How we feel after Thanksgiving

This is how most of us feel after eating our Thanks Giving dinner.

Well it's over for another year and now Christmas is around the corner, and I'm sure we will being feeling like the little kitten again. One surprising thing is we have no snow yet, we have very cold nights and cold days, but I've been able to carry on walking outside without to much clothing on, the sun came out today and it feels like spring is around the corner, but I'm not going to be fooled, I know we will get snow soon. The trip over to the west coast was a breeze, the weather was dry and no snow on the pass, and very little traffic, it might be because we left on Wed. I'm not sure. While there it did rain, so as not to be disappointed I'm sure, because what would a visit to the coast be without rain, and a reminder why we moved from there, well one of the reasons. We had a nice visit with our families, but it's always a special time to spend with Sam our Grand Daughter. Love You Sam! We had two dinners in a row one on Thursday and one on Friday, on Thursday dinner was with Lonny's Family, his sister one of the ten kids, her husband and a son who was up from Calif. for the first time in five years. Lonny's Mom who will be 90 soon, and we stayed at her house, we probably wore her out. Friday we spent at my brothers house, Got to see my brothers family and some of the Grand Children, our Dad and my oldest son which we never see often enough, and he look great. So weather permitting we'll get over there for Christmas. I'll write later on some of the things I did before Turkey Day, but I've got to get my pictures on the computer, so look forward to news on Knitting retreat, The Methow Valley Spinners and Weavers Sale and life in general. Hard to believe November is over, but I'm ollking forward to winter, I would love to do sme sking.

Time to Knit and Weave

I was reminded just recently that I haven't blogged since August 20Th, this made me think about what I'm doing now compared to what I did last summer. My last blog I talked about the Blue Bird that befriended me, I have since said good bye to, and anticipating her and her family's return in the spring. I have not only said good bye to Mama blue bird but also to my Dad, as he always leaves in the fall to spend time on the coast in his apt. and with his brother and his son my brother. My boy's are over there to, and Dad does see my youngest son Jens often because Jens works at Albertson's just down the road. Ely is still working for Starbucks, and Dad stops in to see him on occasion. My Dad and I had a mean game of Yahtzee going every night after dinner, and from his trailer window we saw a lot of beautiful sunsets, we had lots of laughs, it was a great time. Then on Saturdays, Dad and I would go to Saturday Market in Twisp, and as I think I've mentioned just a few times, we would have coffee and a fry bread. Thinking back, it's hard because it already seems so long ago. I walked every day then, and now I walk every day and walk on the tread mill every day after dinner. I walk the treadmill because I'm not going outside and working in the garden, moving hoses,watering trees and just enjoying the beautiful summer evenings we can have here, it's to dark and to cold now. Just two weeks ago tonight, I got home from knitting retreat, I've been going for over twenty years. It's so good as always to see my dear friends and have a few needed laughs, it keeps ya going. When this fall arrived it came fast and cold, we didn't have the beautiful colors we usually have, but it is still gorgeous. When it was time to pick the winter squash and just clean out the garden, I knew it was going to give me permission to start thinking of the other things I love to do and don't take time from when gardening, and other summer things I do, such as getting my spinning wheel turning again, and my knitting projects, also it's this time of year that weaving becomes something I do feverishly because Nov. 20Th and 21 St is our big Weavers sale here in Twisp. So producing enough to have a good showing of what our guild is capable of doing and making a little money to pay my dues and by more things to do. The holidays are upon us, and this season we hope to get over to my Brother's house for Thanksgiving and be thankful for all we have and our health. I'm thankful for all the produce that I put up for the winter from my perfect little garden. I'm thankful for my friends and family. Lonny's doing well, he's working on a project just for himself, after working on everyone elses for the last four years, I think he's having fun. Thanks for letting me know that you read this rambling and caring.

Some impressive Broccoli!

