Happy 1st Monday of January 2015!

And it's beautiful outside! Cold, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining! There are birds flittering around all over. Checking out nesting houses. The Blue birds never leave. We have several pairs that stay here all year.

Can you see them in these trees? And look at the leaf buds already.

Here are the 3 bird houses that are really busy this morning. For the past several days, the birds have been looking at them. Might even be some moving in. The sparrows always get these houses and the blue birds end up in the trees.

Here is a fat fluffy Mockingbird, my favorite bird. They can be annoying, but I love them. Yesterday, sitting out on my studio porch, there were some blue jays, making a lot of noise. So lots going on out here on the farm. Maybe an early spring?

And yesterday, the honey bees were out and about. Very busy ladies. I went out this morning to check to see if they were out yet, but it's still too cold for them. They will be out later, I'm sure. I'm so happy this hive is doing so well and that I still have bees here!

Campbelle says good morning to all my blogging friends out there. And we both wish you all a very happy first full week of 2015. We hope it's going to be a great year for all.

Thankful today...

for all the usual things. Like a roof over my head. A warm bed. A wood stove to keep us warm and so much wood. A husband who takes care of all that. A beautiful area where we live. I love it out here.

But for the past few days, it has rained. And rained. And rained some more. When it does this, it reminds me of a movie I saw, years and years ago, of a planet where lots of children lived. I can't remember if there were any adults. But it rained every day of the year except one day. It would stop raining and the sun would shine for the whole day. They all looked forward to that one day and made a celebration out of it. One year though, someone locked one of the girls up in a room and she missed that whole day. It was so sad. I cried for her. I cannot remember what the name of the movie was. If anyone else ever saw it, I'd love to know it. And maybe would like to see it again.

With all this rain and mud and muck outside, it's hard to remember what sunshine feels like. And how much a person can miss it. And how there are so many people affected by that seasonal disorder, where they get depressed with all the dark dreariness.

Yesterday, I had slept later than usual. Had a late breakfast. Went over to my studio, in the rain, with my umbrella. I worked over there all day. About 7 hours. Spinning and plying yarn. Didn't even realize what time it was. I was getting hungry, so went home to fix dinner. I left my umbrella over there. And some lights on, thinking I'd be back after dinner.

But it really started raining then. And did not ever stop at all. It poured too. So I never got to go back over. And everything is over there now. All my yarn and knitting and crochet stuff. So I had nothing to do.

So anyway, I am SO thankful that it has stopped raining!!!! AND the sun has popped out to say hello a few times so far this morning! It feels so good to see the sun again. It did feel like a whole year since it's been out. I know we need rain. But good grief I think that's enough for awhile!

It's also not cold. But this week we could have some nights near 10 degrees. I do like frozen ground better than mud.

This picture is of some of my metal stars hanging in the dining room, reflecting on the wall, from the sun. So pretty. I hope you all have a great first full week of 2015!

Amarillo and Abraham

More spinning in the studio the past few days. I was doing this last night til about 10:30.

So the brown is from my ram Abraham. He's long gone, but his wool is finally being spun. He was a nice brown-red color and had nice wool. He's the father to all my lambs. So I decided to spin some of his with Amarillo's. She's in the photo below. She's the ewe that had the quads. I think it turned out really nice. I love the natural colors myself. I did one skein yesterday.  Today, spun another bobbin of each color. I had to stop because my shins are hurting, from all the treadling.  And my right hand too. I love spinning, but need to take breaks more between spinning. I'll ply these other 2 bobbins tomorrow. I'll get 4 skeins from them. This would be a pretty sweater, I think. This also has some black alpaca fiber in it. I love alpaca, but can't spin it by itself. It's just too fine for me. So I'll add it to the wool. And some of this wool needs alpaca for extra softness.

I tried to fix the robot thing. I hope I got it right. And thank you, Kimberly, for your nice comments!