Lacy petals

 Hello all!

Monday August 17th and just about 2 weeks left until we go back to school on 1st September.  Enough about that!

I am happy today because I have finished and have submitted the final paper for the Textiles Material Science course I have been doing with the University of Borås in Sweden. It feels great to have pressed the 'Submit' button at last and to have one less thing on my list of Things to Do This Summer. 

I still have some written work to do on the Foundation Certificate of Achievement in Spinning, so you know, there is never a dull moment. 

The weather is overcast, still, warm and humid today. Grey skies, a soft drizzle and humidity of 70%! I have to say I got a bit of a shock there when I saw Relative Humidity of 70%. I rarely look at the humidity levels, but even I think that 70% is high, no?

We had some fine sunny days last week and I discovered that a small leaf-cutter bee has been utilising the petals of some flowers I have on the side deck. The petals had begun to look 'lacy' I thought, but I just presumed they were dying back or something. Then when I was sitting outside last week, I noticed a small bee carrying pieces of petal to a gap in the wood of our house wall. Then I watched her emerge and to my surprise she flew down to a bright yellow flower (Black-Eyed Susan) and cut an oval shaped piece from it, then flew back to the gap and in with her. 

As you can see from the photos, which were taken a few hours apart, she took pieces from the yellow flower first, then later on took pieces from the orange flower. 

Quite amazing to witness. I read later that she is a solitary bee, a leaf-cutter bee, and she uses the pieces of petal/leaf to make individual nests where she lays one egg. 

I hope to get a photo or video of here, but perhaps she is finished laying her eggs, or maybe the grey weather doesn't suit her. I live in hope!

August 5th 2020. D-Day minus 26.

Well people, it seems like a long time since I first started writing about lockdown and covid. I remember the freshness of those days on April when we were all walking along the country roads and getting out fix of fresh air and exercise 2km from home. 

All is well here thankfully. I am still trying to get my fix of fresh air and exercise along the road. I do notice though that there are far fewer people walking and cycling then there was back in April. I also notice the loud and quite constant hum of the traffic from the main road when I walk. And when I drive to town, the roads are almost as busy as they used to be. 

The seasons are beginning to turn a little again now. It is August, and still summer (even though in Ireland August is technically the first month of autumn). Still, one can see that the evenings are a little darker, a little earlier. It doesn't help that we have had so much rain for the past week on and off. Last Wednesday in Kenmare, Co Kerry, the town square was flooded and some shops lost lots of stock and shop fittings. Some days you would think the calendar had just gone straight to October. 

On the bright side, we are going to have some warm days in the coming week, I hope they might even be dry and not humid and rainy. Definition of winter in Ireland: cold and wet. 

Definition of summer in Ireland: mild and wet. 

Nevertheless, one has to get out and enjoy the days the best we can. 

All too soon it will be time to go back to school. That is what I mean by 'D-Day minus 26' in the blog title today. 26 days until I have to go back to school on 1st of September. My son might go back the previous week. My daughters will go back on 28th September. 

I am going to enjoy the days I have now without alarm clocks and deadlines. 

I hope all reading this are well. 

Wednesday July 22nd 2020

All is thankfully well here. I have just been a bit busy with online courses.

I am pleased to report that I finished 2 teachers' CPD courses in the past 2 weeks, as well as doing the Final exam in my Geology course with Stockholm University. I have an application in for next September, continuing with Geography/Geology, as well as which I have applied for a course in Introductory Biology. Gotta keep these brain cells turning over!
I have sold 2 spinning wheels since last we spoke: a beautiful shiny metallic Alpha Herring spinning wheel (see photo below) which has made its way to the UK and a Donegal wheel (pictured below)  which is now in Dublin. I also ended up buying a wheel, along the way, an Ashford Kiwi that will go to a beginner spinner before long, I just need to replace some small bits that are missing on it. 


I have some Textile and Spinning written work to complete and I am going to get it done!  Determined as all get out here....
I am also attacking corners of the house where stuff has build up over the past year eg, today it was time to move out some soccer boots and hiking boots that my DS has outgrown. Some school and college books also had to go, so off I went to the charity shop with them all.
More corners and attics await during the rest of the summer. There are knitting machines and spinning wheels to go, too.
There is also some planting to be done, so I am working on clearing a space for the flowers I have to go in to. Hopefully I can also begin to prepare a space for vegetable growing next year.

The Alpha Herring spinning wheel

Donegal wheel made by the Shiels family, Carndonagh. 

In other words, there is still plenty on my to-do list, which awaits me every day on a hulking huge Sticky Note when I start up this laptop.

 I am reading Icelandic thrillers by Ragnar Jónasson. Usch, the Hulda series are blood-curdlingly scary. The Ari Thor books are not so scary yet, the author seems to have honed his craft as he wrote the books. There is a sense of menace and oncoming disaster in the later books, which frankly has me refusing to read the books late at night!
One result of all this Icelandic stuff is that I have started dabbling in learning Icelandic! Online language courses are great things.

I hope people are well.
This Covid situation looks like it will go on for a while yet. I do not yet know what school will be like in September. Take care everyone out there.

