Shade patio with all the plants down to get a drink in winter

This is at the winter scruffy, but I love this place in late spring and early summer, when all the plants are in trim and the tables and chairs are ready for knitting, quiltmaking ( when I do that, ha!) and a glass of lemonade made from the lemons from the meyer's lemon tree.   

Blue snuggler for the sockrafice.

It's finished and big enough for a medium sized kennel, and I am going to make some for the kitties now. I love this pattern, from the site in the right column with the heading " Things to Do For Others"  

Well, there ain't gonna be a Birch after all.

I did better research. The Kiri, which was designed from an old Shetland leaf pattern by All Tangled Up, or at least by someone named Polly, is going to be what I use. Birch, though beautiful is going to cost a bundle. I'm not up to spending a bundle at the moment on a pattern. Maybe for Christmas I can get the magazine, but not right now. I'll save my pennies. Maybe I should just count the ones in the jar? hehe

Meet Pepe, my little wild man. He was flying around the bay one day, lost, so I caught him and brought him home. He was very young as his cerus was still cloudy blue. He's a good buddy.

The Rose is sick, and the ground cover isn't helping.

This tall shot is my favorite and doesn't really do the wildness that I love justice. I do love wildness. My poor roses and other tall bearded Iris got over run this winter by the red apple ground cover. It's time for the machetti!  

Speaking of Late on everything, this is part of my weedy spring garden.

It's very overgrown, but the little Gold finch are now coming into it to get the weed seeds. I hate to deprive them of the wild dandilion seeds.  

Churchy, fresh out of hybernation and looking for a fight.

He was trying to catch some warming sun on a pretty cloudy day. He is also on the look out for his little son, so that he can have the fun of ramming him into a small space and otherwise intimidating Lucky. I have to find Lucky first to stop this process. Tortoises parents are none to kind to their offspring.  

Rho and Karen, here's Jazz...at 8 years old.

He weighed in at 4 and a half pounds in this picture. Now that he is getting older, he's gaining a little weight. He's a dolly dog. He is scruffy from a month long camping and beach bumming trek. Usually he looks much more like the spoiled and pampered boy that he is.

Beginnings

Finally the French Market Bag is on it's way, with all it's warts showing but I'm too tired to care. I'll sew the holes shut and felt it when the time times. I do know now how to do magic loop and how to make a Pi cat bed. It can't be much different than this with a twist. Going to try that with some of the yarn, a bed for a little dog who can curl up on a salad plate. Jazzie is so tiny and cute. He's such a good boy.  

Sockrafice Shelter Snuggler

When I started this nice project, I misread the directions and thought the suggested size of 70 stitches was what was called for in casting on. I wanted to make a cat sized snuggler, and should have cast on half that many stitches. I've come up with one for a medium sized dog, or maybe a Maine Coon Cat. Well, it will be a nice dog sized one and I'm sure it will get used. All this confusion comes from being so tired for a week that I could have just slept the WHOLE time.  

Birch, with this lovely yarn called Love in the Mist

Pugknits ( The Fiber Denn) makes the most beautiful colored yarn that just takes my breath away. A Birch Shawl is planned for this laceweight wool. Of course DH's sweater is a must finish right after his socks, and DD1's socks and DD2's socks, and the...hehe (aran isle sweater avoidance)  

Sweet Georgia's Blog page of the Birch

A Birder's Blog, but many other things.

I've added a link to a blog that is very inspirational and gentle, like the man who writes it. It's sort of a Nature blog, but also a philosophical one as well.

He calls himself Old Man Lincoln

My mother loved birds. She loved everything about them and passed that love on to me.

So, It was very fitting that when she died in December of one year that in about January of the next year, as I was sitting on the beach trying to recover from the shock of losing Mother so suddenly, and thinking of her love and her gentle ways in life, when a bird flew out of, literally, the glowing mist straight toward me.

I watched it coming toward me from afar, trailing what looked like string or falconer's jesses from it's legs. As it got closer I saw that is was nearly all white except that it had some black on it's wings. It also trailed very long red feathers from it's tail. The bird came out of the mist and flew straight at me and right above my head, red bill aglow close to the ground, really, for a wild bird coming to shore.

To this day, I am sure that my mother sent that bird as a messenger to me to tell me she was alright and I would be, too. After that I got some binoculars and took up birding in earnest.




