Day Five: And now for something completely different

Wordless post.

CSA

Yes, I'm switching topics from knitting to food. Specifically fruits and vegetables today.

We signed up at our local in town farm for a CSA package. I've always like the idea of them, investing in the local farm. I also wanted to make sure we had fresh fruits and vegetables through the seasons. We also knew in doing this we could cut back on our own garden.

In fact our farm was purchased a few years back from a foreclosure, the bank was just about to sell the land to a builder....thank goodness that didn't work out...and this multi-generation family purchased it to keep it as a working farm.

This is the share we picked up this weekend:

The strawberries are just so sweet! We are going to make strawberry shortcake, as the DH is really wanting to make real whipped cream!

I also didn't post what we got last weekend:

I ended up eating one packages of strawberries within that week, and froze the other. The lettuce was great for not only our sandwiches that week, but also provided a cup for our bunny, Bianca the entire week!

Knitting will be back next post! It is finally nice and sunny here, so maybe I can talk DH to take some shawl photos that I owe you!

Spring 2010

I do not know about you but the pollen levels in my area are, and have been, in the severe range for the past 3 weeks.

However, this time of year does bring to bloom my favorite trees in the yard.

Enjoy!

Spring...

Happy Spring!

This photo was taken from beside our front steps this morning! Also, as of yesterday, the last pile of snow is gone!

I have been slowly working on the lace sections of my Ishbel. Can you see from the photo what row I'm on?

That is correct, Row 2. Yes, when I said I'm working on it slowly I truly meant it!

I hope to get another row done this weekend. I already have a life line in place. Now the question is how frequently do I place these life lines...the way my Ishbel knitting has gone I feel like it should be every other row!!

Well, off to soak up some of this wonderful sun! The doors and windows are open as well as the study books.

Enjoy your Spring Day!

A post for the birds

Of all the birds photos I've taking during this storm, this is my favorite showing our cardinal couple. We've named them Booth & Bones! Yes - we really enjoy that show!

I was SO careful walking out the door this morning as to not step on any bird prints and asked my DH to take a photo as I get home after dark. Thank you DH! You can see the tip of a bush on the right hand side the birds have spent many hours in that bush.

I know I need to take some more bunny photos around the house. Hopefully I'll get to that shortly!

The Easter Bunny

He came into our yard this morning to get a nice meal before his busy night:
The photo didn't come out half bad. As it was taken through both a window and storm window with extra zoom!

Here is the finished Bunny Dishcloth. I LOVE the look of it! I know it is hard to actually see in the photo with the variegated yarn, however, I will have to do another one in a plain color. I'm thinking plain navy.

I've also put out an Easter Bunny decoration in our living room. So, might as well add her to the bunnies for blog before she gets put away!Did you notice the Easter cactus in the background? Any bets on how long it will last before it passes away?

Water or Soil

This is interesting...

Check out photo #1:Now, check out photo #2:
Does anything strike you as funny?

I'll give you another moment to scroll back up.

Ready?

Ok - the cactus IN WATER is blooming, yet the cactus IN SOIL is in need of a plant doctor. It makes me chuckle every time I look at it. To those that know me really well, they should not be surprised.

I'm still working on my orange scarf, just imagine the last blog photo just a couple of inches longer. :-)

Speaking of photos my photo of my Lorna Laces, Amy Friendly Yarn was chosen to be one of the photos in the main directory in Ravelry! That was quite exciting!!! Here is a copy of the picture for those of you not on Ravelry (of which, why not?)
It is so pretty! I love the colors. I've already decided what pattern I'm going to use. However, you will just have to wait until I CO.

Until then, here is another bunny from the collection. This was was purchased while vacationing on Cape Cod at one of my favorite shops. The shop owner said that bunny was hand carved by her husband from one piece of wood. This particular bunny is one of the oldest in my 'collection'.

Out with the old...in with the new

camera!

Our old camera was a 3 mega pixel camera. We bought it about 5 years ago, needless to say it did take some nice pictures, however, in the past few months every so often it would create a blury picture (this while it was on the camera stand!). Go figure.

So, in our vacation week spending money we splurged on a new camera.

Introducing the Canon Powershot SX100 IS, that would be 8 mega pixels...thank you very much! We opted for the memory card for $24.99 and now we can take over 1100 pictures on one card.

So, now there isn't any excuse for nice photos!

I was able to take a nice photo of the bag. Yes...I'm STILL working on it.The brown material makes up the four pockets in this bag.

How about leaving you with a nice garden photo:

Spring is here

I'm convinced. See...
I'm still working on my shawl, however how you'd ever be able to see an inch difference since the last photo I posted seems silly. So, there will be no photo until a noticeable difference.

I have enjoyed wearing my new socks! They are so nice and swishy. I think everyone deserves at one point in their lives to put on a hand knit pair of socks. Now for those of you reading this - please don't expect socks for an upcoming holiday...as you see this is only my second pair, I'm a slow knitter and I would hate to disappoint.

