Sorry about yesterday....

I got busy doing laundry and a few things....

I also happened to see someone else's blog, and apparently, blogger themselves were giving people trouble the last few days uploading pictures. So it wasn't me :)

So. I was going to show you guys the wood pile, then the butt. :)

Now, I don't recall how much I told you the other day.... So, I'll retell. Instead of looking it up. Ok, so I'm lazy. Anyway - The red bushes are the ones that I pulled off some leaves, and boiled them up, and dipped some wool into. The woodpile is not too bad - good for a few weeks' worth of cooking and heating. It has been in various stages of size this summer - from non-existant (find enough wood for one fire) to much higher - which it was a few days before this picture was taken. BUT - prior to that, it was only one row, and a little shorter than the front row. And, one morning, when my sister and I were going to take our dogs for a walk (think I mentioned DSis was with us the labour day weekend) I had gone out the back door (without camera, of course) and saw a critter walking in front of the woodpile, then crawl up a shovel that was laying on the ground in front of it (used for removing ash from the pit etc.) and over the woodpile. I stayed watching where it went, while asking my sis to grab the camera - which neither she nor DH was totally positive where the camera was. So, I had to dash inside and grab it. By then, the critter was well into the bush. Now, it isn't easy to see, but on the left hand side of the red bushes is a sort of almost a trail into the bush. Not a proper trail, just a sort of clear spot where the growth is thinner, some small game and my dogs often wander into the bush there, and sometimes we put excess leafy branches in a pile there to "season". Well, that mini-trail is where I had to push my way into to try to get a picture of.....

Ok, see that black lump in the middle there - well, look closely - see those white fuzzy sort of things coming off of it? Around it? Well, that is a porcupine butt!!!! We had a porcupine visit us!!!! I've only ever seen one before in my life!!!! Back when I was in grade five or six in school, we did a field trip thing, and there was a porcupine in a tree. That was some... uh, mmmummmble years ago. Ok, somewhere around thirtyish years. Give or take a few years. But, anyway - It was so cool to see that porcupine. Didn't know there were any around there. Hope I get to see it again some time.

So, now - over the years, we've seen so many wild critters. Chipmunks, squirrels, flying squirrel (scroll down, or through the archive, it wasn't that long ago I did the picture of that one) bats, rabbits, mice and misc. rodents, fox, deer, moose, porcupine, beaver, and, oh - did I mention....

Bears?

This one was kind of interesting. And interested. We saw a lot of him.... One day, I was taking Bear the dog (confusing, I know!) for a swim. Throwing a stick into the river for him to fetch. Well, I looked up, and there was the bear, sitting across the river, watching us. Not threatened, not threatening, but looking quite interested. I was thinking, by the way it was looking at us, that it wouldn't have surprised me if the bear came across and dropped a stick at my feet, too. Ok, so I have a great imagination. But it sure seemed intrigued by what we were doing!!

I've got tons of bear stories I could tell.... But.... I will save some for later. :)

Let's see - crafting.... Well, last night, I made some leaders for my new drop spindles. I did mention, I think, that I made two toy wheel spindles. So I made leaders for them.

What else did I do? Not much.... Worked on some socks that I'm behind on. I joined a bunch of knitalongs this summer, thinking I'd get lots accomplished - but life interfered, so I've got a bunch of stuff started, but nothing really finished. I joined a sock KAL (well, several, actually) but didn't get far. I am doing one for "Pretty Petals" socks - I'm doing two at once on two sets of DPN's. I joined but didn't start a second pair of "Cascading Leaves" socks KAL. Then there was the "Maple Leaf" socks KAL. I still haven't found the yarn in my stash that I want to use for those socks. And the Six Socks Knitalong group project for August and September. I've gotten past the heel on the first sock, but not much farther. I am not going to finish those in time.... I think I'll keep plugging on those, and try to start (if I have needles free!) the October/November socks there. That group was closed to new members for a while this spring, but is open now. I have a button on the side, there -----> if you want to join up.... :)

