Struan Farm

Vintage Find

I stumbled upon this cute vintage embroidered children's apron on my latest trip to Nelson.  Suspect that Ella and Livvy will have to toss a coin to decide who wears this when we next bake cookies at Struan Farm. That or I'll need to find (or make) another one pretty darned fast! 

Project: Papoose

The Madelinetosh shipment has just landed from The Web-sters in Ashland, Oregon.

Thanks to Kris for the assistance in helping me choose a little girl appropriate color for Mel Clark's "Papoose" design from her new book "Knitting Gifts for Baby."

This project prompts me to ask: do you know what a "papoose" is?

My kiwi husband wasn't familiar with the term, although I suspect that most Americans would know this Native American term for a baby carrier. Apparently Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, first heard the word in 1643 used by the Narragansett Indians to refer to a child. 

Time for me to get cracking on this particular papoose!

Fabulous Fungi Found

I love it when this sort of thing happens when I'm wandering around Struan Farm.

I undertook a major "thistle patrol" initiative this past weekend. John and I have made a serious dent in controlling these introduced, noxious weeds over the years since we've taken the farm on from John's parents. We don't like using sprays, so this has been accomplished primarily by walking around with a bottle of granules, one thistle at a time. Sometimes if we don't stay on top of it the thistles gain some ground, but generally we're winning. It can be almost meditative and relaxing unless you're needing to clamber up and down slippery hillsides!

Walking up to the new house site, where the thistles have been winning of late, I came upon these vibrant orange fungi under the redwood trees: 

Wow. Thanks Mother Nature, now we just need to have a chat about those thistles....

Beginnings & Endings

Another chapter (or perhaps it's a verse?) on the theme of seasonal changes at Struan Farm, this time the gardens. It's interesting to see the early varieties of camelia in flower, at the same time the hydrangea are mottled and ending their show for the year, holding on for as long as possible.

The hydrangea look a bit melancholy but lovely, don't they?

Transitional Time

It was interesting to see the landscape in transition this past weekend at Struan Farm. There's still some autumn color about, the scene isn't dominated by skeleton trees quite yet!

The big copper beech at the front entrance is golden:

and the maple at the back gate a deep red:

John and I are so familiar with it all that I suspect we perceive what are probably pretty subtle changes week to week.

So there's still beautiful color around Struan Farm, but it's fading fast.....

Happy Queen's Birthday

Today is our long holiday weekend for Queen's Birthday. While it's not her real birthday, it's the day we celebrate as such.

Love this image from last year's Australian Women's Weekly magazine celebrating the Diamond Jubilee....

Next Nellie

After finishing up Dita's eyelet baby blanket I felt the need to knit an adult project before tackling yet another baby project. Next in that queue will be Mel Clark's "Papoose" from her new book "Knitting Gifts for Baby" for daughter Sarah's new little girl, due any day now.

So it was a pleasure to whip off another version of Lisa Cruse's "Nellie Crush," my favorite of her wonderful hat designs, in Cascade 220 Heathers (color 4010). The only problem I had with this was on the photography front, since at this time of year it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home, at least inside! One late afternoon this week I managed to get home in time to run outside to our front yard, where there was enough fading daylight to get a decent shot of the knitted hat before it's fulled.

I'll fire up the washing machine this weekend. Hoping Lisa's lesson on how to shape this hat once fulled has stuck with me, I do remember which bowl I need to use, that's a start. I'll report back once "Next Nellie" is felted/fulled, also with some initial embellishment ideas.