My Corner Of The World - March 2011

I am a little tardy setting up for this month.

But here we go!

Have a joyful day!
Franco Rios
Sacramento, Calif USA

as March is also called Spring Month, I decidet to take 2 photos every monday. Started a day early, though...

at seven in the morning (sunrise at 6:53), looking SSE:

Same place, 7 pm (sunset 17:35)

I'm continuing to work on stash reduction.  Weaving off painted shawl warps - one warp, one shawl.  Loom is freshly set up ready to weave but it's now lunch time.  12 more warps to an empty box.  :) 

And my back yard looks much the same as Kerstin's although we may possibly have more snowpack as it snowed steadily for the last 3 days. 

Spring month?  Nah - still winter!

Cheers,

Laura

The second picture is a little dark!

No streetlights in "the boondocks" :-)

My main project this month is to finish packing and move to a new house.  But before i do that I need to finish weaving some Alpaca shawls.  Gotta hurry, we close on the 10th!

Here's a peek at some green, from the Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon. (Thanks to Bonnie Inouye for recommending this location!) It was so pretty how the waterfall broke through the thin veil of ice. Below stream, it was still fairly solid yet, and the little brown leaves that were frozen in the ice appeared to be little fish suspended in glass!

Spring IS coming...

Everything is freeze dried here in the Texas Hill Country (note the grass color) but the temperatures are moving up!  Even though we had 34 degrees here this morning the temps are pushing up to mid 70's and low 80's so things should get green soon.  Here's Harley, the mighty bird hunter, searching for birds in the grasses and cactus.  He's on a walking lease because he thinks he can beat up on skunks, foxes and racoons.  I have no desire to break up any of those fights so I walk the cat and read weavo while we walk.

3/4/11 7:20am 12th St near L St, Downtown Sacramento
I was on my way to work today when I saw a bird on the ground with another bird. I pulled out my cellphone and took a picture with the camera.

As I got closer I could see it was a hawk and I snapped another picture. When I took the next picture the hawk flew away in a tree with it's prize. I think it was a pigeon that it had caught.

I thought it was a Prairie Falcon since those are known to be working in the nearby Capitol Park, Sacramento, Calif. But its a Cooper's Hawk. The white spots in lower left of the picture are feathers from the pigeon.

EDITED: It's not a Falcon, birdgeeks have told me its a Cooper's Hawk, which is still a great thing to see downtown. I have changed this entry to read Hawk.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios

In my corner of the world this season is called the spring winter. My photo will explain why. As I took the picture today the snow was pouring down, but just now the sun is peeping through the skies.

This soft shell turtle was crossing the road near our house after laying some eggs in a neighbor's yard.  She left one canal and was headed for another.  The weather here has been glorious for about 6 weeks or so.

When Nature calls, she's gotta go!

Go turtle!

Have a joyful day!

Inky's corner of the world happens to be a place known for horse racing...

Just added my latest project to my project folder - plain weave shawls.  Four more painted warps to go and they will be woven - next up?  Tackle the mountain of finishing!!!  :)

cheers,

Laura

One week later than http://weavolution.com/forum/chat/my-cor..., this is what we have arrived at:

I'll spare you the evening picture, it is nearly as black as last week.

Sunrise 06.40; sunset 17.46.

Having moved from left New Mexico last November, this is our first March on our little farm outside Louisville.  I've been overwhelmed by the emerging green, the peeping frogs, and the song-filled mornings the birds create.  We've tilled the garden for the first time, I've transplanted strawberries, and I've hauled more rocks than I want to recall.

I'm working on my first log cabin pattern on my rigid heddle loom and have a warp working its way on to the Cranbrook.  

Hiding in the blue gravel are little steelhead trout that hatched from eggs. They are in an aquarium in a 5th grade classroom in Sacramento Calif. The trout will be raised in the tank for a few weeks then released into the river to hopefully swim out to the Pacific Ocean where they will grow to adulthood then return to the river to spawn.

These little fish are part of the science lessons my lovely wife Tracy teaches to her class.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios

...and Mineral Springs.

I tired some of the water. You actually get over the sulfur smell quickly upon approach, and the water was cold and somewhat carbonated, but IMHO, the taste was ick!, ick!, ick! After I got over that initial reaction, the aftertaste was a bit (surprise!) beer-like. But you won't see me bottling this water and bringing it home for its "restorative and healthy" benefits. I had to go eat a chocolate chip cookie to get the taste off my tongue!

Anyone want to venture a guess where Inky was?

My guess is Saratoga Springs....New York!
http://www.saratoga.org/

White Sulphur Springs, MD

Deb, did you add NY after this post or did I miss NY? I think you are right.

