Winding Down the Week

 Good Friday Morning!

It has been such a nice week!  Yesterday I was able to get out in the afternoon for a walk along the canal.  I had not been on that path/trail for quite some time (it can get kind of muddy after a lot of rain).  There were quite a few people out - some bikers, some dog walkers, some joggers - everyone seemed to be enjoying the abundant sunshine.  There were a ton of turtles sunning themselves on various logs in the canal.

If you enlarge you will see there are at least a dozen turtles in that snap!

I even spotted a painted rock along the trail!

Several loads of wash dried very nicely on the lines yesterday.  Of course, there is more laundry to be done today.  Not sure that will dry outside - we have a chance of rain.

But weather!!  Carolyn, I was thinking of you:  my brother who lives in Boulder, CO had been in California for business.  He flew home late Wednesday night - getting in around midnight.  It was raining, but forecast to turn to snow.  At 12:30 Thursday afternoon he texted a picture - they already had 15" of snow and it was forecast to keep snowing for another 24 hours!!  I cannot even imagine.

Mailing has been in Texas all week for work and Colin invited us over yesterday for dinner.  This one was being a bit on the lazy side.

And then he escaped to the great outside world!  Luckily he doesn't run away or anything.  He just wandered around the patio in the back until Colin grabbed him and put him back inside.  Poor Marcel, he was not happy about that.  Talbot doesn't even try to get out!

We ordered out steak sandwiches for dinner - YUM.  It was still so nice we took our food out to the backyard to eat.  At some point either Fletch or Colin noticed a beautiful hawk in one of his trees.  I think the hawk was eyeing my sandwich!  LOL

We hung out for awhile and had a fire in the pit once it began to get dark.  Just before 9 p.m. we saw the ISS fly over!  I signed up for notifications, but this was the first time I saw it.  Very cool.

No real plans for today - a bit more laundry as I mentioned.  I may run some errands or not.  I may start to clean out the linen closet...or not...I may venture to the library if a book come in.  Definitely I will make time for knitting and stitching and reading.  Tomorrow Dee and I are meeting up (this week was too busy to get together during the week).

What about you?  Any plans?  Whatever you do (or don't do), may the weekend be a good one.  Have some fun!

Tiny Needle Tuesday...and More!!

 Good Morning My Friends,

How are you?  It is still early here (5:40 a.m.), but someone (that would be me) had a difficult time sleeping last night and then early, early this a.m. the birds were so loud!  I love birdsong and hearing it, but maybe a little later would be a better idea.

Anywho, I've lots to show you today, so grab your beverage of choice and let's dig in.  First, it is Tuesday, which means it is time for a Tiny Needle update.  My two pieces are moving along nicely and continue to be fun to stitch.  First up is the Autumn Posy by Plum Street Samplers.

The pumpkin is finished and a few do-dads have been added.  This is being stitched on 40 count linen with Weeks Dye Works overdyed cottons.

Next we have the Sampler aux Bouquets.  A 3 part sampler that I am stitching on 32 count linen with DMC floss.

I had thought I would finish up the first part this past week, but that was not to be.  However, Mr. Rabbit has made an appearance along with a potted plant (I think a rose?).  I have confirmed that the X and the Z will need to be moved in order to accommodate the balance of the design on Part 1.  No worries, it will look better when finished.

Now on to other things!  Yesterday, Juneteenth, was a holiday for my office and a 3 day weekend was a lovely thing.  I convinced/talked Fletch into heading out with me yesterday for a short morning walk and then lunch out.  We took off around 10:30 and drove to one of my favorite walks - the one where the canal is on one side of the path and the Schuylkill River on the other side.  It was a busy place yesterday - lots of walkers, lots of joggers, lots of dog walkers, some folks on bikes and a number of folks on the water - either paddle boards, kayaks or canoes.  We actually saw some folding kayaks which are pretty cool.

Along with all the people there was a ton of animal and plant life.  We heard bull frogs, geese, ducks, lots of song birds and then there were turtles!  Of course we did not hear them, but oh my gosh there were SO MANY baby turtles!  I don't ever remember seeing them at this location and certainly not the numbers we saw yesterday.

There were also bees and bugs on various blooms.

So many scents in the air too.  We were noticing how some scents are really strong when you are in the sunlight and then others become more prominent when you are in the shade.

We walked for about 40 minutes and then made our way back to Fitzwater Station for lunch.  We were able to get seats on the deck overlooking the canal so we could watch the water traffic while sipping and eating.  I loved this sign on one of the vehicles at Fitzwater Station:

We had a relaxing afternoon and then it was time to sit on the patio with a beverage.  Back when I was harvesting a ton of rhubarb, Nance had suggested that I make some rhubarb cordial.  Oh my!  What a treat!

