More Wool and Mutts

Just before Christmas my dear friend Heather (also my spinning mentor) sent me a marvelous package of fiber. It arrived - hand delivered to my door no less - on Dec 23, just in the nick of time. I could hardly wait to break into the box. Here are some of the wools she sent.

On the left is a grey wool from a Lincoln breed of sheep. This particular wool feels very nice soft and open. The broen in the middle is actually varigated with some lovely colors thrown in. The grey on the right is all natural - undyed. We aren't sure of the sheep breeds for the brown or grey on the right.

Here's a close up of the grey - about the same as my own hair color!. Sorry my tiny sample is out of focus.

This is a better view of the colors in the brown. Aren't they lovely? And the wool is incredibly soft!

Here like inverted commas are the mutts. That's May on the left and Breaker on the right. This is the corner of my sheet covered sofa. The sheets collect most of the dirt and dog hair and come off quickly so that visitors do not leave covered in "dalmatian tweed".

Smiles,

Susanne

Busy

Tis the time to be busy! Yep! Tuesday I was going to walk into town to drop in an Professor Sirpa Leppanen during her office hour so we could set a time to discuss my PhD idea (nebulous cloud needing a telescope to find the points). But she emailed to ask that I come at 11. so I had more free time in the morning.

I called Funlayo (my daughter) to ask if Kimmo (my son-in-law) was in town and with his car because I needed dog food (big bag from Vet). Any way this led to my walking to their place and she took me to the Vet and I bought the dog food. She then had to hurry off to get passport photos taken - they go to London on Jan 3rd for a conference - I stayed where I was and went to the local post office to get a package. Then it was time to hot foot it to my appointment with Dr. Leppanen. That took me from one part of town to another.

I arrived about 15 minutes early and waited. The meeting went well - we affirmed that my idea is interesting and nebulous and needs to become more focused and refined. And we have a simple plan that I will write up a proposal for this and send it to her by mid January and we will meet again afterward to discuss it further.

Then I hurried off to buy a few items and catch the bus home. At home I took the dogs and headed out for their walk. They wanted to smell everything and the walk took an hour! When we got home I quickly made sandwiches and gather myself together to rush off (via bus) to the Martta meeting.

The Martta is a women's organization here. I recently joined. I am in need of social contacts. Anyhow this group meets every other Tuesday at 3 PM and this was their "Christmas" meeting. There was a lot of singing Finnish Christmas songs - I knew some melodies but not the lyrics and fumbled through things as quietly as possible. Amazing how good everyone sounded though unrehearsed! Had coffee and goodies (try rolling some sharp or blue cheese in gingerbread and baking!) and "crowned "saint Lucia" ( the eldest member this time) and her 6 attendants).

After this I hurried to the bus (again) and went home to get ready for the deepening program at my place. It was almost a relief to be the only one there!

Wednesday I was busy getting ready for a presentation that Funlayo did for Forever Living products (which she sells). I'd had to defrost something in the freezer to make room for other things and discovered that Id defrosted two small containers of pumpkin - just about enough for one very small pumpkin pie, so I made the pie and baked some store bought frozen goodies and cleaned and....

Today (Thursday) was going to go to the university Library (one plus hour walk) but will be babysitting 2 of 4 grandkids tonight and walking to and fro, and decided that I would do on line research at home and also catch you all up on why I don't post more often. So my walking time is here with you and now it is time to do that research.

Keep your heads on straight it tis the season to be "busy"!
Smiles,
Susanne

Ants

The movie, Ants, was cute. But having ants in the kitchen is not cute. This morning I killed at least 100 of them and am trying to wash residual traces of honey off the various honey jars I have (cinnamon honey, ginger honey, regular honey, garlic honey, and Lingonberry (urva ursa) honey). They also like syrup - but not molasses.

Anyhow I do wonder what the local Ant News reports - new weapon of mass destruction now seen at... How would they decribe my thumb or forefinger decending on their family members?

Two weeks ago ants were not in "residence". Then the weather warmed slightly and in they came to forage for the winter. This is the second winter they will be occupying "my" territory. They vacated the premises last spring as soon as the ground thawed sufficiently. To keep them to a minimum I need to keep the kitchen almost spotlessly clean, the garbage emptied, and not allow bits of food to fall on the floor or for stickly little hands to leave ant-attractions all over the chairs or table (after a wonderful pancake breakfast the other day my daughter and I each washed the table and all the chairs. I also did the floor).

Smiles,
Susanne