kittycafe

tryst

or the story of a few skeins of some discontinued Bainin.

When Littlest was in grade seven, I volunteered after school helping to start up a knitting club. The teacher had a bag of donated yarn to use and we started the first meeting by making knitting needles. 

While the kids glued beads on top of their homemade needles I had a look through the yarn bag. I think the teacher saw my jaw drop a few inches when I pulled a few skeins of Alice Starmore Bainin out from the expected bargain basement acrylic and held it up.

"Who donated these?" I asked.

"I have no idea. This bag has been kicking around for a while."

I looked through for more treasures, keeping the Bainin close at hand.

"Would you like it? That yarn you haven't released from your iron grip you're holding?"

The teacher was a beginner knitter and wasn't acquainted with the quality of some wool versus others. I wasn't going to inform her either, at least not at this moment. (Okay, I confess I did tell her about it but she remained unimpressed.)

She shrugged, "Take it"

So the Bainin ended up in my knitting bag and waited there for the right pattern for a few more years. It was clearly earmarked for a hat/scarf combo yardage-wise but it is not particularly soft until it has been washed several times and who wants a scratchy scarf?

So finally,

it became the Tryst Cropped Vest.

Normally I don't go near cropped patterns because I usually have to add a few inches to regular patterns - most are cropped on me. But something about this one stuck. I feel very Jane Austen in it (jeans not withstanding)

It is such a beautiful warm day for November that for once I am not freezing my toes taking photos outside.

Mother Nature has already brought us a little of this, for the first time this year.

Snow. So these days are not to be missed by staying indoors.

It was my wedding anniversary yesterday. I remember 23 years ago it was similarly warm. I had made a special off-white jacket to wear with my dress for outdoor photos and I didn't need it at all.

Well, off to the woods to gather more kindling to prepare for the cold, which is inevitably riding the heels of this unseasonably warm treat. One can never have enough vests or kindling.

Happy Hallowe'en

How times change. This is the first year there are no children in this house dressing up and trick-or- treating. There are two teenagers however, totally uninterested in even carving a pumpkin.

I went to the local grocery store today and thought I would pick up some last minute Hallowe'en candy, (for us, as we don't get any trick or treaters out here in the sticks) and was appalled to find Christmas candy already in it's place. I know I shouldn't be surprised, it happens every year but still. Ugh.

No one could stop me from making some treats, our traditional favourites, meringue bones and shortbread witch's fingers.

I also added some pepita brittle (recipe from the smitten kitchen) . Our own pumpkin seeds are still in place within our pumpkins. And it looks like they will remain there for now.( If you are planning on making this recipe, word to the wise, use a candy thermometer.)

Tonight we are watching 'Creature from the Black Lagoon', that 1954 B-movie er... classic?

Guaranteed to be scared laughed silly.

The Family Weekend

The little lake where 20 of us converged for the weekend. 

There were several teenagers,

There was a calm lake

A walk in the woods (we got lost trying to find an elusive maple sugar shack. For 11 years my sister-in-law has never made it to the sugar shack. We didn't either)

A small waterfall

A wild game of crochet golf carved out of the woods.

A sweet little cabin on the crochet course was a library, complete with book lined walls, an old couch and carpet and little bunks at the back, apparently once part of a girl's camp.

There were tell-tale names for all the holes on the course, the 16th was a challenging par 5!

The owners of the three cottage where we stayed made all sorts of little vignettes around the property, which one could find popping up in unexpected places. 

These log angels were scattered about the paths, each representing her grandchildren.

It has been a slow and subtle year for colour changes in the autumn leaves and now, two weeks after these photos were taken, there is not a noticeable difference in colour.

 There is a marked difference in climate however. I wouldn't be caught outside with bare toes today.

The Fair

My first words upon entering the fair building? 

"I can't believe I forgot my camera!"

Luckily I did not forget my winter coat; it was freezing out. Two years ago when we were house hunting we first visited the fair. We were melting from the heat in our T-shirts and shorts. This year, the temperature hovered around 3'C and mittens were required. Autumn is so unpredictable.

Speaking of mittens...

Even though my entry in the knitted mittens category was the most advanced knitting there they didn't get a ribbon at all.  Modesty aside, but really? The winner was a simple faux cable pair knitted  in what I strongly suspect was acrylic. I know!

I can't complain though because I did have a decent placing in the other categories. A first ribbon for photography, a country scene, a second for jam and decorated shortbread cookies and a third for ugliest carrot. Who knew a bit of interesting rot was acceptable in that last category?

