Pumpkin Sunrise

Noticing this week: -birds singing and singing, the woodpecker busy in the woods-two days ago, I saw his silhouette. -did not have a camera for that moment, so I've memorized the photo -warmer days-short sleeve wearing-and shorts! -freshly mulched beds that have that earthy smell and look beautiful -eating a perfect watermelon    -and avocado    -but not together -the sun rising early and the nights taking longer to arrive -daily walks occurring early or late, never midday -friendly neighbors and passerby people who give a wave -Frodo with a new haircut :) -wild raspberries, strawberries and roses blooming along the roadside with the phlox What have you noticed? Have a lovely weekend :)

Currently I have two projects on the needles, with another three projects swirling around in my head but not on the needles....yet.  First off on the left is a ten stitch blanket , I have oodles and oodles of left over yarn and have been attracted to Steph's blankets that she has made with scraps.  I thought that this pattern would be easier, but I'm not too sure, I also think that placing the colors might be easier for me as one big square.  I have a huge range of colors.  So far I am pleased! My second project is the red rock canyon shawl  that I started yesterday, I am already madly in love with the pattern, chart heavy (but there is written instructions!).  I saw Andee's   shawl  and knew that I needed to have one of my own. I finished my orchid shawl and posted all about it yesterday. My reading is the same.  (I believe I'll be typing that sentence for at least a week or two).  David Copperfield is a long book and I only read in short bursts.  I'll

I finished this shawl a few days ago, gosh!  I wish it was cold enough to wear :)  How exciting to have a new shawl to wear when the weather is cold once again.  I've tucked it away for later. Ravelry notes are here .  This pattern was a little challenging and very chart heavy.  So this knit is not for a beginner, I'd say an intermediate level with experience with charts.  For some reason I had trouble on one chart, truly believing there was a typo......as always, it was user error on my part. The pattern is perfect, clear and many hours went into writing the charts and test knitting.  I'm still amazed that this was a free pattern! I'm thrilled with the beads that are sprinkled at the end of the knitting.  Only two rows of bead placement so the beading ended up being fun and quick!!

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. I love long weekends and this one will still be going for another two days :)  Yesterday, friends of ours came over to share a meal and celebrate my friend's retirement.  She now can knit whenever she wants.  For a surprise I bought a bakery cake.....you know the kind-it's knee deep in icing and totally not healthy at all to eat.  Just thinking about this cake makes me love it so.  Everyone said that the cake was too sweet, too rich but not a crumb was to be found. We had fun catching up, laughing and picking up where we left off-just like we always do.  Today after Mass I've got tons of laundry to do and a master menu list to make.  Grilling season is upon us so my meals have shifted towards salads of all sorts.  One can never ever have too many salads in their life.

My daughter returned to her apartment to start studying for the bar exam which she takes in July.  We had a fun visit and now as a mother I am going through some growing pains.  She has to find a place to rent where she will be working in the fall, luckily it's only a little over an hour.  The transitioning, the coordinating and the planning cause me mental stress. My son will be attending school in the fall in Boston for his Math PhD.  Again, apartment hunting, planning, packing and moving.  Deep breaths.  This is when I am most thankful for my hobby. I don't know about you, but knitting soothes me and places me in a calm state.  I immediately become in the moment and feel relaxed.  So between now and mid August my growing pains will be there.  I know that once again both kids will be in their new places starting new chapters and I will be letting go a little more (frantically knitting!). Above is my Mother's day gift from my daughter.  I find that more now

I have focused mainly on knitting this shawl  and have a mere four rows left before the project is off my needles!  I am placing beads and find the task fun and relaxing.  I haven't had much time to knit since both kids are home visiting but I manage to carve an hour each day to make some progress. My reading is the same.....I picked a very large book and my reading time is slim.   However, I am enjoying this read and the characters and the twisty plot.  I believe you cannot go wrong with reading a classic novel. Do you have a favorite? What are you knitting and reading? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

As you know most days here at home there is just the two of us and we live a quiet slow life.  These past few days with both children home, well, it's been crazy busy.  And we haven't done anything super exciting.  We take walks, chat, enjoy each other's company.  I feel like I'm falling behind in chores but when I check my list, I'm on target. I wanted to document some of my photos here and they really have nothing in common.  The kids were playing a duet together on the piano-I managed to grab the camera and capture that.  While we were in State College for my daughter's graduation, I snapped a photo of this delightful pig and piglets. This is the kind of farm animal I could care for and love :) I love my dogwood trees immensely and each day I look at them and get a little sad because there is one day less to look at them.  It's crazy but for a strange reason I am loving their blooms and beauty! This morning as I picked up the newspaper, the

