, shooting out from the sides and ends with only about an inch of it to be felted into the scarf.

 The scarf is gently felted, leaving the long locks to barely felt and letting the definition
of the curls remain. This gives a flowy, ethereal effect.

 The scarf weighs only about 3 oz.

 In Grace's scarf, white wool was laid out on one side, black on the other, on a white scarf. I wish I had a photo of the finished scarf because it came out a lovely grey, with bits of white and black popping throughout.

Roz laid out a scarf similar to mine.

Paige and Roz modeling their lovely creations. Now let's go find the party!

Barn Raising

My brother-in-law, George, lives just a few houses down from me. A few weeks ago, his old barn got a much needed make over. Here is the before pic.

 His daughter and her friends graffitied the front a couple years back. The barn was a bit fally-downey and filled with nearly 30 years of stuff. George did a good job of cleaning it away, hauling load after load to the dump and leaving it all tidy for the Amish crew to come in an work their magic.

 This is our future boat house. Houston and I have 6 boats and George lets us house them in his garage. He built a spiffy new home for them in the back.

  A view from George's attic office.

 Last year George bought and had installed solar panels in his back field. We've had a sunny winter so his electricity has been near zero.

 A new cement floor is poured in what will become a real garage space

for his car.

 George saved the old doors. Artwork for the walls.

 Five of our boats, all tucked away in their new shelter.

 TaDa! What a difference! 

 He had 24 tons of millings dumped to spread out on the driveway. A great way to start the springtime.

 Oops! George caught me snooping around.

I'm Spinning as Fast as I Can!

 

My sheep are sheared once a year, in mid-April. I only have 7 sheep, but yowza, they produce a lot of wool! I have this deal with myself that I need to sell, spin or somehow use the nearly 50 pounds of their fine fleece they produce annually by the time the next shearing rolls around. It's too expensive to use as mulch or insulation so I'm busy dying, drying and spinning it.

See how wooly they are?

 This is Mocha's wool, all laid out after shearing last year. I pull off the dirty belly wool, the dingleberries (NOT a type of edible berry! Urban Dictionary definition: a delinquent partial turd which grasps anal shrubery causing brownish crust to accumulate in ones boxers). Well my sheep don't wear boxers, but you get the picture!

I bundle it all up and send it off to be washed and carded at a mill in Michigan and it comes back all spiffy clean and dingleberry free.

 

I have piles of it.

Yesterday I dyed pounds and pounds of it and hung it on the fence to dry.

It was a typical March day, windy, gusty, blowy. The wool blew all over so I had to run around picking up bits and pieces. The birds will be happy to have insulation for their nests.

Ready to spin.

 I'm so over the zen of treadling a spinning wheel. I use an electric wheel to git er done.

On nice days, I spin outdoors.

 I fill bobbin after bobbin, then make it into a skein, soak the skein in water (with a bit of hair conditioner), spin it out, hang it up to block it (putting weight on it to pull it down so it takes out some of the twist).

 And after a year, it's ready to sell!

It still amazes me that these critters produce something so warm to wear. I really do enjoy the process, but there's many steps from the wool on their backs to the finished sweater on my back. Now back to that spinning!