My beautiful Grand Daughter being silly, what a fun memory to keep through the winter

I have talked about the Blue Bird family that came to our Blue Bird House this last spring, and they were very successful having two nests and ten fledgelings. As far as I know they all survived, but for a while after the last batch left the nest we didn't see to much of them, partly because of the temps and the storms, I thought maybe they went were it was a little cooler. The other day I saw them back, flying around in the pine trees and in the vegetable garden, which is what I wanted, they are good little bug getter's. I was thrilled, because I thought I wouldn't see them again till next spring. When I get up in the morning, after a while I go out and water the fruit trees, and then I make sure that I didn't forget to close the gate to the garden, and the deer got in and had a feast. Then I noticed that a pea bush that I had missed when pulling the rest out had some pods that were ready to pick, so standing out side of the fence I bent over and picked them, when I turned around to go back to the house, there on the ground right in front of me was, and I'm sure it was Mama bird. This is what I called her when I called her to come and get the worms I fed her every day, and when she heard me she would come. Well she just sat there while I talked to her, I asked her how her babies were doing and if she was going to come back next spring. Well since then she has visited me many times, and always listen to me talk to her. We seem to have an abundance of these beautiful little creatures flying around, it's goood to have them back, even if it's just for a little while longer.

The simple things in my world

This has been a great summer, and I hope there is more to come before we get signs of fall. Some times I'm surprised at how excited I can get over the simple things that come my way. A few weeks ago I was up in Mazama visiting Jay and Vicki, well we were out in the woods walking the dog, when something caught my eye, and there was this little double stainless steal sink from their old fifth wheel trailer sitting there, well I asked Vicki if she thought Jay would mind if I took it, that I had a use for it. So I asked Jay and he said sure, so it got to me via their Daughter Kelly who was delivering other things to Lonny. Lonny asked me what I was going to do with the sink, and I said, you are going to build me a table that I can put the sink in and wash veggies at the garden and my hands too. He rolled his eye's at me, so I knew it wasn't a happening thing. A couple of weeks ago we decided, before Jens and Sam came over we better get a new barbecue, so I was looking at the old one and wondering what we would do with it till we went to the dump, then it came to me, and here's the results of my vision.
This has been the greatest thing since bread, I just love it and it's portable, I even got little plugs for the drains. So I'm still doing pickles, last year it was raspberry jam till I thought I was going to get sick, so this year it the year of the pickles. I still have lots of beets , potatoes and tomatoes. I've been drying the little tomatoes for soups and sauces and the bigger ones I think what we don't eat I will can.

I started some seed last winter that I got at a quilt show, they were handed out like a business card. Well they turned out to be these ten feet tall giants. The flowers are huge, but very cheerful.
We had a great visit with the kids while they were here, Sam and I went swimming one day, and she spent a lot of time in the little pool we got for this summer, it's been a real life saver, we have had some very hot day's. I'll have some pictures and more about thier visit next time. Diana

This is what I've been doing this summer

This is me picking cucumbers

More cucumbers and some Walla Walla Sweets
Cucumbers, pickles and pickled beets
Some really yummy berries
A visiting Grand Daughter who will be 13 this month! Happy Birthday sweaty!
My Dad and I like going to Saturday Market
Got my towels done and I like them allot
Thought I would throw in this cute picture of Jr.

