. . . . for this! Bicycling on the Cape Code Rail Trail and lobster rolls at Cobies in Brewster, MA. Yum………..
We waited an entire year . . . .
Out of hibernation – AGAIN!
Off in Cape Cod on our annual vacation and determined to re-awaken this blog. Apparently Facebook is causing me some problems. It is so easy to do a quick post and then forget about it. They are much harder to review, however, and I miss looking back at my year on this blog.
My birthday is at the end of August, and for the past few years, I have used this date as the start of a “New Year”. I make more resolutions at this time than January 1st. And, I enjoy the fall cleaning more than the spring cleaning. So, in many ways September is a new start for me.
So, in the purpose of a new start — the first blog post of the new year — from Orleans, MA in Cape Cod.
And a little catch-up with the goings on ………
The great TV migration of 2013 started with the purchase of a new large-screen plasma TV which had not yet been delivered. So the old flat-panel went up to the bedroom, installed by handyman, a.k.a. Hubby.
Out of Hibernation and into the Summer
Long sleep over?? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Look for photos and thoughts soon – if I can fix my iPad camera.
Blizzard Nemo!
Why name a huge snow storm after a tropical fish, a movie star no less? Actually, why name a winter storm at all? How about “honking big pile of snow 2013″?
Hubby is out blowing the driveway (1/10th of a mile long and all hill!!). We will have to wait until he officially reports the snow depth, and it is hard to tell with the wind blowing so hard, but I’m guessing about 2 feet. It is almost up to his knees and since his 6’5” tall, his knees are waaaay up off the ground.
Heavy snow load on the garage roof — and serious blowback as he started the snowblowing job.
The birds are feeding at the feeder and we have seen a little of everything in the past 4 weeks. And, we had a visit from something I hadn’t seen before, but after looking at photos up close it may have been just a big puffy bluebird! At our sunflower feeder.
And I believe it is mating time for the squirrels — they do start very early in the year. Suddenly there seem to be more of them running around and making attempts to raid the bird feeders or take advantage of the seeds spilled on the ground by the sloppy eaters from above.
Spring cannot come soon enough. As soon as my popsicle of a hubby gets back in from moving tons of snow from our driveway, I’m sure he’ll agree.
Long time no blog!
Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Blogging seems to have fallen by the wayside with my current addiction to Facebook and Twitter. But — not enough words and no opportunity to post multiple photos. And I find that I miss looking back at my blog which has become kind of an electronic scrapbook.
I have some great photos (still on the Olympus SLR) but will be posting them soon so that at least I can look at them.
In the mean time ……… from our September Cape Code vacation ….. our bicycles parked in front of the Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans
First Fruits – and Completed Commitments
Today was a busy Saturday. Hubby was up early for a swim. I was in town to visit Ridgefield’s Summerfest on the way to a rehearsal. Lunch on the patio of a local restaurant. Trip up north to the pond supply store. Home to sit on the deck and read (Hubby) and knit (me) for a while. Then gardening for Hubby and baking for me. Then dinner cooked on the grill. A run to the grocery store for missing ingredients for cupcake frosting. A stop at the Carvel!!!! And home to frost cupcakes and watch le Tour de France. Whew! No wonder I’m tired and Hubby is sleeping in the chair with his computer in his lap.
Some random thoughts and photos before I close the lid on this laptop and head off to bed . . . . . . . . . . .
This picture is of some of the first fruits of our garden (gathered and eaten today), though we’ve had some zucchini prior to today.
In the completed commitments category are the two quilts made for the two new homeowners of the Linden Place homes built by Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. The home dedications were in June and I made a quilt for each of the two homeowner families. I haven’t heard that a CO has been issued for either home, but I’m sure they are anxious to move in. Here is a photo of me by our pond with the two quilts in my arms. They are about to be loaded into the car and driven to the dedication ceremony.
I really enjoyed the quilting and finishing of these quilts. They were done in beautiful weather and in my wonderful quilting “studio”. Doesn’t this look like a great place to work?
Newport in July
Hubby’s birthday — quick trip — wonderful respite. Newport, RI is beautiful this time of year.
Big announcement from Mr Wren
Hubby and I spent some time sitting out by the pond yesterday and watching the male wren work. He was tireless and his routine was unvarying. He’d be gone from the nest area — then we’d see him come back and fly straight to the birdhouse and hop inside — then out he’d come and he’d hop onto the same tree branch and sing his delightful song. Off he’d go in search of more bugs for his mate who was apparently in the birdhouse sitting on the eggs. And he did this continuously the entire time I sat outside (which was over 2 hours) and was still working when the mosquitoes drove me inside.
