I couldn’t pass up this emblem on the side of a van in Wellington, NZ.  Apparently it’s a town in NZ and is the hub of the kiwi fruit.  Perhaps the town name has kept tourists away.

Yuck

This handsome fella was at a zoo we visited.  He is some sort of hairy hog.  You can see the food we purchased from a machine and tossed into his enormous mouth.  He didn’t bother to chew, just waited for more.

Here’s a random photo from my trip to Australia.  I realized I haven’t posted the pictures yet primarily because of my slow internet connection. So I will trickle them into the internet cybersphere slowly.   I love Sydney.  The harbor is full of activity day and night.  And it was spring.

We’ve had the predictable January thaw, the river overran the banks and ice floes backed up.  Tim heard it rushing all night while I was away visiting family and friends. We remained high and dry.  We may win the battle with the cluster flies. Tim found nests and got rid of them and then sprayed insecticide in the windows.   But now the carpet beetles may feast on the dead cluster flies – could this be a problem if we don’t have carpets – and they will get fat and happy and attack my woolens!!!!   OHHH NOOOOOO.

Ice Climbers, Otis Mountain

Barred Owl, Tupper Lake

Bird feeder back in business

The birds have returned.  After a two-week absence, they suddenly returned.  I thought they left because word was out that the feeder was too close to the house and they were bumping their little heads on the windows when they flew off in the wrong direction.  So after a very brief vacation elsewhere, they came back.  Maybe that’s their memory attention span.  After the first couple of collisions when they returned, I moved the feeder.  This was no easy feat with the ground frozen and almost a foot of snow on the ground.  With the trusty sledgehammer,which takes two hands to hold, and a January thaw, I repositioned it off an angle of the house.  Now they have cleared flight patterns in 3 directions and only a rare bird bumps into the house.   And I get to watch birds all day.  We tried to put water outside too but it froze in about 30 minutes.  We’re counting on them finding the mighty Boquet River, down the road.

How lucky are we?  The Magic Hat Brewery is located just across the Lake in South Burlington, VT.  We learned about tastings when we lived near the Blue Point Brewery but now we were able to sample beer that included Number 9!  Andre filled a growler of Howl for us and we brought it home to enjoy.  A growler holds about 6 pints of fresh brewed beer that needs to be drunk in one setting for the best experience.

Tim and his new hat in the Magic Hat tower

My new favorite handspun hat

The temperature has plummeted again.  We went in the hot tub last night when it was 4 degrees F outside.  Luckily the water was 104 but quickly cooled to 100.  Still very nice. The air was crisp, the sky was so clear that there were so many more stores visible than usual and we both saw several shooting stars.   The problem is that it’s been so cold, I’ve been a couch potato.  I snowshoed a couple of times last week and will probably venture out today.  We’re waiting for our replacement rowing machine so we can workout indoors when we feel like it.

There are many fiber projects in the works.  I finished this hat for Tim last night, complete with a spiderman placemat as a brim.  He’ll be a superhero.  It looked good on him in the hot tub!

New Hat for Tim

Everyday is a fiber adventure.  I may have hit my scarf capacity.  Weaving is a super fast way to make scarves and with a luxury yarn, they are beautiful.  This is my second scarf, warped.  Both woven scarves were with yarn I purchased during my trip to New Zealand.  Warping the loom is the time consuming process where you have to thread individual strands through small eyes.  Once it’s set up though, the weaving flies.  You need a lot of space to get started as shown above.  Now I’m on to placemats and towels.  So little time.

Boucle Scarf

Now that we have easy access to the great outdoors in the Adirondack Park, I have been thinking about  2 camps of hiking.  I love to be outdoors, just moving my legs and enjoying the sights and sounds.  Everything is too frozen this time of year to offer any scent – well mostly, except that sometimes there’s a bad smell on the porch and people get falsely accused.  My goal is to burn calories in an enjoyable way so I can consume 3X the same amount of calories later.   Somehow that seems to maintain the balance even if the math doesn’t work out.

Camp in the Woods

Sometimes to the disdain of the others, one can be very happy snow shoeing or cross country skiing on a golf course or in their own backyard.   The second camp wants a destination, a peak or pinnacle as a goal for the hike.  Even better the view from the top should be enjoyed standing on the edge of a cliff.  Generally, same amount of calories burned but greater fear factor.

Camp at the top

hmmmm, who took this picture