Holiday Weekend Visit

My sister and one of my nieces with her finance came for a visit over Memorial Day weekend. I was so happy to have them, and so sad to drop them off at the airport yesterday when the visit ended.

We did a lot of things, but for some reason, I didn't get many photos. One day we went for a hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, along the Ledges trail. I like that hike a lot. There are sandstone cliffs, rock passageways to hike through, and lots of moss and ferns. 

It was a warm day, but thankfully cool hiking down through the cracks and crevasses of damp stone.

The holiday weekend is over, now, and real life takes over once again. Hope you had a nice weekend.

Gardening, swamp-style

It's been extremely rainy here this spring. I guess 'wet' is how you could describe a large portion of the United States right now. We don't have the severe flooding of the Midwest here in northeast Ohio, but swamp would be an appropriate word to attach to our back yard at the moment. There was maybe a day and a half without rain, and a bit of sun thrown into the mix this past week. It was enough to dry out the garden plot to the point where I could get some things into the ground before the rain started again today.

I spent yesterday furiously planting everything that I could into my backyard vegetable and herb gardens. I'm so sore today!

I still have one garden to plant - my 10x10 plot in the community gardens, but as most of those plots are currently either underwater or pure, soupy mud, they haven't opened them up for planting yet. Here's hoping they dry out before it's too late to bother with anything but radishes (they're fairly quick between sowing and harvest). I don't like radishes. Or maybe we could plant rice? I have a packet of marshmallow seeds. They'd probably do well out there in all of that marshy muck.

It's been an interesting spring. I wonder what the summer will bring?

All of the sparkly vampires should move here.

Forget Forks. We've had clouds and rain for 37 out of the past 40 days. No one would be able to see them sparkle.

Getting two books ready for paperback release!

I've been hard at work getting My Twelfth Christmas and The Witch of Starmont ready for paperback release. I won't have my hands on the proofs until next week.

I'm excited about them becoming available in paperback for two reasons. One is that I'll be able to offer paperbacks of The Witch of Starmont for sale along with my herbal salves and teas and tinctures when I participate in an arts and crafts fair in early June. The Witch of Starmont is about a woman who runs her own herbal remedy and skin care business, but who also harbors a secret. There's a lot in the book about collecting and growing beneficial plants, so it will be a nice addition to everything I'm offering for sale at the craft fair. Those interested in my wares may also be interested in the book.

The other reason is because My Twelfth Christmas is my best seller and it might be the type of book that people want to have a hard copy of. It's small and will be very inexpensive, likely under $4.00. So when the Christmas season rolls around (although it sells pretty steadily all year round), the paperback version will be there, too, for those who may want it in that format.

You can read the first chapter of My Twelfth Christmas here, and you can read the first chapter of The Witch of Starmont here.

Slowing it down, three-toed sloth style

If you ever feel that life is too hectic, just think about this three-toed sloth, and maybe it'll slow you down a bit. He (or she?) takes it nice and easy moving from one tree to the next. My husband shot the clip while in the jungles of Costa Rica last week:

Dyeing wool with dandelions

On Mother's Day, I made my daughter come with me into the park next door to fill a plastic grocery sack with dandelion flowers. My son was happy that he had to work and couldn't join in the fun : )

I used the dandelions to dye a little over 4oz. of wool roving that I had combed up from my Christmas Fleece.

It came out a very nice yellow. I spun half of it into a skein of about 380 yards of two-ply - pictured above.

I only wish I had spun it a little better. It wasn't my best. My intentions were to add it to my slowly-growing inventory of handspuns that I'm going to offer for sale at the two vendor booths I have lined up this summer - one at a craft fair and one at a 'fiber fling' weekend. The quality of the spinning wasn't that great for this particular skein, though, so I might just keep this one for my personal stash.

I'm currently working on the other half of that roving. The first bobbin of what will eventually become a two-ply, is on my wheel right now:

I'm paying more attention as I spin this one. The problem with the last one, I think, was that I had just come off of spinning a four-ply of a different kind of wool and it took a while to adjust back to this type of wool. Hopefully I'll get a sellable skein out of it. We'll see...

Spider Silk

photo from this site

The picture at right is a traditional royal Madagascar weaving done in spider silk. That's right. Spider silk. The silk was milked by hand from golden orb spiders found in the wild in Madagascar. More information about the cloth and the process that went into its creation can be found here.

