Seven Years

Spring is really dragging its heels here. The wind has been blustery and all the rain that I hear about isn't falling here. Nevertheless, the Desert Peach, the harbinger of spring is now in bloom.
It's such a cheerful shrub and very fragrant - a member of the rose family. I took my camera this morning when I walked Buster.
Oddly, the blossoms aren't a uniform shade. Some are this light pink.
Some are this hot pink, and in fact, I used this shade today in one of my desert pond towels. I thought heck yeah. That's a naturally occurring color. Check out the thorns. They are lethal. I have scratches on the my car doors from venturing too close to the side of our driveway too many times. Those bushes are going away this month - soon.
And it's not just Desert Peach, but Bitter-
brush is in bloom at the same time this year. It's another subtle plant but across the brush you see the dots of yellow.
The color is intense but the blossoms are tiny. It's hard to relate how much color these two bushes will provide along the roadsides over the next couple of weeks.
The rabbits have been voracious this winter. They have eaten the lower limbs of the pines and destroyed many other plants. I'm not sure why, since this wasn't a particularly cold or snowy year.
We have been con-
founded at how they managed to eat inside the rabbit-
guard, which is the name of this fencing. They have permanently disfigured this holly plant. The signature of a cottontail attack is the 45 degree angle they leave at their point of munching, so said the Cooperative Extension when I took in some of our damaged plants last year.
This is the tree that has us scratching our heads. They've eaten up for a couple of feet. That would have made sense if we had gotten any kind of appreciable snow this winter, but we didn't. Can a cottontail stand on it's hind feet and eat this high? They ate our Oregon grape too, supposedly a rabbit-safe plant. We know they don't like: lavendar, santolina, Scotch broom, lemon thyme and day lilies. I'm sticking to that menu.
On the tea-towel front, this is the desert-
peach pink that I tried today. It absolutely masks the yellow. I find that fascinating. After talking to Beryl last night, I've decided to change up the warp next time, the threads per pattern and use the Fibonacci sequence. My new order of warp is supposed to arrive on Tuesday, so you know what I'll be doing on Wednesday!

And I've started weaving on the next lap blanket. This is the light gray wool from one of my brother's sheep that I then overdyed with out-of-season rabbitbrush. It's a very pale gold but what I especially like is that the dark gray flecks of the fleece are showing through the dye.

I got an email this afternoon that absolutely thrilled me. My friend Heidi said that she has been infected by my dish towels and has warped her loom to weave a set of her own. I cannot think of any higher praise.

Oh, and I've meant to say since last month that I've now embarked on my 7th year of blogging. It doesn't feel like seven years, but it does to Google, because I'm now paying storage. That seems fair for a seven years worth of words and pictures. Since it was really last month, I should have waiting until May 7th for drama but I wasn't sure I'd remember on May 7th so today is my 7th anniversary.