"Goodnight, Irene.....Goodnight, Irene.....I'll see you in mydreams....."

GOODNIGHT, IRENE

Where the Llano Estacada

Takes a big step down the Caprock,

At the foot of Flat Top Mountain,

That's where this story starts.....

She was Irene, or Renie
But the grandkids called her Mama.

She was a rancher, a pioneer, 

A woman of great heart.

Mama was a story teller,

And we loved to sit and listen

As she spun her lively cowboy tales...

The way I spin my yarn.

She also was a singer.

She sang while cooking breakfast,

"Goodnight, Irene" at bedtime,

And I remember cowboy songs.

Just sixteen when she met Nonnie

At a barn dance--he was singing.

They fell in love and married

And he moved her to the ranch.

Her stories told of cattle,

And living in a dugout,

And rattlesnakes, and biscuits,

Of a new chair, and Ol' Shep.

They loved and ranched together

In Flat Top Mountain's shadow,

Raisin' kids and cattle

Where the wind always blows.

Finally a ranch house,

And then the fire that took it

When a dogie in the kitchen 

Kicked a lantern to the floor.

The 30's drought and Dust Bowl

Brought disaster to the ranchers.

They moved to town, and nearly starved,

And lived in a hotel.

Nonnie died in that hotel, a young man,

Leaving Renie with 3 children.

She struggled hard and just got by,

And she missed him all her life.

The kids grew up, as kids do,

As her hard work just continued.

One kept the ranch, two went to Tech.

All married and had kids.

Those kids were us, and we grew up,

And scattered to the four winds.  

Our kids are grown, and they have kids

Who don't remember her.

But I'm here to tell her stories

Of cattle and the dugout,

Of a dogie and a ranch house fire,

And the hotel, and Ol' Shep.

And I sing the cowboy songs

As my grandkids sit and listen.

And now Evie says, "Goodnight, Irene",

When she kisses me goodnight.

Where the Llano Estacada

Takes a big step down the Caprock,

Two hearts, near Flat Top Mountain,

Together again.....

Where the Llano Estacada

Takes a big step down the Caprock,

And the circle is unbroken

And the wind blows on....

©2013 SRG

Note:  Rosie and I have begun to gather Mama's stories and will publish those stories here, in the form of poems.

"To everything...turn, turn, turn...There is a season...turn, turn, turn..." ~ The Byrds, based on Ecclesiastes 3

If you hang around long enough, you figure out that the world continues to move on, no matter what is going on in your own life.  The sun continues to rise and set...

And the moon...

And the seasons continue to turn...

And with the turning of the seasons, I am reminded that life goes on and life is good.

Steve and I have done some travelling the last few months--road trips are good for the soul, you know.  Our two National Parks this year were Yosemite, hazy from the smoke of a lightening-caused wildfire...

...and Redwoods National Park, near the Northern California coast...

We drove to Portland for a Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society convention, where Steve taught a clinic, and drove back down the coast.  We went with friends to the Seascape Inn, in Aptos, California...

...and with the Lincoln Hills Sports Car Club to the Little River Inn in Mendocino...

From here, we spent an afternoon at MacKerricher State Park watching enormous waves stirred up in the sea's cauldron by a storm out at sea--

Through and around all the road trips, I've continued to spin...from the Pirate Spin-Along in the Bohemia Fibers group on Ravelry--

...to the Fall Folly in the Raspberryhollow Mohair Society, also on Ravelry--

And now it's almost Thanksgiving, and then Christmas.  David and Ashley, and Scott and Anmarie and Eric and Evie are coming for Thanksgiving--David's going to bring the turkey, and cook it, and Scott is bringing pies.  So even with the loss of both of our mothers this year, the circle continues to turn, the seasons change, the river keeps rolling on, and we are blessed...

“Take to spinning to find peace of mind. The music of the wheel will be as balm to your soul. I beleive that the yarn we spin is capable of mending the broken warp and weft of our life.” ~ Mahatma Ghandi

And so I have continued to spin this summer.  During the month of July, I joined the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry.  It's a Spin-Along that takes place every year during the annual Tour de France.  Over 4300 spinners took part, joining different sub-groups and spinning daily, if possible.  The groups I joined were the Bohemia Fibers group, the Namaste Farm group, the Breakaway group for art-yarn-spinning, and the Bosworth group for spindlers using Bossies.



Bohemia Fibers batts



Some of my own batts



Namaste Farm fibers



And some of the yarns I spun from these fibers during the TdF--




Bohemia Bauble Batt on a Bossie



My Blues batt on a Bossie



More spindle-spun Bohemia Baubles



And the Art Yarns--

There were other yarns, not pictured.  And I didn't finish everything in the queue, but that just gives me more fiber to round out the summer.  I have found a measure of peace and Ghandi's "mending" in the spinning, and that measure grows a little each day.  I am so fortunate to have a lovely place to spin--

And Rosie to assist me...








"Sometimes, when you look back, you can point to a time when your world shifts and heads in another direction. In lace reading this is called the "still point". ~ from "The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry

One of the "still points" in my life came in 1997, when I went to the Estes Park Wool Market and took a Creative Knitting class from Valentina Devine (yes, that's really her name).  Valentina is a very talented knitter and creative designer--and she dyes her own fiber!  The class was an eye-opener for me.  Up to that point in my knitting life, I had followed patterns written by others, always changing just a little something, never satisfied until I had added a touch of my own.  Valentina taught me to fly!

