More Weather Lore

The Kelley School
Blue Ridge Parkway
MP 149

A great nut year is a great bastard year
It is said that when there is a bumper crop of walnuts in a given year,
 that the following year will have a larger number of bastards.
So, just to be safe, if you see lots of walnuts hanging in a tree,
you might want to lock up your daughters!

When April blows his horn, 'tis good for hay and corn
(horn = thunder)

A wet May brings a good load of hay
(Plenty of sun in June)

If leaves wither on their branches in late autumn, 
instead of beginning to fall in October as normal,
an extra cold winter is due.

A large number of foggy days in October indicates a hard winter

A cold November signifies a mild winter

Black-eyed Susans
Rudbeckia hirta

A green Christmas (like a warm May) means a fat churchyard
This seems to be based on fact.

Dew in the night, the day will be bright

(If you ever get up on a summer morning and the lawn is dry, it is an ominous sign!)

A hot May makes a fat churchyard
(It does seem that a warm May makes extra work for florists, undertakers and crematorium attendants.)

 Copyright 2013--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean

Tour de Fleece 2013 Day 23 and Final!

Tour de Fleece Days 17 - 22

Tour de Fleece Days 14 - 16

The only thing that I spun on this day was the alpaca yarn in the upper right hand corner.
I would have spun more, but I had to attend a huge fiber sale!
A local fiber artist is moving and Greenberry House in Meadows of Dan, Virginia is
having a big sale this weekend and next weekend to sell lots of items.
I purchased quite a bit of fiber and a few small pieces of equipment.
Here are my purchases:
a Lincoln sheep fleece, a Cotswold sheep fleece, Turkish Spindle, Flick Carder, apron,
a weaving book, a small drop spindle, thrown silk waste, silk roving,
cochineal dyed Angora, silk hankies, a recycled blue jean cotton/flax roving,
mohair top,  recycled denim.white & brown cotton roving,
cream colored cotton roving, more silk roving, gold Tussah silk, blue silk noil,
merino/silk/cashmere roving, superfine Merino top, a cone of turquoise yarn,
Icelandic wool roving,  brown/cream/black roving, 8 oz white wool roving,
10 oz white Lincoln wool locks, a handmade wool basket,  and a couple of bags of
assorted wools which includes some beautiful long Lincoln wool locks dyed green. 

This was my first project using my new blending board!
The dyed roving used in this project is what I dyed last weekend. 

While in Meadows of Dan on Saturday for the huge fiber sale, I had to stop in at Poor Farmer's Market and get one of their Hungry Hillbilly Subs!  They are SO YUMMY!

The new Meadows of Dan Elementary School is under construction and it is looking fabulous so far.  I can't wait to see what it looks like when it is completed.

Tour de Fleece Days 10-13

AND here it is plied together!

Tour de Fleece Days 7 - 9

I also did one more pot of dye today!

Weather Lore

I have heard that using seaweed as a barometer is very effective and that people used to bring home a piece of seaweed and hang it on their porches.  If fine weather is predicted, the seaweed will be dry and crumbly.  If wet weather is coming, then it will expand and feel damp since it will absorb moisture from the air.

If trees show the lighter underside of their leaves, wet weather is a sure thing. (This is caused by the increasing moisture in the air which softens the leave stalks, causing them to turn over.)

If your cat gets extremely frisky, then expect high winds.

Dogs tend to get agitated before the arrival of a thunderstorm.  Of course, their keen ears hear it long before our pitiful human hearing detects the booming thunder.

If you see all of the cows in a field lying down and chewing their cud, rain is on the way.

A cat washing behind its ears is a sure sign of rain to come.

When the day is going to be hot and dry, spiders spin longer and larger webs.  If rain is coming, the webs are short and small or the spiders disappear altogether.

If a cock goes crowing to bed, he will surely wake with a watery head.  (If a rooster crows at night, there will be rain by the next morning.)

 Copyright 2013--All Rights Reserved--The Wheel & Distaff by Kimberly Burnette-Dean

Tour de Fleece Days 3 - 6