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. my family Hello my friends :)  I'm a tiny bit nervous hosting this weekend series, but here I go-bravely! This weekend has been eventful and joyful and oh so full of goodness.  We spent the day watching our daughter graduate from law school!  Before I forget, I must say that the ceremony was IN an auditorium with AC.  Phew.  I was comfy and loving the day. I had no trouble finding her in a crowd, can't explain how one child is findable (not a word but should be one) and one is not.  It just is.  Afterwards, we lunched at a restaurant in town with her boyfriend and friends. I have a full house-with shoes scattered in the foyer, piano being played, and a Zelda game is running upstairs while my son does the three heart challenge (it's a gamer thing). I'm happy

I can't remember where I was in blogland but someone was sharing their space where they create so I thought I'd share mine again.  I love seeing where people are inspired when dreaming up future projects, don't you?  I've been toying around in my mind a sweater to knit.  So far I haven't cemented on a pattern or a yarn.  However, I've spent many hours on Ravelry.... In the spirit of getting to know you and you knowing me, here are some truths: -I had a Catholic education from kindergarten through high school -I wore a uniform in high school and LOVED knowing what I was wearing every single day -when eating dinner I always taste my vegetables first -I love eating green foods:  green beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, sprouts..... -I had fast labors with both children -even though I was born to birth babies, both were sickly and colicky :( -on my 10th birthday I broke my front tooth and spent the entire day at the dentist having it fixed -I became comput

I find myself amazed at how quickly the weather switches to never ending breezy cold and light jacket wearing to sandals, humidity and greenness.  Spring has arrived, flowers are blooming, trees are mostly leafed out.  And yes, I'm grumbling about the humidity. This week we had a truckload of mulch delivered and our few beds will be getting a bit of a sprucing up.  We haven't mulched in years and the beds are begging for some moisture retention from the sun.  Many of our bulbs are sprouting up and are promptly eaten by the rabbits.  Each day I check to see if there be a blossom....fingers crossed! Our dirt road is all green now.  The forest floor is covered in   skunk cabbage  and may apples , both beautiful in their own ways.  The wild ducks love weaving in among the leaves as they scurry away to hide from me. Can you see that fish?  He is huge!  He and his friends who are equally large live in the duck pond down the road from us.

I've made great progress on my charcoal shawl .  I haven't managed to memorize any of the pattern except the three stitches on each side that are garter stitch and the purling back on the wrong side.  So I find the knit a challenging one that I must pay attention while chart reading.  I'm loving the wee bit of nylon and bamboo in the wool content as well.  Kind of crunchy?  but smooth.  I think that it is a knitter's thing. My reading....well I am still reading David Copperfield.  I find the story compelling enough to read at night as well as during the day.  I don't read my ipad in bed, it's not comfortable for me.  So I went exploring in the house to find a copy.  One of the wonderful aspects of my home is that both children are avid readers, avid book collectors.  So although I do not own a personal copy, I found a copy in my daughter's room! what are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

This in not my pond, the one that I walk by every single day.  This is the town's pond and yesterday my son and I walked the path that winds around fields and trees.  The geese and their little goslings were abundant and so relaxed when we walk by them.  No hissing just a look at us and maybe a herding of their children. I love how the Canada goose  mates for life.  Both mother and father were together with their little goslings.  Family groups.  Big families and little families all together in a goose community.  I was lucky to be there to witness nature at its very best. We stood there and watched, drinking in the summer like air and lived in the moment. Thanks for all the kind words on the last post.  I am back to feeling fine, it's amazing what a non bleacher sitting day can do for my joints!  I am lucky that my aches and pains come and go and all I need to do is wait. Yesterday in the midst of errand running, mulch buying, and grass seed planting (n

My weekend was spent celebrating our son's graduation with a bachelor of science degree in math.  What a day!  I will say the event was challenging because the school held the ceremony in a gym....on bleachers.....with no air conditioning.  I'm truly thankful that I did not pass out.  However I'm having issues with my RA and I'm hoping in a day or two that my pains will disappear. This body does not do bleachers anymore. I find it funny while raising him, I could never find him in a crowd.  When he was four years old, other friends or family would point him out for me.  I never remembered what he was wearing and frankly he looked like every other boy on the playground.  So holding true to my lacking mothering skills, his girl friend spot him in the line up before me then pointed him out. In my defense, his hair is very short and I was looking for a different looking son (doesn't help that everyone is dressed the same in robes!!)  Anyways, we took some quick p

