Experiment with Photos

august 2008040.JPG on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Whoa! This isn't quite what I expected, but I'll leave it here for now. I was attempting to send one photo to my blog from Flickr. Instead I got the above alphabetical group, which when I click on it, leads to my photo. This blogging, and sending pix and info all around cyberspace is all such a mystery to me.

Oh, the photo? It's my complete Market Squares Bag. I guess I could say that it is the parent of the Wine Sack.

Enough of this experimentation with blogging today. I've got a head ache and a back ache. Icould have been knitting!!!

Feb. 8, 2009. I just added the actual photos of the Market Squares Bag. The first photo is unfelted, followed by the complete version

Wine Sack

When I started this blog I did it so I could record my thoughts about knitting. Well, I haven't actually written much about my knitting, except as an aside to whatever other random thoughts are in my mind. So..............I finished a knitting project and it's ready for the blog world!!!!

This wine sack is made from left over yarns from my Market Squares Bag. I'm happy with it and considering making more as holiday gifts. We'll see, as I'm basically opposed to giving away my hand knits. I'm never sure people really like them, or if I've given them a burden.

Peach Season

The end of peach season is bittersweet for me. On the one hand, I'm looking forward to saying good bye to summer, and hello to fall. I'm eager for cooler, less humid weather. I'm ready to wear warmer clothes, including handknit sweaters. I look forward to the autumn flowers and the change of leaf color. I always like to see the harvest displays appear - pumpkins, squash, scarecrows. But I'll miss those summer fruits and vegetables that I buy at the local farm stand.



When I went to buy peaches last Friday it was a challenge to find enough that weren't bruised, squishy and still had a firmness and fresh peach perfume. I knew the end was in sight. I finally picked out 8, thinking that I would bake the last cobbler of the season. I took them home and set them on the counter to ripen.



This morning, I got up early and started my cobbler. I made the little "x" with my knife at the base of each peach and dropped it in boiling water. I transfered each peach into ice water and began the surprisingly easy job of slipping the skins from the fruit. They sliced like a dream and the smell, and color overwhelmed me. That pale orange with traces of rosey reds made me long for summer again - even though I'm ready for fall. I poured the slices into a buttered pan, added my topping and put the lot into the oven. It didn't take long for the house to begin to smell of warm peaches with a hint of cinamon.



At 1:00 p.m. the Mah Jongg ladies will arrive and I'll serve them the warm peach cobbler. This is a fitting way to say farewell to peach season, and to welcome fall - sharing my cobbler with friends, and spending the afternoon playing Mah Jongg.

Autumn Planters

There's nothing like a group of flowers to bring a smile to my face. These are the planters on my patio. I've left them three different times this summer, occasionally torn plants out, added new ones, and I'm continuously surprised by them. The mums say, "Autumn in on the way."

The Quandary

Several years ago Maren gave me Nancy Pearl's book, Book Lust. Nancy Pearl gave me, and all readers, permission to quit reading a book if it's not right for me. She has a nifty formula to know when to quit. You take your age, deduct it from 100, read that many pages, and if you can't get into the book by then give it up.



Knowing when to set a book aside has been a hard lesson for me. When I was younger I finished everything I started, but as I age I realize that life is too short to spend on books I don't like. When I was younger I was also an English major who was required to read books whether I liked them or not because there'd either be a test, or I'd have to write a paper. I no longer have those constraints and I've gotten better at being honest with myself and moving on when neccessary. But it's still hard for me.



I had the opportunity to employ this method twice in the past two to three weeks: First with Salmon Rushdie's Midnight's Children, and again with Joyce Carol Oates' broke heart blues. I took the Rushdie book with me on my final two week trip to Portland. It was the only book I took. I started it with great hope. The sentences on the first page drew me in, I just knew this was going to be a long, involved, challenging and wonderful book. After a chapter or two it started to drag. I told myself it was my fault. I passed page 42 - the book was still hard and I wasn't understanding what it was about. I felt I was reading in circles. I decided after several hunderd pages that I would put it down. However, I didn't have anything else to read and I can't go to sleep at night without a book to read. I didn't want to buy a new book because I didn't want to carry so much on the plane, etc. etc. In short I kept reading. I read on the airplane. I thought I'd quit when I got home. But I didn't. I started reading every other paragraph and then every third paragraph. Then I was so close to the end, I just sat there and finished it.



