A Mānoa Girl's Bloggie

Yippee! Today was a spinning day with a really good friend down in Canby. We each drive halfway and meet in a great coffee shop, set up our wheels, and spin away. I love these Tuesdays when I can just relax, create, and spend time with a special friend.

Look at the difference in Willamette Falls from the last time I was by there on January 8th:

When I first got to the coffee shop, I ordered a vanilla latté… loved the decoration on the top! The baristas were really happy to see us; they love looking over at us and seeing us spin, they said.

My friend and I set up our Ladybug wheels, and off we went!

Several people came over to talk to us; one woman had just started spinning but was at the “I’m scared and I don’t know what I’m doing” stage. We encouraged her and told her she’d be able to spin like we were before too much longer.

This is the result of about three hours worth of spinning. We stopped for lunch, of course, and sometimes to talk to people who came over. I love the colors in this fiber!

All together, it was a terrific day today! The more we spin, the more our friendship grows. We’re both enjoying our time together so much that we’re going to plan on monthly get-togethers. Win-win all around.

I got two brand-new pennies as change from the coffee shop, and thought it’d be a great idea to have them be my photo/s of the day today. They’re so new and so shiny, and I’ve never ever gotten pennies like this before.

I remember, small kid time, we used to use erasers to bring shine back into old pennies. I sure didn’t have to do that with these! They were minted in 2012 and I got excited about it.

I am easily entertained.

I may just keep them forever.

See how shiny?

And here’s a macro so you can really see the date.

They seem kinda special to me. Like I said, I’m easily entertained.

Don’t worry.. I haven’t forgotten about the road trip. Still working on photos for that!

Today I wanted to spin for awhile, so sat down at my wheel and began. But Little Miss Kalakoa decided she wanted to jump up on my lap.

First she walked across my legs.

Then she waved her tail up in my face.

Then she turned around to face me.

Then she walked back and forth across my legs again.

And finally, she settled down, checking out the yarn I was attempting to make, and there she stayed. This is the official photo of the day.

Today’s photo is of our brand-new driveway fence; this is a really big deal for us because the old one was broken and had a big puka in it. That was a huge big deal because right below the old fence is a very steep drop-off into the pasture. To turn around when we leave, we have to do a three-point turn, and I’ve had visions of backing up too far and plummeting backwards down that slope, wrecking my car, and ending up in pretty bad shape myself.

But now, thanks to Orvill Garren of GW Construction, we have a new fence, and unlike the old one, it perfectly matches the deck alongside the house and garage. And I feel a whale of a lot safer!

It was a cold, rainy, day today; the skies were gray, gray, gray. But I was extremely surprised with a glorious sunset tonight! I took several photos, and think this is the best. You can see the gray clouds, the blue sky, and the sunset.

A few minutes later I took another photo of the threatening rain clouds; if you look carefully you can see the fog hovering over the valley.

It was really foggy this morning; earlier we couldn’t even see the barn at the bottom of our pasture. It was about 9:00 a.m. when I took this one, and it was still 32 degrees outside. I had ice on my windshield when I left the house at 11 a.m. Later on the fog burned off, but it stayed fairly cold throughout the day.

Today’s photo is of a Townsend’s Warbler who was an unexpected visitor to the suet feeder in my garden. I was excited to see him, because they usually don’t show up until Spring. It was really hard to get a good photo of him because he kept flitting around.

I am also working on the next installment of the Montana 2010 Road Trip.

I’m posting my photos here, but please don’t download them for your own use. I work really hard at getting them and want to keep them mine. In other words, no kakaroach my photos! Mahalo!

At 1 a.m., when I was sound asleep, I heard a strange noise outside. Not really loud, but loud enough to wake me up. It was a kind of scratching sound, and I wasn’t sure what it was, so I got up to look. I really should’ve had my camera ready before I turned on the outside light, because although what I saw was still there, I wasn’t holding my camera, and when I grabbed it to take a photo, the flash accidentally went off. Dang. Because what was out there were two big fat raccoons raiding my suet feeder!! As soon as the flash went off, they took off running, and I missed getting them. However, I thought I should post the photo anyway. Hahahahaha…

This next photo made me laugh and cry all at the same time. When my beloved ʻUkulele kitty was still alive, she used to present me with gifts of balls of yarn that she’d found. Sometimes in my knitting bags, sometimes from somewhere else. She’d pick them up with her mouth, bring them to the hallway near my office door, and then make a very particular meow that she only used for her triumphant acts. I’d praise her and tell her what a good kitty she was.

About three months ago, I could have sworn I heard ʻUkie’s meow out in the hallway. It was eerie. I got up and went out into the hallway, and there was Kalakoa, bringing me a ball of yarn, sitting there in triumph at the awesome thing she’d done. She sounded exactly the same as ʻUkie used to sound, and I knew right then and there that ‘Ukie had sent this kitty to me. I cried every time, missing ʻUkie, yet “seeing” her at the same time. I mean, really, what are the odds?

Well, today there were no tears. I just started laughing. Because when I heard the “Look Mom!!” today and went out, this is what Kalakoa had brought me. It’s a large felted fish that I knit… almost as big as she is, and how she dragged it out of the basket and into the hallway I will never know. All I know is that ʻUkulele had a part in the whole thing.