How The West Was Spun

Z is for.....

Zeppelin.  Led Zeppelin, that is.  My all-time favorite band, hands down.

I had joked off and on with D over a couple of years that if the group ever got back together (this being the late 1990s) that we'd go see them in concert, which he laughingly agreed to figuring A) one of the band had already shuffled off this mortal coil and B) the likelihood of this actually occuring was nil.  Be careful what you agree to.

The next summer, word was out that Plant and Page were touring and by gum, I was holding D to the agreement.  The concert nearest us was right around the time of my birthday, so we spent the money on the tickets and went.  Absolutely phenomenal.  I still have my concert ticket stubs and my T-shirt with the Swan Song label logo on the back (complete with all the Celtic/Book of Kells-esque motifs).

Z, by the way, is also for Zoso and you can hit the link to read all about that symbol of Jimmy Page, as well as the other 3 symbols of the group's members.

And that, as they say, is all folks!  I am not hosting a 2007 ABC-Along, but if someone else wants to start a ring and needs some help setting it up, I am glad to give what limited help I've got to give.  Also, if you've posted all the entries from A to Z, be sure to let Margene know so you can get entered in the chocolate give-away.  It's been fun!!

All for now.....

Y is for.....

Yarn.  An easy one, I know!  I will, however, spare you more pictures of the Wool Vault, and just highlight some handspun, alrighty?

Given the wide breadth of choices (from fiber type to color to weight) available in a LYS, it sorta begs the question why anyone would spin.  To be honest, I'm not sure why I thought spinning would be something I'd like, but after trying it, I was absolutely hooked.  It is peaceful, meditative, and centering, AND you get yarn to work with when you are finished.  Even better, you get to customize that yarn to be exactly what you want (even if you just want to admire and pet the skeins when you are finished spinning them).

The other thing that holds great meaning for me is to work with yarns that have a wee bit of one of my dear animals mixed in (I'm not counting cat or dog fur here - just bunnies.)  Having a warm angora hat to put on my head to go out to feed in the barn when it's pitch dark and 11 degrees out is nothing but a good thing.

And when you spin your own yarn, you can have infinite variations on a theme.  Take purple, for instance:

Darker purples with heathered flecks of blues, yellows, white, and greens, blended into pale lilac and fuschia:

Deep midnight blue/purple with flecks of yellow stars and twilight lavender:

Slightly thicker, puffier and paler in hue:

(Hm.... let's note how the kitty model gets more and more helpful in each picture, shall we?)

One of my resolutions for next year is to have one day a week devoted to spinning, so I can stockpile a whole bunch of handspun Yarn to work with in 2007.

All for now......

X is for.....

Xenolith.  I love things within things.  Give me a box wrapped inside a box for a present, and I'm a happy camper, which I why I think I like xenoliths.

A xenolith is a rock within a rock basically; it's own little surprise present.

It most often occurs when another type of rock has been caught in a liquid magma flow from a volcano and is pulled to the surface, where the magma encases it and then cools.  Xenoliths can be found in many different places throughout the world, but there are some really interesting ones in West Virginia/Pennsylvania and in Texas.

If you haven't been there already, do be sure to zip over to Margene's blog today and read about the ABC-along contest for the "Z" post.  She's got some wonderful goodies that tie into her "X" post from today.

Also, anyone else having issues with Bloglines?  They assure me I cannot see my feeds because my Javascript has been disabled (like I would do this on my own??!!?).  I rechecked that and it is still not working.  If you've solved this problem before, will you let me know what you did?

All for now......

W is for.....

Wheels.

I don't really collect wheels, since I only have 2. I love both of them like children - very different, but equally.

The first wheel I purchased was a Lehigh Valley Saxony (alas! It doesn't appear to me that Dennie is making wheels anymore).  I had tried this wheel out at the first MD S&W I attended and absolutely fell in love with it.  It is maple, with just a light clear finish on it.  There are no plastic parts.  The metal parts were fabricated right in Dennie's shop (he's a blacksmith too), and it would be a great wheel to use for a historic reenacter.  This is my workhorse - when I need to sit and spin quickly and consistently, this is the one I pick.  Effortless treadling and the weight of the wheel makes it a breeze.

My other wheel is my traveling wheel.   I tried out several small wheels, but I finally decided on the Ashford Traveller because of it's size, and the many options you can get from Ashford.  As a little extra gift, I had it painted with pictures of my bunnies, our old dog Sam, flowers and a few things that had a symbolic meaning to me. 