Five Babies and Five More to Come

My greatest pleasure this Spring and Summer has been the family of Western Bluebirds that took residence in our Bluebird House. The house has been up for four years, but this is really the first year that they decided this was just perfect for them. They kind of shop around for just the right place, and the requirements for placing the house is very specific, and we followed them carefully. The swallows are very aggressive with the Bluebirds, and that's what has happened in years past, the Bluebirds just get intimidated to leave. Well we have all ready seen the first batch of five leave the nest. Now Mama Bluebird is setting on a second batch of five beautiful blue eggs. I've done some research on these wonderful creatures, and found out that feeding them meal worms would encourage them to stay and thrive, the worms are very high in protein, and may I add expensive too. This has been so fun, because in the morning I go out and call Mama bird and she knows I'm going to feed her, no matter were she is she comes flying and lands on the fence and waits for me to put a couple of worms in the little dish I have for her on the fence post. She has even come out to the veggie garden, and we have had some long conversations. Now the first babies are grown and I see them flying around in the morning and they are keeping my garden clean of bugs. Speaking of the veggie garden, here is a resent picture of part of it. First I should tell you that I finished planting this garden on 26th of May, I had to be done with it because I was going to Spokane for the Association of N.W. Weavers Conference. I do a drip irrigation system that I designed and redesign every year just for for that particular garden, I have to make sure everything is in working order, so I can leave with confidence that it will be watered. So mid June we were already eating spinach and radishes and lots of strawberries. Now we are eating lettuce and snap peas. I put in a patch of ever bearing strawberries, so we can have them the whole season long. In this picture you are looking at, on the left to right, tomatoes and broccoli , them Winter squash, which are mostly Danish and I think a Deleca snuck in there too. Then three tomatoes plants, next cucumbers and a zucchini, potatoes and lots and lots of onions. I have three kinds of onions, Of course Walla Walla Sweets, Green onions that we have had in our salads now for a couple of weeks, another type of sweet onion and a storage onion. MMMM good ! This is a picture of the early strawberries we've been eating on everything, but mostly on cereal in the morning. A bunch of us from here in the beautiful Methow Valley, went to Spokane for the Weaving Conference, there were 430 people who attended. It was held at Gonzaga University, we stayed in dorms, that was interesting enough. I took two lectures, one on Sampling is not a Dirty word, and one on 8/2 cotton. It was a great time and I learned a lot and came home with some new enthusiasm for weaving. So the first thing when I got home I got a warp on my loom for some towels. The patterns a pin wheel, but its a triple one in three colors. It should be interesting when they are off the loom and washed,then you can see the twist in the pin wheels. kinda makes your eyes go weird huh. So that's about it folks, working on my veggies, and weaving. Soon I'll be making pickles, can't wait. After the Fourth of July Jens and Samantha are coming for a visit, and that means swimming and cooking and just enjoying their company. My Dad has been here since the end of April, and we've been having a good time, all most every night we play Yahtzee and have a great time and laughing a lot. Here's a picture of the lettuce and raspberries and one of the tomatoes. I'm wishing for a successful season

The rare and not easy to find Methow Whooly Sponge Bird

This is a little miniture Spinning Wheel Music Box that I picked up last Nov at Knitting Reatreat.

Today was a perfect example of Spring! It started out a little cool, 38 degrees, but warmed up rapidly to the high 70's. I took advantage of the warm day, I went out and took some pictures, then came home and went out side and finished some paper work for the Guild Challenge, and read a book, you can't ask for a better day. When it gets really hot I don't do those things outside much. I've been taking a couple of gardening class, on growing veggies, and how to grow things up to winter. I've learned a lot, and have been surprised that some things I had already learned from experience through the years. You can all ways learn more, and I have, did you know that you plant potatoes when the dandelions start to bloom. Well I have learned more tecnical things than that, but that's one you'll always remember. I have been finishing some projects, like spinning, and and the Guild Challenge. Last Saturday I was off again to the Guild meeting in Omak, talk about a great time. The group is always a little different, because our schedules are of course different, so some can be there and some can't. So it's always nice to see some people that haven't been for a while. This week Lonny and I are going to make a trip to Wenatchee, to some poeple this is like a drive to the park, but it isn't for us, that one and a half hours is a long ways. We are going to pick up some fruit trees that we ordered from a nurser, and do the Costco thing and maybe Jo-Ann Fabrics. I have a gift certificate for Jo-Ann's so maybe I'll get to use it. The two runners I made with the Overshot weave structure

This is some yarn that has been one of those projects that you really don't want to do, kinda like being a little kid and not wanting to do the dishes, but it's got be done. The finished product did turn out to be nice.

Now this is a wool that I purchase at the Whidbey Island Weavers and Spinners annual spin-in, about three years ago.

