Pumpkin Sunrise

On Friday, we ate at a relocated restaurant, same great food in a different location.  The buffalo wings were oh so delicious! They create the best veggie wrap that I've ever eaten.  There is a magical ingredient that I quite can't figure out.  Whenever I make them...well, let's just leave the magic to the experts. Saturday morning found us garage sale-ing.  My husband focused on the mad hunt for records or CDs and I'm just there for moral support (or whining if I'm bored).  I rarely fine an item worthy to purchase but I do love the experience.  The first stop was my lucky day!  I found five wade figurines that begged me to take them home.  I guess I'm a collector now that I own fourteen of them.  My husband unearthed a Barry Manilow record (I know I'm dating myself here) for 50 cents. Once we arrived home we read, knit (just me), mowed (just him) and whipped up a simple dinner of chicken on the grill with rice and steamed vegetables.  Being outside i

What a storm we had last night.  Thankfully we kept our electricity and nothing was damaged on the property.  I continue to only value my electricity when it is threatened.  Funny how I'm like that.  This morning I brought my camera outside to capture the beauty before the day starts, soaking in the quietness.  My gram was an early riser and I like to think I take after her.  My mom was not and we knew not to talk until she put her eyeglasses on AND had her first cup of coffee. It's been quiet around here, but a nice kind of quiet.  The house is empty and yet we hear from the kids frequently.  It's nice to know they are fine and having a good time.  My nest might be empty of children but my heart is full and that is what matters.  My husband and I have been exploring towns, farmer markets and new recipes.  We even harvested our first lettuce!  All that washing makes me appreciate the price of organic lettuce at the store.  We did not plant enough either. I will

This weekend I wanted a fast reading book, not that I'm a fast reader.   The Fault in our Stars  by John Green is loved by my son and daughter and I believe they have read it through twice.  So I snatched the book off of my son's shelf and began to read.  I'm enjoying the style of writing and how the author captures teenage angst.  Unfortunately, many of the teens have been diagnosed and treated for cancer-that makes it a sad sad story.  Despite the seriousness of the disease, it's a funny book.  My daughter dared me not to cry when I read the ending (which implies someone will die, just guessing). I'll let you know. My knitting is all about this shawl , on Saturday I decided to knit like crazy to get to the next pattern chart.  So that has been the goal and I'm nearly there.  Only 10 more rows?  I love when there are tons and tons of stitches on tiny needles :)  The pattern is memorized and I'm on auto-pilot knitting.  Yesterday I wrote a post about th

Last week I finished knitting my Waves Upon the Shore Shawl .  If only fall or winter were here so I could wear it comfortably.  It is a treasure!   The pattern is kuura .  It was easy and quickly memorized, who could ask for anything more?  I loved that it was a charted pattern and with a quick glance I could knit away.  I highly recommend the pattern. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere  and as you can guess it was heaven to knit with for this project.  It had lots of energy, spring and yet was so so soft.  I have romantic thoughts of wrapping the shawl around my neck on a cold cold day and being snuggle-y warm. ravelry notes are here

Our local library had a book sale on Friday, my husband and I adopted books that needed to be loved again.  My choices were stringent.  You see, I have books overflowing in this house.  I've even purged some off the shelves for others to read.  I was selective, strategic and successful.  Four books were worthy of adoption. Saturday we went to an organic farmer's market.  It was our first time visiting, the drive was picture perfect with fields of farm animals and the quiet you hear in the country.  The market had a great feeling to it.  I loved that everyone there was interested whole food living. We browsed, we contemplated and we bought a few items.  Now that I know what is available, my grocery shopping list will be altered once again to accommodate "real food".  We did splurge on some raw cheese for him.  He says it's delicious and I'm not brave enough to try some (lactose intolerance). Yesterday was novel reading, knitting, sitting and talking outs

