Ski cap and scarf in Berlin

This is a photo of my son in law, Marshall, wearing a ski cap I made him awhile back along with my daughter's scarf, which he had apparently borrowed. She was taking the photo. They were in Germany for his mom's one woman show at Aanant & Zoo in Berlin. It was February and plenty cold by the looks of it. (Click photo to enlarge.) The scarf is about 11 feet long and is woven. I've only made two this long so far. The other is shown in one of my October 2008 posts.

Marshall's mom is Channa Horwitz, whose interesting mathematical art has been shown in LA at the Getty Museum as well as at many other galleries in the US. The Berlin show was entitled "Searching Structures" and is listed at http://www.argobooks.de/en/aktuelles.html She was also in a group show at Aanant & Zoo last winter, and she has another solo one going on now at Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam called "Variations in Counting One Through Eight." She is quite the busy lady!

A purse and a snood

These were two birthday presents that I gave my daughter a couple of weeks ago while she and her husband were up from LA for a few days.

I'm calling the hat a snood because it sort of looks like one, though it could also be called a well-ventilated beret or tam. It's made from white linen which I spun from bleached flax that had been prepared for spinning, but was not overly processed, so the yarn had quite a lot of texture. It's roomy enough for stuffing a big lot of hair so is quite slouchy when not stuffed. It looks great on her, and I'm hoping to get a photo of her wearing it soon. I made a similar one out of hemp to sell and posted it on my website on the Spring and Summer Hats page.

The purse is made from various lumpy yarns that have been woven into a mesh of loosely knitted linen. I used wool, mohair locks, and some llama wool. The button is vintage leather and came out of my grandmother's button box, which is my very best source of fabulous buttons. It's lined with sturdy cotton fabric, and the shoulder strap is crocheted.

I made a big double decker carrot cake for the occasion with some incredibly rich cream cheese frosting. Very moist and yummy. Ice cream, too, of course. No big party - just a small family gathering at the old homestead. We had a wonderful time, and I gained three pounds!

As green as it gets in California

This is the real deal California country spring. Lush green grass, clover, and a carpet of spring flowers everywhere. It will soon be all brown, though, so I always like to grab a few photos each spring in order to remember how beautiful it can be. We had warm, balmy weather with no blasts of arctic wind at all off and on for a couple of weeks. It was heavenly! It's still too early for the tics and snakes to be out yet, so safe to walk around in the wonderful, cool grass.

Snake season will be happening any day now, since it's getting a lot warmer, and that's something I don't look forward to. We have rattlesnakes along with other less scary varieties, and some of the tics carry Lyme disease, so I'll be wearing high top black rubber boots around for awhile until the grass is cut.

One of our two pear trees was in full bloom, so it looks like there will be lots of pears in the fall. That small tree can put out a couple of bushels of huge, sweet Bartlett pears. We also have a big apple tree up near the road, a nectarine tree inside the greenhouse(!), and another pear, dwarf apricot, and apple in with the Bartlett pear tree. I also have a small strawberry patch outside the front door in a little fenced-in area. Plenty of fruit for a small family.

I took a couple of photos of the house, too, one showing a bit of my daughter and son-in-law's new cabin, which is still under construction. I'll take more when it's done, as none of us like the pale gray stucco looking finish of the fire proof siding. We're going to paint it dark brown to match the rest of the place, with maybe some blue and red trim. Looks like a busy summer ahead with all the projects we've got planned.

I may be moving into the old house in the fall, so there are all kinds of things needing done to make it survivable in the winter. Lots of roof work, caulking cracks in the floor and walls, grading the driveway down to the house - plus finishing the new cabin.

Hopefully we won't have another disastrous fire season like last year. We are definitely seeing problematic weather patterns due to global warming, including a persistent drought. We did get more spring rain this year, though, so that should help with the fire danger.