Dyeing with zinnias & a windy Saturday in October

a basket of zinnias picked from the garden a few days ago; ready for the dyepot

I covered the flowers with water and simmered for a few hours over 2 days, letting it cool in between

When it came time to strain the brew, I used one of my favourite tools--a milk strainer.  A few years ago, my Mom came up with the idea of using our old milk strainer from the farm; it was used with a filter to pour milk into the milk cans used for shipping.  When she gave it to me, she had actually sourced some milk filters for the bottom of the strainer--I'll often use the filter if the dye stuff is fine.  Who knew these filters still existed?

All of the colour is bleached (or cooked!) out of the zinnias.  Love the colour of the zinnias with the steel strainer!  Today I put the fibre into the dyepot--we"ll see results in a day or so!

Archie & I were out for our daily walk at Cobourg beach; the winds were brisk, but the waves were spectacular on the pier and around the lighthouse

One of 3 skimboarders enjoying the waves and not minding the cold temperatures!

The usual high traffic on the Cobourg pier; today drivers seemed to be enjoying the overspray.  Some brave souls were venturing out of their vehicles and walking under the waves that were crashing over the end of the pier. It reminded me of my son Adam--he came home one day with the car covered in green algae--it looked like one of those Toronto Hippo buses dragging stuff around from the bottom of the lake; he had parked at the end of the pier on a day just like this one.