Red tailed tropicbird

Look what I found that I must have thought enchanting in 1971

My sister, who comes over to my house almost every Friday, helped me go through the files from the way back machine. And this is what we found, amongst other things that were even worse. This charming two piece is crocheted. I was really going to make it once upon a time.

Esperanto and Johnny Cash, guitar pickin' mama's

Trish asked about Esperanto so I thought I'd reply in a post.

Esperanto. There are on line classes for beginner's, a dictionary, and probably products, like videos, to buy. The library has a few books, too. A couple of online friends and I are embarking on this adventure and the one of them has really researched it. She's found that between 10 and 40 million people world wide speak Esperanto, and I'm sure, since the internet, they do a lively e-mail correspondence. One of my friend's friends wrote to people all over the world, and even traveled to Paris when she was in her 70's, wearing her pin. When a Japanese man spotted her pin, he showed her the one on his coat and they started a conversation, since they shared no other language. I thought that was really wonderful. So don't worry Trish, you will find people to chat with if you learn this language. I've already been able to do simple translations because I know Spanish.

Ah, Sharon, my shoulders, hands and my throat, they are aging, badly. My back is now three inches shorter all on it's own. I have two guitars, a small dreadnought, and a full sized dreadnought. I love my big dread for the sound it has. It's a beautiful sound, but I can't hold it well at all anymore. I think of getting a Dobro sometimes, but there's a back issue. My voice is weak, a lot weaker, now. I sing very little now. It's started to warble and I've lost range. A lot of range. Can't belt it out anymore! So I enjoy other people's music and singing. The ears, apparently, are still pretty good. Yeay! "Rejoice in what you still got.", is a good motto for me!

Karen, You will love this movie. The singing is amazing. The actor/singers did an amazing job. Loving Johnny Cash's music as you do, you will enjoy hearing them both sing.

Oh.. some KNITTING content. I'm half way through the shelter pad, and it's thick and soft, and it's big enough for the mid sized animals. I got the pattern from the link under Things to Do for Others, in the side bar.

The market bag is coming along. It's rough wool and the big double points are hard to handle with so few stitches on them but soon it will be out onto the circular needle. I haven't forgotten Rissa's suggestion to knit it DEEP. =0)

I'm reading Mave Binchy's Firefly Summer and so far think it's one of her better books. It's nice to be reading a gentle book for awhile.

I'm recovering from having fallen into a funk. It's amazing when a mental blizzard blindsides you when you are having a darn good time! :-) You can't get the weapons out fast enough. You know, that force screen in the startrek movies that seals you off from it all.

New Navigation in the Blog, Johnny Cash, Songs from the soul, and learning Esperanto, Oh did I mention the red French Market Bag?

Two KR members helped out with this and I'm so grateful for their help. Now, when a link is clicked, it pops up another page without navigating away from the original one, if it's an external link. If you click on a previous post, or an archive, it will take you to that archive but you can always come back to the current page by clicking on the text of the header.

I'll play with my new toy for a few minutes now just for fun.

We watched the Johnny Cash movie this afternoon and it was very wonderful. Sad and sweet and yet a triumph of love and of the human will. Also, I know what it's like to sing duets with someone and have your hearts and spirits start to blend. It is almost the feeling of becoming spiritually one. It's magical. Music is an espression of the spirit. You never feel it anymore intensely than when you are signing a duet. I was telling DH, and he know this to be true, that I would have loved to have a life as a singer. He met me when I was still singing. I miss it and miss my guitar. I would recommend this movie to anyone who loved Johnny Cash or June Carter Cash.

The bag is on it's fourth row, and will be knit along with the shelter blankets. I might even make shelter blankets out of batting and fabrics.

You all have a wonderful week. May you hear your Guardians when they speak and may you be as happy as possible in this world.

Two friends, DH and I are going to learn Esperanto for fun and for exercising the mind.

Movies and a left turn to OT Daymares

We finally go to watch "The March of the Penguins" a few nights ago. It is a wonderful film. Since we rented the DVD version, the making of the film was on the disk as well. We had the English version but, if we could get it, we'd also love to see the French version.

