Monday, December 31, 2012

A "Rockin" New Year's at the farm - - - -

 After a hard day of sleeping, Gracie and George do a little spit bathing to get ready for the big night. 

"Here George, let me get that for you", Gracie says...









 A hard day at sleep morphs into a hard night at sleep for Bella -









 


The Shepherd has wondered why this rock kept appearing in the middle of the pathway - the mystery is solved, and George shows off his fancy dance steps, for a Rockin' New Year's Eve.  See ya in 2013! 

Friday, December 28, 2012

Hello Effury body & kitty! It's CATURDAY!


 Hi Effury body - it's me, Gracie with the Caturday Report! 

I was giving Mummy a really bad time the other day because it has been such a long time since she let me do a Caturday Report. 

She said she was sorry, but she had been verrrry busy -  yeah, busy on that computer thingy.  Oh, well -

The Sheepies had a Spa Day last weekend, so Mummy was out helping the Shepherd.  She took lots of pictures of their furs and promises that she will show them to you next week. 

Meanwhile she took lots of pictures of me and Georgie with the flashie box.  (by the way, Mummy says that's not a sewer pipe in back of me, it is the place that she puts her shiny gazie ball on in the summer)  





Georgie is ruminating as to how many jumps up it will take him to get to the top of the arbor.  




 





 I think it too two, and we didn't tell The Shepherd that the next place he jumped was up onto the plastic bubble top of the greenhouse.  It makes The Shepherd furry mad when us kitties get up there, so I try to stay on his good side and stay down.  Heights make me dizzy anyhow. 
 






Speaking of heights...

This is where Bella likes to hang out.  Mummy wonders if she is hunting for birdies and just thinks she'll have a better chance up on the roof - and it scares Mummy in case Bella might think that she can fly.

Speaking of being a-skeert - Mummy got up to use her potty box the other night and discovered that all of us kitties were in the bed room with her and The Shepherd - when she listened at the window she knew why - it sounded like the ebil coyotes were all out in the front yard singing their songs.  They would sing, then the doggies next door would bark, then the coyotes would sing some more and then the doggies would bark some more.  Then a train went by (about 1/2 mile away) and when the whistle blowed, all them doggies and ebil coyotes were singing.  It was not a safe place for a kittie to be - out there with the singing coyotes.  We were glad that Mummy lets us come in the house. 

Whew - all that talk about the ebil coyotes singing makes me want to go take a nap.  Effurry body have a Happy New Year - Hopefully we'll be back next week with another Caturday Report.

Your roving reporter,  Gracie







Thursday, December 27, 2012

And now for something (not so completely) different...


 Last fall at the Artisan's Faire I participated in,  our friend Lydia bought some of my yarn and asked me if I could make fingerless gloves for her (grown) daughters for Christmas presents. 

Well, I love Lydia to pieces and was only too happy to comply.  In fact, I decided to go one step farther and make little cowls for the gals to match the gloves.  
 


In this set, for the cowl, I dipped into my stash of "little balls of yarn" and used bits and pieces of left over yarns from other projects, the turquoise from the gloves, next was some yarn that had turquoise, blue and golden brown from a baby sweater I made a few years ago, (which matched the golden that I had left over from making the other set - see below), then some navy, that had a little of the gold color in it from a hat I made for my sister, plus some light turquoise (which was some of the first yarn that I ever spun!) and then finally another couple of rows of the original color.

 


I don't think the colors could have gone together any better if I had planned them to be that way. 












 For as many crochet books and magazines that I have, I ended up making up this pattern from an afghan pattern that I found - and added two silver buttons to keep it closed. 



This was a "small" version of my favorite scarf - Mosiac Scarf's Little Sister - I used some Ferndale Fiber Potluck Roving called "Golden Pear" that I got last year at our friends fiber sale.  It is not a color that she makes on a regular basis, so I was lucky to get it. 

I was spinning it at the Artisans Faire to demonstrate how yarn was made.  Lydia bought it right off the wheel!  After I made the gloves, I looked at the gold with some brown alpaca that I had spun up and decided that they were a natural together.


It made quite a pretty ensemble, don't you think?  I just put one brown wooden button on this one - The roving was fairly soft and of course, the alpaca was absolutely dreamy. 

