Thursday, August 22, 2013

Long Time No Post

Mea Culpa.  It has definitely been a while.  We came back from the cabin and had to get ready for some very important guests.  This was a view of Lake Shastina as we left.  The water of course is being drawn down for the ranches in the area.

The day before our important guests came I told them they needed to look for the the chicken in my kitchen.

He sits in among the plants in my garden window.

Here are two of my very important guests with the fisherman.  My darling granddaughter age 2.5 and my darling grandson soon to be 4.  It was a gorgeous morning.  The last time they were together he was going to be age 2 and she was 6 months old and crawling on the floor.  They immediately fit together like 2 peas in a pod.  Their temperaments are very much alike, almost always happy and easygoing.  Especially if they get to be with Grampa.  He is the 3rd most important person in the their lives, their mothers are first, fathers second and and I hope I come in as 4th.  She was calling him "honey and sweetie" and he wanted to be included in everything she did.  
This is "Bubbles" movie star pose.  Notice the big grin?

This is the 'Bubber" doing a Tarzan imitation.  He loves when Grampa puts him up in this tree and he gets to sit among the leaves.  

The week before "Bubber" helped me make Peach Yogurt Ice Cream.  It was a lot of fun for him.  He loves to wear hats and I found a red Chef's hat for him.  He was making the Ice Cream in anticipation of 'Bubbles" coming to visit.  We facetimed her and promised her we would make her favorite Yogurt Ice Cream when she came.  He also promised to save her some of the peach.

Here they are getting all the ingredients together and discussing Bubbles favorite flavor which is strawberry.  He shared his hat with her.

She isn't as much of a hat person as he is, but she loved putting it on and giving us a big smile.  
They got to send almost 2 whole days together swimming and playing.  It was warm, but not too warm.  It meant so much to me to have the 2 of them together.  It actually was a birthday present for me.  Probably one of the best birthday presents I will ever get.  It was hard to see them leave.  I know we will get to see Bubbles in the fall, and we do see Bubber at least once a month.

As a side note, the nicknames for the two of them came from when they were infants blowing bubbles.  As a grandmother I had read somewhere that it was a good idea to have a special name for your grandchildren.  Liam when he was blowing bubbles made the funniest noise so we called him "Bubber",  Hailey's were more just Bubbles and so her name became that.  He knows that is his special name and so does she.  If you ask them who Bubbles and Bubber are they will tell you, who is who.  And they seem to love the fact that they have a special "code" name.

I still have more to talk about and will tomorrow.  There will be some finished objects and some works in progress.  Or maybe some almost finished objects.  

Friday, July 12, 2013

Dog Days of Summer

It was really hot the other day when I took this picture.  I think it was 97 degrees.  Pippi kept going outside and sitting on the chaise waiting for me to come out and join her.  When the weather is in the high 80's I will go out and sit and knit.  It was way too hot for that, but she thinks if she waits there I will come and join her.  Instead I was sitting messing around on my computer.

You can tell what she thought of my being on the computer as she tried to edge it out of the way.  I had been reading a knitting magazine previously and she didn't like that either.  It was the Autumn 2013 Creative Knitting.  It has quite a few great patterns in it. 

When I didn't respond the way she wanted, she really got in my face.  This is her PLEASE, please face.  It didn't work.  We did go out when it was starting to cool a little and swim.  She loves being in the backyard with someone.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

10 Pound Dog Swims the Sacramento River

I know the picture is hard to see of the dog, but you do get to see the Fisherman with something in front of him.  The water in the Sacramento river where it flows into Lake Siskiyou is just below the Fisherman's knees.  Pippi isn't that tall.  She was on a leash, but took off into the water to swim.  He followed along for safety sake.  She made it across.  It was a gorgeous day.  The Fisherman and his buddy fished in Lake Siskiyou, the fish were too wily and they did not catch any.  But they had fun trying.  The buddy's wife and I joined them after they had been there a while.  It is a great little lake.  Lots of people take advantage of it.  There is a path around the lake for hiking and biking.  There is a beautiful picturesque suspension bridge and plenty of beaches.


