Permacouture: Dinner To Dye For Workshop

A couple weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to attend one of Permacouture's natural fabric dyeing workshops. The Dinner to Dye For workshop is a unique type of workshop because it's practical, intimate and social. You learn about how to use plants to make natural dye, very simply and gently. I explored dyeing with dock root, fig leaves, nettles, onion skins and saffron on tussah silk and wool. We explored different mordants as well. Then you go on a little walk around the farm garden and talk about plants and foraging. By the time you get back, the table is set for a lovely group meal with foods prepared with the same variety of plants we used for dyeing. Beautifully organized by Katelyn and her team...a very lovely day out...I met some really nice people. I highly recommend it.

Love and Light

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I Saved A Bee!

Today when I came home I found a flaked out bee on the bathroom floor. His little legs were all stiff and twitchy...he looked like he was nearly dead.

Rewind about 30 summers ago when I was aged 14 sitting on the porch watching my great aunt Lou do her gardening. Being an avid gardener and a good Christian, Lou loved all of God's creatures, especially the bees. Whenever one was found fizzled out and struggling she would drizzle some honey near it to revive it. Being an angst ridden and bored teenager I probably rolled my eyes, but Lou's method of saving bees must have stuck with me because it's the first thing I thought to do for this little bee. (and little he was...not a honey bee...more likely a solitary mason bee perhaps?...not too sure.)

Anyway, it worked! I put some honey on a butter knife, picked the bee up with it and he immediately started licking it up. Lick, lick, lick...I could see his cute little curly tongue lapping up the honey. Gradually there was movement in his legs, then his body, then his wings...and after about a half hour, he crawled to the window and flew away!

Bye bye Mr. Bee!

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Baby Foxes!

Ok, here's the deal. There are about a zillion foxes that live on our property and every year they have babies but we don't always get to see them...and the times we do get to see them, it's dark outside and you can barely see them let alone photograph them. Well, one of the vixens that has been here for quite a while now (she's about 4 years old) had four cubs this year and today she brought them out in daylight and I was able to capture them playing and exploring! Pardon the poor quality pics, but I was far away and my zoom is bare basic. I know I won't be wining the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award but I am so happy to have even got these. I wish I could have got a good shot of all four babies together but they were running around so much I couldn't capture it...but I did get a good pic of Mother kissing baby. Go here if you want to see some more.
Aren't they cute?

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Lilacs!

Hello! I hope you like purple because this post is full of it! Every year it's the same thing. About this time in the April I raid the lilac bushes in my garden. This year, however, was something else. The abundance of blossoms was overwhelming. I picked so many lilacs that I could have seriously flowered out the Royal Wedding...or at least opened my own flower shop. And after all my picking (actually Wayne did most of it) I didn't even make a dent. ..there's millions more out there...wafting their sweetness in the warm breeze.

The house is full of lilacs. Every single solitary vase I own is being used. It's almost too much. The house smells like a funeral parlour...or an old lady's knicker drawer...(clean ones of course!)...but I still love it.

I love lilacs. Especially the white ones (which we don't have). Their time with us is so brief...before you know it, they are gone. I can almost say that perhaps lilacs just might possibly be my favorite flower...that is until my roses start to bloom...or the giant sunflowers get super giant...or in late summer when our wildflower garden is in full swing. Is it possible to have a favorite wildflower? There are so many! Do you have a favorite flower? Tell me about it.

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This is What Happens When you Turn Your Back on a Squirrel

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich...gone forever.

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Winter Colours