Now I know the author would insist I hadn't really read the book. And I suppose if I was in an English class it would have been hard to convince my professor that I had actually read the book. But I'm not sure if I had read every single word I would have understood the book any better. In short, I wished I had put the book aside and saved all those hours that I spent on it to use for something else.



It was with delight that I then picked up Chiam Potok's Old Men at Midnight. I was drawn into that book immediately, read every word, and was sorry when it was over.



And then came one of my favorite author's books, broke heart blues. Like the Rushdie book I started Oates' book with great enthusiasm. The sentences on the first page drew me right in. I could tell this was going to be a long saga about life in a small town in upstate New York. What could be better? The same thing happened as when I was reading Midnight's Children. I started with great enthusiasm and it soon fizzled. However, this time, I put the book down. It was so difficult, but I was able to move on the Pillars of the Earth, and Donna Tart's Little Friend - both of which I enjoyed immensely.

In my long winded way, what I'm trying to say is that I'm learning to give myself permission to not finish something. In this case it's books. But since this blog is supposed to be about knitting, I hope I can also accept that I don't have to finish every single project I start. This business of finishing everything is all tied up with perfectionism - it's not always a good thing. I need to learn when to cut my losses.

With all this said, I've put the unfinished books on my shelf. Maybe some day I'll be ready for them - but not right now. Enough said.

Seven Amazing Weeks of Summer

I can't believe how quickly summer is marching along for me. Filled with all good things, so far. But, my oh my, am I exhausted!!!
I'm coming off a 7 week extravaganza and still in recovery. Taylor and I started in June by going to Oregon and Washington for two weeks. While there we attended David's graduation. Yeah!!!!!!!! We were all so excited - here we are on the Evergreen campus after the big event. It was quite an unusual graduation ceremony and definitely worth the trip. Try to picture samba dancers leading the processional instead of pomp and circumstance. We followed up with a dinner for family and friends at an Indian restaurant. Now David will be heading off for University of California at Davis for a PhD program in ethnomusicology. We're so happy for him, as well as proud. He is following his own path, in his own time. We should all be so lucky.

The grand finale of the first two weeks of the trip was my 40th high school reunion. What a hoot. You're looking at my best friend Nancy, and me before the event. I'm so glad I went. It seems that everyone is more of what they were in high school. I had a wide range of friends and it was a kick to see so many people in one place. The entire time was wonderful - catching up with old friends, and just being in Washington and Oregon together was a treat.

When I came back to Pennsylvania I brought my mother with me for a 3 week stay. We dragged her everywhere including New York City and Connecticut. She told us she thought she was a "damn good sport" to see so much in so little time. She had never seen our house in Connecticut so we did a drive by. I actually had the nerve to go into the driveway to inspect the perennial bed that I planned and planted five years ago. It looks good.............but it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of the car to divide and replant. It was a bit crowded.

Of course, I had to take mom back to Portland. This time I house sat for the same best friend in the picture who was doing volunteer work in Mexico. So I got to live in Portland like a native. I went to a party, had a dinner party, and had my cousin and David stay with me for a bit too. The bittersweet part of it was spreading my father's ashes. My mom, David, cousin and Dad's final caregiver, Jeri, and I went to the woods where mom and dad loved to walk, spread the ashes, We followed up by enjoying his favorite treat at a picnic table: maple bars and coffee. It was a good conclusion to my northwest summer.

I've got a few more trips on my near horizon - back to Seattle for my son's best friend's wedding over Labor Day. I've known Graham since birth so he's worth the trip, but oy, can I keep this pace up? And.............we plan to go to Mexico City in November to visit our other son - Syvart, who is living there and teaching English.

All this having fun - a tough job - but someone has to do it!! I'm just thankful that for a while at least everyone is healthy and happy in my family and we can all enjoy life. I know how quickly things can change.

Grand Canyon Reverie

I just returned from a 4 day vacation: About 36 hours at the Grand Canyon and 36 hours in Los Vegas, with driving and flying at both ends and in the middle. I couldn't get enough of the Grand Canyon and time went by way too quickly. I couldn't get out of Los Vegas fast enough, and the time simply dragged.

I worked on the clapotis in the airplane, in the car driving through Arizona, and while shivering in the quiet conference center area that I found in Caesar's Palace. I so wished the darn thing was complete because I was cold at the Canyon, and even colder in the casinos of LV and downright frigid on the airplane coming home. Fortunately, clapotis is long enough that it provided some coverage while knitting on the hyper air conditioned plane on the way home.