This is one of the most beautiful textiles I've ever seen, and I'm doubly interested in it because in my book, Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale, there is an area in the Lands of Shey which produces textiles made from spider silk. In fact, Rose, from time to time in the story, wears armor made from spider silk.

Spider silk ounce, for ounce, is stronger than steel, but my use of it as armor in the story is poetic license. It turns out that spider silk is extremely elastic, so although it might be able to stop a sword or a bullet, it would stretch so much in the process that the sword or the bullet would actually go right through you anyway. For a tad more information about spider silk, visit this post in my blog.

And here is a little clip featuring this amazing, golden cloth woven from the silk of spiders:

Woo hoo!

photo from this site

Sixteen ounces of Gotland sheep's wool just arrived in the mail. This is the same kind of wool that the elvish cloaks in The Lord of the Rings movies were made out of. They're New Zealand sheep. I can't wait to spin it up! I only wish I had a loom so that I could weave some cloth. I'll have to content myself with knitting things out of it. And, of course, I'll put some of the skeins up for sale at my vendor booths when I participate in craft fairs and fiber shows this summer. Maybe I'll make enough money to seriously put toward a loom. I can dream, can't I?

photo from this site

My asparagus is coming up!

Last year I planted a couple of asparagus plants. They grew nicely into tall, feathery fronds. I worried that they would overwinter well. I've been checking on them every so often as spring has begun to come alive around us, but I hadn't seen any sign of life until yesterday. Two spears are starting to poke through the dirt! I'm so happy. These are my first asparaguses ever. I found some wild asparagus last summer, so now I guess it's time to go and see if I can gather some - I'm excited. Asparagus takes time to establish itself and my own plants won't really be ready to harvest from for at least another year, so I'm glad I found a little patch of the wild stuff to tide us over.

Safe planting time here is still a couple of weeks away. My sprouts are doing very well. I've got loads of heirloom tomatoes just waiting to go into the ground - I've got so many of the little plants that I'll have to give some away to friends. I don't think they'll mind : )

I have a plot in the community gardens again this year, my medicinal herb plot under the kitchen window, and the vegetable plot in the back of the yard. I've got a few other small places where I've tucked things like lavender, some culinary herbs, and wintergreen. And I have several pots of various sizes with herbs, flowers, and some large ones with blueberry plants. And my son has roses in the front yard. He added one more to the three we planted last year.

If it ever stops raining we can get out and start getting the beds ready.

Happy Wedding Day!

Congrats to the new royal pair! Isn't it fun to get caught up in all the frippery?

The local grocery store has invited everyone to come and have wedding cake and coffee from noon to one o'clock today. And we're in Ohio, an ocean away from it all : ) It's nice to have reasons to smile and eat cake!

Mmwaa! Sealed with a royal kiss.

My new book trailer!

I'm so excited about the trailer for Rose of Par Kluhnd! Here it is:



What do you think?

I was looking through some old photos hoping to find enough to use in a book trailer I'm trying to make, when I came across this photo:

It was taken by my daughter a couple of years ago when on a trip to England. I just thought it was beautiful and wanted to share. You can click on the photo to see it even larger, and then click on the back arrow to return to the blog.

I'm building up my inventory

I've been busy with spinning, spinning, and more spinning, building up my inventory of handspun yarns so that I have enough for the two vendor booths I've signed up for this summer at craft and fiber fairs. 

I broke down and bought some handpainted roving from several shops on Etsy to speed the process along. There is no way that I could wash, comb, dye, and spin all that I needed from my own raw fleeces. All of that takes time. I'll still be using my own stuff, but won't be relying on it exclusively for my yarns.

Ooh there are lots of beautiful handpainted rovings for sale on Etsy. It's hard to narrow my choices down to just a few : )  They spin up so beautifully, too.

The Alpacalypse

Is that when alpacas take over?

A few months ago we received a postcard in the mail from some sort of church warning us that the end of the world would happen on March 21st.

Well, March 21st has come and gone and, as far as I know, we're still here. Right??

Maybe when things kept looking pretty okay on March 21st, the people of that church should have done this:

Wood duck weekend

A couple of weekends ago, my husband and I went in search of bald eagles. This weekend we went out in search of wood ducks. We found some at a park along the Chagrin River here in northeast Ohio. Click on any of the photos to see them enlarged, and then hit the back arrow to return to the blog.