I don't think Saratoga. FL has snow on the ground (g)

Michael

I'm heading out this weekend to visit Anchorage & Palmer Alaska.  Any recommendations on must visits?  Fiber related or otherwise!

Inky looks uncomfortable

Michael, I clarified it after you posted. I think of SS, NY automatically.

Deb, think warm. I did all the interior woodwork, (front deck, offices, 3  suites w/kitchens etc.) at the Courtyard by Marriott at the airport in Saratoga, FL.

Michael

You guys are GOOD!

Saratoga Springs, NY it is! And yes, Inky WAS uncomfortable. The day was cold and rainy, and got progressively colder and wetter. 

Gosh, I am awaiting posts on things to see 'n do in Alaska! (Loomladi, do you have room in your suitcase for Inky? ; - )

I am on my last dish towel and ready to move on to placemats.... I am having lots of fun weaving, since I took my web class with Mary Rios.  I have been working lots so I haven't gotten to weave as much as I'd like.  Tomorrow is a free day for me so here's hoping I can finish up the towels and get ready to re warp my loom..... :)

Seen here is a Blue Heron. It flew to the tree after having lunch at Cheryl's gold fish pond. Cheryl grew out the fish from little 1 inch fish to some over 8 inches in 5 years. It looks like the Heron got all 11 fish. Cheryl is not going to be a happy camper when she gets home from work.

Michael

Bad birdie!!!

The good news is her bird feeder finally attracted a bird.

Have a better day!

I guess it enjoyed its meal of goldfish and was looking for some more. It out of luck there are no more.

is also an acrobat!  That is one talented loom!

is absolutely beautiful.  I lived in NKY on a farm and always loved watching the landscape reveal itself as the fog receded over the hills.  We also had one large tree down inthe pasture that I used as a season marker as it changed from season to season.

A friend sent me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers - it may still be winter outside, but it's spring inside!  :D

http://laurasloom.blogspot.com

cheers,

Laura

It looks as though spring is arriving.  The robins came back yesterday.  It's a great feeling getting over a long long winter.  I have a shawl almost finished on my loom.  Had to put my oldest dog down a couple of weeks ago and hubby went out and brought me home a new puppy.  Her name is Mia and she keeps me busy, needless to say this is why my shawl is not done!  She is a shih tzu/maltese ball of fire!

I took this picture just a few minutes ago of a little dwarf Iris that is one of the first to bloom in my yard in PA.

Eva :)

Thanks for the MUCH needed shot of Spring, Eva! PA is certainly close to NJ. After we finish bailing out from all the flooding over here, send a little of that our way, please!

Hey!

Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day! How many GREEN projects do you think we can post, from all corners of the world? (I'll start with this image of Bedford Cord...)

Spring is still a ways off for me here; however today it's a very nice -9C (-17C with the windchill).  My husband mentioned the other day that last year around April 15 he took his first motorbike ride of the year, and most of the snow was gone by then. After the equinox there is a definite change in the weather, you can almost feel being closer to the sun.

I found a picture of an old green project, two small plaids.

A neck warmer with matching pulse warmer in cotton and wool (differential shrinkage). Perhaps not exactly spring-green - .

Here is some green with symbols from a spiritual healing cloth.  In Southeast Asia the snake is associated with the renewal of life!  With the life giving rains for the rice paddies come the snakes.  It all depends on your point of view!  

On this St. Patties. That was done in my best Irish brogue. Here is a cotton guest towel. I did feed the horses some clover today.

I am in the Netherlands for 2 weeks and spring is here, the dafodils are in full bloom and the shrubs are starting to bud and there is a slight green haze over them.  I was at a nursery this morning and was wishing I could take lots of plants home with me.  The flowers here are just beautiful.  I would like to send you a picture but don't know how.  Sally you are going to have to help me when I get home.

with my new to me warping reel today.  In Delaware it is beautiful outside, mid 70's and the door is open and the sunshine pouring in.  I am thrilled with how fast I can warp with the mill.  And it is so much easier on my back.  Wahoo--spring is almost here and things are looking up.

As you can see here the daffodils are in full bloom. For that matter everything is blooming. Today it was 80f+ (26c). I am finishing up 4 Macomber frame sets for the lady above. Cheryl is weaving 17 dish towels.

Michael

There was a Gathering of Weavers from the high and lowlands of South America here in my home of Santa Cruz Bolivia this week. My Guarani weaving teacher, Angela, who was invited to teach and show her work in one of the daily workshops, got to meet weavers and fiber artisans from coastal Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Chile. The gathering was small and intimate with each artisan taking home a new set of skills to share with their community. Angela learned to weave a triple color version of her weaving technique from the Aymara weavers. They in turn learned how to make a dovetailed warp which Angela uses on her vertical looms.

