Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Winter Solstice




The winter solstice has passed. It was a cold, cloudy, but not stormy day. From now on there will be a little more light every day. I missed the eclipse of the moon, but the fact that the moon was full on the same night as the solstice gave us more light than we would have had in spite of the cloud cover.

I'm finishing a few Christmas batik and will be doing lots of wax painting in the months to come. Dyeing the fabric will be very limited, due to my poor sink facilities.

As I look out of the window this morning, all is muted white to the west. There is a light mist of snow-rain, that dims the view of the Adirondack mountains. I'm glad there is this light snow cover to brighten the earth. Two squirrels climb the tall nearby trees and jump from branch to branch. A red headed woodpecker, pounds into an old rotted branch. Champion, my calico cat sits fascinated in the window.

I am looking forward to a white Christmas (it doesn't need to be too deep!), and I'm thinking back to the brilliance after an ice storm, everything glittering in the sun. Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Champion for Christmas





A year ago I was trying to feed and capture a young calico cat. I named her Champion for surviving the winter outside; snow, wind and cold!

Champion was an inquisitive kitten that was raised off away from the barn on the farm that I help raise calves on. She would climb to the top of a stack of round bales when she heard me call last summer. She knew I had her food, but when I put it down I had to back away before she would come forward to eat. She would dart away if I came too close.

Born late in April of 09, as the cold weather came on I tried to coax her to the main barn where she could have food, shelter and company. Always something would scare her away; a tractor, a dog or too many humans. When in December, I finally coaxed her in the back door of the barn to eat, a barn cat attacked her and I did not see her for a week.

The week went by that I hadn't seen her. I had continued to put food out for her off close to where she used to be fed. Often other cats would sneak up to eat the food and after waiting for her for what seemed like quite a while in the winter evening cold, I would leave hoping she might get some of the food. One dark night (night because that was the quietest time on the farm and she was most likely to appear) I walked off farther from the barn calling her. Yes I am just a bit crazy! I heard her answer several meows. I kept calling and she kept answering, coming closer, until finally when I backed away, she stepped forward and ate her food happily purring.

I'd like to say that she soon became friendly, but it was not so. I brought her some special food on Christmas day, but she spent the winter outdoors, being fed next to an abandoned shed through the cold winter nights. Finally in the spring with the help of a havahart trap she was captured and off to the veterinarian as she had a badly abcessed leg.

I'm happy that Champion is here living with my husband and me stretched out by the woodstove. This year she will spend Christmas here, and it will be a present for us all.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

December Flakes







It's early December and flakes have been falling. It almost puts me in a trance when I look out the window as they slowly fall to the ground, one large flake after another. We've had some bitter wind, a reminder of what is to come, but now the flakes fall in winter stillness.

The wood is stacked on the porch and the dyes that remained useable are now in the cellar. Dyes will keep longer when kept cool and when urea is added to the mix.

This is not my favorite time of year. It is dark, cold, the ground is hard and frozen. The brightness comes from the holiday lights and gets us through the shortest, darkest day of the year. The snow makes winter bright and when January arrives the days bring a little more of our welcome daylight. I like to think of the sunny winter days to come with the sun reflecting off the bright snow. Those brilliant days I like to get outside and go snowshoeing or cross country skiing.

I also can't help but think back to our winter farm days---Yikes!!!! So many things could freeze and go wrong. But, there were many good memories also. The cows would get outside to investigate the fresh clean snow after a storm. Then at milking time they would settle into their stalls and relax, gratefully chewing the fresh silage and hay. It was also wonderful to see the hutch calves running and kicking through the fresh snow. Some good ideas for batik have come from those images, but.......... won't be completed until next year.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Fall Wrap-up





















Tonight as so many nights lately, I'll be ironing wax out of my last dyed batik. The season has been very unpredictable, but warmer sunny days allowed me to finish dyeing many pieces outdoors.





Dyeing the fabric outdoors is ideal and I have my flower sink for you to see where I like to rinse the excess dye out of my batik pieces. I also wanted to show you some stages of the batik "Magic Frogs Rising" through the pond, up out of the earth below. See an early image of wax applied after two previous dyebaths. Then a close up of the design before it's last dyebath ( see the heavy wax layer). A close up of the batik in the final dyebath on the porch is seen in a long shallow dye tray. The long dye tray keeps this large piece from becoming over crackled. The "Magic Frogs Rising" batik is 26 by 40 inches. Finally, here the top of this batik is seen after the wax is ironed out between plain newsprint.





The completed piece will be seen in a blog to come.