Feltfarm Sign

I needed a sign for my shop. OK, so I don't really have a shop, but whatever. So I made this. I'll use it for craft fairs and farmers markets or wherever I happen to be selling my stuff. I photographed it in our sunflower "forest" we have sprouting out in the front yard.



Here it is closer up



While I was out there, I noticed this pumpkin blossom. The pumpkin plant has snaked itself into the warm, humid, shady area in the sunflower forest, and is wrapping its tendrils around the sunflowers. I had to nip that one in the bud before some sunflowers got hurt.





Yesterday I saw an ad on Craigslist for old apple boxes from a farm here in Sebastopol. Dave & I drove over there with the idea that maybe we could re-purpose them into a shelving unit for our bedroom. That didn't pan out, because they were a little too rough. But we bought one anyway, because the chickens need more nesting room. Ginger took to it right away.

Henrietta Fancy-Pants

I just finished Henrietta. I started her on our road trip to Utah. (needlefelting is the BEST travel activity for long, boring stretches) I got quite a bit of her basic shape done by the time we'd crossed Nevada, and worked on her here & there almost every day of the trip after that. Working on the finishing touches has taken me till now. She is life-sized, and solid wool felt. She is extremely firmly felted, and weighs 13 ounces. 13oz is a LOT of wool. I changed her color 3 times; finally settling in on this beautiful gray Navajo Churro wool I found in Moab. I think I'll put her in the Harvest Fair.

Feltfarm's going to the Market!

I'm going to try something new - selling at a Farmers Market. I go to farmers markets all the time - it's one of my favorite things to do whether here locally or while traveling. Nothing gives a sense of place better than being amidst fresh flowers, fruit and veggies that came out of the ground mere hours before. Not to mention locally made cheese, tea, chocolate, eggs, fish and more. Then there's the people-watching. Occidental has the best. It's not just the Occidental Farmers Market, it's the Occidental Bohemian Farmers Market. Yeah, that's right.
So I'm going to try my hand at having a booth this Friday, July 3rd to sell my needlefelting. This is a first for me, and I don't know how it's going to work - will I be well-received? Will people be nice to me? Will I be bored, or overwhelmed?
If you are local and are reading this, I would truly love to see some friendly faces pop in - Gerard will be there making his awesome Paella, and there will be wood-fired pizza, crepes, Indian curry and samosas and more, so come eat dinner! 4pm till dusk.

Utah Pictures

Finally got around to uploading the vacation photos. They're at http://gallery.me.com/nancylorenz/100081 Grab a cup of coffee; there's a bunch!

Home Sweet Sebastopol Home

After 14 days, 4 states and some 2800 miles it is nice to be back home. What a fabulous trip we had to Utah. If I had to describe in in one word, it would be "Rock". I have never seen so much magnificent rock in my life. I'm still not a desert person - I'll take tropical rainforest, rain, vines and fragrant flowers any day, but I have to admit this was amazing. It was great to have 14 days with the biggest decision to make being what to do and where to go. Lots of hikes and bike rides in-between driving through some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen in my life. The trip was bookended with family visits at both ends; my sister Linda at the start, at her home in Grantsville, Utah, and my Uncle Doug's 70th Birthday party in Folsom on the last day.

It'll take awhile to go through all our pictures and edit them down for a photo album, but in the meantime, here are a few of my favorite images from the trip.

This has to be one of my favorite photos. My little birdie on her nest. Taken in-between Capitol Reef and Escalante on beautiful Hwy 12. Elevation here about 9500'. Click to zoom in.



Pine Tree Arch in Arches National Park. To get a sense of the size, the following picture shows the same Arch with Amelia sitting in it.





It's irresistable - you can't *not* throw a rock off Dead Horse Point!



Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park. There's something really serene about peering through an arch...



Just another gigantic Rock wall - from our campsite in Capitol Reef National Park.



From our campground at Red Canyon, outside Bryce. I did not alter the color!



Dave got some good Mountain Bike riding in - at Moab, he did the Slick Rock trail, and here at Red Canyon, he did the Thunder Mountain trail.



I'm convinced Disneyland's "Thunder Mountain Railroad" was modeled after this place.



Bryce Canyon. Technically not a canyon, as we learned from our Geologist Ranger friend. Pictures of Bryce don't even come close to the grandness of standing there viewing it in person. It's almost hard to believe you are standing on planet earth. I specifically included people in the picture to try to give it some scale. They're way down there at the bottom of the picture.



We three at Zion's Weeping Walls.


The guy who's afraid of heights sure likes to push his comfort level.



Stumbled upon this State Park in Nevada - North of Vegas; not even on the map. It's called "Valley of Fire". We did a hike which included prehistoric petroglyphs. Lots of them.



Merced River in Yosemite. Best I could do without a tripod.

Utah

Southern Utah is gorgeous!

Taken from our BLM campsite on the Colorado River.


Yo Dave: That's a 2,000 ft. drop.


Fun with the updraft at Deadhorse Point State Park


Sign in Green River, Utah

Herman Munster

I don't know if I have it in me to finish him, but it was fun doing his head.

New in the Feltfarm

Just finished these & added them to the Feltfarm:

Boxiefishies:







Pufferfishies

Ginger

eeva

Healdsburg Ridge Hike

Playing tourist in my own backyard again, I finally got up to Healdsburg ridge today. Being the first non-rainy day in quite awhile, everything was clean and fresh. And I was the only one up there. I managed to stumble and do a face plant at one point, but thankfully the ground was still soft. There are two beautiful ponds up there. "Fox Pond" was rimmed with wild yellow irises. It had blooming lillies on the water and bright blue dragonflies flying around; many in tandem. It was just too bright and sunny to get decent pictures of it, but I did get some other pictures that I liked:

Ain't nobody here but me & the lizard


I don't know what these are called, but I always think "cornflower blue" when I see them.



The second pond I came upon was less in the direct sun, and I was mesmerized by some of the reflections.




From atop the ridge, you can see the Russian river over on the right, and Mt. St. Helena on the left.

Poppies!

You really can't tell by my pictures, but there is a spectacular display of red poppies at DeLoach Vineyards at the corner of Gurneville Rd. and Vine Hill Rd. Maybe I'll get out to shoot them again when it's not so sunny. They're not going to last long, though.

I am not a gardener

I am the daughter of an Arborist and a Rosarian. My Dad studied Ag at UC Davis and owned acres of walnuts and pears. He would get up in the middle of the night to set out smudge pots to keep his trees warm if it frosted. He knew how to graft a red delicious apple onto a golden delicious tree. My mom could grow anything, and was an award-winning floral arranger. Both parents were skilled at Bonsai. I could go on and on - it seems plants were the main focus of their passions, and there were few plants and trees they couldn't identify. I, however, did not get the gardener gene. It went to my sister, while my brother and I ended up with the "make stuff" gene. I do not like touching dirt, and I don't like taking care of houseplants. It was a big deal for me to plant a handful of irises last fall.

That said, I absolutely love plants and flowers. I love them in the house, as long as they look good, but when they start to turn brown and wilt, I can't wait to get rid of them. I am fortunate that mom left us some beautiful roses for our yard that, thankfully are hardy enough to withstand my inattention. I am also lucky and thankful for my friend Sib, who gifted me a little baggie of wildflower seeds early this year, which has turned into this little fairytale patch of cheerfulness in the front yard.

So right now, our front yard is blooming like crazy, and I'm loving it! My mom used to tell me that some day I would begin to enjoy gardening. Well, maybe a little. But I'll still never be a gardener.








Mom's "Regansberg" Rose



And my first iris opened today!