View of Mount Shasta from Lake Shastina Golf Course
The Fisherman, his fishing buddy and the buddy's wife went golfing on the morning of the 4th of July.  They were very fortunate as the temps stayed under 80 till they were done.  In fact the whole time we were there the temps weren't too bad.  At night it cooled down into the 60's so it was even better.  The course has 27 holes.  I do not golf, in fact it is a standing joke about my inability to golf.  I was and still am (sometimes) quite athletic.  When I met the Fisherman I was still in college, he and his parents were avid golfers.  So being the person I was, I decided I would take golfing as a PE requirement in College.  I thought I did really well, until the time came for me to go out onto a course for longer than an hour with the Parents and the Fisherman.  After 9 holes (it was an 18 hole course) we decided I was hopeless and left it at that.  I haven't golfed since.  The interesting thing is the course we were on was at the Hotel (resort) I grew up at.  Famous people played on this course, one being Dwight David Eisenhower, you know one of the ex presidents.  People loved this course.  It was beautiful, has great water hazards, and a neat landscape but it did not help me to be a better golfer.  

When we were ready to come home I found 3 more of my unfinished projects.  I had been looking for them and thought I brought them and they were tucked away.  Something to work on this week and I will post the finished objects.  

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Too Hot to Handle

I know I haven't been blogging much but things have been a little busy and it has been really HOT!  My mother's expression was "hotter than a Depot stove"  this referred to the stoves actually in a train depot.  When I was little one of my babysitter's was this marvelous Italian-American lady and her husband.  He was the station master of the Land O' Lakes train depot.  There was a stove in the depot and they would fire them up very hot as the depot's were large and so the heat had to cover a large space.  I also remember the sound of Morse code from the depot.  We used to go and take him his lunch and they were very special people.  But back to being hot, Sacramento was somewhere in the range of 106.  We were heading to the cabin as we had guests coming so we went early as it was only somewhere in the 100's.  The nighttime temps at the cabin were lower than home so we got to cool down.  One of our nights we had a spectacular thunder bumper as out kids called thunder storms.  It came in 3 waves with 3 separate rain storms and lightning and thunder to shake the house.  The night our friends came we sat on the deck and I got these pictures

This is a picture of the Fisherman with Pippi looking at the deer and the birds.

I love the sky when it is amazing, and last night it was amazing.  We thought we would get rain but it passed us by.  We can't see Mt. Shasta from the cabin but we could see the clouds building up in that general direction.

On Tuesday when the Fisherman was doing his Fishery thing I worked on UFO's (unfinished objects). I had to because the Fisherman had the car and my current WIP (work in process) was in the car.  So I rummaged through all the bags I had with me (way too many) and finished them up.

The purple socks were for a woman, me.  But I think I have changed my mind and I am going to gift them to the lady guest.  I only had the decrease rows on one toe to finish.  They are a wool and bamboo.  The men's sock were for the Fisherman so they were acrylic, he wears wool socks but the hand knit wool ones seem to bug him.  I had a few inches on one of the toes to knit and then the decreases.  Socks are my carry in the car knitting and I usually have a couple of pairs in progress.  In fact I think there are another 2 pair somewhere at home to work on.  They are such and easy pick up and go project and even though the purple pair had a pattern, it is called the Broad Ripple Sock and it is in Ravelry.  The pattern is an easy to memorize and follow pattern.  I think the Fisherman's socks are going to go our gentleman guest.  He is also a fisherman and he and my husband love to fish together.  They fish on the Shasta River, the Yuba, the American and a whole lot more.  A few years ago we took a trip with our guests to Yellowstone.  We had more fun and did some neat things, sharing one of our favorite places.  When our children were younger we would go there at least every 2 years.  

This is not a great photo, but it is a baby hat for Niece's future baby. 

And this hat was finished back in April, I only sewed in the threads.  There are a pair of mitt's in the works too, but I didn't find them till this morning, so will work on them another day.  

