bee creative

making a mocha

When the wind is howling through with gusts up to 60-70 miles an hour for the fifth night in a row and we have had our first snow (it only lasted about 20 minutes); lots of hot drinks become tempting.  One of my favorites is a mocha and this is how I make them at home:

1 tablespoon organic, fair trade, chocolate chips from the bulk section at my coop.  The better the chocolate, the better the mocha. 

Three shots of espresso (at least that's what this pot is supposed to make) plus about a half cup of warmed milk.  Whisk it all together well.  The heat from the espresso and milk will melt the chocolate chips.  So yummy, all fair-trade or local and so much cheaper than the local coffee shop. 

winter nest

I'm getting one egg a day (from three chickens) most days.  One of the chickens is definitely molting (she has ring around the collar), but one of the others doesn't seem ready to give up yet.  As the days get darker she will stop for awhile. 

Thinking about molting as a rejuvenating process, at a time of year that is the darkest, when things slow down (or should). 

the guilty gardener

If I had planted the tulips when it looked like this (instead of curling up on the porch swing):

I wouldn't have had to plant the tulips in the wind and rain and cold:

It's time to let the garden sleep for a bit....

 

But maybe not too much.   I'm keeping an eye out for that next sunny day. 

got the blues

"You can hear blue in wind over water and wherever flax blooms and when evening steps into lonely rooms.  Cold is blue..."  From Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill. 

I've been soaking a red cabbage in some rain water for about two weeks.  On Sunday Jude inspired me to move on to the next step, fabric.  I heated up the rain water and cabbage on the stove and tossed the fabric in.  Simmered all of it for about an hour.   Clockwise starting with the upper right hand corner: Cotton, a silk/rayon velvet, wool, and raw silk.  It's all been washed and dried. 

 

The brightest results came from the raw silk and silk/rayon velvet.  I also tried over dyeing some cotton prints and a light blue hemp/cotton blend.  The cottons didn't hold the color well.  The hemp blend darkened enough to look like a different shade.  

Even better, I did a second batch and then tossed in the washing machine with a load of laundry to rinse.  I make my own laundry soap usually with washing soda, borax and grated soap.  When I pulled the fabric out of the washing machine it was a bit more aqua than the first batch.  I think the washing soda acted as a modifier to change the color of the dye a bit.  I'll show pictures when I have natural light.  Very hard to capture the difference with the lighting I have right now. 

first orange

First orange of the season.  I stop eating them when the California oranges (the most local I can get) disappear from the stores and start again about this time of year.  Saved the peel and added it to water with some rosemary.  I'll use the water to dilute Dr. Bronner's for shampoo.  

Sometimes just a little fragment of a poem sticks in my mind.  When I eat oranges on Sunday mornings it is always:

" Late coffee and oranges in a sunny chair, and the green freedom of a cockatoo upon a rug mingle.... She dreams a little, and she feels the dark encroachment of that old catastrophe."   Wallace Stevens, from "Sunday Morning."

I like tea with oranges better though, so then I start thinking about "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen.

heart felt

Couldn't resist....

Did a little heart work today.  Spent most of the day at a first aid/CPR class and then a little stitching.  My heart is made of a sweater I felted/fulled in the washing machine.  It's stuffed with scraps.  It will be used as a pincushion in my project basket.  Underneath is the sweater I've been working on and to the back is a piece of one of my wool quilts.

another finished bus project

Finished these today.  Sure wish they weren't a gift and that I could keep them....

from my great grandmother's stash

Thinking about how the ability to be creative, the ability to make beautiful things, helps to sooth the ragged edges of life. 

the gift of leaves

A leaf I picked up on one of my walks.  It's so interesting to me how the colors change.  Yarn that was a gift from my parents.  My parents also brought back some eucalyptus leaves for me when they went to visit family. 

A gift from my aunt, a different kind of eucalyptus than what my parents brought.  My aunt says that sometimes you can taste the eucalyptus in the lettuce that grows in the area of the trees.   

pick a project: embedded

Motifs my great grandmother crocheted, embedded into felt (local wool). 

 

Might make it into a pillow, might leave it just like it is.