It's summer!  As I was reading last night in bed, I was thinking of how quickly spring came and went.  Personally I thought it was a beautiful spring, my husband would say different.  He's disappointed that the pool is still a tad too chilly for swimming.  I could go on about how summer is my least favorite season (I know I'm an odd one) but instead I'll give you my list of what I do like about summer. -sitting at the patio table with my husband mid morning drinking iced tea -bird watching from the same table (we're thinking of binocular investing) -no set alarms for early morning because the daylight and the birdsong are enough -basil pesto pasta by the buckets full -homegrown vegetables -early evening walks without a coat -sandal wearing with blue toe nail polish -day trips without the worry of bad weather (as in snow and ice) -knitting outside -and reading outside -the feel of grass tickling my ankles while walking Frodo ar

Sometimes I am consumed with an overwhelming desire to cast on something new.  This weekend I gave in to that desire-that is how I live on the edge of life.  It gives me that roller coaster feeling, the one where you drop from a great height.  The new shawl  is knit from Manos del Uruguay  lace containing a blend of alpaca, silk and cashmere.  Oh so soft!  I've started twice on this pattern .  I did not like how tight the knitting looked on size four, so I upped the size to five.  Chunky needles for me ;)  Surprisingly, the pattern is one I can easily memorize, an added knitting bonus.  The yarn is kettle-dyed and is beautiful. Yes...I'm reading the same book The Orchardist .  It's been a busy week and my reading time has been limited.  I'm half way through the novel and it's a captivating read.  I'm going to be sad when I read the last page.  When I was a teenager, I would try to purchase or borrow from the library the thickest books so they would last a l

I was lucky to have two outings in one weekend. On Saturday my husband and I went on a day trip.  I find day trips to have the best of everything.  I explore, I eat and car knit but best of all I sleep in my own bed.  That is a perfect day.  Anyways, we planned a day trip to Bethlehem , Pa.  Why might you ask?  Well since I teach knitting, conversations swirl about yarn.  A new friend suggested we go to Bethlehem and check out their yarn shop, historical town and good food.  After I researched, I discovered that there was a used music store that would delight that husband of mine.  He is always on the look out for more music. As you can see there's not one photo of yarn or the store.  I was too engrossed in shopping to remember to take a photo. However, walking around the town, I was in photographer mode.  I was constantly stopping and snapping.  The weather was perfect-cold in the shade, hot in the sun.  Nearly every restaurant had outdoor seating on the side walks.

Gosh this weekend was a busy one.  I've got lots to share in upcoming posts.  We were in the car a lot seeing a new to us town.  We celebrated Father's day with family.  My weekend was: -relaxing, fun and filled with laughter -reading fiction and non-fiction -watching two bluebirds in the back yard while eating THAT salad -sharing good food with family  -rain then sun then rain then sun-wonderful! -picking up a very wiggly dog who was happy to come home from the kennel -just being in the moment-the bestest place to be!! How was your weekend? Joining Amanda

It's been a quiet week full of rainy dreary days.  Early mornings (5 a.m.) I'm serenaded by the birds mostly robins, sometimes a woodpecker, rain and thunder.  I pause and listen enjoying that moment before my day begins. The days have been quiet now that we are two.  I'm focusing on knitting my various projects, planning some fall knitting classes and joyfully glancing at the cleared off coffee table.  That will never get old.  Menu planning became easy this week-we ate through the leftovers.  Gone is the l-o-n-g list of snacks and foods to buy.  We keep it simple when it's just two.  Salads for lunch every day.  In a few weeks we will be harvesting our own lettuce and spinach. I am thankful for: -avocados-can't stop eating them. -family-how days, weeks can pass by, yet you pick up where you left off when you last saw them -phone calls from kids-it's nice to know they are happy and they want to call us :) -being two of us-we are once again enjoying

I've been itching to join  Dawn Suzette  over at Simple Things Notebook  on her Thursday link up .  I enjoy reading each week the blog posts that participate, so here I am diving in.  You thought I would show more knitting didn't you?  Well, this time I thought I'd share what my husband remade a few weeks back. This shelf was an old beat up shelf with the bottom ledge completely missing, and yet we saved it in the basement.  We are notorious at having a difficult time throwing stuff away.  And you can't donate a broken shelf.  So I was sitting and thinking (I do that sometimes) about how I wanted to move my dying plants closer to the sliding glass door and have all of my cookbooks in the kitchen easily accessible.  I've shopped at stores, again too cheap to pay money for a piece of furniture that is not solid wood. I remembered the sad shelf, brought it up and used the two remaining intact shelves for some plants.  My husband offered to replace all the woo