The afghan was not completed in time due to the fact that it is now a love object for two of my cats. It is large enough to lay over my lap while working on it and therein lies the problem. As soon as it is placed there one of them will appear from thin air and burrow into it. As you know, it's impossible to crochet more than one row when this happens, as it can't be turned over. If you are going to suggest turfing the cat off the blanket, you don't know our number one house rule: No one throws a cat off a lap ever. That and possession is nine tenths of the law.

Yes they are the most spoiled pets on the planet.

The cold weather has had the expected result of igniting the knitting bug within me so you will be seeing some finished goods in the not so distant future.

 Try to withhold your astonishment.

We interrupt my usual mid week silence...

Okay, it was actually a few days ago but I've just resigned myself to it now.

I woke up and looked out of the bedroom window and exclaimed," Oh, how pretty! Look at the frost on the... FROST!"

When I finally went out to survey the damage...

Luckily my beefsteak tomatoes, which I had been (im)patiently waiting to ripen were safe under a mini greenhouse pyramid. The  peppers and squash were done, never to grow into their full potential. The pumpkins, green except for one (the pie pumpkin, of course)

 Darn these veg wanting rain and warm weather! There was not enough of both this summer and most were well behind in growth.

I was most excited about my gourd garden,(which I was keeping secret until I had glorious birdhouse gourds and painted snake gourds to show) but fruits of my labour were too small to keep. I think I tore off the largest, though still immature snake gourd and threw it in the grass in exasperation.

Sigh.

Gardening is a cruel, cruel past time.

To add insult to injury it is now very warm and humid.

I have to go now and organise our weekend away up north with family, twenty of us.

The forecast calls for rain.

All weekend.

First Signs of Autumn

Every year I try a new jam and this year it's nectarine, one of my favourite fruits. 

One of these jars will be winging it's way to the Fall Fair next month. Everyone at work is making jam for the fair and  so I had to join in the spirit of friendly competition, right?

But you see, I have a bigger plan.

I have been baking and otherwise immersed in the "Homecrafts". That's the division in the Fall Fair I'm keen on, being without livestock or any heavy machinery for the Tractor Pull.

But seriously, I have signed up for 5 categories: 

Jam, 

Shortbread cookies-decorated,

 Knitting (stop laughing, I'm thinking of this -already made!)

 

Crocheted afghan, one piece (if only to get the stripy beast finished)

 Art (I also have a painting to finish and I'm procrastinating)

 Photography

 And last but not least I think I have a contender or two for Ugliest Carrot! (see post below)

Pie was a category...

 but my dearest husband, who loves pie more than any dessert on the planet didn't want to part with any pastry that had been made in his kitchen. Judging would just mean one less for him. Obsessed, I know.

So you see how this works? I have a deadline now and I can finish these projects so much easier working to a deadline.

I'm certain this will work. You can quote me. And stop laughing.

Other signs of Autumn? They are everywhere, some came quickly, some slow but sure.

The slow? The unfurling of the sunflowers. I have the whole progression. Here are just two.

The pumpkin patch. Pie pumpkins, of course.

Harvesting hay. I drove past this farm the week after I took this photo and found a man out of his car, bracing himself against a sign post taking the same shot. Wait! Do you think he could be entering it in the Fall Fair?

The gathering of wood for fires

The subtle transition at the pond

And just because...Horses grazing at sunset

And why not end with a rainbow?

The Weekend Files

We've waited all summer for summer weather to begin. And when the heat and humidity hit, it hard and we opened the doors and windows, and every window and mirror fogged up, like there was a sauna going on outside and it was still cool and lovely inside. This is the window in the mud room that leads to the porch.

I had my camera with me when these babies came to the fence.

And although I "looked out!" I didn't spot any cattle :)

but there was a beautiful pioneer cemetery across the road

And I picked wild raspberries for the third time along my road

although I forgot the bug spray for myself, hello mosquitoes!

Wild raspberries are small and so fragile that really they should be popped directly into your mouth.

It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. Okay maybe I brought a few home.

My own garden is flourishing after all the torrential rain. How I could have overlooked these three massive zucchinis is beyond me. One of them alone made two loaves of zucchini bread, and there was still some of it left. Seen here dwarfing my Jamie Oliver cookbook.

Someone (cough) forgot to thin the carrots...

Local peaches, how I love you August!...

made this peach pie dessert. (I didn't make a bottom crust.)

And that's about it. 

I left out the household drudgery and conveniently skipped the part about the back-to-school shopping with two teenagers at the mall. 

Your welcome.

How did you spend your weekend?

Green

Inside and Out.

So here is a good case of Be Careful What You Ask For.

I'd been moaning and complaining about the lack of rain. Every day for weeks I had to drag the hose around and water the veggie gardens. The gourd garden at the back of the barn uses the rain barrel but was is empty. So I lugged watering cans. There was plenty of rain everywhere else around us but all those dark clouds we were so enjoying every day? Went elsewhere.

