Bringing in the skeins!

Now that we're getting near the equinox, it's time for the age old bringing in of the skeins, see pictures of this year's harvest, and note the golden color of the ripe yarn hanging to dry, and the springlike green of the cotton fiber, waiting to dry and be rolled into balls, to knit into clothing for the peasant who processed the precious fibers.

No machinery involved in this process, just the old taking to the river, well, the upstairs bathtub, the soaking and pressing and squeezing and hanging, in the labor intensive ways of the elders, who remember the early stories of primitive hunters and gatherers of fibers, catching their own sheep, getting the snags of fleece off the fences, ten feet of snow, uphill both ways to the sheep fold....and now their descendants make a simple journey to the thrift store and riffle through racks of sweaters in search of the color and texture for their upcoming projects.

And like their ancestors, today's harvesters sit down for a nice glass of wine after their labors, and look out at the eighteenth fairway outside with its first snow covering, which has finally put paid to the local golfers for the season, and run upstairs for a quick pic of the patio, showing the entire extent of the flower garden for next year's planning.

And then sit gratefully down inside the house and admire the houseplants doing fine and looking out with sympathy at their fellows freezing their little roots off out there...