Whew!!

My herb garden in a good year, June 2010. This year it does need some work - a few plants did not survive this last Winter. It may also be getting a little bigger! We will see how the Spring and Summer progress.

I have spent the last hour clearing out some photo files on my computer.  They dated from June 2010 to Dec 2010.  I did not do much more than check to see what was in each folder and deleted the ones I knew I would not want and kept anything that looked like something I might want.  I will have to go back and delete individual pictures for each file next and refine my keepers!

A perfect wild rose, just after a summer shower, Long Beach, late June, 2010.

I still have all of 2011 to edit as well!!!  It seems that I like to take pictures of everything!

I then went into my recycle bin – I don’t think that I have ever emptied it before – there were almost 4000 files.  It took the computer over a minute to empty the bin.

A pair of my favorite mittens ever! Also June 2010, designed a Long Beach and heavily influenced by the trees along the bluffs above the Beach!

This all started because I wanted to use my pictures as a slide show for my screen.  I did not want pictures from the store or from partly done projects.  I did not quite realise what I was up against.  This will be a summer long project.  Every now and then I will just make it a point to edit or delete files over the next few months until everything is organized!

Organized – talk about a novel idea!  I have tried and failed to get any one part of my life organized over the years.  Any attempt lasts maybe a week until things start to pile up – literally – and all form of organization is lost.  I seem to work best in Chaos!  The advent of Sophie has only added to the Chaos, now I have stuff piled up on my other stuff!  Sigh!

Diver's Lake is very high right now. These branches are disappearing into the lake! With the reflections you cannot tell where the branches end and the lake begins.

Are you the type of person who needs to be orderly, to have a place for everything and everything in place?  Or are you like me – Chaos abounds and rules the pace of the day?

I envy those who can create and work in an orderly fashion.  I seem to always aspire but never to achieve the order that others can surround themselves with.  Especially in the last few years my thoughts bound from idea to idea.  I have lost more idea’s than I have ever created.  If I was orderly they would get recorded and revisited and maybe created!

Gorgeous little guy, picking at the Catkin's. Do you know what he is?

This morning we also went for a walk around Diver’s Lake.  There is a great deal more to that park than I ever realised.  It was a wonderful walk, bits of clear blue sky, birds singing everywhere, but seldom seen.  Wild Violets were blooming and the Catkins were falling apart – with the help of many of those invisible birds.

Wild Violets!

It is almost time to get ready for work.  I have a class tonight.  We are working on the EZ’s Baby Surprise Jacket.  It is a very fun pattern with unexpected results!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

PS – Right now Tom and Sophie are at loggerheads.  Each trying to stare the other down.  Sophie wants to dig a hole in the middle of the yard and Tom wants to stop her.  The individual stares are identical!

Saturday in the Parks!

Good Day Sunshine!

It was one of those West Coast days’ yesterday.  The kind you would like to bottle, like some peaches, to pull out on a really grey, damp Winter day!

New Growth everywhere in both parks!

We took full advantage.  Long walk with Sophie in Bowen Park, along Millstream in the morning.  And then, in the afternoon, a shorter walk down the hill to Woodstream Park, again with Sophie.  Sophie is great at getting us up and moving!

Cherry Tree buds are just teasing us with colour!

The sun shone all day.  It was warm and gorgeous!  Flowers are starting to pop up everywhere and I even saw a Camellia in full bloom – in a very protected spot of course, but it was gorgeous!  The Cherry Tree Grove by Woodstream is just starting to bud, and some of the buds even look like they are ready to open – but the full on bloom is still a ways away!

Bowen Park was wonderful.

Millstream - just upstream from the old fish ladder.

There is still a lot of run-off from the rains that have been prevalent lately and Millstream is running full-bore and everything is green and lush.  There was a wonderful stillness in the air yesterday morning.  The downed Totems by the Duck Pond looked quite pensive in the morning sun – “from dust to dust” or from the earth and back to the earth.

Pensive Totems

The message that they hold for me is very strong.

I can understand the meaning of the cycle and its importance – but the beauty that is fading allows me to understand the mind-set of the conservator.  But there will always be beauty to be created if the cycle is maintained.  We need to remember that!

Perfect Camellia

I picked up my Fair-isle glove this weekend.  The workshop is only three weeks away, not very long at all.  I am almost happy with the results so far.

Fair-isle Gloves - the thumb had just been separated from the body of the glove. The lower cuff is folded up over ribbing.

I may have to change my mind on that – the pictures have left me feeling that something is not quite right.  I will have to think about it!

Fair-isle gloves, palm view.

I am debating whether or not to pattern the fingers – I think that the richness of the patterning so far might be enough, but some of the heavily patterned fair-isle gloves that I have seen are simply gorgeous!

I did decide to start a Ravelry Group for the Forums Page.  I want to be able to continue the camaraderie of the Dark of the Morning Group for all of knitters who are working with my patterns.  I also want everyone to feel free to ask questions if they are having problems.

Sophie loves to sleep with all 4 paws in the air! Yesterday after all the walking she conked out and slept like this for about an hour!

A Sophie story – today Sophie found my shoes – my work shoes.  First she brought one upstairs and I rescued it and placed it up on the bookcase – just about everything she likes is on top of the bookcase – one day it will all fall down.  But I digress, about an hour later she brought the other shoe upstairs.  She did not want to give this one back so she went to the back door and whined to be let out – with my shoe in her mouth!  I guess she thought I wouldn’t take it away if she was outside!  After I finished laughing I bribed her with a kibble and rescued my other shoe.  Sophie is a thinking dog!

I am having a cup of tea right now.  The chicken is in the oven – drizzled with olive oil, herbe de provence, and freshly ground salt and pepper, potatoes are ready for cooking and the vegetables are coated (lightly) with olive oil for roasting after I pull the chicken out of the oven.  After I finish the tea I will make the fruit and berry crisp before everyone arrives for dinner – it will go in after the vegetables come out!

As you may have guessed we have company for dinner, family and friends.  A lovely way to finish a great weekend.  I hope that your weekend has an equally great finish.

Happy Knitting

Lynette