Hurry Up and Wait

I took Ian's camera this morning when I walked the dogs. Amy bought Ian this filter for his birthday and I played with it before we headed out. At the time I thought I'd start my post with this picture of the sun and end it with one of the full moon, but the clouds have come in and there is no moon. Today is October 17th, my mother's birthday, and a lovely day of Indian summer - thanks Mother Nature.

I have been antsy of late. I have a long list of things that I need to do and haven't. One of them is to collect rabbit brush and make a dye liquor for the skeins I have been putting together since early summer. I especially want to turn some of my indigo blues into green. The landscape which was so recently golden has faded. Most rabbit brush has turned white, though there is one still blooming on the right if you squint. I need to collect blossoms now or forfeit the oportunity to dye this fall.
Until just this week, our whole landscape was golden and I always would say, tomorrow I'll stop for a picture, but all the tomorrows I rationalized away with yet another promise of tomorrow. The white bushes were recently yellow. It's now or next year.
I'm not sure why some plants are still blooming. You can see why rabbit brush is such a wonderful source of yellow dye. I'm a one-note Sally - I only mordant with alum because of the scary toxins in other mordants. If I can't get my color with alum, then I won't.
This is the plant that I ultimately harvested from - it's on our property and you can almost see our sheep pen in the distance. I cooked the concoction three hours. Laura suggested that I let the pot sit at least overnight, before I strain out the plant material. So I have a very large pot sitting on the stones in front of the house right now.

I am so frustrated. I haven't finished anything, but I'm working on a lot of things. I thought I'd finish my hat last night but ran out of yarn, so spent the afternoon spinning up more. It's sized and drying. More hurry up and wait as far as I'm concerned.
Apart from finishing a walk with the dogs this morning, this is the only thing that I've actually accom-
plished today. I don't count laundry as an accomplishment.