Day 4 of Tour de Fleece, 30th June 2020 (Day 110 since school closures)

Tuesday, 30-6-2020.
Day 4 of the Tour de Fleece 2020.
I have been spinning some purple-blue-pink-silk fibre for the Tour. It is lovely; my only problem is that I tend to spin so fine. It takes me ages to get to the end of a braid. Also it is a strain on the hands.
So maybe it is time for me to change my practice and aim for a thicker yarn by default.
In the meantime, here is a photo of a bobbin one third full with very fine purple yarn.

Today I said Goodbye to a special spinning wheel: my Alpha Herring spinning wheel is now making its way to a new home.  I decided recently that I need to reduce the amount of wheels in the  house, and I found somebody who had wanted one of these wheels for a while. So contact was made and the wheel was sold. I am sure the new owner will love it to bits. In the meantime I have 15 others to enjoy. Here is the photo of the Alpha: metal frame, metal drive wheel, metal bobbins, metal flyer, metal lazy kate and wooden treadle. Such a beauty.

Tour de Fleece Day#1 27th June 2020 (Day 107 of restrictions)

Hello all, 
Today is the first day of the Tour de Fleece 2020. What is that, you might ask? Well, The Tour de Fleece (TdF) is an annual event, in which spinners around the world spin along with the Tour de France cycling competition. The Tour de France has been postponed this year, but the Tour de Fleece will go ahead. 

So on the days, they (would normally) spin, we spin. And there are challenge days and rest days. It is non-competitive. you just decide on your own challenges and goals. 

Today I am hosting a Zoom Spin Café for spinners (and other crafters) and that is going to be very interesting. 

Hopefully I get the chance to spin a bit myself too, though I may mostly be making sure everyone else is ok. 

I will be back to put in some photos of my spinning as it proceeds during the Tour. 

Best of luck to all spinners out there! I hope you have an interesting and productive Tour. 

Purples, pinks and blues in this fibre, with some silk. Yum.

Sunday 21st June 2020 Day 101

101 days since schools closed. Hard to believe.
I got my Summer holidays last Friday.
The weather turned all wet, windy and cool.
Not to worry, usual Irish Summer weather so...
Swedish Midsommar last Friday and we had nypotatis and sill, (new potatoes and herring)etc,
Father's Day in Ireland today Sunday.
I am still trying to finish the Geology and the Textiles courses, and there is also the spinning of course, and the gardening and the spring-cleaning,
and the walks to be had and the plants to be spotted and the family to socialise with...
Have a great summer.
I will pop in here as and when I can.
Stay well, thankfully we are well too.

Liz

Day 89, Tuesday 9th June 2020

Tuesday, 9th June 2020.
It is almost 13 weeks since the schools closed. Today I went into my classroom to tidy it up and to prepare for the coming school year. I had to move books from my room to another room, then collect books from a different room for the class I will have next year. I was there for 6 hours!
Tidying always feels great, moving stuff on, throwing stuff out (i.e. bringing things home to recycle them) and making plans for the coming year.
The past few weeks have been very busy. I had end of year school reports to write and I had two online exams to do in the part-time Geography and Textiles courses I am studying. All went well, thankfully, and now there is just the last 2 weeks of school as such, and then I have my school holidays for July and August. It is going to be very interesting to see how we are are going to return to school in September, what the guidelines are going to be, etc.
I have been getting my walks every day, not always 10,000 steps, as the right foot is giving me  a bit of grief if I walk too far on it, but I still walk , just in two shorter walks instead.
I have been taking photos of wild flowers and grasses, but they do not turn out too good, they just look like a mass of greenery, so not much to post here really. I will see if I can find a few good ones.
Ireland has moved into Phase 2 of reopening the country. Phase 1 meant people could travel up to 5km from home to exercise etc, whereas before that people had to stay within 2km of home. With Phase 2, we can travel anywhere in our own county and if a person lives at a county border, then they can travel up to 20km into the neighbouring county. Shops have opened up again, yes even IKEA. Penneys (Primark) is going to open in a few days time.
I have zero desire to go shopping. I buy online now. I bought a pair of new runners online, just like the old (torn) ones I already had, same brand, size and colour. Perfect.  I bought 2 music magazines for my husband; he had been talking of going to town to look for the magazines, but a phone-call ascertained that they weren't in stock; in fact, they hadn't come in from UK at all so I just went online and bought them for him instead. I bought cutlery from Sweden, just like the ones my dear Swedish mother-in-law Inger in Karlstad used to have, and they remind me of her everytime I open the cutlery drawer. I have a very cute little item coming next week, which I will share with you when I get it.
I even bought a spinning wheel from Holland and some baby houseplants! I need to order extra bobbins for the spinning wheel from Holland also. I bought a hand-embroidered picture of a kitchen with a spinning wheel from Sweden also. I am looking online for a Rock kit, for my geology class.
I may never again leave home!!

All is well here, thankfully. I am so lucky to be living on this quiet country road, with fantastic cows and calves grazing in the green fields all around, with birdsong and wildflowers blooming and thriving, and with friendly neighbours. Life is good, and I hope it is good for all y'all too.