Mainly in the plain?

It's a dismal spring here on Vancouver Island - much like last year. My garden is gradually coming into bloom, sodden, then the flowers sit there, sodden, until they finish and drop off, sodden. I check from my kitchen window a few times a day, and notice what else has opened up in the pouring rain, but I never actually get outside.

My friend visited me last weekend for a few days, and brought some beautiful marled sock yarn from Iceland. "Direct from the factory," she assured me. A few hours after she left on Monday, I cast on a new pair of knee-high stockings with the Icelandic yarn. Why? Because I need the warmth.

Canadians have a wonderful ability to talk about the weather, almost without ceasing.

Actually I think it's a wonderful ability to listen to each other talk about the weather.

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My house has been colonised by moths - can you believe it? I had been carding wool for a few weeks in preparation for spinning, and one day I noticed a little fluttering...Mum and I actually saw a larval moth, his/her head wiggling around, half-covered by a cocoon s/he was making out of my grey Shetland. There was a frosted cluster of tiny pearly eggs clinging to the side of the box, too. Did we freak out? Yes, we did.

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My older daughter is a horse girl, and is preparing for a show in August. Being that we homeschool and therefore have a flexible schedule, we spend a lot of time at the barn these days...it's mostly wonderful, but sometimes a drag if I'm tired, busy, or cold. My younger daughter spends her barn time on a tire swing under the trees, singing and talking to Dayley, a 17hh thoroughbred, and Vindaloo, a little goat. Usually some chickens come by, and a dog or two. On this particular day, one of the rare sunny ones, she had my camera with her. (For the second time.)