This is what we ended up with after ditching the pieces of rhubarb in the bottle (basically cut up rhubarb, vodka and sugar - shake and let it meld together for a month, then strain and indulge).  It is tart, but in a very pleasing way.  I had a small amount over ice and enjoyed it a lot.  I think it would also be tasty with seltzer.

Mabel came around from wherever she had been patroling to join us.  Such a sweetie!

All lin all a very lovely day.

Tiny Needle Tuesday 2/14/23

 Hello and Happy Valentine's Day!

This gorgeous bouquet greeted me when I came downstairs this morning.

I first noticed them early on - like 5 a.m. - when I came down to let Mabel out, but I didn't turn on lights or look closely...I just went back to bed for a couple of hours.  They are truly lovely though and such a wide variety of flowers and colors.

My plan was to surprise Fletch with some home-made applesauce donuts (that he has been talking about), but as luck would have it, I am missing one ingredient (whipping cream).  Oh well...another day.  The rustic apple cranberry tart that I made DID turn out well.  We had it for dessert last night.  Yum!!

The house was filled with the aroma of cinnamon and cloves while it was baking yesterday.  Heavenly!

I also managed to get out for a short walk after lunch.  I went to the canal path hoping to see a heron, but no luck.  I did see two turtles.

Those were the only turtles I saw - I guess it is still a little early/chilly for the others to come out.  There were not many folks on the trail either...I only saw a couple of people walking and maybe 3 on bikes.  The day was sunny and rather warm when you were in a car, but on the trail I could have used a hat or an ear band - a bit breezy and chilly.  My recent cleaning frenzy must have tired my back, because it was sore while I was walking.  Still, I managed a half hour which for me is roughly 1.5 miles, so not bad.  And, it was nice to be out in the fresh air.

Anyway, it's Tuesday and time for a TNT update.  Only a little stitching was done in the last week.

A couple more rows on the left side of the house and some kind of a tree or something to the left (in gold).  I'm hoping to finish up the house today and bring the left border down to the bottom.  Then I can get back to some of the fun motifs sprinkled on the other side of this sampler.

The sun is up and I can see blue sky when I look out my office window.  Maybe I can get outside for a bit again today.  Whatever you do - enjoy!!

Snapshots From a Walk

 Good Morning and Happy Friday!  Happy Long Weekend!!

Work has really slowed which is always the case leading up to a holiday weekend.  Yesterday my only conference call scheduled for today was cancelled, so I feel rather free and really don't plan on doing much work at all.  I've already done a few things this a.m., answered emails, etc.  My hope/plan is to get out for a walk early before it gets hot.

Yesterday I finally walked by the canal.  I managed to do the usual 3 miles but was a bit on the warm side when I got back to my car (I walked from 9-10 a.m.).  It's been a number of weeks since I walked anywhere - my feet have been bothering me ever since we walked around China Town when we went into Philadelphia for Dim Sum a few weeks back.  Not sure why - maybe because I was walking in leather flats rather than sneakers...and walking on city pavement rather than a trail.  Anyway, it felt good to get out yesterday.  Flowers have started to bloom alongside the canal.

So pretty!  There were also day lilies, purple loosestrife, some tiny white flowers and other "weeds" which are just so nice to see.

There were also some animals.  No blue herons sighted, but there was a cute baby duck:

And, perhaps my favorite turtle picture:

The back legs on that one turtle crack me up!  They are so wide!!

I saw a few other walkers, a couple of joggers, a couple of folks on bicycles and 3 kayaks on the canal.  I'm hoping to get out before 8 a.m. today and am thinking I'll walk at Oaks along the Perkiomen Creek.

The day will also be filled with some errands.  I need to gas up the car (particularly painful these days), pick up a couple of prescriptions at CVS, get to the bank to get some $$$ and pick up a few things at the grocery store.  I'm making pizza for dinner and our mushrooms in the frig are fairly slimy, so I want to get fresh.  And, the store I'll go to has cherries on sale!

Yesterday before dinner Fletch and I were sitting on the patio with our beverages and there was a goldfinch on the thistle at our side yard.  We had just been commenting that the goldfinches were not around much this year!

I know it looks more like a yellow leaf in this picture, but it was the best shot I could get with my phone camera.

Sweet Mabel, of course, was right near us.  

Sleeping Beauty!!

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend and a great 4th of July!!

Friday Doings

Hello Everyone,

It's looking...again...quite grey outside and the cars are wet.  I know it rained overnight and more is expected today.  But yesterday was nice and I managed to get out a bit - more on that later.

