Coming and Going... in the Sacramento Valley

Yesterday was the third time in a week that I have driven to the Valley. Twice I have gone to the hospital to see the eye doctor. Thursday for an eye exam and to order the eye glasses... then yesterday to pick up my new glasses. That's a record for getting a new pair of glasses. That's five days with a weekend in between. I've never received new prescription glasses that fast... ever. When they called yesterday to tell me the glasses were ready, I was stunned. Do you suppose that they are getting stimulated by the government?
On Saturday I drove down to Elk Grove for our monthly goat meeting. This was fun. The day was beautiful. I got to see Dick and Jane's farm, again, their big ol' dogs and their flock of Alpine Goats. We had a good meeting. Talked about the Cal-Am Goat show in Plymouth on May 7th and what needed to be done before the event.  I will host the next meeting. Guess I had better let Brownie Goat know that we are going to have company. I don't want him to stress out.
At one point after the meeting, I asked the really important question.... "Where can I get some goat fleece?" This was the right group to ask. I now have three different sources for wool fleece and yarn in this area. Thank you Jane, Elenore, Rebecca and Gwen for all the information. Especially Gwen who emailed me all of the names and phone numbers of the sources. I REALLY appreciated it

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Yesterday I drove down the highway to South Sacramento and picked up my new eye glasses, had some lunch and then (as a treat for all the weary driving and .... and for having to drive in all of that traffic.... and for the strain on my country bumpkin mentality.) I went to....

I needed a very small sized pair of needles for the knitted flowers that I've been making. I walked out of this store with a bag filled to the brim with MORE YARN and some wool fabric.

This wool fabric is so beautiful. I can't find it anywhere in the mountains. So I grabbed it up when I saw it. I thought it was on sale. There was this sign above the bolts of fabric that said 30% off. Well, I just grabbed it and had it cut before I realized that it wasn't on sale. I also didn't look at the price. I thought I did.... but obviously, I didn't. I'm embarrassed to tell you what it was per yard. I just can't tell you. All I can say is that I will save and use  every little sliver of this fabric... if I have to saute the pieces and eat them  for dinner.

The Paton's Classic Wool Roving is wonderful to work with. I just had to get more of it. and then I saw this yarn...

This is Paton's Classic Wool yarn that is wonderful for felted projects. This one is called "Harvest" but I think it's way too bright to be called something so autumny. I think "Gypsy" would have been a better name. It does have some orange and green in it but it also has purple, dark red and a bit of dark gray in it. This yarn is very pretty when it's knitted but I felted a swatch of it last night and it's even more beautiful when felted.
I did buy the needles I needed. I almost forgot in all my excitement.
Then, as I walked up to the check out stand, I saw the magazine rack and stopped in my tracks.  Low and behold, there was this magazine waiting for me. Isn't it funny how this happens. As if it was set out there for someone special. A MAGAZINE ON FELTING.... from Australia.

I had never seen this magazine before and I believe it's the only FELTING magazine on the Pacific Rim.... so I grabbed it. Most knitting magazines will have an article on felting once in a while but this is a whole magazine filled with everything felt.

Lots of articles by felt artists....

 How to make "Wannabees"...

and little pink pigs....

and beautiful purses...

I haven't kept the promise I made to myself... to finish each project before starting another. It's a promise I should have never made . I just can't do it. Too many ideas. Too many wonderful yarns.....
In this magazine there was an ad for a business called FIBREWORKS- hand dyed felting supplies.

And look who gets most of the credit..... THE ANIMALS.  Where would we crazy, knitting/felting maniacs be without these wonderful animals.

AUSTRALIA, YOU ROCK.


So now it's back to making some little flowers and handles for the purses in my head. 
What do you think? With or without the button???

Looking for Lambs

Last weekend my husband and I took a drive into the Shenandoah Valley , north-east of Plymouth, CA. It was a beautiful spring day; lots of green vinyards and wildflowers. I wanted to find a certain farm where a friend and I had seen baby lambs the year before: so I could take some pictures of them, of course.

Shenandoah Valley is the "new" Napa Valley. I'm not sure that this is a good thing. I remember Napa before all the fuss and it was , in my memories, a beautiful small town where everyone knew everyone and life was farming and everyone made their own wine for dinner. Now, I see the Shenandoah Valley going the same way. More and more vinyards and wineries are appearing every year; small wineries with big homes and fancy names. But there are still some families who have lived there for generations and maybe they have turned some of their acres into grapes for more money, but they still have old barns and farm animals. This is where I took the photo below.

