Break Out

You know, the older a horse gets the sneakier he gets! Or maybe no good deed goes unpunished. Wednesday morning I haltered both the boys and let them into the little bit of grazing next to their paddock. The goat pen makes one line of fencing, their electric fence makes another and for years, one strand of tied together baling twine closes off an open end. My standing by the other watching closes the other, but we do have a piece of electric tape I could tie across too. Well, Coop decided he wanted a blade of grass on the other side of that twine, and look, my shoulders can lift it if I have my head down.
Then of course, escape was obvious. Dandy who panicked to see his friend heading for greener pastures figured it out in a nano second and followed. Goats in tow, bolting around and bleating.  They didn't go too far, up one of the back trails and were munching away. Carrots are always a suitable catching treat and of course, the halter and lead ropes are on. It earned me a little sunburn.  It earned Gene another item on his To Do list, replacing the twine with any spare electric tape. Brats!

Up in the sewing room (where few things escape), I managed to finish a requested project. Two aprons for the nice ladies at American Trail Gear.



 They are the folks that made the dog collars for me and after looking at my blog, they thought maybe would I, could I make a couple of simple aprons. I don't usually do sewing for other people, but oh heck, why not. These are in process pics. No pics of them finished but we had some snaps (to close up that big pocket a little), and of course, nice long ties. The horse print is one big pocket but there is a smaller inner pocket too.



New fabric is arriving at Fabric of Vision and it is a real TREAT for me this year. I get to see the fall selections as they come in, but since I am usually in MA right now, I miss the spring summer stuff. A lot of it is gone by the time I get back, but not this year! And there is a lot of stuff to love. I made a list for cripes sake and it is long. I procure a little at a time, some items drop off my list because they are sold, or maybe while I love it, I'll never work it into my wardrobe, and then others, after first blush, I don't love as much as I thought. Here are a couple of fabrics that just had to come home with me.

A beautiful silk with a very graphic fox in the grass on it.



 It's in a plumy brown and a warm dark almost coral sepia tone. A dark brown plaid linen. Medium weight and perfect for pants. It also picks up those coral tones and can read dark dark plum.



 I love fabrics that have some depth of color and both of these pieces do.

Lastly, and in process is an unusual all cotton double cloth eyelet.



 The embroidered eyelets hold the two layers together. The bottom layer is a soft linen weave and the top, a lightly crinkled  sateen cotton which feels like a smooth silk.



 It's beautiful stuff and in a lovely rich ivory color. I'm using the Sew Liberated Schoolhouse tunic pattern because while this is light in color, the fabric is not light and airy, this is a good spring/fall fabric and with it's deeper ivory color an easy alternative in winter too.

Big Sal is rolling along. Towels in different colors.



This one is a dark blue with a light grey band. I'm actually over half done with this now and just a couple of inches from the second band and final weaving to the end. Then we'll try dark green. The evenness of the tension is much improved.

The warm weather meant a fair amount of time in the garden, pulling weeds and seeing what was thriving and what wasn't. The witch hazel did nothing more than that one bloom and didn't bother with leafing out. It just wasn't going to make it. Could be the site, the dirt, the elevation, but out it came. The American Bittersweet looks like it is going to like it's placement. It came as bare root stock in March and had a rough start with all the cold but this is a hardy vine in general and it is showing a full array of green leaf buds up and down all it's branches. A bright orange Oriental Poppy went in as did a Pasque Flower. I found a couple of Apache Plumes locally. This a native western shrub, tough and deer resistant and I have high hopes for it. They are in a hot dry area off the walkway where I am starting a little area of ornamental grasses and such. The Black and Blue Salvia is going gangbusters and the Paperbark Maple is starting to bud and leaf out. Spring comes slow up here. The daffodils are just now giving way to tulips after a good long showing. The hellebores are done with flowers and concentrating on leaf growth, and the Bee Balm is looking lush and happy. Pictures soon.

Parting shot.Temptation!