Penguins are the most amazing creatures and the underwater shots that the French crew got were beautiful shots. The crittercam, used by American scientists, I didn't care for. It entailed fencing the little animal in and attaching a device to him, and that sure didn't look comfortable at all. DH and I both felt really sorry for him. We both hoped that the little guy didn't have a long suffering mate around somewhere tapping her webbed toes, waiting for him to return. Of course, I'm sure they were careful about not doing this but still...... I've had daymares about something coming down from outer space and treating us like we treat the bovines, for instance. Horrid! Anyway, I liked the way the French crew handled finding out what was going on underwater through the hole in the ice the penguins were diving into and popping out of.

We have sock toes, 2000 Socks, and Sockrafice!

At last, Rho, here they are, and they are hot off the kitchner needle. I would do this pattern again in a heartbeat. I adore it. Yukon Leaves by Lela C. I'll make that a hot link as soon as I can. Right now I can hardly see. Lol! And yes, Rho, stars can align rather quickly again especially if St. Michael comes to the rescue with that big sword of his; I do believe it. One of my favorite paintings is by Guido Reni, St. Michael Slaying the Devil. St. Michael can practice on all of my demons if he likes. ;D  

A little whining and that will never do

I've GOT to stop watching films about dysfunctional families! They knock me off my rocker, and then where will I knit? Yes, if you saw it, the post is now gone, hopefully forever. My advice to all and sundry is that political rants are one thing, but rants about your own Mom and Dad, while growing up, can make you wish you didn't blog at all. At least me, anyway.

The sock toes are going to be finished tomorrow. I had to frog one of them all the way back because it seemed to be trying to point in one direction which would never do.

Now, I have some patterns to share. They are lace shawl patterns from HERE

I got three:

Lead or Follow, Hanging Vines, and Maple Leaves

I'm going to make the Lead or Follow pattern with the luscious yarn, from The Fiber Den, which is in the February archive.

Second Piece

The chain rests between the two small wrappings on the main rings, and the whole thing hangs Kitty Korner. It really turned out nicely, and I'm glad that it's done.  

Pookie, Here are the two wirewraps

The lady who picked this dichroic cabechon wanted it to be simple. So I kept it simple. The other one is the final wrap from the glass cabs I fired a few months ago. Both of the ladies wanted the wrap to be simple to show off the stone. Now that they are done, I am really glad to get back to knitting my socks to give my hands a rest.  

The tall bearded Iris are blooming!

I love these things. I'm not very good at meeting deadlines anymore but this is a wee peek at my garden. Maybe more later; you never know. Hee hee

A closer look at the string

I'm just trying this out to see if it looks good or awful, or even awfully good.

I've got this burning question. Is the yarn supposed to trail through all of the hooks or just the ones on the right side of the flyer. Is it winding on badly because I'm not moving it enough, or because it's supposed to be going through all the hooks?

If I don't start getting some sleep I'll have to cut my hair or do something really radical. Purple Hair or a tatoo, maybe?


  

I think this film is so beautiful.

There were a few scenes in it where I had to cover my eyes. But it's beautiful for the most part.  

Spinning away in SoCal, and a Wonderful Movie, too.

I split the sliver- the silvery sliver that came with the wheel- down into quarters and it's working so nicely. DH came over to me today and gently asked if I were going to make something for him out of the yarn. I said, "Sure, I can make you a hat. This sort of yarn makes a good hat when it's plied". I think he's very pleased. The half bobbin makes me hopeful that I'm really finally getting the hang of the wheel and don't need to long for my spindles anymore so much.

We watched a film called "Winged Migration" today, it part as a Nature tour of sorts to lift my spirits, in off again on again rainy weather. We also have just watched a movie documentary called, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill". As if to make me even happier about sharing the planet with the Messengers of God, a tiny Lesser Goldfinch male came into the yard and ate the seeds from some of the tall dandelions that I've not been able to get out. Now I wish that we had a bumper crop of thistle to feed his whole flock. Birds are the most beautiful creatures. Well, horses are right up there, too. =o)

The first time I took note of the migratory birds I was 8 years old and it was on a warm winter night while my friends and I played kickball in the cul-d-sac in front of my house. We were playing under the street lamps in the late dusk, and I looked up and saw a perfect wedge of geese flying north. They were very high in the sky, catching the last light rays of the dying day. As I watched them fly in their chevron, I thought about our own wild ducks that lived in the small river that ran through our property. I wondered if they would leave this same way. Mother told me that they wouldn't, "No need", she said, "as they have everything they need right here with us." Of course Mother was right. I watched our ducks for a few days and stopped worrying they were going to leave us.