Have a Glorious Safe Enjoyable 4th of July 
Cheer's All!!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

The Summer Solstice or The Longest day of the year

                                                 Our Anniversary

We got married on the Longest Day of The Year.  It was a little over 4 decades ago.  It happened in Northern Wisconsin/Michigan.  Where I grew up was actually 2 towns.  I went to School from 4th grade to 12th in Watersmeet Michigan.  I am a Nimrod.  (There once was a commercial run during the professional basketball finals about my town and then PBS did a story about it.) My parents house sat on the shores of a lake in Michigan the other side of the lake was Wisconsin.  Our mailing address was Wisconsin.  The Catholic church I went to was in Land O' Lakes.  (No that is not where the butter comes from that is Minnesota.) We met because he rented from a resort on the lake.  He was working on a project in Sylvania Tract.  This at one time was a privately held property in Michigan.  When it was owned privately my father (he was a Chef at a "special" resort,) made dinner for Eisenhower.  He made dinner for him at the resort too.  My childhood was interesting, filled with "B" movie stars, and even Senator Joe McCarthy.  We Met Memorial Day weekend and a year and 21 days later got married.  We were attending 2 different colleges.  I was at Northern Michigan University in Marquette Michigan and he was at The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
I chose June 21st because I felt we would never forget the date.  I think we have each only forgotten once.  Not Bad.
We did something that was quite fun, for us.  Last year we picked our Green Gage plums and instead of me standing at the stove making jam we made Plum Brandy.  There are lots of recipes for "Slivevits?"

Here is a picture of the the tree this year.  The Fisherman thinned some of the plums so they were bigger than last years.  They are very tasty on their own.

We had a little problem finding the right kind of jars, but a local Michael's store had them.  We put the cut seeded plums in the jar added the amount of sugar suggested and then Vodka.  Our first 2 batches (we decanted one in December) were lighter in color.  The plums weren't quite as ripe as the second 2 batches.  We also had issues decanting the first batch.  I realized I really needed cheesecloth to strain the brandy.  On the first batch I tried different things.  But on this second batch the cheesecloth is the thing.  

The second batch is slightly darker than the first.  We sampled and the second seems to have a higher alcohol content.  But Yummy Yummy it is gooooooood!!!!  The fisherman is sampling right now as I am typing.  The aroma is incredible.  This is definitely a great gift for people. If it lasts that long. The first decanting we did in December we gave away as gifts.   The Fisherman wants to make a brandy using cherries, plums and peaches.  This was prompted because we went to the Farmers market and bought some.  We didn't buy enough so next week we may experiment.  The only limitation we have is the jars we use.  

On Monday we head back to the cabin and I hope take some photos to share.  The lake is dropping dramatically as we are facing a drought.  The birds are very active and fun to watch. 

My knitting has been very slow, and I think it is because we have been busy with the Fisherman's work and out travel back and forth.  I hope to really start doing more I have all this yarn at the cabin. There are more baby things in the future, not for my kids but another part of the family.  So I need to get my knitting mojo on and knit clickety clack as fast as I can.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Weather Extremes

We were at home and it was in the low 90's.  Our grandson came to swim.  At first he was a little hesitant.  He will be 4 in August, and he really does not remember much about swimming but he picked it right up again and got braver as the time went on.
He swam so long he got wore out.  But he was till smiling.  

We left on Friday to go to the cabin, so beat the heat.  Our temps were going to be up to 108 so we headed north were it was only going to be in the 90's.  It wasn't too bad, we figured out how to make the air conditioning and ceiling fan work together.  On Saturday I went to Weed to check out the thrift store and The Mercantile and the local Ray's Market.  I found these hankies.  I thought my daughter might like them.
I remember these as a child.  People gave them as tokens, a small gift for someone.  I remember how important it was to pick the perfect one for someone.  I have a few of my own tucked away, but these were too sweet to pass up.  

I also found this pie plate.  For me it ends up having another fond memory.  I have 2 dear friends who still live in Texas.  At one time the Fisherman worked for Texas Instruments, on the Hudson River and a lot of the people were from Texas.  The Fisherman went often to Dallas for meetings.  I never got to go.  So there was an opportunity for me to visit my friends in Texas when we lived in CA the first time.  I remember the East Texas Pottery from Marshall, Texas.  At the time I couldn't afford to buy any pieces, but I remember how much I liked it.  So for me this was a find at a quarter of its retail price.  I had been looking for something for fruit to have on the counter and this fits the bill perfectly and if I want to make a pie even better.  

The Fisherman was going to float the Scott River on Monday because the weather had already started to be slightly cooler.  He had to scrap that thought as in places it was too low even for the inflatable.  But the river at this bridge was gorgeous and I had to take these pictures.