. 

Here Angela is meeting Chinchero weavers Sonia and Zenaida at the inauguration. There are more pictures and details of the first part of this story on my blog.

As half million visitors come to Savannah to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and the arrival of spring.  The city turns our famous fountain in Forsyth Park to green. Spring has sprung here -- the azaleas are beginning to come out all over the city and blossoms, spring flowers, and greening grass and trees - LOVE IT! 

http://tapestry13.blogspot.com/2011/03/onward-and-upward-month-after-accident.html

about your hand accident. I am glad you had no damage to your tendons or nerves. Get better soon.

Michael 

Injuries are no fun at all.  :(((( Hope you feel better soon.

Cheers,

Laura

Wasn't March 20th the "official first day" of Spring?

in NJ? It was warm there. But turning colder again. It is spring and it sprun a snow fall on you.

Michael

This photo was taken yesterday (when it was in the 50's!) This is researcher and weaver Mary Underwood (from Ann Arbor, Michigan) captured with NYC as a her backdrop. (Next time we'll try and make sure she gets INTO the city!)

Mary was in town to gather information on Canadian Oscar Beriau. She has presented her research at various guild gatherings and conferences. Oscar's grandson, Jean-Paul, and his wife Mary (a weaver!), live in Hoboken, New Jersey. Jean-Paul maintains a website about the family and their connection to the weaving traditions in Quebec, Canada. For those who are not familiar with the Beriau name or his publication, "Tissage Domestique," you can learn more at:

www.oscarberiau.com/html/homepage.html

My involvement in all this is very limited. One of our guildmates (who is 104), was one of the original teachers at the school in 1930. Meeting Mary U, Jean-Paul, and Mary was a *wonderful* way to spend the day yesterday!

What a nice surprise to see a picture of Mary Underwood!  We had the pleasure of her company on Friday, always a treat :-)

Laurie Autio

Not to clutter up weavo with yet more next-to-black pictures - here are the newest. There is even a picture of some snowdrops (the first for this year)!

Yes, but that last one is really cool! (Not nearly as black as the original one you posted.) When are we going to see it in a weaving? Do you know about weaver Ruby Leslie's husband, and his travel and work with sequential images over a period of time such as this? (Maybe someone will flag Ruby up in Vermont, and she will respond with more information!)

Sally

I've been teaching in St Louis and Kansas City and just returned to Vermont last night, so I've missed this entire thread. I'll be heading out to Vancouver, Seattle and Olympia in another week or so. My husband Ken is an artist and art professor.  For the last 10-12 years, he's been travelling to arctic lands during the solstices (both summer and winter) and painting or photographing both the daylight and darkness.  He creates circular books (with the center cut out, so they're actually a donut shape) by painting or photographing landscapes sequentially thru time and space.  Might be easiest to look at his website <http://www.kenleslie.net/> to get a better idea.  Many of the images can be clicked on to show how the circular paintings can be folded and read as books or viewed as large wall or floor mounted donut shaped paintings.

Ruby

This is what I get for complaining about the snow we received on Monday! We have family from Sweden coming this weekend, and they called on Tuesday to check on our weather here in the metro NYC region.

(They tell me there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. :-)

As Sally and other parts of the country are having snow here in the south it "Pollen Time" again. This is the 3rd day of pollen season and as you can see from my truck it looks like snow. In my part of the woods pollen season last three weeks. If we don't get rain the pollen can get 1/4 inch deep in places. When you drive down the road it like driving in a fog. The pollen  on the road gets blown around and looks like dust devils. When it does rain it is a sea of yellow/green water. The pollen count yesterday was 2500, last year it got as high as 7000.

Michael

Okay, just looking at THAT makes me SNEEZE, even as I am shoveling AGAIN this morning. (Ever consider purchasing a yellow-green car?)

We received only a few inches of snow ontop of a sleety-freezy mix from last night, so I think this is the end of it! Sun is supposed to be out later today. (I hope.)

I am located roughly mid-way between Sally and Michael.  It is tree pollen time here, but there's snow predicted this weekend. DC's cherry blossom season is tinged with sadness and a sense of connection with people of Japan.  Couldn't get a good pic of my purple-leaf plum tree.  It blooms with the cherry blossoms and gets mistaken for one, except there'll be fruit in July.  The birds get most of the fruit, and generally make a mess.  Improbably fat robins hang out in my yard. 

