Deer Family

  I'm glad I have a new family to watch since my human one is spreading to all parts of the US.  Steven with fiance Elise has made his home in Hawaii and Jeff and family are moving to Michigan at the end of next month.  Today I woke to a family of deer--3 adults and 3 fawns-- in the backyard today.  I haven't been here in 5 weeks and I think they've moved in and I'm just a guest on the property.    You have to look closely at the photo because now that the grass has died, it's the same color as the deer.
  I'm so happy--this is what I wanted a year ago when I bought 4 1/2 acres in Sonora....no view of people, visible wildlife, and no fog.  Oh, and the ability to eat meals outside, though we're so used to sitting inside because it's so cool in El Granada, that we forgot to sit outside last night.  It might have still been too warm, however.  When we arrived around 3, it was about 97 here and over 100 a few miles away.
 Weather is a boring topic, but if you live on the SF coast, summer is gray and depressing.  Some people love it and I admit, I'm not loving hot weather like I did when I was younger, but I do prefer waking up to sun.
  I'm ready to work on art projects here.  I brought yarn for Saori weaving, beads for several jewelry ideas, and white silk scarves to dye.   I'll have 4-5 days of alone time to work on everything, so hope to show what I've done (good personal challenge to keep a pictorial on new things and blog about them).
 I finished my part of the art installation this past week, which was called yarn bombing, though wasn't actually bombing, which is guerilla art done in public places without permission.  I had originally hoped to do most outside the gallery with something inside, but this changed along the way, and I had to go with what the curator wanted.
  Several of us are being honored for the altruistic work we've done for the community and arts, and my part is about Colony of Coastside Artists which I started 5 + years ago.  Yarn bombing doesn't tie into it in any way, other than it's a collaborative effort and CoCA has brought together many artists sharing what they do.

  I had great help--thank goodness because it took us 6 hours to sew those pieces onto that 9' column!  It started with 9" squares--some a little larger and some a little smaller--that were sewn together ahead of time in strips.  Because yarn stretches, we had to remove one on many of the strips, which were then used for the part connecting the pole to the wall at the top.  I had such awesome help on this project--eighteen local knitters from several groups helped knit the squares and some of them and one non-knitter came to my house to either knit or sew one afternoon.  The project started in March with me asking people to start knitting or crocheting squares without telling them where or what we were "bombing"...and they took a leap of faith and did it.
  I still want to do a real yarn bombing and maybe I have a head-start with all those strips of yarn squares.  The show is up for a month....so we'll have lots of time to think about it.