Butterflies and Something Else . . .

Before the butterflies, a bumper sticker recently seen -

not much to argue with there . . . except to include 'working woman' .

So many Swallowtail Butterflies visiting the milkweed and purple coneflower this year, the Monarchs have just arrived.

The golden days of late summer.

Gone for Gold

Any one of these handwoven scarves with this dress 

Imagine having an occasion to wear it . . . just dreaming ... big.

why not??

husband says ... but - a scarf would cover up her assets

well, I say . . . it could bring more attention to one's assets.

The scarves are woven with Tencel, silk and gold lurex.

Threads of Gold

I couldn't pass up this cone of gold at a friend's moving sale that happened close to a year ago now (remember this Colleen??)  It's been a real conversation piece on my shelf.   I've looked at it and thought about what use I could put it too . . . it's very fine thread.   I wonder what it's intended use in the beginning was?  Curiosity and my practical nature finally got the best of me, I pulled it off the shelf and started wrapping it on the warping wheel along with two shades of while silk.  It broke only once but it was hard to hang onto.  I did get it on the loom without going completely out-of-my-mind - whew.   Here is little photo journal.   I think the woven scarves are looking almost as pretty as the cone itself!

  

       

One done 

Another started, see the gold thread - it's there -- really.

 

This ISN'T pretty .

Today we are on the wrong side of this river.  Our driveway is under that water somewhere, we are happy we can see the bridge that crosses the river up to the house.

Amazing, 5 inches of rain can cause the river to rise about 4 ft.

Same view as above, now standing on the ground.

The constant lightning and a powerful flashlight made it possible to see that the bridge was under water early this morning, round about 3 am.  A restful, dreamy sleep not possible after seeing that, we had to look . . .?

The pounding rain finally stopped about 4 am (maybe) and we dragged ourselves once again off to bed to try sleep.  About 4:30 am or so I heard voices -- thought they were coming from the road, they were in the driveway stopped just at the bridge.  Two guys, one was out of the car sizing up just how difficult it would be to get across the bridge.  He got back into his car and inched his way toward it, as we watched

from the upstairs porch thinking 'no - don't do it' the other guy in the car was really hollering

"NO" --- "NO" !!  They turned around, I hope they made it back home -- I'm thinking they may be nursing hangovers today...

This is pretty.  Walked up the hill to see how the woods were looking and came across a 

Monarch caterpillar - seems early to see these guys but there it was snacking on a very wet 

milkweed.  Well he was snacking before he fell off, I had to put him back so I could take the picture,

that's why he's curled,  it could be a she ?

Wild Gardens

Wild springtime gardens.  Ferns, columbine, jack-in-the-pulpit, solomons seal, wild phlox, forget-me-nots that have gone wild and nodding trillium.  Spring gardens are so well-behaved, beautiful gentle ephemerals so welcome.    

Spent the weekend with my daughter in Minneapolis.  Whenever I have the chance to have my daughters model for me I take it even though there is some reluctance on their part - sometimes.  She looks great in the linen and silk over-shirts.  I have a hard time figuring out what to call these garments - jackets? over-shirts? vests?  They are what you think they are.  Anyway she makes them look great.  If you are interested in seeing more check the ETSY site to the right of the photo posts. Another lovely thing is the art on the walls of the apartment house where we stay, all local scenes painted by local artists of the Twin Cities area.  

Close to Home

                                    What do you get a man who has everything for his birthday?

A Man with a Cat, of course  Local artist Amy Arnold was our guest artist at VIVA Gallery for the month of April.  She makes these whimsical, classical characters out of felted wool.  I love them and so does the man who now really does have everything!

In pondering other things around the house:

This post is in the exact center of our living room.  I once asked a feng-shui 'expert' what do you do with a post in the middle of a room? - his answer after much thought was plants, make it like a tree.  So - OK- that works but space for chairs y'know, comfortable chairs in a 'conversational area' presents a problem.  We have lived here for eleven years and the post and I still have issues.  The thing is though - it, the post, is not going anywhere - it's holding the place up.