I have some lace projects in progress. Joined the blog thing for the "Amazing Lace", but didn't even pick up the projects I was going to do for that. (finish Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl, and Charlotte's Web shawl) Kind of got lost somewhere in the bad memory. *sigh*. Have a mystery shawl number three that is no where near finished, as well as mystery shawl four. Then mystery stole two came and went, and I'm still plugging away at clue one for that.... Somewhere, starting now I think, is a "Rose of England" KAL. That's a pattern in the Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting, by Marion Kinzel (or is it Maryann?) Any way, I want to make that into a shawl. Or I might go with doily/table cloth. Haven't decided - which means, I don't have yarn or thread ready to go..... Now, over at "traditional knitting" group, Liz Lovick is going to do a workshop for knitting a gansey. That will start there in early October, and repeat at the EZasPi group in January. I live in a cold enough place, that knitting a sweater early would be better . I want to try to keep up with that one for sure!!! I even know what wool I want to use - Selkirk wool from Ram Wools. (www.ramwools.com) I don't think I have a blog button for the traditional knitting group yet, but I do for EZasPi, and I am sure that if anyone is interested in doing the workshop now, too, instead of waiting for January, that a quick search of Yahoo groups will work fine....

Pictures of progress projects will be taken... I'm just not sure when. Sun is coming up now, and looks to be a sunny type day, so maybe later today I'll take some pics.....

Walk on the wild side.

So. In the past, I've written about "urban wildlife". The wild critters I've seen wandering the city streets in the early morning.

Of course, I never have a camera on those occasions.

And, of course again, there is the Murphy's Law of cameras - If you take it with you when you walk the dogs, you won't see anything. But, if you forget to take it, you will see all manner of beastie.

So, some of the pictures were taken either in surprise, or on the move, or almost too late.... some are blurry. Some are taken in the evening, and the light isn't great.

But, for your viewing pleasure, I present: Some of the critters I've seen this summer.

Let's start with a distant deer.

What's that, you say? You can't see it? Well, I agree, so I zoomed in on one part of the picture.... Still looks like a blob, but trust me - there *were* two deer standing there.....

Yeah, I know - I said two, and there is only one deer. Well, see, we'd just arrived, were unloading the truck, and the camera wasn't unpacked, and the deer decided to start walking away. So I only got one in the picture.

Next: Grouse. Rough-necked. Not as clear as I'd like, but again - the bird was thinking self preservation, and was heading for cover while I was trying to walk closer to it.

Ok, next I'm going to show you a wood pile. Ok, I know - but.... we had a small woodpile. Not much in it at all. Then, we got two tree's worth of wood. Made a nice impressive pile. Then, we used some.... So, the point of this, is for the next picture. First, the woodpile - oh, and behind it, is the "mystery bush" that we took some red leaves off for the dye project.

Dang.... uploading picture problems yet again.... I *so* wanted to do this in order. Hm. Well, maybe....If I write for a while more, then I can upload some more. Worked one other time. See, I wanted to show the woodpile, 'cause when it was smaller, I had come out the back door, (with my sister, who was staying with us out there over the labour day weekend) preparing to walk the dogs, and I saw something crawling in front of, then over, the woodpile. It then headed off into the bush. I didn't have the camera, and could only think to ask for it..... had to chase into the bush after this thing.... I've only ever seen one once before in my entire life, and didn't realize we had them out by the cabin. I was only able to get a picture of it's butt, though.....

So, let's see if I can get the woodpile to load....

Nope. Dang. Maybe if I.... Ok, I'm not happy, but I'm going to try to do something.....

Ok, I tried.... I published the post, then I tried editing feature. I'm going to have to just publish, and come back later. What I don't like about that, is, then you read the later on post, and it shows up before this one, so you miss this one....... You know, 'cause it shows the newer posts first....

Wait a sec. No one says I have to show you all the pictures today..... So, consider what I wrote as a "teaser", and tomorrow I can show you the woodpile and the butt.

And then after that, I can show you some other pictures.....

In the meantime - craft content... or cat content....hmmmm which to write about.....

Nothing much new on the craft front. Have a few socks on needles, a bath mat that is being crocheted and is slow going.... have to design a new afghan - remember the dancer 'ghan from the spring? Her brother is having a birthday in December. Then there are some quilts I want to finish/start for the grandkids. I have one in the works for the gs, fabric for two of the three gd's. Hm. Need to find something for the third gd I guess....

Let's see, what else....Craft room needs a major cleaning. Organizing. For that matter, so does the rest of the house still. Anyone remember which month I started the living room carpet? Well, it still isn't finished.... need to redo most if not all of the part I did back then. Especially after "Trouble" and "Klutz" were left to their own amusements for the past couple weeks.... They did some re-organizing and re-decorating. With my yarns and threads. I came home to check on things, and found yarn all over, and thread wound around various pieces of furniture.

