Sunday, April 29, 2007

A Full Day

Yesterday was a full day. After Chrissie picked up the kids and after Mim left, Ian asked me if I felt like driving over to the marsh to see if the yellow-headed blackbirds are here yet.




And they are. They are big and they are noisy. These are just the first to arrive. As the marsh greens up, all sorts of birds come in.



We got drawn away from the marsh when we saw wild horses behind a vacant house. This is a new herd. BLM came in and rounded up the horses last year, so it's been a while since we've seen any. My brother doesn't think they all that neat - just feral animals who fight a lot.

We drove out to see if we could get closer - trespassing it's called. This was it.




While Mim and I waited the hour for the wool to mordant, we skirted George's fleece from last year. I have avoided it because it's so fully of VM vegetative matter. We ended up dividing the fleece into three parts, front, middle and end. That way I can take it in smaller batches and it will be less overwhelming.

I realized today that I didn't get to look at the fleece, though it did seem pretty when we skirted it yesterday. I pulled out these locks when I got home from work today. I'm not sure if I'll remove the tips or now. I'm looking forward to washing these locks and see how it spins up.

5 comments:

Birdsong said...

What great pictures; I need to come over and see those birds as that is one I haven't ever seen before. I know lots of people who state that a mustang makes the best horse ever... thanks for sharing your stories.

margene said...

Nice locks! We saw yellow heads all along the lake yesterday. Sounds like you had a lovely day.

Beryl Moody said...

Those wild horses sure are beautiful, though. And it is sort of intriguing to me that the horse can be feral after all of our fiddling with the species.

cindy said...

I'm looking forward to see the locks spun up as well. I've often left the tips because they add variation to the color of the singles.

What will you make with it?

beadlizard said...

Those tips don't look bad. I'd pull that tiny scraggly bit that's about to fall off anyway, but leave the rest. I generally don't remove the tips unless they're really brittle, 1/2" of lower quality, and likely to break and pill. YMMV.

The horses *are* feral and feisty, but they're also beautiful. Thanks for the photos! --Syl