I Can See the Light

This coming Saturday is the February Winter Farms Market in Friday Harbor.  So we have been out today in the mud harvesting winter bounty.  The cabbages are especially nice and we have them in purple and green round and pointy.  They are so dependable and make it through rain and snow and cold and about whatever the weather throws at them.  And the purple broccoli is starting to flower.  It is my favorite early spring vegetable.  Much ore common in Britain than here, it overwinters to provide delectable food early in the year.

I was outside until after 5:00 washing carrots and beets. And I could still see, mostly.  The light is definitely coming back.  Saturday will be Candelmas the medieval first day of spring, halfway between the solstice and the equinox and about the time when it becomes obvious that the light is returning.  I can see it, and the snowdrops can, too.  They open their flowers to welcome that lovely returning  light.

Birding

Joel gave me a new bird feeder for Christmas.  My old one which I had had for years and years was falling apart and I knew that one day soon the bottom was going to fall out and scatter seeds all over.  This one is really pretty and holds twice as much as the old one.  Either I will have to fill it less often or I'll end up feeding more birds.  Which would be just fine.  I hag it from a tree over a  bunch of brush to keep the cats from being able to easily get at the birds.  Seems tyo work.

I have become addicted to bird nest cams this last year.  I started out with REd Tailed hawks at Cornell University, moved onto Ospreys at the University of Montana and this winter am glued for many hours to a wildlife cam in Botswana, Pete's Pond.  There among zebras, elephants, impalas, and baboons to name only a few are some of the most amazing African birds.  As the cam is 10 hours from where I live I can get up int he morning and watch the sun set in Botswana and watch it come up in the evening  I find this world of the internet totally amazing.

If you would find watching birds hatch and raise their young here is a list of bird nest cams all over the world.  A warning:  It's is addicting.   http://www.viewbirds.com/

Towels for Stash Reduction

 I recently bought a fairly large number of cones of bright colors 20/2 cotton yarns.  As I looked at my yarn cabinets I came to the obvious conclusion that if I am going to find any place to put this yarn I am going to have to use up a bunch of the partial cones of various things I've got lying around.  Two very good sorts of project for using up bits and pieces are scarves and tea towels.  As a lot of the yarn is medium sized cotton I am currently in a frenzy of weaving tea towels.  The above pastel ones use up three cones of pastel 8/2 cotton that I bought to make baby blankets.  The weft is some white cotton flake that I got on ebay a while ago.

 The ones right above are made with fairly heavy 3/2 organic natural colored cotton.  These are going to be a lot coarser than the pastel ones or the ones below but I think they will do for hard work.  I love the natural colored cotton colors and they will darken as they are washed.  The pattern is a huck lace.

The above are still on the loom and are made with a bunch of 8/2 cotton I bought at the fair From some one else's stash reduction.  The orange, yellow and red yarns called out for a windowpane type of plaid outlined with black.  All three batches are really different.  I'll have them for the 2 big Thanksgiving/Christmas crafts fair this year and the leftovers for Christmas presents.  And, yes, I am also making scarves out of other sorts of yarns.  And my waste baskets are getting full of empty cones.  I love it.

Halloween Traditions

Halloween has come and gone.  With no kids around the place we don't do much to celebrate and there is no trick or treating here.  But we do have a tradition of carving 3 pumpkins and putting them out at the end of the driveway at dusk with candles in them.  They're just for anyone driving by.

This is followed by Halloween tradition #2, roasted pumpkin seeds.  We get this treat just once a year and so we enjoy it while it lasts.  We clean the seeds from the pulp and put them in the oven until they are crispy.  Some friends add a bit of oil and salt or herbs.    I can't believe it but we've already eaten about half of them.

Our Famers Market

Our Farmers market moved last fall to our new site in downtown Friday Harbor,
WA. Brickworks, and we've been there all this last season.  Last weekend was our last weekly outdoor market and we will once again move to the high school for the winter market. (Okay, actually there is a bit of  glitch as someone else has reserved the high school dining hall for Nov. 3 so we will be back at Brickworks for that one market.  Hope it isn't too cold).  The renovation of the old Brickworks building has begun and fund raising to get it finished is ongoing. We so hope we can get it finished so we can use it next winter.  Meanwhile one of the Market's neighbors, Wes Shaw,  took this time lapse series of photos of one of the September markets.  Thought you might enjoy seeing it.

Rain at Last

When the weather finally decided to change it did so with a vengeance.  After nothing but a few spits of rain since the end of July it is now POURING.  It's about time.  A week ago I was saying that all this sunshine was  beginning to get to me.  It had  begun to feel spooky.  It was so still and clear and sunny.  Not right for October in the Pacific Northwest.  Well, no longer.  The ground is so dry that it can't soak up all this rain so we have puddles everywhere.  But the dust is settled and I can see all the plants relaxing.  Everything had begun to look weary and dusty and dry.  Well, here's to Fall and holing up inside by the fire knitting, weaving, reading, cuddling the cats.  I have to admit that I like this time of year. And speaking of the cats they keep going from one door to another hoping that summer will be behind one of them.  And when it isn't, looking pathetically at me to DO SOMETHING.

Squash Season

 It is October and although we've had a few frosts that haven't hurt anything it was time to get the squash in.  The plants are starting to die down and any night now we could get a serious frost that would damage the fruits.

 This is one of my favorite garden activities.  I love searching through the squash vines and finding that incredible bounty.  We took in 3 wheelbarrow loads of various squashes.  Above are golden acorn and delicatas,

 here are more delicatas and green acorns

 and here the maxima type of squashes, Sweet Mamas and Sunshine.

 We put them into the hoophouse to cure for a week or two.

 There wasn't enough room there for the pumpkins so those went into the greenhouse until we haul them over to Market.

 There wasn't room in either place for the Long Pie pumpkins so those will have to wait a day or two until we shift things around in the hoophouse.  The weather report looks like it will be safe to do that for a couple of more days.

The aftermath.  No matter how carefully we searched for squashes we know we will come back as the plants continue to die and find a few more.  It's like hunting for eggs in a hay loft.  Oh, the bounty of the garden.  No danger of going hungry this winter.