Here's a picture of the wool after I got it back from having processed, this is when you send it to a professional to have it washed and carded. this was a very expensive raw fleece, and very costly to have processed, and I haven't been to happy with the way it spins. So was this a costly mistake? I'm not sure yet, the yarn is nice, and very soft and spongy, but it has a lot of little neps in it, this makes it hard to spin. Maybe when I knit a sample with it I'll end up with a big surprise and it will be really nice.

This picture I took for my friend Carol W. Carol this is a Methow Woolly Sponge bird, that is only found near a field of sheep. It gathers hay to feed it's young, and is usually hard to find, it's very rare.

The snow is gone!

The snow is gone, and we're not sorry. Today was Sunny but cold, with the wind blowing from the north, and we had some gust, but it is pleasant this evening. Last week Lonny and I went to Sun Mt. Lodge for a couple of nights. We received a gift certificate about a year and a half ago, we thought we better use it. The Lodge two times a year runs a special for the Local folks, us being locals got to take advantage of it. It is a beautiful place, and the food is really good, but very expensive to say the least. Here's a small picture of the Lodge, see how it sits on the edge of the Mt., it's very cool. I think that might be Mt. Garner in the back ground. We had a westerly view from our room, we were in the garner building. The weather wasn't very nice but we could still see a little bit of the view. This week will be really busy, because our son Jens and Grand Daughter are coming over for a few days. We're looking forward to it. I've been busy baking bread and making all the things they like. Sam and I are going to watch the movie Twilight, she so crazy about this movie, she wants to share it with me. Sam will be thirteen this summer, she is such a great kid, of course I could be just a little bit prejudice. Here's the view from our room.

Part two A sure sighn of spring

Please excuse my mistake, I have a new camera and I'm just learning how to use it. So here are my socks, now I do have to tell you that I have a light blue reinforcement yarn in the toe and the heel, so it does change the color just a bit. Yesterday (Sat) Katie, Teresa and I went to Omak for a Guild meeting at Rhonda's house. We had a last minute change in where we were meeting, but Rhonda stepped right up and offered her home. There were ten of us I think, and a new person, who's name I can't spell, but it was very nice meeting her, she is a neighbor of Ingrid's. She is an artist and teaches art too. We had sort of a formal meeting in that Dianne has been busy getting us back on track, and we are again members of N.W. Regional Spinners Association as a Guild and members of Association of NW Weavers Guild. We are so happy we're back to being a part of these organizations again. We had a great show and tell, but I can't show pictures for the same reason I couldn't post pictures on my last blog, to big for dial up. I can tell you though, Dianne, has made two beautiful scarfs one for her and one for her Aunt Marilyn, then she made a pair of socks, that her Daughter has claimed as hers, she also made the most adorable little baby sun hat. Dianne's Mom Carol also made one of the baby hats and she was working on a shawl. Then there was Ingrid who was using up left overs, not food but yarn, and wove a beautiful, soft and cozy throw, in colors of fall, I came close to leaving with it. Then Harriet, had her first weaving project, and let me tell you she did a fabulous job, they were so nice. The artist Minoan does the most interesting lovely hand painted silk scarfs. Last but not least Rhonda showed her quilt that she was finishing up for her grand Son, she has an embroidery machine and did some adorable little animals on it. You can't help but come home inspired by things so nice. To see the yarn I dyed for theses socks, just look at my last Blog. Lonny and I are taking a couple of days off to go to Sun Moutain Lodge this week, it will be fun. Have a great week! diana

A sure sighn of spring !

A sure sign of spring has finally happened here, we've had a couple of warm days and the snow disappears so fast that you swear you can stand there and watch it, but it happens so fast you miss it. I have to say I'm happy to see it go, even though we need the moisture. So I put the picture of the yarn I dyed, just to reminded you what it looked like, because I made socks out of it and there done. I knit them from the toe to the end of the cuff, I knit them in a tube and where the heel goes I put a waste yarn to hold the live stitches till I was ready to take out the waste yarn and pick up the stitches on to the needles, to then knit the heels. So here they are all done, and I'm happy with the out com of this project, and I'll have a nice new pair of wool socks to wear next winter. Well it seems my pixels are to many for me to post my picture so I'll have to take them over again and get back with you, I so sorry Diana

Snow a four letter word !