Um, what else can I tell you about? Oh!!! Right!!!! I should add in some new pets..... Went to BunnyHero Labs (link on every pet on the side there -->) and found a Panda. Figured, why not? And, they also had their original back again - the lightbulb. And a pencil that's sort of fun, and some scissors. So.... But you'll have to scroll for those - they *are* sort of silly.... :) Right up my alley!!!

Still reading Order of the Phoenix. Got tomatoes and garden stuff all over the place, needing to be looked after. Hm, why am I here, instead of doing all that work???? LOL.... Play first, work when the brain wakes up :)

Ok. So - sorry about the picture fiasco. Will post more tomorrow.... Off to add in the new pets!!

I'm BAAAAACCCCKKKKK......

Ok, it's been months. I know that..... I didn't think it was going to be months.....

A very dear online friend of mine, with severe health problems, is dying.... We all thought it would be sooner.... and I was going to hold off for a few days, and write a lovely, loving tribute....

Those few days turned into weeks - and summer being what it is, I'm not online often - and then the past two weeks were spent at the cabin. So....

I didn't post much this summer. BUT- I *was* semi-productive :)

I finished a few pairs of socks - didn't take pics of the ones I made for DH - but I did these ones:

I'm not so super happy with them, to tell the truth. I thought they'd be brighter.... But, they're warm. I know, 'cause I needed to wear them yesterday!! It has been a beautiful hot hot lovely summer, but was cold and rainy this past weekend. Like, yesterday and the day before....

The socks I did for DH were UFO socks. I bought the wool for them (Merino, Superwash, Socks That Rock yarn, "Dirt" colourway) back in March of '05. I started knitting them, but didn't like the way they were turning out - the pattern I used made socks that were tight on me. I've used the pattern three times now, and honestly, I dont' think I really like it much. I've adjusted the needle size, etc., but I really am not happy with the heel. It is supposed to be an "easy" heel, but I don't like it. I've found much easier short row heels than this one.... Anyway, if I can get the socks back from him, maybe one laundry day, I'll take a picture :}

I also have a picture of the latch-hook that I worked on while we were on holiday -
It now lives on the back door of the cabin. :)

I still need to edit a whole pile of pictures, taken over the summer. We have a four meg pix camera, which means, that when I download them, they are *HUGE* files - so I have to edit for size, remove some background, etc. I still need to do that with a bunch of neat animal pics - both domestic and wild. Will do a bunch this week, I promise!!

I also made DH another present - sort of anyway - that I did take a picture of...but need to edit. Hang on, while I do that..... Ok.... I'm back.

Back a couple months, DH was fishing in the canoe, and had caught a nice one. He had it in the net, removed his hook, and watched the fish slip through the net back into the river. He asked me if I could repair the hole in the net - I asked him, "which one?" Seems there were a total of nineteen holes in the net. Well - a good replacement net is very expensive. So, I decided, since I knew how to do it, that I would make him a new net. Which I did. I will admit, it isn't "perfect" - some of the holes are different sizes so it isn't "pretty", but - it looks quite functional!!! We still need to test it - the river is quite low right now, so fishing isn't too great. Need to catch one before we can use the net, lol....

Not bad, really, if I do say so myself!!

I also made, but need to wait for pictures to be emailed to me, a doggy sweater. It was a gift for a friend's daughter. Who lives in another city. So, I have to wait for the pictures. When I get them, I'll share. Promise.

Don't know if anyone noticed, but I did manage to pop onto the blog long enough to add another pet. He's over there, with the others..... ------->

Besides trying to catch up on some misc. knitting and crochet - in progress, not finished, not pictured - I played around with some natural dyeing. Bought yarn - I'm still practicing spinning, though I'm getting way better - oh, and I made myself two toy-wheel spindles, too - one top whorl and one bottom whorl.

Anyway, I'm going to wait for a not so cloudy day, and take some pictures of the yarn I dyed - It was cool. DH even got into it, along with a friend..... I started out planing to just use oak and poplar, but DH wanted me to try some red leaves from a bush we haven't identified yet - I knew, from reading, that just 'cause the leaves are red, doesn't mean the yarn will turn red, but instead of telling him all that, I just went ahead with the leaves. Got a really neat olivey green - normally not my favourite, but.... Of course, you'll have to wait for the pics - sorry 'bout that....

And, finally, to take a break from the crafting, I started re-reading Harry Potter. I'm now up to a re-read of the fifth book - Order of the Phoenix.

So - I know I've got a lot to tell everyone, but for now, I need to catch up on a whole whack of email, and housework, and kitty cuddling.... :)

Thanks for your patience in my lack of updates....