A Warm Welcome

It was minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Farenheit) in Knutsford, south of Kamloops in the Thompson River area. Julie's basement woodstove kept the house warm, and was right next to my bedroom.

Her new puppy, Dexter, is full of charm and supposedly some cattle sense, too.

The horses are used to the cold, though no one was impressed with the Wednesday snowfall (which kept me from travelling). There are 5 there right now. Mostly from her own mares and stallions.

She has several calves and heifers. They are due to calve in May. My BIL is out on the range, helping other farmers with their calvings now.

This is Julie's sweet Cindy. She and her mom were rescued, but the mom didn't live long. She is a sweet foal.

The light and the tame animals were a delight and reminded me of her farm in our own valley, next door to where we grew up. Julie has always had a special way with animals.

Even the chickens were friendly and sharing eggs in the darkness of winter.

There is no light pollution on their lake. The stars were content.

We visisted with our niece who took us to her favourite wool shop, Twist of Fate. Erin is having a retreat at Sun Peaks on April 24-26 and has invited the Yarn Harlot for 2010.

There was lovely yarn and good deals, but I was on the hunt for a drop spindle. I found a great one and some variety of roving. I am now trying to watch the on-line tutorials, but I may have to go visit my mom's friend because our niece had to go back to work and we were left with unidentified equipment and no skills. When I figure it out, I'll show Julie, unless she figures it out first.

My lovely hand-turned drop spindle, 50g whorl, 66g spindle. Soon I'll know why that's important.

And my very first roving: hand-dyed jacob/cotswald X. About 100 grams of different colours.

I can't start my adventure in spinning until tomorrow.

Right now I'm off to a baby shower with a gift of the Haiku and several dozen frozen bran muffins and raw energy cookies.