Still I can't complain because really it's always very green around here, rain or no rain.

Oh the rains came, yes they did and now they haven''t stopped. 

This is the shade garden. That I never have to water. And it's always green. The lettuce box. Blueberries, apples, a frog, a deer! Okay so the deer isn't green but I had to put him in there. I'm still impressed that I can look out the window in the morning and see deer in my yard . Does that ever wear off? 

And being a product of my environment, the inside of the house is turning green too.

I ate green tortilla chips (guacamole flavour, yum!), reading a green covered book on a green sofa the other day. There was a naughty kitty playing with green yarn. I was given a green gift. I made green cleaning cloths/dusters. Boy do I like these. Not the most photogenic specimens but I couldn't leave them out. I simply cut my husband's old lined jeans into 'squares' and stitched around them. Green flannel on one side, denim on the other. They are fantastic. There has to be some benefit to living where lined jeans are necessary.

I have to run now and take the laundry off the line because you guessed it, more rain is here.

Next up, blue! If I ever get the hardware on the kitchen cupboards, that is...

 

So let's call it a 'Hiatus' shall we?

To quote Little Jenny Wren 

" Things are just fine here only I haven't had the slightest desire to write on my little blog."

So I'm not the only one, I guess. Only I haven't been recharging my batteries or navel gazing, I have been incredibly busy, though.

It's funny because at the beginning of last month I thought participating in Every Day in May would get me in the groove again (stop laughing)

As you can see, that went well.

It is the big catering season at work, the weather is warm enough for seasonal pottery making (in the still unheated barn, if you recall) we have been giving this rather large property it's spring clean up and I have been obsessed with my now sizable writing assignment.

For some crazy reason I also thought it was a good time to expand the veggie garden. And then there was fencing to go all around. I caught one skunk, one raccoon and one large rabbit surveying my handwork (and no doubt menu planning) so fencing was essential.

I'm currently painting my kitchen cupboards and I better finish soon because we have to do a Cook's Tour (ha ha) to find where the toaster and cutlery tray went to every time we need them. 

What I haven't been doing is knitting. When I sit down at night to watch a movie etc, I have just been content to sit and watch the movie - how crazy is that?

I certainly haven't been making anything else either, except breakfast, lunch, dinner, laundry, beds and brownies and not necessarily in that order.

Okay, I did squeak in one little hat project as a gift for a shop owner next to ours who just had a baby. They are an untraditional couple so they got an untraditional baby hat. I do think it's never too early to introduce the wee ones to Totoro. (Pattern inspiration from here, actual hat from here) which I thought would be a better fit for an infant.

I've still taken my camera everywhere, still photographing barns on my way here and there.

 This one I found on the way to the dump. (That is a classic example of phases I'd never thought I'd use in this life time)

The trout in the pond. Not as easy as you'd think

The poppies at sunset. 

And spring babies.

Lately my interests have turned to linear patterns

which means a lot of fences as well

I did say a lot

and well...cough, that may just be crochet, but you didn't hear it from me.

So that's about it. 

Kinda anti-climatic, isn't it?

Blog Neglect, the Miniseries

I have photos, at least.

Spring is still fairly beige, although the grass is greening up slowly.

This big fellow has come to call several times, sometimes with his mates but mostly alone. I only knew he was around because of that glurp, glurp slow-drain-in-the-kitchen-sink sound.  In fact, that's what I thought it was at first. I took this shot through the screened porch so it's not very clear. Kinda makes you want to crack out the cranberry sauce, doesn't it?

 Do you see what I mean about the beige? Spring is a figment of other people's imagination, I swear.

I have spotted more wildlife, a muskrat and notably, a vulture. You are spared the photo of that one, he was having a not so gentle repast at the side of the road. This means I am now ahead of the family in the Who's Spotted The Most Wildlife Game.

Mr and Mrs Goose have come back to the pond. I did not have the telephoto lens at the time so I had to chase them around the pond before they told me in no uncertain terms to ****** off, and then they flew away. No worries, I'm partial to wild turkey anyway, yum. (Kidding, goose is equally delicious)

And horse show season is upon us, well, upon me anyway. Which means throwing copious amounts of money away to sit and eat dirt for hours around crazed, yet nervous teenagers and large skittish beasts. It's part of this glamorous life I lead.

And knitting continues apace, pffttt.

Fourth time's the charm for gauge on this one. It has remained at this length for oh, never mind.

There has never been a sadder winter for knitting around here. You will notice that it is MOSS STITCH, ahem.

In case your wondering, it should look like this by now.

And that is all I've got for now, having scoured the contents of the camera for this meagre offering.

I will take requests, though, if you're desperate.

Gratuitous and very late Easter shot for some colour, for goodness sake.