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.....