I did drop them off in a different spot and he and his assistant walked a mile and a half up the river and back and I went to the little town of Etna.  I got to spend time with a fellow blogger Yetzirah and we talked and knitted.  She has this great garden going.  She gave me a yummy salad from the garden and a specially brewed tea she is working on.  We met through our commonality of knitting and a knitting group we both belonged to in Sacramento.  I truly enjoy her company and sense of humor.  

We will head home on Wednesday as the Fisherman ended up going to a meeting on Tuesday.  The weather last night turned completely as a front moved through and it became much cooler.  The birds on the island were actually quiet, probably because they were cold.  

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Bats in My Belfry

I actually do not have a picture of the "bats in my belfry", the bats reside in a vent in a roof peak.  We are protected from them but they do make rustling noises.  In fact the picture of Pippi is not the one I wished I had taken.  Earlier she had hid her head between the pillows on the sofa so she couldn't hear them. They eventually calm down and you don't hear them.  They are only here during the warm months.  No one disturbs them because they are great bug catchers.
She is so sweet, loving and patient, and one of the best companions.  
I was finally able to finish the Five Hour (ha ha) Sweater, I am pleased with how it turned out, the buttons are mother of pearl in a pink-mauve tone shaped like flowers.  They are the same ones I used on Granddaughters sweater. I will make a hat to go with it next.  

We came to the cabin on Wednesday, the Fisherman found out Tuesday afternoon he had to be at a meeting on Wednesday.  It was a whirlwind, luckily we were basically ready to go.  We will probably have to always be ready to go for the Fisherman's job.  

The weather is gorgeous, what can I say.  We have had the Pelicans visiting in front, at first it was 2 and then at one point it was 6.  They are herding fish so they can catch them.  There are other birds there with them, but it is fun to watch them
The photo is not too clear, I did take a photo with a regular camera, which I will work on uploading.  Another group that appeared are the deer, they are like squirrels around here.  There are so many wandering around.  I guess they are a nuisance for the gardens and the landscaped yards, but there are not as many of those as you think.  Around the golf course there are more landscaped houses, but not where we are.  
I promise to do a better job about photos, will have to work on it.  

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Finds and close to finished

We came up on Thursday and the Fisherman stopped at one of his favorite fishing holes to see how The Shasta River was doing.  The smell of the Scotch Broom drew me in.  We decided to pick some and when we drew up to the cabin the blue flowers were blooming, and perfect so I added them.

I started knitting Thursday night on a baby sweater,  it is a gift for a grandmother to give to her first grand-daughter.  She has 6 grandsons and this will be the first girl.  When they were changing residences we bought a loveseat, lamp, and some other goodies from their sale.  This pattern is one of my favorite easies.  It is made with Caron SImply Soft yarn this is my go to yarn for people who I don't know well and it is wash and wear, no worries.  I will probably make a hat and bunny slippers to go with it.

The color doesn't show as well as I would like in this picture, but the yarn is soft pink and the multi is a pink ombre.  I don't know if I like the combination as well as I would like, but it looks better now at this point.
I always snort when I say this is a 5 hour sweater.  It is from Ravelry and it is the 
Five hour baby boy sweater.  It is a great pattern and I can play with it.  It takes more than 5 hours, at least I think it does.  I knit Continental and I a pretty fast.  But then I have never just sat and knit on it for 5 hours.  So who knows.  The pattern book underneath was from a local Thrift store.  There are some great ones in the area and I have some goodies I have been picking up.  I think I mentioned the bread maker that had only been used a few times and works marvelously.  If we run out of bread I can make some.  I pre-bagged my measured out flour and have the other ingredients on hand, so easy and it does all the work.  
This is my favorite find.  It is a milk glass footed bowl and was a bargain.  I love milk glass and I was excited by this find.  The basket I will show another day, it was also from a thrift store and will be perfect with yarn in it.  
This little rocker was from the same store, it was too cute to pass up.  The pound puppy was found in a box in the garage, so I brought it along.
The bottle of wine was marvelous, we had it with our Friday night dinner.  I was looking for a wine that didn't give the Fisherman a headache.  I was at Trader Joe's on Greenback in Citrus Heights and ran into the Sommelier, they have now.  She is a wonderful lady who had just started there.  We got in a discussion and I was telling her about the Fisherman and she recommended 9 different wines in my price point of 5 to 6 dollars.  I was going to bring them all up and we decided to leave some at home.  She told me to take pictures of the wine I liked from the choices so I could buy them again.  This was just yummy.  Will buy it again.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Finished object (finally)