Anyway, this film is wonderful. You might like it, too. If you get it, be sure to watch the two parts that tell how it was made, and the part about the composer and how he set it to music.

A Half a bobbin since Tuesday

And I've split the sliver down to a very thin one indeed. Everything is going better because of it, too.  

Apples!

And yes, we love the place they came from, very much. It's like an open food market in some place exotic, like London or something. You dare to laugh? I've hardly been out of California. LOL!  

The Five things in my Fridge MEME

Ok, Trish, one of my KR buddies, has tagged me. So, here we go.....Wheee! Such excitement!

1. Two jars of MIL's lovely fig jam made from figs from her tree. Thanks, it's delicious!

2. A bag of baby carrots

3. Four apples in a plastic container.

4. Hamburger patties for tonight's dinner

5. Dish of lemon slices from our Meyer's lemon tree (for my iced tea when it isn't raining and too cold to even think of such a thing.)

Hmmm.. whom shall I tag? hmmm... Jane, did you do this yet? I think Rho has.. Lanea might like this. Professor Knitwit. Ok, I tag those bloggers unless they've done it already. If you have, then I'll send you all some cooked pasta, airmail. No?

A DD and a Tobi doggie

Karen, this is a picture that I found of our eldest and our little dog Tobie. Tobie was a sweet and energetic little dog and lived for 16 years til her heart stopped when she was walking down a little hill in the back yard. She was toy fox terrier, A little bit of dachund and a little bit unknown. She was very sweet natured and tiny, too.

I couldn't find my Snowy Pictures, but I will!

Tonight was a Rock Hound meeting night, and no matter what I do sleep won't come easily this night. The problem stems from having a hyper-active nervous system that is like a 3 year old's at a birthday party. That is, a 3 year old who has missed his nap and has just eaten chocolate cake and ice cream. That's just the way I've always been. Running on fumes.

So, I thought it was time to show you Fern Canyon in Northern California, so you could share in the happy feelings it arouses in it's viewers. It is a fabulous Commune with Nature. Do you feel just a little bit better? I sure do.

Tomorrow... snow.. and just maybe pictures of WIP Trekkers, and a little pancake of a start on the French Market Bag. The Seaweed patterned afghan is finished except for the edging.

I want to start my lacey shawl, too, but have to finish some wire wrapping and secret things, too. Of course this is a teaser.

Here is the upper road into the canyon as it meanders and gets narrower and narrower, you will see why there are restrictions on the sort of vehicles that are allowed down into the access to the Coastal Road. This is one of the most lovely areas the seaward side of the Giant Redwoods Reserves.

The very dark entrance into Fern Canyon. This is just like the entrance to another world and everyone tries to respect the quiet beauty of it all. I think if you are going to go to Northern California, this is a place you should see. No large vehicles can get in, or indeed are allowed in. So bring something smaller than a motor home.

From a parking lot approximately 13 miles away, the road runs down into another canyon to the edge of the sea. This is called Coastal Road. The cliff here is about 70 to a hundred feet high.

Very little strong light gets down into Fern Canyon but when it does it makes stunning photographs. The number and variety of native ferns in this canyon is a pure delight.

Fern Canyon was created by a steam, whose bed has cut 50 or 60 foot vertical walls through a coastal rain forest habitat, and the walls are all covered with ferns and mosses of the most beautiful form and color.

Missed the Sunday Lawn Party

Didn't get my pictures in time, but we did get some nice rain. I stayed in and knit the socks, ate chocolate and did a little sulking over the condition of Humanity. But, today I'll wash my hair and stuff a bunch of stuff into the washer dryer and all will be well in the world.

I need to go on a nature walk or something, yes? I'd like to start out at Henry Cowles in Santa Cruz, please and end up in Yosemite in the snow. I've got some awesome pictures of the frozen lake and some other snowy scenes. I'll post them later. Need to commune with my washing machine and the shampoo bottle.

Happy knitting! Eat chocolates and keep the feet warm and dry!

porcupine Toes..

The socks look pretty good together. I've been trying to think of something to say about the swollen feet. It's a quirk of mine to worry about how my feet look, so I am speechless, almost. Moi? Speechless? Buhahahahahaha!  

