Grey clouds with shafts of sunlight create beautiful colors. Storms don’t seem too bad from the comfort of my couch.
Here’s a friend’s barn on Sunday. The colors were
very dramatic.
Tonight, pink clouds formed over the mountains, followed by lightning and gravel sized hail.
Who needs TV with all this drama outside.
Is experienced fully with body and mind aboard a boat. A delightful sunny day turned from this:
To this:
Winds picked up, water turned green, happily after we were safely anchored and had swum and taken a tour in the dinghy.
These clouds were a dead giveaway there was something brewing.
Sunset was beautiful despite (or because of) the whistling wind.
I hesitate to say I’m a procrastinator but it’s true. Deadlines focus me. We head off to Alaska next week and I still have some quilting and weaving projects to complete. My house is never cleaner than before a party or trip.
I finished knitting the cute little sea glass skirt. I may make another for me.
Next I have to plan my island projects. I may keep it simple and take only wool for a shawl and pair of socks but I’m also thinking of lots of twined mittens and perhaps a sock yarn blanket.
On the home front, I’ve been yearning for an outdoor shower. I had considered threading a hose into a watering can but settled upon this cheaper alternative, all available from my local hardware store. We have hot water at our outdoor faucet and I’ve already tried it. A resounding success.
After a great trip downstate to hug my kids before I leave, I returned to more super cumulous storm clouds.
I am obsessed with many things, all habit forming, but with good intentions. My latest kick is geomagnetic storms and the number of near asteroid collisions every day as reported on Spaceweather.com. For instance, “On December 2, 2011 there were 1272 potentially hazardous asteroids”! There was a 40% chance we could see the aurora borealis earlier this week but no luck. But I guess that’s OK since we didn’t get annihilated by an asteroid either. So I photograph clouds instead.
Not Northern Lights
I’ve reassembled my new loom and started my first project yesterday. Through the kindness of a weaving friend, I was gifted an essential tool and some lovely yarn. I’ve decided to use my world as a warping board, where the yarn is stretched out in preparation of putting it on the loom. We have a long railing upstairs so with 2 C-clamps and pegs, I organized enough yarn for 2 scarves. Plus I am counting the process as exercise since I had to walk the 10 yards from one peg to the other.
My world is a warping board
As with religion, the cross is a holy symbol in weaving. It’s how one keeps the yarn from getting all twisted around itself. This ingenious peg board made it “too easy”. Note the cross formed between the middle pegs.
The cross
And after a mere 3 hours, here it is, my first project, 2-3 inches complete. Easy peasy, just put the yarn on the loom, try to prevent it from becoming a tangled curly mess, put it through the right heddles and dents, tie it onto two beams, and tie up the treadles. I even learned how to repair broken warp threads and why the method I used is not the best way to warp “sticky” yarn.
First draft
Now that the days are getting shorter, I have more of a chance of catching the sunrise colors. We don’t actually see the sun rise because it’s behind a mountain but we get the indirect effect.
Sunrise clouds
Yesterday’s weather was exciting. Top wind speed was 48 knots (55 mph), which classifies it as a Storm on the Beaufort Scale. I couldn’t walk against it. The weather station recorded it as the highest for the year and gave a wind warning and told us to hold onto our hats. It was so loud we couldn’t hear the foghorn.
The rider mower and the weather station are my two favorite gadgets here. The jury is still deciding if the mower is going to remain on island but I think I may have fixed the temperature sensor on the weather station by connecting a wire, which was loose.
We had already boarded up the house and put outdoor furniture, grills and planters away. Our only casualty was a broken oar on the dinghy. We checked the boat during the strong winds and it was secure but there was a new moon and very high tide and it must have been tossed around.
The dinghy was fine, except for sand and seaweed washed into it
but the working end of paddle broke off and rendered it useless. We had a few extra oars in the boat house and I drilled a hole in one for the oarlock and it looks fine. It’s too rough to test it today because it’still very windy but we should get a chance tomorrow.
Tim and I have matching injuries. My index finger got mildly caught in the flywheel of the string trimmer. Oops.
I want to figure out what these are. Any ideas?
Island and North Country Life 