Blog block?

Funny old world, just as you think you’re on a roll, you land in a patch of mud. And where I live, we get really serious mud, the soapy slippery, boot sucking kind of mud that turns into concrete in summer. Full stop, the harder you pull at one boot, the deeper the other one sinks…..

So here I am with 33 drafts in my queue and nothing to write about, mind ambling about like birds that forgot the route to Africa. Right, so chill it, don’t write and do something else! “But then all my new friends will forget about me,” a small peevish voice mumbles at the back of my head. Besides, I like writing, and this blog was supposed to be a warm-up for something else entirely. So darnit, I’m going to write something today, I haven’t the faintest idea what it’ll be about, I’ll just let one sentence form after another, or even word by word. Which incidentally is a fun experiment in itself, try it! Decide on NO subject, just sit still, write the first word that forms without trying to control the next. Over and over. No second guessing, just wait in silence.

Can’t have a blog post without pictjers of course, so I get to fool around my very messy image library, or maybe even have a look at those 1000’s of photos that live outside the computer in dusty folders and boxes?

Kitten Arthur has developed new table manners here beside me, picking out one tiny bit, flicking it onto the table, chasing and catching it before eating. Well, I guess it keeps him out of other trouble, amuses me and now he needs a cuddle so I don’t have to think about writing… I keep his food on the windowsill here, so the bit fat guys don’t eat it, they’re on special slimline for neutered cats stuff. I just wish he’d stop trampling the keyboard on his way from here to there.

So anyway, I could write about autumn, and all the colour combinations that keep exploding inside my head. Or take a tour of websites and images that inspire me too. Or I could get dressed and go move some firewood into the shed. 😉 It’s looks like rain though, tea and random fall photos would do me just fine.

And now it seems I get to spend the day watching over a cat who will NOT pee in a special litter box for sampling whether she has an infection. Oh joy. And I saw another kitten online that I wanna wanna wanna get! For Arthur to chew on instead of my fingers…..

Enough rambling for today – nothing interesting seems to be happening in my brain – enjoy the pix while I go boil some cloths!

Harvest

I’ve been deadheading Dyer’s Chamomile all summer and drying the flowers – 430 g I have, which is about 1/4 of the original weight. Yes, I did dry 100 g separately, so I could weigh them after!

Today I while checking my apples I saw there were flowers again. So I picked another batch, probably the last. As well as a new batch of weld. I should have enough to play with this winter! I’ve dried all the weld from this summer, as I haven’t had time to play with it.

I also found, deep in the grass of my failed vegetable garden, some of the madder I planted last year. I think I’ll try to dig them up and relocate, but I don’t think I have the patience to wait 3-4 years for dyestuff. I can buy it not that expensively by the kilo, all dried and ready.

Other dry stuff to play with hiding in my drawer is black hollyhock, bark from Rhamnus frangula (Alder Buckthorn?), sumac bark, Cochineal and 100 g of Rathania root (Krameria triandra) and lots of onion peels.

Now all that waits is to see if I get any elderberries to experiment with. Since the privet lost its berries before they even grew (lots of flowers on it in spring). But right now they’re only just going from green to black, so I’ll have to watch out. I hope to be able to make some juice for hot winter drinks as well.

Otherwise I didn’t do much today apart from boiling a skein of sock yarn, that I needed to know how soft it is after dye and wash. Sigh. I just can’t hear the friggin pot simmer even when I’m in the same room. It’s all y’all’s fault ya know. If I didn’t sit here writing at you, I wouldn’t ruin a fortune in wool…. 😉