I think spring is here to stay, really!  This past week I've enjoyed watching the dogwoods bloom and although they are not as big and bountiful as last year, I'm glad they survived the harsh winter and are celebrating spring for me.  I'm hoping the butterfly bush will show life soon, but I fear that the winter and mounds of snow were too much. This spring has been a daily habit of looking at beds and watching and waiting for signs of new life.  So far, the rabbits are nibbling away any new bulb that sprouts. Frodo is getting a bit older and wiser.  He tends to only bark a bit at the deer and sometimes he doesn't see the rabbits! What?  That is unheard of....I know when I push publish on the post, I will find a rabbit in his mouth....that is what happens when you document life so boldly. The spring days have a rhythm to them that I have enjoyed and snuggled into gleefully.  I shop at a vegetable market once a week picking up tons of lettuce heads and salad i

Ha!  I've started another shawl , since finishing this cowl .  This shawl is a challenging one and I love that the directions are all charts!  I'm in chart heaven :) I believe my knitting love will always be with shawls-knitting and watching each row grow is satisfying. I finished Tell the Wolves I'm Home  and enjoyed the book immensely.  I was sad when I read the very last page then spent the rest of the day mulling over the whole book.  As I said last week, the book is about a girl who is 14 years old and she is grieving for her beloved Uncle, and the series of events that unfold as she learns of her uncle's  true life.  The story is about compassion and family secrets. I continue to read about David Copperfield and have chuckled at his life at boarding school, his quirky acquaintance that he meets along the way.  I love how I hate a character that I'm supposed to hate, and love the ones I'm to love.  A good read indeed! What are you knitting and rea

  This cowl , the sister knit a long cowl, was a challenge.  I knew after the first ball of yarn that I was running desperately short of yardage.  Yep.  I substituted the yarn for what the designer recommended and sometimes that is what happens.  My sister is going to order another skein from the lys that sells the yarn and hopefully will get a dye lot match. Me.....I wanted to alter the pattern to make the two skeins work, so I ripped out the first try and restarted the cowl.  My alterations are on the Ravelry project page.  I love how this turned out and the yarn is so very dreamy!!  It's light, and squooshy and so so soft. For now I'm not blocking the cowl because I love the texture the pattern provides. I'm definitely going to knit this again, maybe with some silk content?  That would be wonderful.  When my sister finishes her cowl, I'll share her photo with you all.

The past two days have been quite restorative.  I spent many hours outdoors with my camera in hand, taking photos of the emerging blossoms that welcome the month of May.  The days alternated between dreary and cloudy, to sunny and bright.  The weather is slowly changing to spring, finally. Saturday for a few hours I delved into my David Copperfield book and knit at the same time, enjoying the dual tasking and the suspense of the plot.  We had chicken on the grill paired with a pea risotto. I'm running low on the "good" chocolate and am now hitting the "back up" chocolate--it's just not the same, but when in a pinch you just have to make do. Sunday we went to Mass then had more lazy hours of reading the paper, talking to the kids and making a little grocery list.  Dinner was homemade pizza, I create the sauce, he creates the dough.  The best part was having the pizza all to ourselves :) Included also was: -listening to the woodpecker but not findi

A few days ago I started to wind up this lovely wool, bamboo nylon blend from Pagewood Farm .  As I was winding the yarn and wishing I owned a swift, the coolness of the bamboo and nylon between my fingers was lovely.  I seem to have tangles every single time I wind, and I feel that the universe wants me to buy a swift.  We'll see... I can be stubborn.  Once I'm done my memory erases the tangle and the frustration from my mind. I haven't decided yet what I'll be casting on but I have a few ideas, I know that this yarn will be a shawl.  Stay tuned for more details when I settle on a pattern. We had two days of rain and clouds so my walking came to a halt.  I enjoyed some time in my studio, untangling yarn (ha) and playing around with paper and washi tape.  Each time I am in my space, I'm grateful I moved up there and enjoy the calm peaceful hours.  How lucky am I! Graduation ceremonies are looming in the near future for both of my kids.  First one will be