We got a little blast of snow today. I thought I was in western Washington, just kidding of course. It was really coming down for about four hours, but just as fast as it came down, it melted later and the sun came out. Well just five more days till spring, but we know around here it's going to be a little longer, but that's OK cause it won't be that much longer. Well it's been a month almost since I have posted, and I can't really think of anything new. Oh yes I got a new camera, and justified it by it being so close to my Birthday. So I'll be blogging a little more now that I can take decent pictures. Well I guess my social calendar has been a little busy, a week ago Saturday my Spinning guild from Omak met over here for a change. We held it at my friend Jan's house, and the turn out was good I tthought, and here's a picture I borrowed from Jan. Jan and her other half just had this sun room added on to their house. If you would like to see more just go to http://www.bigredbarn.blogspot.com/. We had a great time and conversation and some really good food. Then the following Monday, our little spinning group that meets at my house came and we had a blast, we talk about the darnedest things some times, and not always spinning. I fixed one of my favorite soups, although I haven't yet met a soup I didn't like. It's called a California Cheese soup, we had bread and some fruit and found it very satisfying. Well what I'm really trying to concentrate on is my weaving, and it's coming along nicely. I should get two runners from this warp, the second runner I'm going to use either a white on white or a nice blue, haven't made up my mind yet. I'll put a picture of them on my blog when there all finished. So you know what I'm doing this week! My friend Diana M. and I are making a point to get out and walk, we're tiered of being stuck inside, also this is a good time to try and take off some winter weight, don't ya think. Have a great week ! Diana

What kind of customer service do you expect?

I was just reading a blog, www.myhomecoknblog.blogspot.com, and she was relating a story about customer service that she had received. Well this brought to mind a recent situation that happened to us on a trip to the coast, to visit the family especially our Grand Daughter. Well we, my husband and I decided we would go out to dinner with our youngest son and our G. Daughter. They wanted to go to Ivar's, sounded good to us because sometimes over here we get a craving for some good fast food, mind you Ivar's isn't and inexpensive meal out for what you get, and being on retirement income and our son watches his money really close. So we get there and my son and G.D. order and I said I would pay for it, so after they order I had ask Sam what she had ordered and she said chicken. Well I got chicken stuck in my head, so when I was making the order for us I guess I kept saying chicken instead of fish, well the smart #~% kid at the counter kept saying we don't have chicken on that menu and I just wasn't getting it through my head that I was saying chicken, so instead of saying to me, mam do you mean chicken of fish, but she wasn't nice at all about it. So finally my family said, "you keep saying chicken" So I apologised and then thought we had fixed the mistake in the order, till we actually got it at our table. So here's this big plate of chicken, I look up at the person who had delivered it and said " I thought we got this all figured out. She wasn't the girl who took the order, but right away she started to argue will us, she looked at my husband and said" I was standing right there when you ordered chicken, I heard it." My husband said back to her, " You didn't hear me make an order because I didn't make an order she did," pointing to me. I said don't worry about it, because our G.D was there and I didn't want there to be a scene. Well after we ate our meal, our son took the recipe and went up to the counter to tell them that they didn't handle this very professionally, and they started to yell at him, and the girl who delivered our food was the night Manager, she took some money out of the register and gave it to him for the chicken dinner. Then told him that we were being kicked out! So we left and she open the door an screamed something at us. Well we took care of her, and contacted the store manager and the district manager and the corporation....... and were satisfied with the way it turned out. We at no time gave them one bit of grief when we were there eating. Oh yeah, the N. manager said that the other near by Ivar's served horse meat. So these people must not find their jobs necessary. Well that was the short of it, but you get the idea. Today I'm going to make bread and do some weaving and forget about bad customer service. Diana

