Turn, Turn, Turn

The Byrds version of To everything there is a season - please link to this YouTube recording while you are reading this blog.

My brother Joe always manages to tie his blog up with some philosophical theme.  He would have been a good homily writer.  Here is his website for those who don’t have it already:  Joe's latest blog

Trouble is that saying “to everything, there is a season” just isn’t true for me this month.  Everything happens at once!  The planting and reaping part—all happening this month.  I’ve been picking strawberries like crazy, shelling peas, too.  At the same time, we’ve been planting squash, corn, beans, and more.

Roger with bok choi and scapes
 

 We’ve been coming—and going all month.  I just got back from the ANWG Conference in Bellingham.  That’s Association of NW Weavers Guilds.  I stayed in Higginson dorm.  That was a leap back in time!  Plenty of eye candy for the fiber artist.  And the campus was lovely this time of year.

 

WWU must not have suffered from the caterpillar plague that overwhelmed us this Spring.  Roses and Alders and apple trees completely denuded of leaves.  But, the leaves have almost all grown back.  I’ve heard these pests come for four years and I believe this is year #3.  Each one has been worse than the year before.  Friends, you may not want to visit us next May and early June.  I cannot guarantee what it may look like around here.

 Now I’m back and Roger has gone to Ocean Shores for the State Grange Convention.  You’d think a farm organization would know better than to put their yearly convention in June.  So it’s just me and the chickens—and Suzie, of course.

 While I was in Bellingham, Roger constructed a staircase from the mudroom porch down to the new loading dock at the back of the house.  How convenient!  Do you think if I left more often perhaps more major projects would get done around here?

 

There’s been a couple weddings, and sadly, a funeral.  Roger’s brother Leif died this month.  He’s been in late stage Alzheimer’s so it came as no surprise.  But still, very sad.  He would have turned 59 on June 30^th.  And a time to be born—two more granddaughters for members of my book club.

 

two month old James in the CUTEST tee shirt
 

The service group that I belong to is winding up its year while at the same time, the Textile Guild action is heating up as I try to line up a new Board for next year when I take up the Presidency.  I need a Vice-President!  Anyone?

And now it is time to post.

 

The Very Rich Hours in October 2012

Looking back now it is doesn’t look like much of a list, but as it was happening it felt like I couldn’t cram one more thing into this busy month.  Both Roger and I had a lot of projects coming to fruition this month--Things that we’d been working on all year.

 

It began gently enough, the weather unseasonably fine, no rain for many weeks, records being broken.  I joined the island’s walking group on a walk to Cattle Point Lighthouse.

 

 And of course, Roger was again involved in the second annual Farm Parade.  This year, I got to ride in the truck with him, pumpkin man riding with us in the back.

 

 

Midmonth, the weather turned to its normal, rainy conditions, and is still trying to make up for lost time.  But I managed to drive to Olympia and then Rockaway Beach, Oregon in beautiful weather, stopping to have lunch overlooking Canon Beach.

 The reason for this trip South by myself was my attendance at the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild’s Fall Retreat.  I’d been wanting to go for several years, conflicts had always arisen.  This year I was determined to go despite the fact that the Barreca’s were meeting the very weekend of the retreat in Olympia at my sister’s for our annual early Thanksgiving celebration (Thankstween)

 

So I decided to go for just two days and three nights and signed up for one giant two day basketry class—making my own cedar hat.  I would leave Saturday morning and be back in Olympia in time for the big dinner party with 28 other family members.  Unfortunately, the weather going back up to Washington was unruly, I passed through several squalls (or did they pass through me?)  The roads were dicey, but I made it to my sister’s and had a nice visit with the family.  My husband, however, had gotten sick in the meantime and was unable to join us. L

 

 

 As soon as I got back home, it was all about the all-Island Textile Guild Meeting, that I, as SJ Island rep, was in charge of hosting.  We had a new venue, and a great speaker from Whidbey Island.  Also, I had decided to run the first ever “bag raffle” which meant collecting articles to raffle from the members, sorting, and bringing in the infrastructure to show off the items.  Thanks to the hard work of a core group of guild members, the meeting worked out great.

