I've been back at work for a week now after two months of sick leave, and it feels as though life has suddenly accelerated! My dear husband is just finishing up his winter's work, logging on his woodlot with his horses. I put the memory card into the computer to download my own photos and found that he'd taken these last week while at work. Ivy and Oscar are all harnessed up and ready to start the day's logging, once their bridles have been put on and the lines pulled down from where they're looped up over the hame balls. It doesn't look as if Ivy has lost much weight from the rigours of working, does it?
The horses' corral is actually on our own land, a piece we bought last spring partly because it controls access to the northern part of the woodlot. This bit is a beautiful natural meadow but at this time of the year it's usually in the shade: the sun is tantalizingly close looking back out toward the blacktop.
We had an exciting time this morning because we needed to move bales of hay around to feed horses here at home and up at the worksite. This chore wouldn't have been difficult (although pushing 700 pound bales of hay off the stack and into the back of the pickup is a heck of a job even for the two of us working together) but we got a fair bit of new snow last week and the temperature has shot up to freezing or just above, which makes driving a pickup up the hill into the barnyard and then out into the field an exercise in sheer determination. Still, all might have been well except that unbeknownst to us the chain on the right rear tire fell off just as we left the barnyard for the field. We made it (just) to the manger in the field and that's where we discovered that the chain was missing. My dh made a valiant attempt to drive back up to the barnyard from the field with just the chain on the left tire but the truck got good and stuck. So I volunteered to walk back in our tire tracks to see if I could find the tire chain. I did find it, all the way back at the barn where we'd begun. I slung it over my shoulder and took it back to the truck, while dh fetched a shovel to give himself room to reverse just enough to grab the loose ends of the chain after he'd draped it over the tires. He was doubtful about his chances of getting out of the field: I was entirely confident he would. And he did, but it wasn't easy or pretty. The tires churned up the snow pretty forcefully.
As I walked back to the house, I took the opportunity to take a few pictures from angles you might not have seen before.
Isn't snow beautiful? As much of a pain as it can be at times, it still spreads a mantle of magic over the familiar.
One of the consequences of the battle with the truck is that this gate stood open for quite a while, and the horses took advantage of the opportunity to make a little mayhem. First Dixie and Ben ambled up from the field into the barnyard, and then once they'd decided to return to the field the other three followed at a gallop. I wasn't taking pictures at the time, unfortunately. But I found the miscreants where I knew they'd be: scarfing hay from Ben and Dixie's feeder. (We feed these two separately from the rest of the herd because they're rather ancient and creaky and get pushed off their feed by the younger and bossier horses.) There's poor old Dixie on the right, watching as Chinook and Java clean up the hay in the manger.
Here she's calculating the distance to the new bale on the other side of the fence, but she knows she can't reach that far.
And Ben stands sadly back and watches, while Tuffy investigates the feeders by the gate, the ones that contain the remnants of Ben and Dixie's morning mash (alfalfa, beets, and oats--yum!)
By the time the evening feed rolled around, everyone was more or less in the correct place, though dh did have to call Tuffy back up to the barnyard, since he was still hanging out with Dixie and Ben down in the field. I wouldn't say that dh and I really enjoyed our morning's exercise, but the horses sure seemed to have fun taking advantage of the open gate and tearing around in the snow.
After all this excitement, I was happy to spend the afternoon in my studio. I've finally gotten started on adding threadwork to my Midway Museum piece: I got the picket fence stitched down, and the window frames, and the sunlit side of the chimney, and I got started, as you can see here, on creating grass at the base of the fence.
I added lots more grass as the afternoon progressed and I'm pretty happy with the effect, though not with the rather bumpy and uneven surface that results when a lot of threadwork is added in one area.
Every so often I stopped and took a break from the museum quilt, moving over to another machine to continue working on my whirling blocks in batiks and neutrals. And I'm still happy, still thoroughly enjoying combining otherwise unremarkable scraps into something entirely new and--to my eye, anyway--attractive. I love the way the batiks are popping against those light neutrals. I still don't have a plan for how these blocks will eventually go together but I'm enjoying thinking about the possibilities.
And here's an update on my other colour-saturated project: my crocheted blanket using the Neat Ripple stitch invented by Lucy of Attic 24. I love this colour combination: I think of it as a midnight volcano. For some reason, I hadn't realized that the relatively open quality of crochet (relative to knitting, that is) would mean that this blanket would have a rather lacy effect when displayed against a light background.
When I doubled the fabric over the gate, the colour popped out more intensely than in a single layer, but I like the lacy effect too. I'm loving the colours: the blues and reds seem to fizz with energy as they play off one another, and the dark greens and purples separate the brights nicely and offer some definition. (And "a place for the eye to rest," as we quilters often say.)
I've planned this one to be about four and a half feet wide, enough to cover a person comfortably whether in bed or curled up on the couch.
As an envoi, here are a few critter candids. This is Winston, demonstrating that his nest in the studio is the Platonic ideal of cosy. The felted sweaters lining his various baskets provide great insulation, and this particular basket is a favourite because it's three feet from the woodstove. He looks pretty contented. Or perhaps rather stupefied with heat.
And I caught this one of Django, who appears to have decided that his head was just too darn heavy to hold up all by himself and was resting it on the bar of the gate.
And Sass has found something sniff-worthy in the snow.
And finally, a portrait, one of the best I've ever managed of Django, I think. This one's for you, Dad, because of the modish little patch of snow on his chin.
And so we proceed on into the latter half of January (already!). The septic system that was not working very well earlier in the week is now working adequately, and we have regained a tenuous hold on our internet connection. If we take the aircard (or hotspot, or mifi if you're in the US) outside, turn it on, and rest it on the top of the ladder leaning against the porch post, we can get a weak signal. Unfortunately, in order to get the aircard to talk to the computer we have to engage in which my dh calls "plein air computer time," shivering outside with the computer resting on the barbecue beside the ladder. But we can at least check email and the weather. And I've had some productive conversations with the signal booster people and with the service provider, so I'm confident we'll get it sorted out eventually. Things are looking up!
what great photos, but that last one of Django just melted my heart!
Posted by: steph | 01/20/2015 at 12:58 PM
Thanks, Steph! He's a pretty sweet boy, I have to say. I wish you could see the way the cats adore him and how gracious he is about putting up with their adoration. It can't be all that much fun to have them rubbing their tails back and forth under their noses.
Posted by: Anne at Shintangle Studio | 01/20/2015 at 03:39 PM
So glad you are feeling better, - I know of at least one dear soul who will welcome you back at work. Love the photos of the horses and your creative work.
Posted by: Hildred Finch | 01/26/2015 at 01:16 PM
Thank you, Hildred. I was indeed welcomed back with glad cries by the one of whom you speak, and I was just as glad to see her. Unfortunately, I've had a reversal and am back off work again, but I think I just need time. Thanks for reading!
Posted by: Anne at Shintangle Studio | 01/26/2015 at 04:41 PM