September garden
Tag: garden
My week in images
Making this post has made me realize two things: A. my life is very dull and onesided B. My mind is even narrower because of all the things I don’t think to take pictures of. I also realized B is perhaps just an excuse to not admit completely to A. I obviously can’t count either.
I don’t mean dull as in being bored or not doing many things, which I obviously do if you’ve been following along, but they do tend to revolve around the same. I seem to mostly be looking a plants and the sky and nothing much besides! Of course, that’s what we’ve got to look at out here. I need to drive to the “city” (18 km) for some bits and bobs but most importantly more hydrosulphite to make blue, but I never thought of taking pix there. We usually just go to the mall, quickly scoop up what we need and head back home. Not really worth looking at.
How often do you do extraordinary things?
The last day
September is for some the last summer month, but if you look at nature it’s autumn. The air is different, night temperatures drop if not also in daytime, grain harvest is usually done unless it rains too much, berries ripen and flowers wither or make an effort at a second round, not quite as showy as the first.
The kale has survived the onslaught of tiny critters I think, my weld is looking miserable and the batch I cooked up yesterday did not give very much colour compared to the small samples I did earlier. So yes, you can drag your feet too long. I haven’t gotten round to my blues either, but the temps are supposed to stay mellow, so I’m still hoping.
I’m thinking whether I want to make myself a hat this year and which fiber to use.
My back is getting back to normal after last weekend’s ordeal, just a bit of tension in my neck, still. Now of course it’s time to haul in the firewood before it gets wet again…. We get a pile delivered every feb-march, stack it to dry outside and then keep it in the shed over winter. (mind you, if we stay in this house I believe the foundation size for said shed, the original farmhouse from the 1840’s, would make a quite ok studio size for me and not too far to go to work in)
I’ve been making fresh yarn sample cards for hanging in the open but not sun for xx months, perhaps a year? And getting the solar samples paired with non-faded yarn, numbered and all sorts of organized, it took me DAYS, and I’m so proud of myself for persevering. Just have to crochet little squares to go in the wash for sampling detergent effects and then I’ll put it all in a binder. 3 years of natural dye experiments.
Next year I’ll do just a few new plant experiments if I can remember which ones have come to mind over the last few months, otherwise I’ll focus on getting as many shades as I can from just a few, lightfast plants and not bother with the fugitive ones.
The rest of my week has been spent nursing the small brown pony who came down with an abscess in his hind hoof. Treatment for such is hot soapy baths to draw the infection out and clean the wound once it’s popped open. He was quite cooperative about standing with his foot in a bucket as long as treats were forthcoming.
Den sidste sommerdag
Selvom september kan give nogen fine, lune dage, så er det alligevel for mig den første efterårsmåned. Luften er anderledes, det føles anderledes indeni, jeg begynder at længes efter at lave vintermad, overveje garnvalg til den hue jeg vil strikke, blomsterne er enten visnet ned eller giver det en sidste krampetrækning med 2. generation lidt mindre farvebomber.
Jeg er endelig nået til at høste min farvevau(-reseda), men desværre er det vist lidt sent, den gryde jeg satte over i går har godt nok ikke meget farve i sig i forhold til tidligere på sæsonen, ja blot for en måned siden. De lover heldigvis lunt vejr, så jeg håber stadig lidt på at jeg kan nå at gøre noget ved mine blå planter, vaid og japansk indigo.
Jeg har brugt ugen pÃ¥ at være rigtig disciplineret og lavet garnkort til min mappe med farveeksempler, solblegede sammen med originale, nummerering af alle fed gennem 3 Ã¥r osv. Hver plante fÃ¥r sin egen side i et ringbind med noter og halløj! Jeg er ellers ikke til den slags administrativt arbejde, sÃ¥ jeg er meget stolt af mig selv. 😉
Min ryg er ved at være i orden efter halmweekenden, blot lidt nakkespændinger tilbage. Nu er vi sÃ¥ kommet til brændestablen, som skal i skuret inden det begynder at øse ned i ugevis, sÃ¥ det trækker fugt til sig igen. Det foregÃ¥r med trillebør 50 m frem og tilbage gennem en smal port, ikke noget med at bare læsse det i traileren og dumpe det foran døren! Brændeskuret er det oprindelige bondehus fra 1840’erne og ved at falde fra hinanden. Jeg gÃ¥r og tænker pÃ¥, hvis vi bliver boende her, at fundamentet vel egentlig har en ok størrelse til et lille atelier….
Og ellers har jeg bare gået og ordnet varme fodbade til den lille brune bisse, som ragede en hovbyld til sig på det ene bagben. Heldigvis var han yderst medgørlig, bare der blev puttet noget i den anden ende samtidig.
August garden
Last blooms and perfect weather.
Getting tired?