A fun way to dye wool yarn

Here's the yarn as a reminder as to what I ended up with. This is not a precise way of dyeing, you usually don't get what you thought you might. So think of it as an experiment and then you won't be anything but surprised. The yarn I'm using is a yarn from Knit Picks http://www.knitpicks.com/ the name of it is, Color Your Own, 100% Merino, Natural, 100grams/440 yds. I've used this yarn in the past for making socks, but have found if you don't wash them gently the will felt, also I reinforce the toes and heals with a separate yarn made just for that purpose. So you want to start with making your yarn into two separate balls, don't get fussy with this either, just kind of guess at the evenest. I use a ball winder and a small scale and figure it out by grams. Now the dye I use is made to be used on wool, and I used two different kinds, Jacquard acid and Gaywool acid dye. The supplies you will need, a pan large enough to hold two balls of yarn, this would be a pan that you will never use for cooking again, latex gloves, a stick for stirring, timer, paper towels and vinegar. Now please excuse my pictures, they didn't turn out very well.

Here I am winding the yarn on the ball winder from a swift. You want to try not to wind it to tight, because you want the ball to be saturated with water all the way through. So once you have them wound, now you want to put the yarn in a pan of warm water, covering to the top, now add a little vinegar, this will help the dye stick to the wool. Now soak for a hour or more, if the yarn doesn't feel wet enough. When they have soaked, remove and gently squeeze the water out, you want to keep most the moisture. Now in your dye pan put just enough water to go half way up the balls of wool. Here's were you want to add your vinegar and dye. Now with this yarn I used four colors, but I have done it with just two. When you use two you want to pick two colors that will blend together and make other colors come through, example red and blue will make different shades of the red and blue but also purples. I used for the first half a yellow and the second half a green, put the lighter colors on first. now heat the water to a strong simmer, something you can still put your finger in quickly. Put the yarn in the water, both at the same time, now gently squeeze to get the dye to go up inside the balls. Let this simmer for 30 min. Remove and let cool to the point you can handle them with rubber gloves on, now gently squeeze out the water. Follow the same steps for the second color, I used yellow first then green. 1/8Th tsp should be enough dye.

So here I have the first two steps done. Warning, dispose your water with the dye carefully, do not dye were you have foods, do not use utensils that you cook or eat with. So the next step I came up with by accident. Make sure the balls of yarn are squeezed gently of most the water, we don't need it dripping wet at this point. Now I rewind the balls from the outside on to the ball winder, this distributes the first two colors randomly. Now repeat the process with two more colors, which mine were, blue and red. Again squeeze gently, as much water as you can. Then I wind it up on my Knitty Knotty, tie it up and let it dry.

I had the best time !

Well, I know I'm a little late to talk about Valentines Day, but mine was so unexpected. That morning after Lonny and I got moving, and he headed out the door the phone rang, and it was my friend Jan, www.thebigredbarn.blogspot.com/ ; she said she was close to my house and had tried to call earlier, but I was talking to my Dad, and wondered if I was willing to run off to the bakery with her for goodies. Well anyone who knows me knows I'm all ways ready for something special. She all so had to drop her Golden Retriever Molly off at the groomers. This is a bakery that is very popular with the tourist, but especially with the locals. The Cinnamon Twisp Bakery is the place to go, they offer other things too, like soups and sandwiches. We had the best visit and time to talk about stuff. Thank you my dear friend for such a great surprise. Then I went home and made my sweetie some cookies. Later we (Lonny) and I went to Moon and Diana's house to pick up a exercise bike that I had lent them a couple of years ago, but they haven't been using it, so I thought I'd better, and we'll leave it at that.