 Having no time to rest, the very next day, Thornbush was spotlighted for a “Farm Tour” as part of the “Savor the San Juans” festival, the festival that had started so many weeks earlier with the Farm parade.  Roger had been working all month to get the place ready, but the big push to make everything beautiful came in this last week.  It rained and poured all week and we weren’t expecting much of a turnout, but on Sunday, it stopped raining and the sun even peaked out for a minute or two.  There wasn’t a big rush of people touring, but a steady little dribble all day long.

 

Of course, out in the real world, the Presidential debates are changing the course of history, the Giants sweep the Tigers in the World Series, and the biggest damn storm ever hits the east coast.  Meanwhile . . .

 Monday, good friends from Seattle visited and left yesterday and today I got into costume and was able to show off my newly-made cowboy hat.  And so October comes to a close.

What I've been up to

Gosh it's late February already.  I'm sure you're all wondering what I've been doing in the dead of winter.  As last we left it, we were pretty much snowed in for a week.  Lovely, lovely time.  But then the events that were postponed bumped up against other events and I feel like I've been double-booked ever since.

Karen Z, Carol C, and Victor O at Janey's Retirement Party

I've been on a couple whirlwind trips to the Mainland, one fun (Janey's retirement), one not so fun (dental work).  I've been weaving at a workshop on Orcas for a few days.  I've been to several parties, the playwrights festival, and a lot of meetings.

Susan M working on Doubleweave Pattern

And in between all of these things, I've been painting my upstairs bath and bedroom.  Bright colors. 

Outside, the weather improved quite a bit and has actually been quite mild since last month.  That all came to an end this weekend when it started snowing again.  Roger and I have been chipping up all the tree branches and shrubs we put into piles last July (sometimes it takes us awhile).

Note snow on lens of camera

We also started a tree house for our grandkids!  First, cut off a Willow Tree a few feet off the ground.  Then let the willow sprouts encircle a floor attached to the stump.  Place gangplank from higher level across chasm to "crow's nest".  Begin weaving basket using willow sprouts as stakes.  In a couple years, ya got yourself a treehouse!

This month also marked the beginning of my first book club since retirement.  Five of us met at my house for a dinner of West African cuisine as we discussed Little Bee by Chris Cleave.  It'll be a great success if its only half as good as the ones I've belonged to in Seattle.

Looking forward to March we planned more home improvements, another retirement to celebrate,  more meetings and parties to attend, and the best of all, helping take care of the twins when our grandson arrives in the world.

Thornbush in Winter



It's busy.  No lie.  Whoever said this was the slow time of year had no idea.  It's not just sitting around watching American Idol and Glee on tv in the evening.  First there's the regular, the mundane that still must go on:  finding firewood and building fires, feeding the chickens, grooming the dog.  Add to that the on-going projects:  working on the carport (forever), building a new gate for the nut grove, and getting ready for another year in the garden.

Greenhouse veggie starts

bamboo and willow gate



where gate will go (after deer trashed the last one)



There are the regular meetings at the Ag Resource Committee for Roger, yoga for me, plus the burgeoning community and volunteer involvement:  helping to move the co-op into the larger building, rejoining the Grange (I'm now the "Grace" Pomona), Winter Farmers Market, Soroptimist Fundraisers, and on and on.  Now that I'm the SJ Island rep for the Textile Guild I have board meetings on the ferry, monthly meetings at the library, and quarterly meetings on the different islands-last month on Shaw- to attend.



Then there are the classes. Right now, Roger is attending a two day class called Holistic Management for Farming. holistic management link Last weekend I took a two day willow class from Katherine Lewis of Dunbar Gardens of Skagit County.Dunbar Garden Website  My friend Monique from Seattle joined us and did a great job with her very first basket. 



That's Monique in front row on the far right



And I attended an amazing class on double weave in January from an expert from Santa Fe, Jennifer Moore.  Here is her website: http://www.doubleweaver.com/workshops.html  This class involved going to Shaw to borrow a loom, going to Orcas to warp the loom, then three days of ferry riding to attend the class on Orcas, then returning the loom to Shaw.

And then there is the ever present looking for signs that winter will end soon and Spring will begin.  It is 34 degrees outside and sunny.  A walk around the place finds that the daffodils are about six inches high, the hellebores and heather are blooming, the Indian Plum is leafing out, and I am "forcing" two vases of red flowering currants to bloom in the house.  Four more weeks until the Spring Equinox.