Archive | May 2012

Real Strawberries

May26

Randy found these when he went to town. Locally grown in Happy Valley by the Vietnamese farmers who do this so well. There were vendors out a few weeks ago but they had the grown in Mexico supermarket berries, you know the kind- huge, hollow, half green, tasteless! Ugh. Only fell for that once. These are the real thing. The car smells heavenly by the time you get them home. They are smaller and red and juicy. Yummmm! So today is for strawberries and canning the chicken soup I made yesterday.

I am also weaving some new kitchen curtains. The last issue if HandWoven featured an article on Transparent weaving where you can work a picture/pattern into your weaving. I think that would be a great one for the valance at the kitchen window. I wanted to work in a hen and rooster but my first attempt was not up to my standards! lol Trying again!  If you’re on Ravelry, drop in on Looms To Go and  take a look at the curtain a member shared.  It’ll have you at your looms in no time! I hope to have something worthy to post shortly.

Meantime, I go to Medford this week to have my vision improved.  Doc says I have a cataract and he’s going to fix it. Sis just had hers done and seems to think it’s a big improvement. Hope so. Read the brochure with all the warnings and just about back out! lol So maybe when I get back my weaving will look better. Or worse! lol

Have a fun, sunny and safe memorial weekend!

Solar Eclipse

May21

We drove up to Slate Mountain to view the eclipse. Haven’t been out that way in years. Nothing much has changed except that the county has recently graded the road so it’s in pretty good shape and the trees are starting to crowd the road, making it nearly a tunnel in some places. Not dangerous so they don’t spend any money clearing them back.  It’s kind of pretty and reminds us of how soon our works would disappear if we did.

Back on subject! We had a great view of the eclipse and as we were front and center for it, we got to see the whole ‘ring of fire’ thing. Pretty neat. It got a little darker, kind of like a thickly cloudy day but forget the movie thing, you are not going to impress any natives with your magic. But we had a nice picnic and enjoyed getting out in the woods again. Don’t have the right kind of filters on our cameras so they refused to see it but have a couple of stunning sun pictures. The view from up there is great, too, in spite of the rather hazy air.

Looking back toward Bonanza King on the right and the little bump on the horizon to the left is Billy’s Peak, at the foot of which is our place. It’s not as far as it look in the photo, I’m guessing maybe 10 or 12 miles as the crow flies.

This one was taken by an internet friend in Arizona. The thick smoke from the forest fires they are suffering now acted as a filter for this eclipse. Is that looking on the bright side?! lol They were not in the right line to see the full ring but I found this effect very interesting.

So we’ve had two sky events this year already. I think that’s enough! No need for too much excitement from out of space for us. Our sky event today is the likelihood of thunder showers. I’d rather like to miss those, too. But I am making a couple of weaving videos for youtube so a bit of cloudiness is good for the lighting out on the deck. Get out your looms and weave with me!