Peace Breaks Out, Sort of

I blogged a couple of weeks ago about our new cat, Marvin, who has decided that of all the houses he's lived in on the island ours is the one he wants to live in, at least for the moment. As you can imagine, our other two cats, Chas and Fang, weren't all that happy with his decision. But for the most part hostilities were limited to glares and the occassional hiss. The only exception was when Fang, for some unknown reason, leaped into my lap when Marvin was lying there and all @#$$% broke out. I do hate cats fights whern they occur on my lap!! For a week after that those two, seen above, would skirt each other with as wide a margin as our small cabin allows. Fang absolutely has refused to take any responsibility for his rather dumb act and was sure that Marvin had attacked him (and vice versa). All my insistence that it was an accident fell on deaf ears.

So imagine my surprise when I came into the living room and saw both Marvin and Fang sleeping on the same small sofa. Not touching and as far away from each other as possible, but not hissing or even glaring. There's hope.

Marmalade

Once again I've been making marmalade. I got a case of Seville oranges from Ripe to You
I shared a 16# box with a friend and half of the box made 20 pts. The recipe I used called for a navel orange which I didn't have so I just substituted another Seville. I also realized too late that I had used up the last of the whiskey in the fruit cakes so had to leave that out this year. It tastes wonderful.

New Blog from a Friend

My friend, Mary Ann Dow who has been sewing up my fabric into her beautiful vests has started a blog about it http://sewnbymdow.blogspot.com/. Follow us.

Gypsy Cat

Friday night Marvin, the peripatetic Waldron gypsy cat showed up on our porch meowing pathetically as if he hadn't eaten for WEEKS. Does he look like it? Marvin has been on the island for 4 or 5 years. His first owners moved off and gave him to someone else. But he prefers wandering around the island from house to house between bouts of living off the land. He has been sitting on all our laps watching movies with us, sleeping on Siri's bed with her, and taking over the sofa whenever he can. Our other cats, Chas and Fang are not amused but no fights have broken out. We're curious to see how long he plans on staying. He's a huge cat, bigger than any of our cats, so we'll have to stock up on more kibbles if he makes an extended stay. Meanwhile he is completely welcome. We're enjoying his visit.

January

And there they are, the first snowdrops. We haven't had any snow yet, but that is predicted for this weekend and next week. We've been enjoying a visit from youngest daughter from New York and eating the fantastic cake that she made. And it is obvious that little by little the light is coming back.

Boating in January

I'm sitting in the boat in Friday harbor. We had a rocking and rolling trip over late this afternoon. The town was so pretty as we came in just at dusk. The Christmas lights are still up. I appreciate that in the dark days of January.

Fang and Chas, pictured above, are probably curled up on the sofa just like that in the dark. The house will be a bit cold but they have each other. I feel bad when we leave them over night, but here, this time of year, we can't always get everything done in the daylight hours. They will look at us as if we are strangers when we invade "their" house tomorrow afternoon.

I like traveling by boat. I'd much, much rather do that, even in the wind, than travel on the freeway. No traffic, no drunks (at least not this time of year), no deer on the road. Just a good sturdy dependable boat. And I like to sleep on it in the port here. You can feel the bow waves from every ferry that comes in. The wind rocks it gently, well mostly gently. It's a small cabin, but cozy. Not a big enough boat to actually live on for any amount of time, but a nice comfy camp aboard.

Tomorrow I am getting another pair of prescription glasses. My 3rd pair in 20 years. They usually last less than a year before I loose them, break them, or drop them off a boat. So I much prefer simple reading glasses from the drugstore. When you drop a $4.00 pair of glasses in the water it's not much of a tragedy. My Dad was always dropping his glasses overboard, too. He finally simply wore two pair of reading glasses, one over the other. I think my dropping glasses off boats may be genetic. Time will tell with these new ones. Wish me luck.

2012

My goodness, it is actually 2012. I was glad to see that the first part of The Hobbit is schedule to be shown on December 14 a week before the end of the Mayan calendar. Although I am sure that if the Mayan culture that created the calendar still existed craftsmen would be busy all year carving new calendars to start the next cycle.

I started this blog several years ago to follow a year in the life of the farm. Every year on the first of January I find myself wondering what I am going to write this year. Things don't normally change a lot and the sort of things that excite in my daily life don't always make for great reading. I tend to start watching the ground under the birch tree for the first shoots of the snowdrops, for example. Not earth shaking stuff.

But there is a rhythm to my year and the first of a new year finds me planning what I am going to weave and knit for this upcoming season. I want to figure out some new things but also need to fill up the stock of the dependable standbys such as potholders, placemats, rag rugs, hats, etc. So I am tying a new warp onto an old placemat warp to start a new batch

of hats. I knit up a lot of them and wait to do the felting until spring when I am about to start selling them as it takes up a lot less room to store them in this shape. I am about to put in an order for my favorite yarn from Webs filling the gaps in colors in the hats I have left from last year. And I need to order more rug warp for making rag rugs, placemats, and potholders.

And, of course, there are the seed catalogues. I actually filled in a couple of blanks on an order form this morning. But there is a lot of work to be done inventorying the leftovers from last year and combing each and every catalogue for something new and exciting as well as the best price on the old standbys. A new year is opening up. I love it.