A Room With a View

The studio is in the only wing of the house that's two stories; the rest is single story. That gives the studio lovely views looking out over the garage and the dining room & office wing, even though the two-story wing is at the back of the house, up against a hillside.

View to the north, looking though the archway of the exterior balcony and stairs:



Another view to the north, showing more view and less house structure:



And looking toward the west over the dining/office wing from the sewing area:



The oak tree under which my van is parked is on our lot; the neighbor's house is set about 15 feet lower in elevation, so all we see is the roof, and that only from the second story. At ground level near the oak, the California poppies are busily taking over the world.



Looking out to the south, the side of the studio with three windows, all I see is an oak- and meadow-covered hillside:




The trees are covered with two kinds of lichens, the stringy grey-green stuff (usnea? or Old Man's Beard?) that dyes a delicate grey-green (surprise!) and the flat umbilicates that give red-violet if you ferment them in an ammonia/water solution for a few weeks. Dyestuff growing right in my back yard, hooray!

Where the sun exposure is right, and plentiful, the poppies and lupines compete for space and create a riot of complementary colors.



That's as close to fiber-related posting as I can manage at the moment. I'm madly twisting fringes on scarves I wove before the move, hoping to have as much inventory as possible for CNCH (Conference of Northern California Handweavers) the weekend of May 2, 3 & 4, just over a week away. I'll be a vendor at the conference for the first time this year. If you're attending the conference as a registered participant, or just shopping the goodies in the commercial vendor area, please drop by to say hello.