December walks

I wanted to show you a glimpse of our daily December walk. I love that Dog can be off his leash and bounding happily through the snow, sniffing tracks, looking for puddles to drink from (frozen, this week), and always waiting for me before he gets completely out of sight.

I also love, love, love that once we broke a trail through the fresh snow (Dog and I) the deer started to use the same path. Now that it's frigid and icy, the only tracks through the woods are those on the path of Dog, deer and me.

And by the way, these long, long shadows of late day sun, are at 1:30 in the afternoon!!!
I'd like to share with you one of my favorite poems, by Elizabeth Coatsworth: "Early Dark"

Night's all right
With stars and a moon,
But night's all wrong
In the afternoon!
It drops from the trees
And it creeps on the floor,
And they call me in
By half past four!

Life goes on...

Well, I didn't mean the "Last Hurrah" to be so literal! Wow, where did the time go? October got pretty full, with big, big sadness, I'm sorry to say. We said good-bye to one of the dearest people who ever walked the earth. Someone we spoke with almost every day. It was always wonderful to pick up the phone and hear his voice. Always upbeat and positive and excited about new possibilities, no matter what. He lived a long time with illness, but with incredible grace and optimism, always accentuating the positive. Who would take up flying an airplane at 80 years old with cancer? He would. We miss him beyond words.


But...he had a beloved faithful companion, the 4-legged kind, who moved in with us and brings me daily joy. The sweetest, gentlest dog that ever there was. And thus we go forward. The daily walks I always longed for but couldn't always get to...now they happen! Twice a day, even.

In fact, this dog is so sweet that he recently received his first piece of fan mail! From a dear 2-legged friend who has not been keen on 4-legged-s, to say the least.
A little hard to see in this picture, I know, but there is a 7-year-old boy feeding treats to a very gentle dog at our little house, with (I'm guessing) the sun going down between trees (very early in the afternoon) in our yard.
Love in so many forms...love for those who have gone on before us and without us...those who are wonderful companions while we are still here...those who make friends where they didn't know they could...
It's all good.

the last hoorah

"flying above the clouds"

"Flying above the clouds," says F.
Isn't it a beautiful sight?

high in the sky...so peaceful...looking down on the soft billows below...

Well, actually, it's the latest batch of homebrewing in our kitchen.

Apple wine this time...

with our feet on the ground, and our heads in the clouds.

one thing leads to another

well, there's nothing like this time of year...shorts on at mid-day, but a cozy fire at night

cozy wool socks...

cozy, cozy, cozy...

and out come the knitting needles.

Not that all my other projects are finished, mind you, but...

when someone gives you this:
you need to do something really great with it, yes?

And since I'm hoping to develop a new knitting habit with less "tink"-ing

(a la Iris), I decided to try my idea out on another skein of yarn,

since I do happen to have a bit of a stash.

I'm committed to no tinking on this trial scarf/shawl-let.

Maybe stockinette would have looked nicer?
Showed off the yarn more?

That question will have to remain a question.

A little lace along the edge, and hopefully enough yarn...
and then I'll try it in the shades of blue loveliness!

It feels wonderful to have those needles in hand once more!
And the wool socks feel nice as well. And the fire.
What can I say? I do love cozy.

green is gold

Dill pickles!
one...

two...

three!

Another done deal

The last project that the homeschoolers handwork group

finished before summer vacation

was to make these lovely ladies

(here is one dancing on the table)
The glitch was that I had made one,

from a pattern by Karsten Kastanje,

and it had a baby in a backpack...pretty irresistable to this group.

Since their dolls all "needed" babies in backpacks, and I thought it might be a bit too challenging for their skill level,
I promised to make some babies and mail them over the summer.
Well, September isn't really summer, but

into the mail they have gone.

Phew!

orange

I don't usually gravitate towards the color orange, and my clean laundry pile tends to be a lovely representation of the rose to violet part of the rainbow.
But a friend recently mentioned that perhaps we Americans are
a bit afraid of orange.
There's nothing like that sort of comment to make me start seeing orange everywhere!
Plus it is that time of year.

I do remember well the first piece of new clothing which I chose as a child...
it was a jumpsuit in a very bright green with very bright orange polka-dots.
I wore it until it was a rag.

When a friend asked if I would custom dye 12 yards of silk for curtains,
in a nice golden yellow, I said yes.
But really it needed to be orange. Yikes!
I experimented with color from my natural dyes,
but got either yellows or pinks and the two would not
meet in the middle!
(though I was just told that onion skins plus a handful of rusty nails will do the trick.
I can't wait to try!)
But for this time, I resorted to Country Classics dye
and loved the ease plus the even coverage.

Voila!!

summer winding down...

What can I say? No words for this...

and last night's heavy dew, as the morning warms up...

and may I just repeat myself, in case you missed it the first time...

A Perfect Day

A Perfect Day (the recipe):

Take a batch of perfect weather, as in blue sky + sun + a little breeze,

not too hot and not too cold.

Add to that a walk with a good friend in a gorgeous place...

salt water, woods, red squirrel chatter, good smells of warm pine needles and seaweed..

and follow it up with a visit to MacNab's Tea Room,
where the hand-knit tea cozy is chosen to match the flavor of your tea.

Perhaps you can see that one of us was having green tea,
and the other Smokey Russian Caravan.

We didn't have our tea leaves read on this day,

but that would be an option.

Of course, scones and lemon curd with the tea.

Of Course!

And since my last visit there, they have stocked one room with Rowan yarn, as these women are huge fans of Kaffe Fassett, as anyone in her right mind would be!

I wish I could show you a picture, but maybe you should go and see for yourself!

made in the shade

80 to 90 degrees in the shade...80 to 90% humidity...whatcha gonna do until it's time to go swimming again?

Well, there are always unfinished projects, right?

so...

I finished one! Yay!!!!

I'm not sure yet whether I love it or not, but...

it brightens up the bathroom and feels great under bare feet,

which makes for happy toothbrushing!

And it's done!

celebrating friends

I was recently in NH for a week, and was lucky enough to be taken in by two good friends. Their rambling house is home to many, for a night or a week or as long as needed. It also houses two studios - the glass studio of Hans Schepker, where anything that could possibly be folded from paper is made of glass...sometimes I feel my brain begin to hurt when I try to figure some of these things out...but it's a good hurt. His studio is unbelievable. Check him out at

http://glassgeometry.com/



This gorgeous lantern was a birthday gift...oh lucky, lucky me! Isn't it incredible?

And then there's Marcy Schepker, of Pear Tree Studio, in the same house. Among her many talents with fiber, including residencies in schools and shelters, are the animals she up-cycles from wool sweaters. I try not to come home with any more of them, but I love them so much and always need a few...

You can see why, can't you? Look for Marcy at

http://marcyschepker.com/

I am so grateful to Hans and Marcy for all their nourishment of my body and soul!!