Finally. . .

I'm finally getting over my cold - the local doc's even have a name for the "The Whatcom County Crud" - guaranteed to make your life miserable for AT LEAST three weeks! I used up two BIG boxes of Kleenex tissues and I coughed so much that the cat's won't even sleep with me anymore (although that might not be a bad thing...)

I love forsythia - The Shepherd won't let me plant one in the garden because he says they get leggy and spread. Well, he's the one who has to take care of the garden, so, unfortunately, I have to bow to his wishes on that decision. But we have this itty bitty one in a pot, out in the greenhouse that always makes me smile.

Have a good day everyone.

We interrupt this normally sedate blog

Photo from the WWU website

I'm not much of a huge basketball fan, but how could I not be proud of my Alma Mater and the Western Washington University Men's Basketball team for winning the team’s first NCAA Division II national title on Saturday at Northern Kentucky University. They defeated Montevallo (Ala.), 72-65, in a nationally televised game to cap off a 31-5 season.

Way to go Vikings, Way to go!

My new favorite sleeping spot...

I have found a wonderful place to sleep -

It's high up and I can keep my eyes on Mummy and Gracie as they lounge in bed.















A perfect place to "perfect" my furs.




















It's the Cable Box.















Mummy says I have to keep my tail out of the way so her clickker will work


















So I get a nice nap and a warm butt all at the same time. What more could a kitty ask for - except maybe the food dish within reach...

Nighty night all.

Hey Everyone it's Caturday!

Hello everybody and everykitty!

It has been an exciting week here on the farm - The man with the clippers came and now all the sheeps are "nekked" - as in without their sheeps furs!

Brrrr - it's a cold week to do that Mr. Shepherd

Anyhow, I'm sitting up here out of the way of the vishus sheeps and the man with the clippers - I wouldn't like to have him get any ideas...although The Shepherd said something about Bella needing a haircut...


The guy with the clippers (Mummy said he's actually called a "Shearer") name is Zander. This is the second year that he's cut our sheeps furs and The Shepherd seemed pretty happy with how things came out.

They always do the boy sheeps first - (they are the most vishus you know) and besides that, Vern, (the big guy) has handles. He was very well behaved this year and didn't squirm around much.








Mummy sat outside in a yard chair and watched and took pictures - it took two hours - she got kind of cold.










After shearing off all the sheeps furs, they all got a pedicure. But no hot stones or pink nail polish. What good is a pedicure with no pink nail polish?

Mummy tried a new thing - she took a movie so you could see how it went -










Mummy here - Here are seven of the ten fleeces that we got this year - The shepherd was pretty pleased and so was Zander, as although we thought they were starting to "roo" (or shed) it didn't seem like he was shearing in the rise - the fleeces came off really easily. I think they will all be for sale, except the pretty brown one in the front.

Back to you Gracie -

Well - it's a good thing that Mummy took all these pictures for you, because the shearer man's clippers made so much noise I was scared away and went and took a nap on the big bed.

I don't know how much Mummy will post this week because she has a really bad hacky coughy snotty cold! She even spent the whole day at home in bed on Friday and I heard her say that hardly ever happens - Oh well, we just got a little more snuggle time in with her.

See ya next week! XOX Gracie

Silk blend yarn -

This is the yarn the I made from the Louet Northern Lights Handpainted Roving 12.509 Fire Moss that I got with my Christmas Cash.

It was pencil roving - I'd never spun pencil roving and thought it sounded like fun - It is certainly easy to spin nice even singles with out any effort.







Part of it I plied with the silk that I spun from the silk caps at our January spinner guild meeting.

The silk was very close in colors to the roving by very much of a coincidence.









If you click on the picture, it will biggify and you can see the subtle difference in the yarn that is 100% wool and the yarn that is 50-50 wool and silk.









The yarn has a lot of the same colors from this photo of the trunk of our river birch - don't you think?

It isn't as soft as I would like - so maybe not scarf material - but most likely a very pretty hat.

The Caturday Report!!

Hello everybody and every Kitty!

It's me, Lonely Gracie with the Caturday Report.

I'm lonely, because Mummy has gone off to a spinning retreat - what ever that is - I know she loaded up the car with a bunch of sheep furs and the spinning machine and went off with her friend Nancy G.

She left me, George, Bella and The Shepherd here all by ourselves!






This is one of the things that happened this week - It SNOWED again! The Shepherd had the guy with the clippers scheduled to come out on Tuesday and cut off the sheep's furs. Mummy and The Shepherd laugh because they say that it almost always snows when the clipper guy comes.

On Monday - the day before they were supposed to shear the sheep's furs off of them - the guy with the clippers called and said he was sick and couldn't make it on Tuesday. Mummy said it's not nice to fool Mother Nature - She got mad and made it snow anyhow! But it didn't stick very long - The guy is scheduled to come back next week on Tuesday. Guess what the weather report says for that day??? Yup, snow. We'll see, I guess.


One more thing to show you from this week -

Isn't this a pretty flower - Mummy said it is a Lenten Rose - they always bloom in the early spring - and they come in all shades from this dark purple to pinky to white.

I hope you've had a good week. See you next Caturday!

XOX - Gracie

Prime Real Estate - Ready to Occupy -

This lovely birdie apartment is ready for new tenants.


It has a panoramic view of the ram pasture and the back yard.








This cozy little number has a view of the front yard and pasture. In a few weeks the front pasture will be full of lambs to watch.











Uh, excuse me there Bella - No kitties allowed in this apartment building!

Hey Everyone it's Caturday!

Hello everybody and every kitty! It's ME, Gracie, with the Caturday Report!

Mummy has been giving me a bad time about my tummy, so I've decided to do some sit-ups.

1000 and 1,









Well, that's good for now, don't you think?

I told Mummy that if she didn't get on the computer tonight and do a Caturday report, all of our friends would think we had gone on to the next world, expired, kapootsky!

But she said, no, you'd all know that she's just been busy with things at the salt mine and had to do her church noosletter, and that you would forgive her for not being around more.




So, we'll spend the next week catching up - showing you what's been happening in our neck of the woods

Boy, that sit-up really tired me out. I think I'll take a little nap.

See you all later. XOX Gracie