The other day I received a somewhat unsettling e-mail that talked about senior management taking a 90 day pay cut; lay-offs and furloughs to be expected, etc.  Fortunately right after that email came out my boss called me to let me know that I am not impacted by that.  Whew!  I am retirement age, but I am not yet ready to retire.  However, one of my peers is being impacted and now my work has increased in that I will be supporting 3 Division Presidents rather than 2.  That's fine with me, as you all know I haven't been that busy lately!  Plus, the new one - Bruce - and I worked together 20 years ago when I first came to the company.  So, it will be just like the old days...sort of...Anyway, count me as being very relieved.  But I feel so badly for my peer who is a single (widowed) mother with a young son.  My company is still fully operational, but 60% of our parent company's business is shut down now.  That's a lot.  So they are depending on our company for revenue, etc.  Thus the pay cuts, layoffs, etc.

On to nicer things.  I started some new socks!  I know, not really a surprise.  Since the Plaid Blanket socks are for Colin, I decided I should make some for Mailing.  She prefers short socks, so I started a shortie pair.

I'm using size 1 needles and the yarn is an oldie from Knitpicks - Stroll Fingering and the colorway is Koi Pond.  I think I made some fingerless gloves for someone out of this yarn and now I'm using the leftovers.  These should go quickly, though I don't seem to have gotten much done since starting.  The heel has been turned and I'm on the gusset now.

One reason I haven't gotten much done is that yesterday was beautiful!  I worked all morning, taking a 30 minute break to workout with my weights.  After lunch I knew I needed to get out and walk, so I headed over to the towpath in Phoeniville.  The canal is on one side and the Schuylkill River on the other.  There were plenty of people out and about (mostly keeping their distance...the 20+ year olds aren't so cautious).  Some walkers, some joggers, some dog walkers, some bikers.  There were the usual geese and ducks all over the place.

Things are greening up nicely and Forsythia is in bloom everywhere.

There were a few turtles sunbathing.

And I even saw a single kayaker.

Look at that blue, blue sky!  It was still a little on the chilly side and when the wind blew, my ears hurt, my eyes watered and my nose ran.  BUT, it was just so good to get outside for a little bit.

After I had been home for a little while, we decided to do this again.

We shot 3 rounds (9 arrows apiece each round)...so I shot a total of 27 arrows.  I could really feel it across my back (in a good way).  I'm not as shakey doing this as I have been in the past.  I guess the arm exercises I do with my weights are helping me to be a little bit stronger.

Tyg came in with a tick kthe other day, so everyone watch out.  The season is upon us.  I was holding him in my lap last night and saw a tick crawling across my hand.  Luckily Fletch was right there to grab it and flush it down the toilet!  I felt itchy all evening!  LOL.

I have a conference call at 10 and I think a quick run to the grocery store is in order later (we are just about out of fresh produce).  If the weather clears, I'd like to get out for another walk.  We'll see.

Hope you are all hanging in there and doing ok.  Take care!

Weekending

Good Morning!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend whether celebrating Easter, Passover, or nothing.  It ended up being a good weekend for us.

My office was closed Friday and we closed early on Thursday, so the weekend was off to an early start.  Thursday before dinner we were sitting on the patio and spotted two bluebirds in our yard!  We don't normally have them in our yard, so it was a real treat.  Such a vibrant color!

We had a bit of rain Friday morning, but then the skies cleared and I went out for a quick walk on the River Trail (in Valley Forge Park, along the Schuylkill River).  There had to be thousands of blooms along the trail.  Some yellow cinquefoil:

And then literally thousands of bluebells:

These ranged in color from a very deep blue to pale lavender to pink and even some white.  There were a few others out walking or jogging, but the trail was not crowded which was nice.  the river was pretty high after the rains we've had.  I ended up walking just over 3 miles.

Saturday, after morning rain again, I headed over to the trail along the canal.  There were only a few flowers blooming, but scads of turtles sunning themselves on logs or - in this case - on someone's dock:

These are all pretty big ones, but I saw all sizes on logs.  I wish I had seen some birds.  There were only a couple of ducks and a couple of geese.  One person in a kayak and two people fishing.  Both the river and canal were still very high, and the trail was pretty muddy.  I spotted this poor soul on the other side on my walk back to the car:

Guess he/she walked a bit too far.  I ended up walking just about 2.5 miles. 

Sunday we headed over to Colin & Mailing's in the afternoon for dinner.  They made pineapple shrimp curry and Vietnamese spring rolls.  So good.  This was dessert:

Essentially an extremely large jello shot!  It was "The Last Word" which is a prohibition era drink made with gin, green chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice.  They added a vegan thickener to gel the concoction and then put meringues on top.  This was one strong dessert!  Tasty, but very, very strong.  It ended up being a lovely day, except that Colin and Lance (Anna's boyfriend) both found ticks on themselves later in the evening.  I guess that season has started....

I did manage to do a little bit of knitting over the weekend, but I'll save that for another post.

How was your weekend?