There was a fence, as there had been last year, but this year there were "no tresspassing" signs everywhere. The old barn on the road was sagging a bit more than I remembered and there were no baby lambs. I got out of the truck and walked over to the fence and saw no animals at all. What a dissapointment! As I walked along the fence I peeked into the open side of the barn and I'll bet more than 30 sheep came running out into the pasture. I did not expect this. They really surprised me and I shouted something like "Oh my"(only a lot worse). The prospector looked up and shouted "There they are!", like I hadn't seen them. Gee's. I was so close to the fence and the sheep were so close to me, that it kind of took my breath away for a moment. There was a man across the pasture doing something with a hoe and I swear I saw him laugh. When I regained my composure I ran back to the other side of the barn and there they were, standing perfectly still, looking at me. So, I started talking to them.

Sheep are kind of like cows. They will stare you down, until they perceive you as a threat, and then they bolt. I was careful not to make any fast moves as I lifted my camera up. I tried not to have eye contact with any one animal but it was hard. I kept telling them how lovely they were and saying things like "Hello beautiful sheep." and "How are you today?. You do wonder what they must think of this crazy human making all these strange sounds. Probably something like "If she comes over the fence we'll head for the pond." or "We had the element of surprize and we didn't use it to our advantage." or more likely, "...another silly human ...". Who knows. I took some good shots but this one below was the one that touch me the most. This sheep was very deformed, by birth or accident I have no idea, but she was so damaged. The others seemed to stand around her as if they might be protecting her. There was this bond and maybe the ones that were closest to her where her offspring . I don't know. They did stay while I took a few pictures and then, for no reason that I could tell, they bolted across the pasture and left.

When my husband doesn't get out of the truck I always know my time is limited before he starts getting antsy. It was time to go and find some lunch. If there had been any lambs he would have waited a lot longer. With lambs, he might have gotten out of the truck. The salvage farm (that he had come out there to look at) was closed so, to his way of thinking , the trip was over. Men! With them it's always the destination, rarely the journey.

Revealed bodies and lunch on the river

The prospector(my husband) and I left the foothills and drove down to Sacramento today. It was a beautiful, spring-like day and everything had a green glow. Our brown hills have started to change color.Even our "Happy California Cows" seemed more contented than usual. No poppies yet, but it's only a matter of time.

We had been talking about going to see the controversial Bodies Revealed exhibition and decided that this would be a good day to go because we had heard that the weekends could be very crowded. There was a good share of negative publicity about this exhibition because, after all, these were real bodies that had been preserved using a process called polymer preservation. Well, it was an amazing experience. Seeing these human beings from the skeleton to the outer skin was breathtaking, but also kind of overwhelming.

At first I was fascinated seeing the insides of these bodies; but then the realization hit me that this had been a living being with feelings and emotions. I found myself saying "I'm so sorry" to these whole, very dead and exposed humans. I started thinking about Hannibal Lecter and all the real bad horror movies I had ever seen. You know. The ones where you close your eyes during the scary parts. But I couldn't close my eyes. I started looking at the complexity of these bodies, our bodies, my body.... and I was caught up in the wonder of it all. When you see the whole circulatory system standing on it's own, with this network of blood vessels and the heart making it all work, you think that something is going on that is way bigger than anyone really knows; that this heart, that beats continuously inside of us until we die, is a remarkable thing. I saw how the amazing nervous system works and how connected everything is. To see the brain; the mysterious organ that runs the whole show, and learn that we are the only animals who know we are thinking, is, well... food for thought. The human body works in harmony with itself until we damage it or life wears it out. Seeing this exhibit gave me knowledge, a sense of wonder, and a kind of organic (dust to dust) reality. It was sometimes hard to look at but I'm glad we went.

We drove down to Old Town Sacramento for lunch: Ate good sandwiches at a restaurant on the river and looked through some of the shops just for fun. Bought some toys for my grandson's birthday next month and a caramel apple for dessert. YUM!

Got home in time to feed our spoiled dogs and pick a few weeds that were appearing( way to fast) in the garden. Didn't feel like a big dinner so we grazed our way through the evening and watched four more American Idol contenders bit the dust.

Good to be home.