So this week end I did some dyeing, and this is what I came up with, very festive. This is a sock weight yarn that I got from Knit Picks a mail order place for yarns and tools for knitting, they have a great catalog www.knitpicks.com This is 100% Merino wool and I'll probably make some socks out of it, I thought about using it for a woven scarf, but it's just to stretchy. I'll walk you through the process of how I did this later this week, it's very easy and fun, but not precise, for those who need to be that way. My pictures haven't been very good lately and I got to looking at my camera and the lens is really scratched. Mmmm when is the next holiday I could use for an excuse to go to the bakery, oh I know tomorrow is Wednesday, that would be a good reason! Oh yeah, I'm suppose to be using my exercise bike, well after maybe.

Some Days I'm just Thankfull for

This is a cute kitty that's picture is floating around cyber space, but it looks like I feel tonight. Last Sat. Katie, Teresa and I headed to Conconully to go spinning with our friends and guild members at Eva's house. Eve lives off the grid up in the Mt's, and if I were a bird I could fly there in minutes, but I'm not and I have to go the car route that takes an hour. Oh my what a beautiful ride it is, climbing up the Mt's. through a scenic valley of ranches and alfalfa fields. I've been on the road that Eve lives on while snowmobiling, but at the time I didn't know her. They have a lovely home, an Alpine type home, with vaulted ceilings with huge windows that look out over their meadow. Of course you can't see much for all the snow, but it is nice. Thanks for having us Eve. Here's Eva in the mid

dle between on the left her sister Marilyn and on the right Debbie. It was a great day and made me look forward for today Monday. Some of you already know that every second Monday of the Month I have a day of spinning at my house, and it's always a great day. One of the things I like to do is feed them well and I really like to make soup and it's become expected, well this time I made a Black Bean soup. This was a fabulous choice, I know I liked it and so did everyone else. The people who come also contribute food, and today it was lots of sweets. So soup then sweets and coffee, then included, good conversation and spinning, WOW I'm a happy girl. L. Diana

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Opps

I caught tis little lady busy flying around the flowers on a warm summer day! She's just beautiful.

Today I decided to look back on some of my favorite photos that I have had in my blog over the last two and a half years.

Starting with this one of the Eagle. We have this huge Ponderosa Pine right smack in the middle of our NW facing view, so when there is an unfortunate dear killing near by the Eagles seem to use this tree to rest in. Just last month we had two pairs of Golden Eagles and a pair of Bald Eagles. The Golden Eagles are by far much bigger than the Bald, but their both incredible to be so close to them and see them up close.

This was a really fun fall afternoon , my friend Katie and I had gone over to Conconully Wa to spin with our spinning guild over in that Okanagan-Omak area. Before we headed home we drove a little further north to a Lake Osoyoos. half of this lake is in Canada, so we were very close to the border. This Lady raised Alpacas on the lake, and she was selling out to move to California, And was selling all of her herd and fleeces. I got the most beautiful fleece, about the color of the little guy on the right. That was a very fun day.

Her in the Methow Valley, it's considered High Desert. So I think it means we have the best of both things, the Alpine like Mt's. and Pine trees and a hot dry summers. This is called a Rock Rose, not everyone has them in their yards, but we have the honor of having them in ours. They grow really close to the ground, and have no leaves, just these beautiful pink bursts of pink in morning and then they close up in the evening.

This is a fond memory of snowmobiling with our Son and Grand Daughter a couple of winters ago. We just rode around our property, but we had a blast. Sam will be Thirteen this year, it's hard to believe.

This is a picture of our Sunburst Locus Tree. Those people are L to R my Uncle Paul, me and my Dad. This was taken in late spring a couple of years ago. I was thinner then, oh well so it goes.

This year I'm not sure if Dad will be back, because since he left for the winter he has found out that he needs a four way bypass. He's made the decision at the age of almost 87 he's not going to have it done. Well who knows what what we would do if we were in his shoes. We will find out when it gets closer to summer.

So the things I have to look forward to in the near future is, having our Son and Grand Daughter visit at the end of March, my 59th Birthday on the 20th, the weavers conference in Spokane. Especially hearing from old and new friends on my blog, don't be afraid to leave a message.

Hope you enjoyed looking back with me! L. Diana Knits Plenty