Monday, Monday

Hello All,

 

Thinking of all my relatives and friends in FL and hoping/praying all are safe. 

 

Our weekend was wonderful!  Mine actually started at Noon on Friday (my bosses gave me the afternoon off to get a jump start on a birthday weekend!!).  Saturday we met Colin and Mailing for lunch and then headed over to Grounds for Sculpture.  What an amazing place!  42 acres of beautifully maintained grounds with a ton of sculptures all over the place.  Some are absolutely huge, others are rather small.  We wandered around for 2.5 – 3 hours and did not see everything.  Definitely a place to return.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

 

Colin & Mailing in front

 

This one was called Breadline - Fletch at the rear of the line

 

Love this one!  that's Fletch standing on the ground in the middle

 

Look at the detail!

 

Sheep!!

Colin settling in for a beer and a game of cards

There were peacocks on the grounds...I liked this albino one.

 

There are so many other great sculptures, but these are some of my favorites.

We didn’t leave the grounds until after 4, and the NJ Sheep & Fiber Festival, although close – 15 or so miles, closed at 5.  So, I did not make it there this year…but I hope to next year.

 

I did manage to get almost to the heel of my first Nutkin sock.

 

 

Only about 6 more rows till I start the heel!

 

Sunday late afternoon found me back on the trail alongside the canal.  There was not as much traffic on the water or trail as I had expected for such a beautiful day.  I did see a lot of turtles basking in the sun.  Here is one granddaddy!!

 

 

Now it is back to work.  Hope everyone has a beautiful week.

Eclipse Monday!!

Happy Eclipse Day!  I’m at work and I don’t have Eclipse Glasses anyway…but I imagine it will be pretty dark outside even though we are only having a partial eclipse here.  Pretty cool.  I heard on the radio that the last total solar eclipse was 99 years ago!

 

I managed to survive my busy week last week.  The summer has been so slow, it was strange to have a week where I was going non-stop for 10-12 hours per day.  The meetings went well and everyone had a good time.

 

The weekend was more than welcome.  We noticed that our Hibiscus is finally blooming!  It is really short this year – only 2 feet high or so, but the blooms are gorgeous.

 

 

Friday I was pretty lazy, but miracle of miracles, on Saturday I managed to FINALLY finish those pesky socks that have been on the needles since April (what??).

 

 

I love them.  The colors are so gorgeous.  Usually I don’t block socks, but these were very tight and the blocking worked perfectly.  The yarn is Black Bunny Fibers 100% wool in the color Estuary.  I used size 1 needles and the pattern is Spring Socks Orla.

 

Once these were finished, I pulled out all my sock yarn and picked out skeins for two new pairs of socks.  Yes, two.  But, in my defense, one pair will not be started until September 1^st.  Have you all popped over to Dee's Blog blog to see her announcement of the KAL we are having for Nutkin?  Won’t you join us?  You know you want to be one of the Cool Folks!!

 

I’ll show the yarns I picked out later – forgot to take a picture.  I also picked out yarn for a new shawl cast-on.  I will be making Close to You in Fluffy Cat Lite yarn from Wandering Cat Yarns.  The color is Grenache.  Again a picture later.  I haven’t started it yet, but it came along to the office today and I’m hoping to cast on at lunch.

 

Saturday night we finally watched “A Man Called Ove.”  That was one of my favorite books from last year.  The movie did not disappoint.  It stayed true to the book and was a good watch.

 

This weekend was the Annual Philadelphia Folk Festival.  There is a Rails-to-Trails path that goes right past the back side of the Old Pool Farm where the Festival is held.  In prior years we have ridden our bikes, but this year we decided to walk.  We parked at Spring Mountain and from there it is only a 20 minute walk to the Festival.  Lots of joggers, walkers, dogs, bikers, etc. on the path.  It was a gorgeous day Sunday – low humidity and lower temps – only 82 or so.  The Perkiomen Creek flows by the trail and we saw Mud Turtles basking in the sun

 

 

One was huge!  But I couldn't zoom in that close with my phone.  We sat on a bench for 10 minutes or so and listened to some of the music and then continued our walk.  At one point we stopped to rest and have lunch.

 

 

The path wanders through some cute villages/small towns and at times there are some interesting old buildings.

 

 

We spotted this – not sure what this hopper was used for, but there are old train repair places along the way, so it may be related to that.

 

We turned around and walked back to the Festival area stopping again to listen to music.  Lots of hammocks in the woods, lots of tie-dyed clothing and plenty of weed being passed around.  A mini Woodstock!  We ended up walking about 4 miles total which felt great.

 

We ended the weekend by watching the 1^st episode in the new season of Endeavour – good to have that back again.

 

Hoping you all had a great weekend as well.  I’m looking forward to an easier week this week and yoga tonight.