Spring busy.

Sometimes I glance back, and can't believe I haven't blogged more.  You think I would have so much time.  I mean, I am retired from the working world, at least the one outside my studio.

But alas, it seems I am busy all the time.  And I forget to blog.  Or sometimes I just feel like I don't have anything to say.

I could get into politics, but ........ah......no.   Let's not go there.   I would just upset myself, and probably some of you.  For what??

The state of the world, and more specifically, our country, makes me feel cold, and empty.
So none of that, any more than the occasional blip that flies off my fingers in a state of crazy.

So I have nothing more than the goings on here, and in my head.  

That's my house in the distance........the field has been cut, and on short walk days, I take Naya there, and in the fields across the road.

She loves to sniff at every bush in the hedge row, and she loves to pounce on anything that she thinks might be a critter.

I love our little hamlet of Kingsbury.   It seems now that I have lived no where else.

Naya loves her yard, it is very large, with a 5 foot fence.    The snow ball bush my mother bought for me, blooms faithfully every year......and doesn't last as long as one would like.   But every time it does, I think of the day we got it, on a day trip together to my favorite nursery.

All around my house there are wild phlox.  

Between these and the blossoms on the locust trees, the fruit trees, and all the other things blooming, the sweet fragrance outside is amazing.

Two or three days a week, we do a longer walk.....about 3 miles, on the bike trail by the canal.   But I have to mix up short walks and longer ones, or my titanium knee starts to swell, and starts to talk to me.   It does not say nice things, either.

I've been at it again.  Dyeing warps.   I think I have this down to a science.....but it's much easier to do outside.

And most of the mess stays outside.

What took the longest was winding each of the 18 sections on the warping mill.
They are all chained.  

When they are all dyed, I leave the big jelly roll of them out in the sun all day.

Finally they are rinsed and drying in the sun.

Then putting them on the loom is another huge job.  It took us  (Lois and I) hours to get this on and ready.   Tedious, can we just call it that???  She winds, I untangle.  And swear.

My weaving/blogging friend Susan Harvey sent this photo of a Hawaiian Dahlia, and it is a perfect match for my warp.  If you didn't know better, you would think I had planned all this luscious color.
But I didn't.

I wish I was that good at dyeing.

But after all the work, to get this wound, dyed, and on the loom, the results are amazing.

This is yardage, already spoken for.
And I am very pleased with it.

There is a lot of satisfaction in a job well done.

The warp is bamboo, the weft is ring spun cotton.

Sometimes I am bad and I have an English muffin with PB.       It's actually not that bad, and the weight is still coming off, and that's what matters to me.

My diet has changed, my eating habits have changed.   My attitude about it has changed. My exercise routine has changed.
 And finally, after much resistance, my body is changing.

Who knew, under that fat body, was my "old" body.    My thinner, still old, body.   Somehow, I find it all very amusing, but also satisfying.
It is not drastic, it is not sudden, but rather a slow, steady,  consistent move in another direction.

I like it.

In the evenings, I have been knitting again.    After almost a year long break from knitting, my daughter asked me to make her this..........and it felt like I had never stopped.  It amazes me, how your fingers just know, still, how to do it, and how natural it feels.

Lois has finished 11 napkins in giza cotton.  Finnish twill.   They are smashing.

My bird feeder is extremely busy.   I think a lot of the birds eating there are young.
I should take it down, but I can't bear to have them stop coming.

And that is that.   My life goes on.   I can't really say that it is super exciting, but in a comforting way, it is good.
Headaches doable, goals not as big perhaps, but still attainable.

Satisfaction still appears, in small ways, but that's ok.

Grateful for the sun that comes up, every morning, while I drink my coffee, with Naya at my feet,
giving me yet another day.

Reminding me of a book I read as a teenager.

The Day Must Dawn.

No matter what.