I hope that they are enjoying their gifts as much as I enjoyed making them. 

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Bring us some figgy pudding...

The word on the street is Merry Catmouse!   
(Does that Figgy Pudding come in Gourmet Grill flavor???)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

We wish you a Merry Christmas.....

We wish you a Merry Christmas!
(now get these stupid hats offun us)

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A Night For Bells to Ring

Free Church Unitarian, a drawing by Hal Logan
This past Sunday night was our church's Christmas program & concert.  The whole nine yards - the choir has been working for months on special music, our Religious Education director had been rehearsing with the children their Shadow Puppet show, and our new minister, Rev. Marcia Stanard had prepared some wonderful readings. 

It was truly "A Night For Bells to Ring". (one of the songs the choir had practiced for so long, made a wonderful title for the program, don't you think?)

Then the unimaginable tragedy in Newtown, CT happened on Friday morning.  How could anyone celebrate when so many were grieving? 

So we allowed as how bells ring for sadness too -and remembered the victims by lighting 26 candles,  and went on with our service.  It was a nice evening and our choir? We did a great job for 10 voices. 

And in the back of our minds, we all wondered, why? 


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Congrats, Bonnie -

Sometimes you have friends that you spend a lot of time with and then for one reason or another, they fade away.  In this case, I guess it was divorce and the ex-husband got us in the separation.

But I'd like to give a nod to an old friend Bonnie & her partner Ellen who were married Sunday on the steps of the Whatcom County Courthouse, as Ref. 74, allowing same sex marriage went into law on Sunday night. 

To quote Bonnie :The law caught up with love". .  You go, girls. 

Monday, December 10, 2012

The Dark Time of the Year

The next few weeks are my least favorite time of the year - it is cold - not so cold as in the "Frozen North" - but so cold that I got up and put on another night gown and a pair of socks last night.  I was still cold - an hour later, I got up and put another blanket on my side of the bed - The Shepherd kicks off most of his covers at one time or another during the night.  Go figure.

The song "Turning Toward the Morning" is a favorite of mine - I learned it many years ago from my friend & banjo teacher Mike Marker - The songwriter, Gordon Bok wrote it in response to a letter he received from a friend who was having a bad year - his words to her were full of encouragement that the morning always comes and spring will be here before you know it. 

Bok, who lives in Maine, rarely leaves the northeast, but if you get a chance to see him, don't miss it.  I found several renditions of the song by others on You-Tube but none that I would endorse by putting them here.  So you'll just have to believe me that this song will get you through the tough times.  


TURNING TOWARD THE MORNING
(Gordon Bok)

When the deer has bedded down
And the bear has gone to ground,
And the northern goose has wandered off
To warmer bay and sound,
It's so easy in the cold to feel
The darkness of the year
And the heart is growing lonely
For the morning

Chorus: 
Oh, my Joanie, don't you know
That the stars are swinging slow,
And the seas are rolling easy
As they did so long ago?
If I had a thing to give you,
I would tell you one more time
That the world is always turning
Toward the morning.

Now October's growing thin
And November's coming home;
You'll be thinking of the season
And the sad things that you've seen,
And you hear that old wind walking,
Hear him singing high and thin,
You could swear he's out there singing
Of your sorrow.

When the darkness falls around you
And the Northwind come to blow,
And you hear him call you name out
As he walks the brittle snow:
That old wind don't mean you trouble,
He don't care or even know,
He's just walking down the darkness
Toward the morning.

It's a pity we don't know
What the little flowers know.
They can't face the cold November
They can't take the wind and snow:
They put their glories all behind them,
Bow their heads and let it go,
But you know they'll be there shining
In the morning.

Now, my Joanie, don't you know
That the days are rolling slow,
And the winter's walking easy,
As he did so long ago?
And, if that wind would come and ask you,
"Why's my Joanie weeping so?"
Wont you tell him that you're weeping
For the morning?

Saturday, December 08, 2012

A New Mantra?


Well folks, I'm in luck.  They have now classified "hoarding disorder" as a a psychological condition in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). "Hoarding disorder" with it's own separate diagnosis, is characterized by a "persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value. 

Oh, man, I am so there...

And as soon as I can figure out how to give the ebil blogger some green papers, I'll be back in business with my owns pictures.  I have three days off next week.  Yay!