Here's a female. The males generally get all of the attention, but I think the females are pretty, too:

And this is why the males get all the glory:

Which one stands out when they're side-by-side?:

I know, I know, the pretty boys:

We also found a hawk who was nice enough to let us snap a few photos. My husband took the picture below:

I wonder what kind of weekends we'll have in the future...

The Gray Wolf Throne...

comes out on my birthday! What a great birthday present! I still have to wait until the end of August, but I can do that.

This is a terrific series, beginning with The Demon King, continuing with The Exiled Queen, and now, ending (at least I think this is a trilogy) with The Gray Wolf Throne.

Cinda Williams Chima is the author - I have signed copies of all of her books so far : ) She lives in the area and she's given talks at our library and had book signings at our local independent bookstore.

Oh what a happy day August 30th will be!

Early spring in the wood

Color is not apparent yet in the woods here in northeast Ohio. The season is still early here and frost-free nights are still several weeks away. Early spring hasn't shed its winter colors yet. But soon...

Click on any of the pictures to see them larger, and then hit the back arrow to return to the blog.

Somehow these seeds escaped the blizzardy winds of winter and are still holding on together:

photo by Steve Ash

Here is a peek at early spring growth, still shy and hidden away:

photo by Steve Ash

Little animals gnaw away at old bones and antlers until nothing is left:

photo by Steve Ash

Frilly skirts for fallen logs:

photo by Steve Ash

All of these photos were taken by my husband.

Lack of sleep causes rambling posts

Didn't sleep well last night due to accidentally drinking regular coffee instead of decaf too late in the evening. As I lay in bed trying to sleep, all sorts of strange thoughts coursed through my brain. And music.

I've been listening to a lot of Runa and Kate Rusby lately. All night, amid half-coherent wonderings about lots of things that seemed so important at the wee hours, in the background, my mind's music played such songs as I Am Stretched on Your Grave, a hauntingly beautiful and melancholy tune.

I first heard that song a couple of weeks ago in the venue of a cozy National Park lodge, sung by the Celtic band, Runa. Wow. Utterly beautiful.

Anyhoo, you can tell that I'm still tired, can't you? What I really came to type about before finally actually going to sleep, is that I spent the day finishing up making a cat bed. What I wanted to say about it is that it's made out of what I refer to as 'crap yarn' - the yarn I've spun out of the trash fiber that's left behind in my wool combs after combing wool fiber into spinable roving for my spinning wheel.

This stuff was really bad, anyone would be right in throwing it away, but I decided to keep it. I carded it, spun it, and dyed it with leftover dyes from legitimate projects. I knitted up what I wanted to be a cat bed, which I was going to felt.

I finished the knitting today and felted it in my washing machine. What came out was actually really pretty. It looks like an art piece. I'm flabbergasted. I'm way too tired to go through the hassle of taking pictures and posting them tonight, but soon. I'll try to take some nice pics and share.

Of course if I try to make something like it again, on purpose, it won't turn out as pretty - that's the way it always works, isn't it?

The Ogham Alphabet

 

From the Triskelle Irish History Website.

 This is the Ogham Alphabet, a form of ancient Celtic writing often found carved on standing stones.

Each letter is also associated with a type of tree. Different types of trees held their own special meanings - mystical, magical, or sacred - for the long-ago users of Ogham.

I borrowed the Ogham alphabet and use it here and there in my book, Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale. There are a lot of links to ancient Irish myth and legend in this book, for those who care to look for it. You don't have to be at all acquainted with Irish lore in order to enjoy the book, but it's there for those who want to delve a little deeper.

Congrats to the giveaway winners! And, we have skipped the other seasons and gone straight back to winter.

My book giveaway is now over and five winners have been sent a copy of Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale. Congratulations to:

Bitsy Anderson
Kendra Swallow
Fiona Clark
Dana Palmer
Gabbie Jonhson

Out of 1389 people entered, they were the winners! One is from Great Britain, one is from Canada, and three are from the good ol' United States. Your books are on the way! And a big thank you to all of those who entered to win a copy of Rose of Par Kluhnd. Wish I could afford to send everyone a copy : )

In other news, we seem to have skipped over spring, summer, and fall, and gone directly back to winter. At least our doggy likes the snow : )