Oh the weather outside....

...is creepy. We are currently in a high risk area for tornadoes today. This means there is a 30% chance there will be a tornado within 25 miles of any given location within the high risk area. We are also warned that there may be 50 mph winds outside of the main storm and hail.

Fortunately, we are prepared. We've got water and blankets and flashlights, batteries, storm radios... in the basement and all the animals are locked  up for the day. Last week Bill also cleaned out the garage, so our cars are actually in it for the first time since we moved in. This, we hope, protects them from hail and falling branches.
 

Also last week, Bill replaced a very broken pane in a living room window.

All the storm windows are shut, the kerosene lamps are full of oil and we are snuggled in for an afternoon of game playing and weather alert listening.

Mushrooms...

Knitted:

 

Meteorological:

 

 

Our dinner (no mushrooms here)

 

A dorking rooster:

 

A Wool Gathering

Yesterday, Bill and I traveled to Yellow Springs OH for A Wool Gathering - a sheep and wool show at a dairy farm.


It was a very nice day. Our first stop was for lunch in town. Yellow Springs doesn't seem like it belongs in Ohio...it seems to be a little bit of California transplanted to the Midwest.


The town was full of diverse people out enjoying the day. There was a farmers market, which drew a lot of folks, and the sheep and wool festival brought people in from out of town, but it seems like a place that is always buzzing (and I mean that in more ways than one). Though it's a small town (population around 3,700) it seemed like an engaged, active community.

It was a fun town to visit. We admired well-maintained old buildings, ate some pizza and yielded the right-of-way at a stop light to one of Yellow Springs notable residents - Dave Chappelle.


Then it was on to the fiber! There were lots of fiber farmers there with their animals. We pet all sorts of sheep and stared at a very intense llama.


The gathering took place at a fabulously agro-tourismy dairy farm. There was mini-golf, tons of playground space for kiddos and lots of fun animals to feed. We saw the fattest Barred Rock chicken ever and had goats chewing on our shirts


Naturally, there was ice cream.


And yarn.



It was a pretty nice day!

Freezing fog

Ever heard of it? I had no idea until this winter and we sure are getting lots of it now.

It's just what it sounds like....water droplets from fog, freezing on surfaces.

It's the same stuff that forms in freezers. It makes everything white.


Everything.


And it sure is pretty.


It's been a treat waking up to frozen fog covered trees all week.


Usually, it is accompanied by clear skies that are bluer than blue.


As it warms up, the ice crystals start falling from the trees. It looks like its snowing, but the sky is incredibly blue. Very trippy.


Speaking of trips...we had a lovely day in Cincinnati last weekend. We stopped at Jungle Jim's for hot sauce and micro brews, had Chipotle for lunch, and watched Syracuse beat Cincy in a good game. We got to sit with Orange fans from all over the Midwest, including a gentleman who played with Boeheim and regaled us with stories of the old days.


And, here are some unrelated socks.

Wisconsin

Last weekend it was beautiful in Indy - 70s and sunny. So Bill and I decided to go to Milwaukee, where it was 40 and raining...a lot. There was even still snow on the ground! Our purpose in going was not to prolong our winter, but to see SU play Marquette.

Milwaukee is a great city, and Syracuse won the game (needing only one overtime to do so). The Bradley Center is a beautiful venue and the Marquette fans were awesome. There was even a bus load of Chrysler employees who were transfered from CNY to Illinois in '06 that sat next to us, emboldening our cheers.

We're planning a return trip to Milwaukee when the weather is a bit more cooperative, but this weekend was a perfect time to visit the art museum, which is housed in an insane building that Bill kept referring to as Starfleet Command.

The museum's special exhibit was "Sensory Overload" which involved fun modern art to freak you out, including an infinity chamber meant to make you feel as if you were floating in outer space.

This is Matrix (I think) - a room with LEDs strung floor to ceiling at exact intervals. It was fun to walk through the strings and see mathematics at work.


My favorite was this piece of a few different shaped mirrored vessels sitting in a mirrored box:


Sugar didn't come, but spent the night at puppy camp, which tired her out enough to allow me to take a photo of her being relatively still on the car ride home: