Summer at UW

The rose gardens near Drumheller Fountain are in full bloom.

This one has Mary Gates Hall in the background.

That's the Electrical Engineering building in the background.

Here's the Fountain with a duck path from the outer sidewalk to the inner fountain.

After years of ducks being trapped in there, the Grounds people came up with a design that works for everyone, ducks and students.  You just can't tell some people to keep their hands off the wildlife.  sigh.

This moma duck had just the one duckling this season.

She's been there on the launching pad every day when we go by at lunch.

The baby is getting big!

Chickadees on the porch

Every spring the chickadees nest in a birdhouse on the front porch.  

They raise 2 or 3 clutches and then they're gone.

They scold us severely whenever we're on the porch,

but if we're still they will go about their parenting business.

 

 

 

Weekend in Redmond

The Friday Knitters spent the sunniest, hottest* weekend so far this year (May 4&5)

in a Pat Brunner class on Designing Knitwear to Fit Your Body (One Size Does Not Fit All.)

Lisa welcomed us to her Redmond home:

The view of the house and garage/shop/craft loft coming up from the pasture.

The Juliet balcony of the loft.

 

From the balcony overlooking the pasture.

 They have 16 chickens.

Two shy sheep,

and Wedding Cake,
a very friendly SallyBill** wether who loves cookies.

We spent quite a bit of time outside at the breaks and lunches.

Michale took advantage of Wedding Cakes' appetite 

for a close-up photo opportunity.

This is just a small part of the potluck as it was being set up ~ it was dee-licious!

 Trixie was riveted.

Henry was riveted.

Matilda: not just riveted.  She was fascinated by all the food.

Lisa has remodeled the upper floor of their garage 

for fiber related activities.

This is the classroom end,

and in this end there are 5 looms.

It was a wonderful weekend.  If we had to be inside for most of it, oh well! 
Spending time together, knitting and laughing: priceless.

*It was 87 on Sunday afternoon in Seattle.  It didn't get quite that hot in Redmond, maybe only 84.

**SallyBill: a flock of sheep from Island Fibers on Lopez, one of the San Juan Islands, started about 70 years ago by Sally Bill, blended to the originators' handspinning preferences.  Nobody knows quite what the mix is at this point, but the fleeces goes for about $16.00 a pound, unwashed, in a bag.  That must be a pretty good fleece.

Dear Dave,

**If you're easily brought to tears at the thought of 'innocent' animals being slaughtered (hopefully), please skip this entry.***

Forget about rushing right over and bringing traps for the fracking moles.

 Nobody should have to be nice to anything that ugly.

We've taken matters into our own hands:

Plus, as we were standing at the Mole/Gopher display at Lowe's, two other groups of people were also contemplating what to do about their moles, all of us having them for the first time ever and in over 20 years.  We all decided that any method to just drive them out of the yard simply makes them another neighbor's problem and what is the point of that?  (We agreed it would be great to meet back at the Mole/Gopher display next Sunday afternoon for a 'success v miserable failure' review...)

So last evening we spent 45 minutes punching holes in hills, dropping in a few 'peanuts' and covering the hole back up.  That's 1.5 HOURS of our co-lives that we'll never get back. 

We could have been spinning.  

It's the Tour de Fleece, for dog's sake!

Thank you,

Bothtwins

Dear Dave,

Forget about moving the hydrangea just now and let's deal with a serious mole problem.  We've never had moles until now.  It started with one little mole hill over on the other side of the driveway only 2 weeks ago:

It (they) dug all the way under the driveway and came up next to the house, dug all the way under the lawn and came up in the garden:

 They're heading for the rhubarb, Dave, the RHUBARB!

 Clearly we're out of our element, which is fiber.  
Beasties: not our element.

Please come deal with the moles, Dave.

Thank you, 
Bothtwins.