Of all the plant presentations I mean. I think I am…. Those “other” posts that I half promised seem to have scooted way down the to do list and my brain is running in circles.
So luckily I’m running out of plants to try right now while it’s season to pick. Just tried a batch with Common Reed, very nice green! It’s time for birch leaves, remember that it’s easiest to strip young trees for some reason. I don’t think I’m going to this year apart from the couple of skeins I did to overdye. Goldenrod is coming in, but I think I’ll just toss some in the freezer to see how that goes.
I have weld, woad and Japanese Indigo growing in the garden, but you either have those or you don’t, so I’m in no hurry to report… Madder likewise, I have a set of experiments lined up for that with various mordants.
And I think that’s it! I’m going to use some of my remaining Tagetes and Coreopsis to make watercolours, that is, if I’m not too stressed, I feel a bit fluttery inside as well as having a wedding to attend the coming week. We’re trying to get a few things tidied up around the place and I’m awaiting hay and straw for the ponies.
One of my looms is done, for my first piece I won’t be making a tapestry though, but a rug to put under my spinning wheel. Or possibly it will be a bathmat. I’ve been twisting 8 strands of cotton yarn to make something resembling rep weave (ripsmatta). Just have to find a calm spot to warp up and I’ll show you. And no, I won’t be making anything as fancy as that image, I believe you need something like an 8 shaft floor loom for that, not a navajo style frame loom.
Spinning, I really feel I need to start spinning again, but I also have this urge to paint. So I’m holding off on both until other projects are done, so that I don’t go completely nuts and split into a million little pieces. I left some fleece soaking in a tub outside for so long it started to go green! I have no idea if I can save it or not, it is of course the best bits that I started out with.
My quick knit holey sweater really is quick, or rather it would be if I had the time to actually work on it. The yarn seems to go on and on and on, I think I’ll have half the body done when the first 2 skeins finally run out. I was worried I didn’t have enough, so that’s why I chose the large needles, but I could have probably gone with smaller. And then it would have taken a lot longer. 😉
And I painted the flagpole. Way overdue. Windshield corner where the hedge died is all done! And seems to be helping, not that it’s been very important last week with temps up to 30 C.
So, a stream of silly chitchat and various musings await – at some point. For now, I’ll go clear all my dye pots off the stove so the kitchen can look like human habitat at least for half a day.
“Trat” i hovedet af en hest
Er I ved at være trætte af mine planterapporter? Jeg er. Det blev slet ikke til at skrive om noget andet, selvom jeg har en hel håndfuld kladder og emner.
Men nu er det vist ved at være slut med sæsonbetonet farvning og planter der bare skal høstes lige NU, tagrør var det sidste i rækken. Gyldenris plukker jeg vist bare og så må årets eksperiment være, hvordan de holder sig i fryseren. Vau, Vaid og japansk indigo har I enten eller også har I ikke, de kan ikke findes i naturen, så det haster ikke. Det er en god tid at høste birkeblade, husk at det er nemmest at ribbe de unge træer. Men jeg tror jeg springer over i år, bortset fra de par fed jeg har lavet til overfarvning med blå (ok, jeg burde også have lavet et til overfarvning med krap, som jeg har linet en række eksperimenter op med til senere, den er jo tørret).
Min ene væv er færdig men jeg skal ikke væve gobelin pÃ¥ den i første omgang, derimod en efterligning af noget der pÃ¥ svensk kaldes “ripsmatta”. Hvis det skal være rigtig flot skal man vist bruge en avanceret skaftevæv, sÃ¥ det bliver bare noget med 8 snoede bomuldsgarner og sÃ¥dan lidt kludetæppe stil. BademÃ¥tte eller tæppe til min rok sÃ¥ den ikke glider.
Jeg har virkelig lyst til at bÃ¥de spinde og male, men jeg kan mærke stressen blafre rundt indeni, jeg afventer hø og halm til krikkerne, der er lige et bryllup i den nærmeste familie som skal overstÃ¥es og 1000 ting der burde ryddes op her pÃ¥ matriklen og jeg kan mærke dampen allerede er begyndt at ligge pÃ¥ lavt niveau hos os begge. SÃ¥ jeg mÃ¥ lige vente… HÃ¥ber dog at jeg har overskud til at teste noget indkogning af tagetes til at bruge som akvarelmaling, kunne det ikke være super cool?
Men jeg har dog fået malet flagstangen for første gang i 10 år. Den knækker muligvis en dag i et stormvejr, men så tager vi den derfra. Vores plankeværk som læsted i stedet for den hæk der døde er også færdigt.
Min hurtige hullede striktrøje skrider fremad, dog ikke så hurtigt som jeg håbede men det er mest fordi jeg ikke får gjort noget ved det.
PÃ¥ et eller andet tidspunkt vender jeg frygtelig tilbage med mere sluddersladder. 😉