Well — sometime, I would say this morning — something changed. At about 9 am — I heard the male sitting in the tree just singing that same song over and over and over and over and, well you get it, over again!!!!! I thought something was wrong and went downstairs and eventually outside to watch and see what was up. Little did I know that this was the “THEY’RE HATCHING!!!!!” declaration. I heard a second, different wren voice also and by the time I got out to watch, both the male and the female were flying to and from the birdhouse. Not as much singing now, though there’s still some, as there are mouths to feed.
In the photos below, the female wren can be seen peeking out of the box before she leaves it to go search for bugs. She seems very careful.
Yes, it’s a beautiful time of year. I managed to go outside and in the space of about 30 minutes, take 91 photos worth keeping. Here are the Stella de Oro day-lilies from beside the pond. Could have stayed out there all day!
The Art of the Cookie, Dresses, and Frogs!
Working on resolution 2012-1 – using those cookbooks – again. Seems however that I am drawn pretty exclusively to cookie cookbooks. Noting that today’s dinner recipe came off the back of a box of lasagna noodles.
The most recent cookie was from The Art of the Cookie – and was a strawberry swirl, or at least that’s what I called it. It started with their basic sugar cookie dough which is delicious and I put strawberry jam in the swirled part. Unfortunately there is no picture of the finished project as we ate them all before I remembered to get the camera out. Worth repeating, and of course we must repeat as I didn’t get the photo. Here’s the book and the dough ready to be rolled out.
And just a side note, resolution 2012-2 was more charity work, and perhaps different charity work. So, here’s a completed dress for a little girl in Africa. It was the 3rd one I made and I have material for 2 more. So 2012-2 is being worked on too!
And the NEWS OF THE DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!
Phinneas the frog is back out of hibernation sitting in his reeds on the back of the pond!!!
Resolution 2012-5 Get Real
So resolution # 5 for 2012 I named “Get Real”. This mostly relates to all of my craft projects that are in some state of completion. So, they are either being finished or “frogged” (as in the case of knitting — ripped out) or thrown away or given away for someone else to complete. My quilt guild has a challenge contest to be completed in September of 2012. Those interested in competing filled out a form listing names and descriptions of WIPs (Works In Progress) or UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) that they are committing to finish by our September meeting. For every project on our list, the entry fee was a fat quarter of batik fabric. And for every project we actually complete, we get an chance in the drawing for one of the baskets of batiks. I signed up for seven, though I could have listed many more, and now I need to GET REAL and GET QUILTING!
In the same vein, I aired my yarn stash and cleaned the yarn closet, uncoveing some UFOs there too. What gave me the idea for the resolution was a thing I started in 2011 that I called “Finish It Friday”. I started only working on knitting UFOs on Friday and actually got quite a few of them finished last year. So – the idea for the resolution was born and I have had a bit of success so far in 2012.
2012-5-1 quick and cozy cowl
This one had been languishing on the bottom of the knitting basket for over a year just waiting on my sewing on the two matching buttons. That’s all it needed — just two buttons — just 10 minutes of time. Make sense to you? Me neither. I sewed on the buttons, wore it the next day and had several people who commented on how pretty it was. Here it is finished and being modeled by Cheeks the bear who models a lot of my completed projects for photos.
2012-5-2 This Old Sock
This is an even sadder story. In 2003 I took knitting lessons over in Bedford Hills New York with a wonderful young teacher and at a great yarn store. I really wanted to learn how to knit socks, so she started me on a pair using 2 circular needles. I was also learning other things at the time and thought my sock wasn’t too good. But I continued knitting until all I needed to do was graft the toe (a smooth seam). I didn’t know how to do that and apparently the class ended before I learned. Anyway, the project sunk to the bottom of a bag in the yarn closet never to be seen again until this year’s complete emptying of the yarn closet all over the living room floor. I uncovered the unfinished first sock and the remainder of the ball of yarn. I cast on the second sock and finished it in 3 weeks (I’m a much faster and better knitter now than I was 9 years ago). So, this project took me NINE YEARS to finish. But it’s done – and here are the photos to prove it. The only good news hear is that there cannot be any knitting UFOs older than this because I only started knitting 9 years ago.
Second sock syndrome – cured! They aren’t really different sizes, the photo distorted the front one a bit. Can’t wait to wear them, but will have to get the air cast of my left ankle first. The cast is held on by velcro which wouldn’t be good for the just-finished-after-nine-years sock fabric!
But I consider that resolution 2012-5 Get Real is off to a good start.
And the yarn stash – dumped all over the floor on February 20th is now back in the closet. Very organized. More on this later but this was the result of resolution 2012-2 Get Organized or Else. So, I’ve inventoried and organized the yarn stash, inventoried and organized the knitting needles, and inventoried (a bit) some of the quilting projects. Much work remains to be done — but we’re only at the end of the first quarter of 2012. YIKES! We’re at the end of the first quarter of 2012.