It's twins, fraternals!

Here they are, Yukon Leaves, almost finished and definately related in some way. They really fit well on my slightly swollen feet. Maybe I'll keep them.  

A few little things

Sharon and Trish asked about some things in comments and I thought that some others might be interested to know about them, too. The first is that origin of my spinning wheel, and the other was the coding for the percentage bars.

Hi Sharon, they are cute bars and they go in like a dream. The author of the script tells you exactly where in your own source code template to put the java script that sets up the program, and where to look for the side bar addition area in the template to add the side bar headers for your percentage bars. He gives you the code for the lines that create the bars.

This page : Colors

has been my source for color numbers to use in this and other web pages I've made. I used it to get the colors I liked in all the places in my page code, including the percentage bars. It's fun to play with colors and is pretty simple to copy and paste them into the code of your web page.

Ah, Ms. Lilly Murphy. My spinning wheel is a louet S75DT, and I bought that sort of wheel because my daughter has a louet and I got to spin on it when we visited and liked very much. I wanted a traditional look, too.

I bought it off the web because, firstly, we were travelling, and secondly , because I heard so much good stuff, all true, about Copper Moose. The owner has been kind and answered all my questions patiently. I had no trouble replacing a wheel that had a split spoke. Everything went smoothly. I adore that smooth running little wheel. She named herself, as wheels will do. I could almost hear my mother's voice saying the name, but I'm sure it was my imagination. Mother was very droll. Her first name was Lilly. Email me, if you like, for more details.

Trish, the script is all in my page code, and you can see it by going to the top bar of the browser, and looking for the "View" tab.

Click on that tab for the drop down menu, and then click on the word "source". It will show the source code for any web page on the web that you are currently viewing.

You can see where I have all the stuff that the java script writer said to put into my blog and where it is inserted.

It's really easy to put it into your page, test it. and then not commit if you don't like it. Don't click on "save my changes" after you've previewed it. But let me say that you won't see anything unless it's all in place first.

I'd be happy to help you change yours but yours is really nice. It's got pleasant colors, you're good at putting pictures in it, and it's fun and easy to read. As Lanea said in the KR, you develop your own voice over time. I love your blog.

Changing colors gets a little tricky when you have to find the "one" place to change it in the "several". That's what took the most time in mine, finding all the parts. My blog has cascading style sheets, which basically must mean something like, if you do this color or Font here, you can have it carried throughout all the pages you make that are connected by the style sheets. Don't quote me. It's like taking something from Greek to something my brain could understand, all by myself. But I do think that is what cascading style sheets are.

Email me. We can trade tweaks. It's pretty fun if you save all your source code in a document in notepad, you can't lose your page. Just cut and paste it into a notepad and save it. I didn't do that once and oh was that a mistake.

Yukon Leaves sock pictures didn't get taken today because I was up all night last night til 7 am working on several things, and ended up sleeping at the wrong time of day to get a picture in natural light. They will be up tomorrow, unless the roof falls in on us. Hopefully that won't happen.

New things in the side bar. The cool little percentage bars! Yeay!

It has taken my a long time in my semi narcotic state to find and create these little darling progress bars.

But, I went to this Wonderful Place called "Unlikely Words/ Semi Sweet Morsels" and picked up the HTML for the progress bars. I've had a lot of fun doing this tweaking so late at night without my soft tech for any sort of guidance at all. If you knew me, you would know that I am not fearless when tweaking code.

The socks are coming along at a fast pace and their pictures will be up tomorrow with all the needles akimbo and my last holiday's nail polish still glowing on the toes, but I don't want to wait to take a picture. Who knows what a new day will bring. It could be chaos. Or do we live in chaos and just hope we can have order? No, I drink no spirits but I do take the dreaded herbs made from cone flowers. If it was good enough for my Native American ancestors, it is good enough for me. How else did they get to sleep with all their worries? Well before, that is, there was firewater which put you to sleep all the time especially when signing treaties. Oh is that a political thought.. Gah! out! out!

The sweater has apologized to me, profusely, and Rissa has given me a clue about how to keep 86 different lines of a project straight with a trick on her blog. Thank you Rissa! Anywho, the sweater gets to see the light of day again, and the spinning wheel is feeling the full force of my love now that small episodes of smooth and truly beautiful yarn are spinning onto the bobbin.