Here are 2 photos of my granddaughter in her finished sweater.  I finally sewed in all the ends from the stripes and put on the buttons.  The yarn is from Cascade it is a washable wool blend and great to work with.  The white looking base came from a local thrift store and was a real bargain.  The pink/purple/multi yarn was also Cascade from my local yarn shop, Babetta's.  Babetta helped me pick out the yarn to use for the mix.  I was worried there wouldn't be enough yarn as I had no true pattern I was following and no idea of how much I would need.  The pattern is an amalgam of 3 patterns.  It is a top down raglan with added button bands and hood.  I felt the white based yarn was too much white to stand alone and wanted to add color.  I used the whole skein of the multi yarn.  Of course it is too big, somehow when you go from 18 months size to a size 2 the patterns make a large leap in size, but she is definitely still growing so that isn't a problem And my model is only available every 8-10 weeks or so, so it is a guesstimate.  I finished it the day before we left to come home.



On Sunday grandson came to spend part of the day.  In the background you can see everything from the trip.  It still isn't gone yet, as some is going back with us tomorrow.  He loves his rocking horse and his cowboy hat.  I was very fortunate to find the old timey wooden rocking horse at a garage sale.  It is solid and wonderfully made by somebodies grandmother.  Who would almost be a great great grandmother to my grandson.  When I bought it I didn't even have a hint of grandchildren and I was mocked by my husband and my children for getting it.  Ha jokes on you!  It is painted wonderfully and it rocks great.  The cowboy hat sits on the horses head and when grandson comes he always goes for a ride wearing his hat.  He loves hats and anytime I come across a different one we pick it up.  

Well by for now, off to get better organized for tomorrow morning.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Sunset Views

On Thursday evening when we got to the cabin from Seattle, it had been storming off and on, some places got rain and some did not.  I took these photos from the deck as the sun was getting ready to set.  They are in the order of early to late.


It was very interesting to see the changes.  Friday there was fairly cool, very pleasant and on Saturday it was still cool for our 4 hour drive home.  It is nice to be home, we will be going back up on Tuesday.  So I will have more things to show and tell.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Last Day at Baby Girl's

There she is enjoying a day in the sun (very rare in the Seattle area.)  She loves her babies and playing with them.  Her imagination is very good for a 2.5 year old.



She is doing some play acting here, telling the Fisherman about her activity.

I had hoped to finish the POLE sweater but have run out of time.  I had to check out all my old haunts.  We lived here for 9 years and I know a lot of places to get in trouble.  One of my favorites is a Ben Franklin store, which has yarn, crafts, fabrics and way more ideas than I can even consider.  I always go to see what kind of yarn they have that I must have.  This time though I didn't have anything to catch my eye, not even sock yarn.  I did find some fabric though,  it is a black ground with assorted fish on it.  Years ago they had something similar and I used it to trim Christmas stockings for our son and the Fisherman.  I got 2 yards and it was an extravagance, but I have enough to do some pillow covers and use the extra to trim things.  It will be fun to figure out how to use it.  I also went to 2 Value Villages (a thrift store) and was very tempted by some things but didn't find what I wanted.  Another thrift store and nothing there, but they were all quick stops.  Traffic here is worse than when we lived here.  I complain about Sacramento, that is a piece of cake.  
Baby girl is enjoying her at-home day and so are we, I am doing all the mundane things to get ready to head out in the morning back to the Cabin at the Lake and a day, at least of relaxation before we head home.  





Sunday, May 12, 2013

Baby Girl

We are here on the eastside of Seattle, taking care of our darling, adorable granddaughter, who I call "Bubbles."  She is so much fun and and busy, busy.  She is 2 years and 5 months.  Her Mom and Dad are off on a junket to look at Austin, Texas.  So we have 5 days to cherish and spoil our little girl.

"Bubbles" and the Fisherman are watching PBS on the IPad, which she is very proficient on.

This was at nap time yesterday, I think we wore her out. 
                                         
And here she is playing Peek a Boo.  We are having  good time with her.