Priorities
My friend, Jim Downey in his blog September 9, 2007 http://communionblog.wordpress.com/ talks about the possible shutting down of a telescope that among other things is capable of viewing the night sky and seeing possible earth threatening asteroids. He makes the point that the entire budget needed to keep this vital resource funded for a year is what we spend in Iraq in 20 minutes. I find myself dwelling on this off and on as I go throughout the day. 20 minutes. Surely we could ask Keebler to send over some milk and cookies and both sides could take a cookie break for 20 minutes. sigh.
I keep thinking that as I understand it, there isn't much we could do about an asteriod given current technology. But I also keep thinking that it would wonderfully focus the collective minds of this planet if one were discovered. And we might get our priorities straight.
New subject:
I got the necessary equipment to download pictures from my camera phone to my blog. And of course, while I was there, I got upsold to get more memory so I can add music to my phone. Lots and lots of music. "It's only $10 more." That is such logic to my essentially Scotish soul. Everything is still in the box. But, hey, it has been less than 24 hours.
New subject:
The rabbit brush has burst into bloom! There are clouds of yellow in varying shades almost everywhere you look. This makes a seriously lovely yellow natural dye. I have been told that was used by the Native Americans.
We will be hosting an gathering of our local SCA group this Thursday and I plan on running a dye pot. A couple of weeks ago at an SCA Fiber interest camp at the 3Stags event, I ran 8 or so dye pots including an indigo pot. And from that indigo pot came 3 different intensities of blue. I plan on over-dye-ing the lightest blue with the most intense (first) dye pot of yellow to make a green.
I got a really interesting green at the campout. I went out gathering various plants that produce yellows with Mistress Kate and we gathered up 8 various plants to put in the pot. That was not enough so I sent Mistress Agnes out to find one more and she did! So we called the pot 3Stags Yellow.
As it progressed the actual yellow was not very clear or interesting. Always willing to try something, I added some copper acetate to the pot. I had started making this mordant last year by putting some copper dust, vinegar, and water into a plastic bottle. Not much happened and I set it aside. When I was scratching about getting ready for this weekend, I found it. It was a lovely sea green color.
Into the pot with it! The yarns in the pot turned a lovely bright olivey sort of color. Very lovely and probably never to be made again.
I do need to get the camera up and running so I can put some pictures up.
The good news is as I am really only interested in the fiber processes, spinning, and dyeing is that I have found a friend who just really only likes to knit and weave. Score!
I keep thinking that as I understand it, there isn't much we could do about an asteriod given current technology. But I also keep thinking that it would wonderfully focus the collective minds of this planet if one were discovered. And we might get our priorities straight.
New subject:
I got the necessary equipment to download pictures from my camera phone to my blog. And of course, while I was there, I got upsold to get more memory so I can add music to my phone. Lots and lots of music. "It's only $10 more." That is such logic to my essentially Scotish soul. Everything is still in the box. But, hey, it has been less than 24 hours.
New subject:
The rabbit brush has burst into bloom! There are clouds of yellow in varying shades almost everywhere you look. This makes a seriously lovely yellow natural dye. I have been told that was used by the Native Americans.
We will be hosting an gathering of our local SCA group this Thursday and I plan on running a dye pot. A couple of weeks ago at an SCA Fiber interest camp at the 3Stags event, I ran 8 or so dye pots including an indigo pot. And from that indigo pot came 3 different intensities of blue. I plan on over-dye-ing the lightest blue with the most intense (first) dye pot of yellow to make a green.
I got a really interesting green at the campout. I went out gathering various plants that produce yellows with Mistress Kate and we gathered up 8 various plants to put in the pot. That was not enough so I sent Mistress Agnes out to find one more and she did! So we called the pot 3Stags Yellow.
As it progressed the actual yellow was not very clear or interesting. Always willing to try something, I added some copper acetate to the pot. I had started making this mordant last year by putting some copper dust, vinegar, and water into a plastic bottle. Not much happened and I set it aside. When I was scratching about getting ready for this weekend, I found it. It was a lovely sea green color.
Into the pot with it! The yarns in the pot turned a lovely bright olivey sort of color. Very lovely and probably never to be made again.
I do need to get the camera up and running so I can put some pictures up.
The good news is as I am really only interested in the fiber processes, spinning, and dyeing is that I have found a friend who just really only likes to knit and weave. Score!
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