Furniture Arrives

LazYboy furniture arrived this morning. The front room that seemed so large with no furniture in it, but seems smaller now that the furniture is here! I love the furniture, but definitely need some art work on the walls.

The room seemed vast when empty.

It filled up with our furniture arrival.

Now we need some art work up.

Girls Night Out

We had a lazy morning, then went out to the bank, T-mobile and Ross Dress for Less. Showed the ladies around the Mesa area. Different flowers blooming at this time of year.

It is very hot here in June. A record breaking temperature today of 112F! Very hot! But it's a dry heat. ;)

Out to Rancho de Tia Rosa for a Mexican supper. Then off to the Hale Theatre for a musical show, Damn Yankees. Yale theatre is in the round. The cast did a wonderful job of acting to all the audience. Very well sung, danced and acted. Great evening.

Fancy lemonades at Rancho de Tia Rosa.

Hale Theatre has the audience all around the stage.

Arrive in Mesa

Yvonne, Annette, Melanie and I arrived in Mesa at 10pm to a temperature of 85F. Wow. Quite hot for a night-time temperature!

Got our rental car and drove Melanie home after getting a few groceries for breakfast. The house was fine. Countertops and faucets look great!

Open-style faucet with water pouring out.

Leah Graduates from UofW

Convocation for Leah was this morning at the Duckworth Centre at university of Winnipeg. Don and I arrived in good time but already the gym was filling up. The grads were piped in by the Winnipeg Police Pipe Band. Guess where Leah was? You guessed it..... At the very end of the Arts Grads. Lucky girl to have the Z last name.

Lloyd Axworthy spoke as president of the University. Then an Honourary Doctorate was bestowed on Ken Dryden who then spoke to the grads. I think the significance of Dryden may have been lost on the majority of grads. I know Leah had no idea who he was. The valedictorian was a marvelous orator. Even though it was a lot of sitting it still was marvelous to see Leah cross the stage to receive her Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies. A wonderful achievement!!

Afterwards we had lunch at Fusion Grill to celebrate.

Duckworth Centre showing grads and audience.

Lloyd Axworthy, President of Uof W, greeting everyone.

Leah in line to get degree.

The happy grad and proud dad.

Leah in front of the iconic UofW building.

Happy grad and happier parents!

Ken Dryden talking to the media after receiving his honourary doctorate.

A celebratory lunch at Fusion Grill.  (Pepsi in a wine glass!)

Dandelion Dye

I chose a beautiful sunny Sunday to pick a bushel of dandelion flowers in full yellow bloom. Great way to reduce dandelion seeds floating through the air but more importantly, a neat way to make a natural yellow dye.

After about an hour of collecting just the yellow flower heads, I put them on the stove to boil. The wonderful sieve and pot I bought at Value Village wasn't such a bargain as the pot has a small hole! There was water everywhere on the top of the stove.

I transferred the flowers into two pots. In one there was a sieve to keep the plants strained, in the other pot the flowers floated in the water. Once the hour of boiling and sitting till the mixture was cool was over, it was noticeable that the sieve flower water dye was more yellow than the other pot of dye which looked more of a greenish brown. Interesting!? Would these two dye differently?

In order for dye to penetrate wool fibers it needs to be treated with a mordant. I chose to use alum and cream of tartar as that is what I had on hand and also because it is not toxic like other mordants. Once the wool yarn and mordant had boiled and cooled, I transferred the wet yarn into two different vats of dye. The wool dye mixture was slowly brought to a boil and then left overnight. The next day I rinsed the wool yarn and set it outside in the shade to dry.

The finished product looks wonderful. The yellow is a dusty hue, not vibrant, but very natural looking.  I didn't notice any significant difference in the yellow produced by the two dyes. I think this was a successful experiment!

An awful lot of dandelion flowers!!

Left pot has flowers immersed in water, right pot has a strainer.

The resulting dyes:

Left pot (flowers immersed) greenish brown, right (sieve) amber.

Preparing hand-spun wool yarn with a mordant.

Wool yarn in mordant; needs to reach a boil slowly so as not to felt or mat the fibres.

Resulting yarn colour.  Can you tell which one was in which vat of dye?

(Neither can I.  I guess it doesn't matter whether flowers are immersed or strained.)

Drying outside in the shade with a bit of tension.

Shearing Day at the Wood's Farm

You'll never guess what I did today?!? I helped Lisa with her 40 sheep, 3 alpacas and numerous lambs. It was shearing day.

Once I arrived I met Louis, the French/Belgian shearer. He is very small, but can he ever handle sheep, even the big rams! Also there were Lisa's daughter, Jessica, and her friend Nick.

Jessica and Nick would wrestle the sheep through the corral, Louis would shear, and Lisa and I would collect the fleece and let the shorn sheep out to pasture. The sheep fleece tends to remain in one large mat that we collected once Louis was all done shearing, but the alpaca fleece falls apart, so has to be collected as it is cut.

The entire shearing of 40 sheep and 3 alpaca took from 8am to 4 pm. Long day, but very interesting!!

Louis shearing a sheep.

The sheep seem to submit to the process once they are on their back.

Maybe they are related to turtles??!!

One of the black faced sheep waiting her turn.

Amazingly, the brown wool on the outside of this sheep was actually black underneath.

This fleece will make beautiful dark yarn!

Meeting the alpacas.  Soooooo soft!!

Lisa bonding with her baby!

Holding on to the alpaca.  Keep away from the mouth - they spit!

This alpaca has an apricot coloured fleece.  It will be beautiful when spun into yarn!

After shearing and looking a bit like a large poodle!

Alpacas are related to camels.  Sure can tell now!

Flowering Almond

Despite the cold weather the foundation plants are growing. The flowering almond by the bathroom window is beginning to blossom. Don has had his time lapse camera trained on the buds for over a week thinking they would open any day! This spring is really dragging out.

The rock garden is beginning to come to life too. The Holland tulips are glorious! We sure have a gorgeous view for our daily bathing.

From inside the bathroom looking outside.

Time-elapse camera focused on the flowers.

(No, it is not focused in the window of the bathroom!!)

Rock garden showing off its spring colours.