Rain

Look at what we woke up to this morning. Rain! I know I won't be so happy about it by February or so, but it is a welcome sight now. There are months of dust and dirt to wash off of plants and sheep and this will get the winter grass to start growing.  

Here is the beautiful sky across the road while I was taking the photo below...

...to use in a PowerPoint presentation I was preparing for a talk about Sustainable Fiber  in San Francisco tonight.

A gorgeous sky in the city too. This is the view from the Ferry Building before it started raining again.

Color Everywhere I Look

It's been awhile since I wrote a blog post--at least on paper...well, on on the computer. But you know what I mean. I write a lot of them in my head but they don't always make it here. So I was looking at my latest photos to see which in-my-head blog post to put here and these are the things that caught my eye.  The dye class that I taught last week.

The v-shawl class that I taught last week.

Socks that Jackie made for me but it hasn't been the season to wear them.

The color wheel class that I taught at Lambtown on Sunday.

Georgia O'Keefe's Purple Petunia which is now on the loom.

But when you think you've found the most fabulous colors of yarn, fiber, and dye, you walk outside  and see this:

A sunset from last week.

I think I need to find yarn in these colors.

April Showers Bring....

Flannel bush, a native drought-tolerant CA species. I planted this behind the chicken house.

Yarrow, another drought-tolerant (read neglect-tolerant) species.

An incredibly fragrant rose. Hardy enough to have survived being dug up and replanted years ago and then suffer through seasons of aphids, little water, and pruning by someone who doesn't know what she is doing.

I just planted this pink bottle-brush and will try to give it water during it's first summer. After that it's probably on it's own, but the red variety I have near the barn has thrived with similar non-care. (Come to think of it, I think there is a leaky faucet near the red one.)

I love iris because they grow almost no matter what you do or don't do to them. I have some fancy varieties that I got from my friend the iris farmer last year. I am embarrassed to say that I almost killed those by forgetting to plant them when I got them in the fall. They are in the ground and seem to be thriving but I was too late to expect them to bloom this year.

The clover is blooming now that it's getting hot. In the foreground is one of the plants we just call foxtails. I think this one is Hare Barley but I'll have to take my weed book to the pasture to know for sure.

I can't remember the name of this one but it's in the box at the end of my shop. I always think the plant is not doing well because the leaves are almost yellow, but   whatever I am not doing to it seems to be working. It has a lot of flowers every year. (This box does get some water.)

This is a Verbasum, a new plant that I just planted in a barrel near the shop. I was assured that it could live in the environment of heat and neglect. I saw that it flowered yesterday. Last night the flowers looked as though they had shriveled up, but they are open again this morning. Good plant.

I planted Walker's Low Catmint in another barrel. I just put a leave of it under Ozzie's nose and he doesn't seem to care.

Annual ryegrass, a much more desirable grass, than the annuals that we call foxtails.

The locust tree is in full bloom and fills the air with its sweet fragrance.