A Beautiful Field

On my way to Triune to get animal feed, I passed a breathtaking sight. It was a field of yellow flowers that I thought might be mustard. I stopped by the road and while cars were rushing by, I did a ten-minute pastel. As I finished, the owner stopped to get her mail and I spoke to her. When I told her I was an artist and asked if I could paint on her farm, she graciously agreed. She told me the farm had belonged to her grandparents and the field was planted in canola (for canola oil).
A few days later, I went to paint. I got to stand in the field of yellow and it felt electrifying it was so bright.
This is the initial pastel that I did from the road.

Getting the Garden Ready

With a working lawnmower and my tiller, I finally got to work in the garden. I tilled most of it just enough to get the grass and weeds, planted a few things like some lettuce and a hill of squash and cucumbers. I cleaned out the barn where the hay was and brought a bunch of chaff down for mulch. I left a spot where the sweet corn will be. I will till it later. I'm pretty pleased to have some of this wrapped up. I hope to better use my garden space to get more plants in. I also have been bringing my baby tomato plants outside during the day to harden them off. I usually don't get to that soon enough and have rather spindly plants.

Shetland lambs born!

It's been busy here on the lamb front. (goats, too, but this time only photos of lambs) I had nine ewes bred and all but one has had hers. Out of 13 lambs so far, there are 4 ewe lambs and 9 ram lambs. It is disappointing to not get more ewes, but, they are all beautiful and healthy, and colorful. I couldn't have asked for a lovlier rainbow of lambs!

Combing Cashmere Goats

Since it is just now the beginning of Spring, it is time to harvest cashmere. Cashmere comes from goats. Almost all goats have an undercoat that they grow for the winter. Cashmere goats are simply goats that have been bred to have long enough fiber to spin. The goats may be sheared, but then you also have all the hair I prefer to comb the cashmere while it is shedding out and before the hair starts coming out, too. I use a variety of rakes and combs and may comb the goat 2 or 3 times until I get most of it. You see the photo of the combs and a bag of cashmere, the process of combing and in the third photo how the goat looks with one side combed and the other side not yet combed. This is a labor intensive process with a fairly small harvest. That is why real cashmere is valuable. Much of the cashmere made into sweaters these days has an amount of fine sheep's wool in it. That is why you may be able to get a "cashmere" sweater for cheap.

New Pastel Paintings

With the unusual amount of snow we have had here in Tennessee, I have gotten some nice references for paintings. I hope you enjoy these.

Spinner's Retreat

The Natchez Trace Wilderness Park was the location of a spinner's retreat last weekend. What is that??!! For those of us who are crazy about wool, yarn, spinning, and fiber animals, it was a time to get together and share, eat, learn new techniques, and dye wool. It was very enjoyable as we made new friends and caught up with old ones. I even got to play my pennywhistle with Magda, (who is from Holland and plays the accordian) and Anna, who plays the fiddle. Sharing our knowledge about our techniques and lifestyles is important. Galyna from the Ukraine shared that in her country, people have forgotten what a spinning wheel looks like. They were not encouraged to keep the skills and crafts alive and people are forgetting how to do them. She tells us how happy she is here in this country because she is able to do all these things.

With the cold, snowy weather we had, I did two things: I painted indoors and took photos outside. I purchased the tulips and painted them before they drooped too much. I guess that's what tulips do in a vase.

I also took advantage of the unusual snow here and took oodles of photos. This pastel was done from one I took of the horses covered in snow.