Margrett at Running Moon Farm did the painting for me from photos I sent to her (this is also where I purchased the wheel), and I absolutely love the way she captured the personalities of the bunny boys.  Here's a closeup of Pippin.

Finally, a special add-on......My grandmother had a large back porch with lots of windows that looked out over her gardens and the pastures.  She always had a couple of rocking chairs out there and my favorite was a little one that had been her mother's chair.  My gram was never sure why the chair was so low to the ground, but she knew I loved it and when she decided to sell her house, she had the chair cleaned up and my mum sent it to me to use.  I've come to find it is the most comfortable chair to spin in - set low to the floor, so you aren't leaning over all the time, and it rocks so you can rest your back and change positions while you are seated.  I have no way to know, but I'd like to think my great-grandmother found it equally comfortable when she sat and spun too!

All for now......

V is for....

Vistas..... I love looking out at the mountains, whichever end of the country they may be on. 

Cedar City, Utah area:

Strawberry Reservoir, Utah

Granite Creek, West-Central Wyoming

Walden, VT

All for now.....

U is for......

Uintas.  These are the mountains to the east of our house, which demarcate the eastern boundary of the state of Utah, and which have become of one of my favorite places to ride.

They are some of the earliest peaks to get snow in the season.  They are rugged and totally different from the smoother, rolling peaks of the Appalachians.  In between the gray rocks, crystal clear water runs through in narrow creeks and streams.

The rock formations are amazing - lots of evidence that erosion is at work, with deep crevices and sheer rock wall faces.

We are hoping for a lot more trail rides in this area next season too!

All for now....

T is for......

Trees.  I love trees; I love everything about them.  In fact, one of the hardest things about moving from New England to Utah was the problem of having to leave "my" trees behind.  And this time of year, when the fall colors of the leaves are so vibrant is my absolute favorite season.

All for now....

S is also for.....

Sydney. (Notice a trend here?)

I obviously have a thing for black-and-white, long-haired dogs, eh?

Syd, although she looks like she could be Sam-dog's love child, was a rescue dog from a group in New England.  She was found wandering along a road in central Tennessee, picked up by the animal control and was in a kill shelter on her last day of life when this herding-dog rescue group got her out and moved her to their safe house out on the Cape in Massachusetts.

She is the completely antithesis of Sam - she is quiet, very docile, an absolutely sweetheart, and extremely gentle. Her first winter in Vermont with me was a bit of a shock for her, I think, but she soon figured out she absolutely LOVED the snow.  She would spend hours outside in the snow, digging little bunkers to lay in, racing over the drifts, and just eating the white stuff.

 

She's also been a great babysitter for the puppy.  She is very patient with her and lets her pull on her tail and generally climb all over her.  She's taught Rowan everything she knows about napping, which is considerable.

All for now.....

S is for......

Sam.

Sam officially was D's dog - he got him as a puppy his last year in college - before I knew either of them.  Sam wasn't really happy when D and I started dating - he was very jealous and would spend hours sitting in front of whereever I was sitting, glaring at me.  He eventually came around tho, and became very very protective of me.  When I would walk him along the wide tree-filled Monument Avenue in Richmond (where we lived at the time), he kept an eye out for any "questionable"men and if he saw one he didn't like, he would interpose himself between me and the interloper and if the guy made any moves towards us, Sam would hit the end of his leash with teeth bared.  It was obvious he took his protectorship very seriously.

We think he was mostly border collie (originally a pound puppy), and although he didn't have the herding "eye", he was smart as a whip, and we'd often find at the end of a party or get-together at the house, he had managed to move everyone into a corner where we'd be huddled, talking, without even realizing he had moved us there. 

He was one of the best friends D ever had (although the two of them occasionally had discussions over who got to be the alpha male in the house), and he certainly was one of mine.  The year we lost him to old age and painful hip joints was bleak in our house.  We pretty much cancelled holiday celebrations because the house was so empty without him.  D and I still recall him with great fondness, and shake our heads and laugh at what a character he was.

All for now.....

R is for

Rowan.

She's technically D's dog, but when you are the person home all the time with said dog, well.....she sorta becomes yours by default.

Here's her highness looking like a very large and somewhat mottled baked potato at 6 weeks:

And at about 9 weeks.

3 months:

And now at 7 months, quite the young lady, already figuring out how to retrieve and sit/stay and generally how to be a huge nuisance to her big sister, Sydney.  We don't call her "the tornado" for nothing.  She is a wild child, to be sure.

Sydney is just grateful for the outdoors and other things to pounce on so she can get some quality nap-time in during the day.

All for now......