Tatjna

"You may touch the royal floof"

A brown and white spotted sheep, side on to the camera but looking at it with ears pricked. She has a brown coat, and a bit white blaze down her face with a white ruff around her neck. Her eyes, nostrils, and mouth have brown patches over them. The grass is green and lush and there are a few sheep in the background.

I haven't posted on here for ages so here is a picture of one of my sheep. She's learning to walk on a lead so she can be a public relations ambassador at our local show.

Lol

I get quoted in the media calling people dropkicks: I'm referring to drug dealers who misrepresent drugs and risk people's lives.

Seymour gets quoted in the media calling people dropkicks: He's referring to people who are late enrolling to vote.

Ladies and gentlemen, your deputy pm.

An old barn and cattle loading ramp, silhouetted against a cloudy sky with the light of the full moon backlighting it all

Barn down the road looks way spookier at night with the full moon behind it

Bunch of trees?

A black and white sheepdog wades along a driveway that's submerged under a very large puddle - it's about 40m long and ankle deep. The driveway is lined by variegated harakeke and there are trees in the background. It's raining.

"How's it going?"

"Bit wet"

Personally I'm just really over hearing about what Seymour thinks. There are a whole lot of other, more qualified politicians whose opinion doesn't get anywhere near as much airtime and I'd love to hear more from them.

A 2m long piece of linen, dyed brick red with madder, hanging on a washing line to drip dry. In the background is an overgrown herb garden and flat paddocks on an overcast day.

Aaaand, here is the result. I was looking for an ochre type colour and I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

I've also got 10L of dye in the freezer for next time I have a rush of blood to the head and decide to get creative.

A piece of tannin-stained brown linen sits next to a scale. On the scale is a small glass bowl containing 25g of aluminium sulphate intended as a mordant for the linen.

Getting ready to mordant my home woven linen, in preparation for dyeing it. It's this brown because I gave it a tannin bath yesterday to get better mordanting.

I've never made linen before, never mind dyed it, so this is a new adventure for me. I have nerd excitement!

Fat skein of dark brown 2-ply sport weight corriedale yarn, sitting on a vegetarian sheepskin pad made from white valais blacknose wool. The sun is shining on it, showing golden highlights in the wool.

Been a while. Have a picture of the latest skein - 400m of dark brown corriedale with golden tips adding warmth.

This will be woven for a competition piece. Only another 400m to spin!

Cool now do English-speaking Western countries and see what it looks like

Probably a lot of different ways 🤣

First is a woven bag, then maybe a long coat. I might felt some too.

A spool of very dark brown single yarn about 1mm diameter sits on a wooden shelf with a turkish spindle in the background. The wool is spun semi-worsted and has a slight golden halo.

New spin - this single is from a corriedale ram who had managed to grow a 18cm staple. It's a fun spin and that's a good thing as I have 6kg of this stuff.

For those wondering, the ram smell washed out completely, which it will if you don't shear them right on tupping.

I suspect that the people who fiddle their taxes are having accountants file their return rather than doing it themselves online. They probably never go near MyIR.

I really love the online tax return filing setup we have here in NZ. It gets easier every year - this year mine took less than half an hour and required zero paper shuffling.

We don't do everything brilliantly, but I reckon we have tax returns sussed.

China's fossil-fuelled power generation extends decline in April Thermal power generation in China, fuelled mainly by coal, fell 2.3% in April and 4.1% from January to April amid slower overall power output growth, official data showed on Monday, in line with expectations that China's fossil-fuelled electricity could dip in 2025 for the first time in a decade.

In other news, while our government acts like their only thought is "Everyone's bigger than us, why bother?" China is quietly reducing its emissions and moving away from fossil fuel.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

The variegated white/grey is merino and I still have the rest of that fleece, but that's the only one where I have more.

6 x 50g skeins of naturally coloured wool, ranging in colour from white on the right through greys in the middle to med/dark brown on the left.

This morning I had cause to pull out all my random 50g skeins and photograph them.

They are very pretty, but I'm also going "What to do with a 50g skein?" Most of these are samples and there isn't any more wool to turn it into a useful amount, so I'm a bit "Um...what now?"

A black and white sheep getting up close and personal with the camera. Her nose is in focus in extreme closeup - it's pink and has several spots on it.

This is Panda. She likes people, and has the most boopable nose of all my flock.

Her wool is like a wire brush but she gets to stay anyway because I like her.

They tell us it will be "very soon""

Nah it's not worth the extra effort, but thanks

Was hoping to catch the Wairarapa 4:25 home today.

Apparently they have lost the locomotive so our train has nothing to pull it. Currently sitting on the platform with about 600 disgruntled commuters and one poor station dude who's trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

And yet when it's any other drug, they ask..

.. the booze lobbyists again.

And fwiw I always thought that "I'm not wearing any socks" look was a bit odd too

It feels a bit like that article is trying to appeal to a certain generation in a somewhat cringe way and I can't tell if it's ironic or not

They could absolutely try:
- not wasting money on pointless bills
- making those with excess wealth actually pay some tax
- avoiding spending shitloads getting us out of contracts that meet our needs so that we can get into contracts that don't

I have 25 sheep and thoroughly approve of your aunt's advice

I haven't had that problem yet, but give it time.. :)

A small Turkish drop spindle made of pale hazel wood, with some medium grey corriedale single wound onto it.

I love this little spindle. Now watch me obsessively spin with it every spare moment until I do myself some kind of repetitive strain injury!

Currently spinning - the last 100g of corriedale sample from the spinning course I did last year. Will make a nice soft hat, maybe cabled.

Update : the seller tells me it's the outer coat from an Icelandic sheep