ArgoKnot

ArgoKnot
A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life
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Author name: ozweaver

A Return to Nature

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We are passing through an area of abandoned rice paddies.  The colonists worked very hard to cut down miles and miles of bald cypress swamp—and that has to be a hard job (wonder if they had slaves to do it then)—and now it has all returned to bald cypress swamp once again.  Hard to tell man ever tamed this area.

I have learned a little of why rice is no longer grown in South Carolina.  It turns out that the process of growing rice the traditional way, which means flooding the fields at some point in the growing season, can only be done by hand.  Because the fields are so marshy and at times underwater, everything from sowing seed to harvesting the rice has to be done manually.  In other rice growing states (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and California) a hybrid type of rice is grown that requires irrigation, but is not grown in marsh conditions.  Mechanized equipment can be used for the whole process so the cost of growing rice is much less.  That pretty much put Carolina rice out of business.  There are still a few farms, but they do not export the rice and it is only available in small boutique type shops.  We bought some gold rice (not polished to white) from nearby Palmetto Plantation at the museum shop in Georgetown.  I made it last night, and I do wonder if some of the dark particles I found were just pieces of chaff or if they were critters.  I really to had to cull the rice before cooking it, just in case of the latter!  It has sort of put me off to making it again….

Since leaving Georgetown we have been traveling through the cypress marshes.  It’s always nice to be alone again….at least for a bit.  I never like being alone on holidays, and we are rapidly approaching Easter (tomorrow, in fact).  It would be nice to find an acquaintance we know when we arrive in Wrightsville later today.

Here are some scenes from the marsh. An abandoned rice paddy where cypress are coming back.

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An osprey on the nest watching us as we pass.

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Traveling through a landscape that has returned to unspoiled marsh.

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And turtles sunning themselves on a cypress root.  I just had to include it even though it’s blurry! (So….what do you call a collection of turles?  A bale or a turn.  I’m going with bale since we are in cotton country!)

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Northlight Studio exhibition in Stromness, Orkney

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There was a bit of exciting news in my inbox this morning regarding the exhibition of very small tapestries taking place at the Northlight Studio in Stromness.  Joan Baxter wrote to say that show went up as planned, about a week ago.

The exhibition is up and there are 65 postcards in total from Orkney, Yorkshire, Ireland, New England and Denmark. That is a really fantastic effort, thank you for contributing.

This is wildly thrilling to me!–that my tiny little scene of the St. Mary’s River has traveled to a place I’ve always wanted to visit–that it is hanging on a wall with other tapestries made by people in places I still hope to visit– and soon!  Well… I am undone!

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What’s behind that Door?

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On our second day in lovely Georgetown, as we were walking down Front Street, in the residential area with its historic homes, we happened on this beautifully restored Federal style house with its front door wide open.  Hmmm… Could this be my chance to take a look beyond front doors and porches??

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 The man from the red pickup truck said we should go inside for a tour.  I thought he meant it was a historic house tour, with a guide.  Bob and I entered the house and began calling out ‘hellos’ to no answer.  I ventured a bit further and then really felt I should not be wandering about in this beautifully appointed house unsupervised.  Bob went back out to consult the pickup truck man.  He said that the house is for sale, fully furnished, and that it was open today for viewing.  No one was inside, but we could help ourselves to a tour.  Talk about southern hospitality, and trusting folks!

 This house was built in 1815, so it is 200 years old this year.  It is furnished with a mix of antiques and reproductions, and some of the antiques are considerably older than the house.  The dining table and sideboard were fully set for dinner…. inviting!

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The kitchen:

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There were several wonderful sitting rooms

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Want to go upstairs?  Of course you do! (sorry about the crooked photos….I will have to edit them when I get home–in a month or so!)

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There is even an upstairs sitting room off the master bedroom…. love the ottoman!

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All this can be yours:  the house, the furnishings, a beautifully landscaped city lot, and a small corner lot next door that has been purchased and turned into a lovely garden…but wait!  There’s more!  The price also includes a late model Land Rover to get you out and about.  And are you ready for the price?….. 1.5 million and the place is yours.  Pretty amazing.  And you could live in this charming town. (You would have to get used to the smell of the paper plant though…well, there are always compromises, right?)

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Salt Marsh or Rice Paddy??

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Last night we anchored alone in a quiet little estuary off the ICW, less than 10 miles south of Georgetown, SC.  We didn’t make it to Georgetown because of waiting for mid-tide in some particularly shallow areas of shoaling.  The shoaling seems worse than it did two years ago, and locals in Georgia have mentioned that there just isn’t money in the budget for keeping the waterway dredged as often as in the past.

Yesterday evening was beautifully quiet.  After a long day of listening to the engine run it was so peaceful to be alone in a pretty spot.  There was no wind, which is rather rare, so when the birds weren’t singing it was utterly quiet.  Here are the marshes in the last of of the light.

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I thought it was salt grass on all sides of us, but the guide book says they are rice paddies.  Hmmm…. there were some flood gate type constructions here and there, so maybe they were rice paddies. Notice the egret in the foreground.

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The sun set to a chorus of trilling blackbirds, and led to a cold but tranquil night–clear skies with a gibbous moon and lots of stars.

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 This morning the wind kicked up and dark clouds moved quickly over us bringing rain.  As we left the anchorage we saw a bald eagle in a lone tree in the rice paddy/marsh.  He took flight as we passed him.

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Before the rain found us there were some stunning moments along the canal as we headed for Georgetown.

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 By mid morning we were anchored just off the public docks in pretty Georgetown–although it’s too bad about the noise from the steel plant and the railroad tracks, and the smell from the papermill, all at the head of the harbor!  At the local museum we were told that those are rice paddies where we anchored, and the birds were most likely a type of bobolink that the locals call ‘rice birds.’  Rice birds have been a problem since rice was first grown in these parts.  They can eat an entire crop of rice, and no one has figured out a way to deter them.  So the current rice growing endeavor has failed.  I don’t quite understand this problem since there has always been plenty of Carolina rice as long as I can remember!

 

Shameless Landlubber

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We have spent some wonderful days ashore between Fernandina, Savannah and Beaufort, SC.  I can’t walk 10 feet without taking a photo– of window boxes, planters, a beautiful front door or porch.  Clearly I miss land! –in spite of my little container gardens on Pandora.

Our last day in Savannah: camellias, cherry trees– even a few that have already begun leafing out!—azaleas, pansies.  It is full spring here.

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And just a few more doors…..I can’t help myself! Note the gas lamp at this door.  There were many in Savannah.

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Elegance on elegance…..would love to get a peak inside both these places!

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This gate with ivy is so pretty I can only imagine how lovely the garden must be on the other side!

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 Lunch was fun in a well known English style pub with good pub fare:  bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, ploughman’s lunch.  I took this photo to show my dear friend Lesley, but I wish I’d taken a photo of my lunch so she could see I was having a Branston pickle!

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We visited the maritime museum that also happened to have a lovely garden surrounding it since the museum is housed in an historic house with beautiful grounds.

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The museum had quite an extensive collection of ship models, but what caught my eye were some of the very few other items, relics from various ships.  There was a wall of scrimshaw in one room, and I was intrigued with these lovely carved rolling pins. I don’t even have a rolling pin on Pandora since I only make a pie once or twice during our time onboard each year.  I use an empty wine bottle….we always have one on hand!

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And of course I had to take a photo of this lovely scene of children with a lamb.  Not your standard scrimshaw image!

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And just before leaving Savannah we had our photo taken by a couple of tourists after Bob offered to take theirs.

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From Savannah we moved on to Beaufort, where I looked forward to visiting one of the friendliest yarn shops, Coastal Knitting.  Just walking through the charming business section of town—so many beautifully tended shops and interesting restaurants—was delightful.  And the residential areas were beyond wonderful!  There were gardens in luscious bloom everywhere.  Here is just a sampling!

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This morning, just one day after leaving Beaufort, I found a comment here from a woman who lives in Beaufort, and who just returned herself from a couple of months onboard her trawler, armed with both knitting projects and a tapestry project.  It is a thrill to know that there are other weavers out there!  It can get so lonely out here without other weavers to talk to!

Non-weavers often recommend that I get an inkle loom or a little rigid heddle.  I love these small tools and enjoy using them when I have a certain project in mind that suits them.  But they in no way replace that urge to weave the type of cloth that I love.  It’s just not the same, and an inkle loom is never going to satisfy my need to design and create fabric.  Anyway—it’s very nice to be in touch with another weaver.  Laura Burcin plans being onboard for a longer period next winter.  I look forward to connecting with her in person.  In the meantime, I feel I have gotten to know her a bit through her blog.

Should I talk about my “For Irene” sweater, which I have ripped back in order to make the lower body smaller?  I certainly don’t want to!  It has not gone as simply as I envisioned!  I knitted most of this sweater in Portugal on my rosewood, interchangeable Knit Picks needles—size 4.  At the airport in Lisbon, as I was headed back to the US, they were taken from me.  Now that I’m trying to match the stockinette on the body of sweater, I am finding that none of my other needles are able to match the gauge of those particular needles I lost!  UGH! I have started and ripped back five times now!  This is a crisis! I did try to replace those needles in Coastal Knitting in Beaufort.  They don’t carry the interchangeables, but they did have size 4 circulars from Knitter’s Pride which I have heard is the same manufacturer as Knit Picks.  Alas, no luck on getting the same gauge!

I wanted to wear this sweater to a wedding in a little over two weeks, and now I’m rather convinced it won’t happen.  Ah well, time to make peace with that.  When I get home I can order a replacement for the needles I lost….

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