The Kuura Shawl  is a fun knit and the pattern is quite easy to memorize with only brief glances just to make sure.  I highly recommend this pattern. On the right is my same same cardigan  and I consider it my hearty knitting project.  Currently I'm on the body keeping track of button hole placement, pleating, and waist shaping.  So as you can guess, there's a lot going on and sweeps away any boredom that could possibly descend when doing stockinette stitch with fingering weight yarn. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin is turning out to be a fantastic read.  The beginning chapter was distracting for me because of her great love of the semicolon.  Seriously-they are in almost every other sentence in the first chapter.  But then something wonderful happened, the plot jumped out grabbed my attention and now the semicolon dispair has taken a back seat in my mind. The characters are distinctly interesting and what's best is I have no clue where this story is going, so I read s

What a weekend it was -packing up the son for his summer research program -driving to the place, seeing his new room-collaborators in research --saying goodbye -saying "hello!" to:  my kitchen counter and my coffee table-I've had THREE weeks of his stuff littering it.  Drives me nuts -a quite Sunday evening will an eerie silence now that he's gone -meeting with a friend for knitting and missing two friends who were busy How was your weekend? Joining Amanda

I am lucky to to be surrounded by trees and woods. I have wild roses blooming and they're beautiful.  The fragrance is mild and sometimes I catch a whiff of loveliness.  The wild blackberries are nearly finished blooming and in a month it will be picking time. Unfortunately the berries are quite bitter and need lots of sugar, well maybe that isn't so bad. A couple years ago my son and husband made ink out of them.  It worked but it was a faded ink.  I think the fun was all about the gathering. Yesterday the rain arrived and it was a drippy drizzly day.  The plants and flowers needed the moisture so I enjoyed the change of weather.  This spring for me has been a cool low humidity one-my hair loves it!  Unfortunately my husband has not been in the pool yet because it has been too cold. I am sure the hot weather will be here in no time at all.  I'll wilt and he will bask. Our vegetable garden is in.  We scaled back on the tomato and pepper plants this year.  We

I had an overwhelming desire to cast on something different.  So I did.  The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy with cashmere -so very soft! and the colorway is "cranberry melt".  It immediately makes me think of fall and Thanksgiving so I'm happy while I knit.  The pattern is a triangle shaped shawl and it's an easy to follow lace pattern, if you're a confident beginner give it a look.  I'm going to knit until the yarn is gone. Not only is there new knitting but I've started a new book, I'm on a roll people :)  This book was purchased for the cover art and the rough edges of the paper.  It is a visual and tactile experience.   The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin is also a best seller so hopefully it will be a captivating read.  I only started reading last night so it's much to early to form an opinion. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny

This is the third time I've knit up the Sockhead hat , if you haven't you should.  It's very simple and the yarn does all the work.  My son (that's him in the photo) wanted a "loud" hat.  His words not mine.  This was the loudest hank I could fine since I wanted to knit from the stash.  As you know I buy muted shades for my stash building activities.  I must think outside the muted box.  L-O-U-D. The hat is not loud but I think it looks great. I love how the brim could be folded up for extra warmth on those chilly windy winter days.  Ravelry notes are here . (sadly the little bunny did not make it through the afternoon as feared, I'm hopeful all the little brothers and sister bunnies caught wind of his demise and have relocated)

Do you see him?  He has no fear!  I am a mere three feet away as I took the photo.  An hour later he went off into the woods.  The squirrel on the left is not real, just in case you think the animals are living harmoniously together where I live. Yesterday we found a wild baby bunny nest, my son counted five!!  Today, sadly one was caught by Frodo-not sure if he'll make it but we are hoping for a miracle.  Why do these animals insist on entering the fenced in back yard-home of my mighty warrior hunter?? My weekend was: -relaxing with knitting (what else?)  -some podcast listening -reading and doing puzzles -purchasing a new journal book and nifty pen to go with it -outings with my son who will be leaving in one week -welcoming home my husband who was away at a conference -eating yummy tossed salads How was your weekend?   Joining Amanda