Had an expensive box of yarn stolen within a couple hours of delivery.  Back in December, a package of JOY Azziza was taken, but I chalked that up to Christmas-time opportunity theft.  The JOY yarn was the last two skeins of a colorway. 

One way and another, city living is not what people think.  Before my neighborhood yuppified, we didn't have a theft problem.  The retirees that kept an eye on things have mostly passed away or been bought out.  The Mcmansions and hyper-renovations have taken over, making the rest of us seem richer than we are, and more worthwhile targets.

Yes, there are much worse things in the world.  Yes, I know I'm blessed.

We had a friend that wove a "chicken" rag rug for Cheryl. With Cheryl's permission the rug was put into a number of shows. When the rug and many other items where shipped back to her, just before Christmas, from the last show in NC via UPS they were delivered to the wrong address. After weeks of tracking this package down. It was delivered to a house down the road. When questioned about the package UPS was told yes we got the package but we don't know what happen to it. Our friend has never been on speaking terms with these people. They got some nice Christmas gifts and our friend just got the insurance value of the items. I got a email from her the other day she has started to reweave the "chicken" rug. Remember: if you ship it, insurance it.

Michael

We are having some nice weather this week - most days it has been getting up above freezing, so the snow is starting to melt and the river break-up should be around the end of April.  Hopefully there won't be a flood this year, here are pictures from last year's flood.

Of course, it's raining today but... this is what I saw when walking on campus at North Georgia College & State University early last week.

Tommye

Photo: Los Angeles City Hall (pointy building in middle) as seen from the Interstate 5 freeway as I was leaving L.A. on Friday.

My aunt passed away last Saturday and the whole family gathered for the funeral service. It was a beautiful service even though it was pouring rain off and on all week.

I spent a week in L.A. eating tamales, Pollo Loco (grilled chicken), hand made corn tortillas, caldo (chicken soup), Tommy's chili cheeseburger (got the t-shirt), beef shoulder roast, pastrami sandwich from The Hat (got the t-shirt), Shakey's Pizza Bunch-O-Lunch buffet, fried chicken with all the fixin's at the church (Templo de Refugio is awesome!), mexican pastries, cake......wait for it......wait for it....and I weigh 4 pounds less than when I started!!! God is good to me!

Have a nice day!

Now there's a diet I'd like - if it would work for *me*!  :D

cheers,

Laura

Breakfast today is oatmeal and raisins and apple slices and boiled egg with the shell for my birdies (parrotlets). I get oatmeal and raisins. It is good to be home in Sacramento Calif.

Have a good day!

This is the new location of Purl, on Broome Street in NYC. In contains yarns, spinning fibers, quilting fabrics, and a base selection of the accessories you would need, beautifully displayed.

Now that's a deliciously dangerous store! Thanks for posting, I think ;^)

Carie

And it only gets better! The other half is quilting with high-quality stuff.

AND, speaking of delicious, on Christoper Street there is a new Swedish candy store called Sockerbit. (We have family living in Linkoping, and some of the most favorite candy is produced there!) Var sa god for $12.99 (dollars) per pound.

Sally, I think that if I went into either of those stores I wouldn't be able to leave!!  There is a much smaller, but similar store here, called Joey's Sweets & Things, which sells fabric and candies.  I try to not go into it very often, as I never walk out empty handed.

Anne

Here in my corner of the world the snow has been poring down the whole day. Winter has now lasted 5 months, leaving 7 for the rest of the seasons. 3 as far as I remember.

The dog likes it!

Last week I had the external fixation removed from my broken arm, and I have had the first appointment with the physiotherapist. He says I will have my stregth in my left arm back in 2 - 3 months. To celebrate I started warping my knitter´s loom for the first time with my own homespun. Found that the warping and today weaving is eccellent traing for my arm.

Eva

As DST has happened, there are two of each: to the left, 7 DST, to the right 7 "sun-time".

Sunrise 06:42 (DST), sunset 19:30 (DST)

Yesterday we had sunny weather, but this morning woke to snow. Fortunately, it was gone by mid-day.

We've had decent weather here in the Texas hill country the past week, up in the 80's with lows in the 70's.  We could use the rain as we are entering a severe drought.  But it is good that the weather has been calm as my dad had a heart valve replacement and a bypass so I have been driving back and forth to Austin to do hospital/doctor duty. He is trending good but we will all be relieved when he is off the breathing tube.  I will live vicariously thru everyone else's weaving right now.  Deb mc

Best wishes to your dad.  Sounds like he is doing well, but that's major surgery.  :)

cheers,

Laura

Morning Sky in Sacramento Calif, just before sunrise, no rain today.

Do you see the thin crescent of moon in the middle of the picture?

Have a joyful day!