Across the Road Close-up

It has dried out enough to take the dogs walking again. I haven't taken my camera lately because it's cold and I have three leashes and the Ball Thrower Thing and my hands are too cold. (Don't laugh if you live where it snows. I'm still cold.) Rusty wrote a post about his perspective of the latest walks. Here is what I see when I walk with the iPhone. You know those gloves with the special fingers that are supposed to let you use your phone even with the gloves on? I have some too:

Do you know what I think when I see these photos? Or when I'm looking at the ground while taking the photos? What if these were satellite photos and these were mountain ranges? Can you see that?

The rain has started things growing. This is in a huge patch of thistles.

There are a few mustard flowers blooming already.

Perspective again. What if that little red rock in the hole was really a house? Then those cracks are canyons.

Uh oh! That perspective thing would make this a very scary photo indeed! Raccoonzilla.

Speaking of another perspective. Three dogs and me.

The Flock

Every year I put together a Flock List for the Farm Club members. This includes photos and a little information about each sheep (and dog and other characters) on the farm. I like to get current photos of each sheep and I'll share a few here. Shearing Day is in just a month so they are in almost full fleece. I'll have to get before and after shots of them as well.  Zoey.

Alexandria.

Sonata.

Ears.

Cascade.

Jean.

Two almost 2-year-olds, Honey and Zinnia.

Marilla, a 2016 lamb, and her mother, Marilyn.

This photo was taking during the summer of two of the sheep I bought from flocks in Oregon. That is Kenleigh's Sheena on the left and Shadow Mountain Shelby on the right. I found this photo while I was looking for another. It is a good example showing a lilac ewe (right) and a black and white ewe.

Most sheep eyes.

Some of the lilac sheep have striking blue eyes

A Retreat

Some friends and I had planned a retreat for a few days last week--a get-away to a house in the mountains with as many craft projects as we could fit in our cars. As it turns out it was also a retreat, albeit briefly, from the political scene. We watched, stunned, on Tuesday, but then were able to postpone thinking about it for the most part while we enjoyed friendship and fiber and walking in the woods. Some of us brought dogs.

Ginny will write her own post about the week.

I debated taking a dog. Rusty couldn't go because he would have had a difficult time with all the stairs in the house where we were staying. Maggie wouldn't be my first choice because she gets car sick. Ginny is the one that would be going stir-crazy left home while Dan was at work all day. So Ginny came with me and I'm glad I brought her. Having her there made me get out and walk at least twice every day. It would have been very easy to just stay inside and work on my projects, but I'm glad that I didn't miss the beautiful woods. The weather was fabulous, although a bit scary to have summer-like weather in November. Of course I had my camera with me on some of the walks.

The walks were refreshing (and necessary for Ginny), but most of my focus was spent on my projects. I didn't get to everything but made a valiant effort, staying up late every night. We shared the cooking so I only spent one evening in the kitchen and that was making an easy batch of mac and cheese.

It might be hard to tell what this is from the photo. When it is delivered to my granddaughter in December it will have a covered mat on the floor, a hula-hoop supporting the scalloped roof and be supported from the ceiling. It has windows (thanks for demonstrating, Mary), inside pockets, and a door with glittery decorations. If I have time I will weave a rag rug with the leftover material. This is soooo cute, but it took soooo long to sew...and I'm not quite finished.

This is a photo of all my projects for the 3-1/2 days. You can see on the pattern envelope how the canopy looks when it is set up. From bottom left and around: a batch of 41 dryer balls ready to be felted, a rag runner woven on the Cricket loom, a baggie of walnuts ready for the freezer (those weren't mine because I didn't get to cracking any that we didn't eat--I need to finish this at home), Ginny :-) , six chenille scarves fringed (half of the 12 that I brought), and a warp wound for two ponchos. Not shown is the painted warp that I did that was in a plastic bag ready to come home and be rinsed.

I drove home Friday, but not before stopping at the lake. It doesn't seem right to go to Lake Tahoe and not actually go to the lake.

Ginny learned quickly that she could retrieve her ball from the lake but she'll tell you about that in Rusty's blog.

Visiting Texas

I haven't been to Texas since last year, but that's because we saw my granddaughter several times last winter and spring in California. It was time for me to see her again and to do that I had to travel east. She is now two.

While Mommy painted the shed we went for a walk.

Time to take off the shoes.

The low water crossing on the road.

What better place to play on a hot day.

Hugging Colby.

Yesterday we went to the Comal County Fair.

This morning I said that we'd go for a walk in the rain. Kirby started to pack. You never know when you'll need a stuffed llama, a cup of milk, or a bunch of books.

It had rained enough during the early morning hours that the water had risen too high for playing.

We turned and walked up the road the other way.

Well, one of us walked and the other rode most of the way.

Birds and Butterflies

Last week it was impossible to go to town or walk Across the Road without running into butterflies. The orange sulphur butterfly (Colias eurytheme also known as the alfalfa butterfly and in its larval stages as the alfalfa caterpillar), I found out by googling, is widespread in North America and can be a significant alfalfa pest in high densities. The alfalfa field just south of where I walk had been cut, the sunflowers harvested, and butterflies were doubling and tripling up on field bindweed flowers and any other weedy flowers they could find.

I thought that I'd be able to get photos of butterflies in flight. Do you know how hard that is? Not possible, at least by me.

But speaking of things that fly, I did get some bird photos. I don't usually see great blue herons in the trees.

The snowy egret is dwared by two great egrets.

Great egret in flight.

On my way home I spotted these cattle egrets which I photographed from the road.