Our classroom was in the ballroom of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, with floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out across the little town toward the mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park.  The class was fairly large; we sat in a circle while Valentina walked and talked and showed us one beautiful knitted garment after another.  We had been asked to bring balls of left-over yarns to class--any fiber, any color, any weight.  I was pretty confident that mine would be the biggest "stash" in class, until I saw the huge bag of yarn brought by the woman sitting next to me--she turned out to be Cheryl Oberle!

Valentina's class, her teaching style, her enthusiasm, and her many sample garments were magical.  She taught us to "just start knitting", no pattern, in any direction, changing colors and yarns at any time, and mixing knitting with crochet.  Her mantra seemed to be "when in doubt, add 20 more colors!"  (She told us that she learned that in a class with Kaffe Fassett.)  I was fascinated, and that class forever changed the way I knit.  It was my first exposure to free-form (or free-range, or free-style) knitting.

The day after the class, Steve and I went to the Wool Market vendor barn and I showed him all the wonderful garments at Valentina's booth.  We were both drawn to an absolutely beautiful shawl, knitted in multi-color log-cabin-style squares, with Valentina-touches, which were crocheted together with black wool.  Breathtaking!  She had showed us that technique in class, so I decided to make one.  And when I learned to spin the next year, I was determined to use handspun for my shawl.

Life got busy, we moved from Colorado to Omaha, but I continued to spin for my shawl.  Then in February, 2000, right after the turn of the century, another still point occurred in my life.  Daddy, who had always been the rock in my life, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died eight days later, two days before my son's wedding.  While many things about those experiences were both beautiful and poignant for me, when it was over I felt as if the earth had fallen away and I had nothing to stand on.  My mourning was like an all-enveloping fog--I couldn't read or knit or watch television or even carry on a conversation.  But I found that I could spin, and spin I did--for almost a year.

I began knitting my shawl in 2001, one square at a time.  Like Valentina's, it was multi-color, multi-fiber, log-cabin squares embellished with crochet.  Instead of black, I used navy wool to crochet the squares together; instead of fringe, I added a ruffle to the edge.  In 2007, two years after moving back to California, I unpacked the pieces of the shawl and decided it was time finish it.

"Still Point"

Since that time, I have been blessed with other "still points" in my life.  One has been my association with the Jane Thornley  http://www.janethornley.com/blog/index.php/site/index/  group on Ravelry, where my free-range knitting really came into its own.  And, of course there's my friendship with Jill Sanders  http://centeringwithfiber.blogspot.com/  who taught me Saori weaving and lifted my weaving from the ordinary to the sublime.

In May, I encountered another of life's still points, when my Mother died.  And again, I find that I am overwhelmed.  But I can spin, and have spent the month of June spinning.  Last week, we went to Fort Bragg, where I continued to spin--by the ocean--wrapped in Mother's prayer shawl that I spun and knitted for her last year.

Spinning-By-The-Sea

And yesterday, I washed the yarns from my spinning marathon--

June was a good month to spin...

There will continue to be still points in my life--those times come to everyone.  I've found that the trick is to embrace the change in my world, and move in a new direction with gratitude.  So thank you to Valentina and Jane and Jill, and thank you also to Daddy and to Mother --for what you brought into my life and what I carry into the future because of you all...



Thank you, Valentina...




Thank you, Jane...





Thank you, Jill...



And Rosie continues to show her gratitude--

"...I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils." ~ William Wordsworth, 1804

Another weekend, another Miata roadtrip--this time the other direction.  We drove east this week, with the SAMOA Miatas, up into the Sierra Nevada foothills, into the Gold Country.  Spring has been a wet one this year, and everything is still kelly-green. 

From the valley, into the hills...

and from the oaks...

into the pines...

...and on to Daffodil Hill, near Volcano, California.  Daffodil Hill is a hillside farm that has been planted with hundreds of thousands of daffodil bulbs over the years.  We've never been able to see it during peak-bloom-time, but we made it this year---

And onward, down into Volcano, population 85, for lunch...

...as Rosie waits at home and re-arranges the studio for me...

"The goal of road trip enthusiasts is to experience the culture, nature and history of the route, and to celebrate the open road." ~ Wickipedia

Road Trip Season is baaaack, and we're planning to enjoy a lot of time and country and scenery this year.  We're members of the Sacramento Area Miata Owners Club (SAMOA), and the Lincoln Hills Sports Car Club, and will make as many of their road trips as possible.  And we've got several trips of our own on the wish-list.

Last Saturday, the Miata Club met in Davis for a drive through the hills to the Napa Valley, the Sonoma Valley, and on to Bodega Bay for lunch.  We haven't taken the hard top off our car yet, but it was still a great run, and the weather was beautiful--

Second Miata from right, with a mask...

Through the hills...

Into the Napa Valley...

Winery...

Row upon row of wine grapes...

And finally, Crab Louie at Inn of the Tides in Bodega Bay!

"Where's my Crab Louie?"