On the other hand if you want a neck cozy that can totally be arranged, as I've completed one within 10 days.

Happy Valentines Day!

Did you wear your red today? Did you receive chocolates, flowers, or a card? I received a photo collage. Something I've wanted for a really long time. It is beautiful!

I've been so busy at work, I haven't had time to blog... nevermind knit. I had to fire an employee for basic incompetence, so, that leaves me doing my old job, my new management job and now this employees job. On top of that I'm still studying for an exam for my next designation which was to be next week, however, with the work load I've had, there was just no way it was going to happen. I did end up postponing my test date last night and I have to say a weight has been lifted. So, maybe now this stress headache will go away and take this cough I've had for 4 weeks with it.

I've been using the internet as a stress relieving tool. There is nothing like heading over to Ravelry and ooo-ing and aww-ing over other individuals finished knitting projects.

I did however, buy myself a happy plant... hoping it would brighten up my day. It is a cyclamen.

Well that went well, I think

It appears, I stress the word APPEARS that the notification about my promotion went over okay. Also, for those who are keeping track...I wore dress pants and a sweater. Even though it was Halloween I still skipped the Halloween socks.

36 hours to a day just for me! WOO HOO!! I've been working on my socks every night this week. So I can't wait to show you how far they have come...but I think I'm going to keep you in suspense until this weekend.

I also have a dilemma. Do I sign up for the 2008 Socks that Rock Sock Club? I would like to try it out for at least a year but it is costly then again I just got a raise, but do I want to spend it on this? Then again, it is for 6 skeins of hand dyed yarn, bunch of fun stuff, coupons and patterns. I can't use the excuse of spending that kind of money before Christmas, as they take it out in January. I guess I'll think about it and make my mind up tomorrow.

I'm spending way too much time on Ravelry. Pretty soon I'm going to need a 12 step program for it.

How about another warm weather photo to leave you with? This one is from a month ago. Imagine that, October 1 and I still had Morning Glories in full bloom!

Flowers

We have been fielding many calls, emails and visits with sympathetic tones over our loss of Emily. We really appreciate it. They say time heals and I know we will get through this. My DH put a memorial on their website. You can find it here. The picture was taken in the last few days they were together. I do have to smile when I see Bianca snuggling right up to Emily.

In the meantime, we were concerned about Bianca being lonely, we purchased a stuffed animal (the vet recommended it as it may allow Bianca to grieve and/or cuddle with 'someone'). A cute moment captured this weekend was Bianca kissing the stuffed rabbit. I'll post a picture as soon as I find the computer cable.

I spent a few hours weeding the front garden. DH was a big help too! I think it was nice to get out and do some manual labor (after spending too many nights lately just sitting). I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos from when my flower pot was in full bloom.

Dear Mailperson,

Could you please hurry up and deliver my bamboo single point needles this week? Please?!

Well, I wound up the ball of sea silk (see previous post) and gathered the ball, the pattern from the magazine, my index cards with each line of the pattern on them, my single point needles and sat in my 'knitting chair'. All set to go. I had everything I needed... well not so fast... in checking my gauge my current set of needles didn't work.

The 6mm needles I was using was making the yarn over holes in the pattern a bit too big for what I would like.

So, off to skipping another lunch to pay for and order new needles. Now, I'm patiently (yeah right) waiting for them.

Here is an updated photo on my little maple tree...

Is that sun I see?

The sun actually appeared for a little while today. Yahoo!

Here is the photo I promised the other day. It is of the maple tree sapling that the neighbors gave me. I had to use a white piece of paper to have it show up in the photo against the mulch. You can see the two buds...you can... right? I mean they are right there...

:-)

I had one heck of a night/day. The power went out at 2AM this morning. This is a problem when you are used to running an air purifier for not only allergies but for some noise to allow such deep slumber. Once that filter turns off it becomes way too quiet for any sleep. So, when the power finally came on 6 hours later I was already awake (much to my chagrin) to start my day at work. A little late, but still it made for a really long day.

I am still waiting on my socks until the weekend. However, I did start a new project with the Cascade Fixation. I wanted to do a gauge square and got a little carried away...an inch and half later, I have a pretty Garter Stitch of I don't know what yet! Maybe it will be a small facecloth, flower post coaster, drink coaster?! We will see!

Still no sun but how about sunflowers?

With all this rain it is really depressing around here. In fact I dressed in all black to get ready for work, went into the closet when I was ready to leave and put on my black trench coat, picked up the black umbrella and pocket book then out the door I went. Ready for a dreadful day.

I'll leave you today with pictures from last years flower garden.

These sunflowers were planted by the birds. Our neighbors have a huge bird feeding area on the other side of those trees and the birds love to eat next to the phlox on the mulch (which is where the sunflowers grew up from). I couldn't bear to cut them down even though they really stood out in the low growing garden.