He’s gone back to the cottage for a few days to help his dad pack up the house. Before he left, he cut the dowel in half and sanded down the sharp edges for me. Nicholas is home ill from school today so I’m behind on a few other things so the finishing on the turtles will have to wait, but at some point this weekend I’ll take those lovely, thoughtful dowels and turn my stack of finished turtles into a bellpull.
Thank you for the dowels, John. I love you too. xo
It takes a week or so to acclimatize to the noise of the city, the barking of the neighbours large German Shepherd (in between 6;40 and 7am every morning) and the general business of everything here. It’s all good though, the kids are happy and healthy and before we know it we will be off the grid once again. I shouldn’t wish the time away!
My garter stitch blanket has accompanied me this week and the first row is nearly complete. I’m not quite sure how long to make it, it’s that tricky balance of wanting to use up the amount of yarn but not run out if the blanket is only 90% finished. I’ve never been a fan of math for knitting, more of a fly by the seat of my pants, cross my fingers and hope there’s enough there. So far it’ not worked well. Two shawls have seen me frantically scouring Ravelry for dye lots of yarn to finish them and only one of those shawls lived to tell the tale. :shrug: Knitter – know thyself. Myself does not like math and seems to be willing to pay the price! It’s Wednesday once again (this week has FLOWN by) so I’m linking up with Ginny. The turtle stack is almost finish finished. If you come back on Friday, I’ll tell you a little love story. For those who have wondered what the heck I’m going to do with it? All of your questions will be answered.
Orchestra rehearsals started back up last night. I’m in a local community orchestra here in town (I play the flute) and it is always so nice to see everyone again. The woodwind section sort of sit in the middle of the action and there is a very special feeling at the first rehearsal of a new piece of music when the sound of everyone else rises around you and then you get to join in. One of our pieces for this concert will be Brahms Symphony No.1 in Cminor. It’s one of my favourites – and the last time I played it was many years ago in youth orchestra so it will be really nice to get a chance to play it again. Orchestras are struggling, there are not enough patrons to fill seats anymore, though ticket prices are usually less expensive than most rock concerts. If you enjoy live music – see if your community has a local orchestra – you may be pleasantly surprised at how good they are, and what a good time you have for the cost of admission.
Nicholas and John decided on some late afternoon fishing yesterday. They haven’t had much luck off the dock so decided to try sitting in the fishing boat out in the middle of the cove. There were lots of nibbles but nothing to bring home. Nicholas caught one decent sized small mouth bass earlier in the summer and had to make the hard choice for the first time. Up until that, they were too small to keep. This one was big enough, so he chose to learn how to dispatch it humanely and my sister in law cooked it for his lunch. This was when John and I were back at home for a few days, so we heard later about how delicious it was!
The zucchini bread was such a hit last week that Nicholas insisted we make another loaf today. It really was delicious – if you have a bumper crop of zucc, it’s a great way to use some up. Nicholas hates cooked zucchini and was hesitant to try this but really loved it and helped make today’s loaf from start to finish. He’s been asking me ever since it came out if he can have some yet. Recipe here. Today has been another low key day on the Bay. I dragged out my box of English paper piecing to fit in a few more hexagons to add to a queen size quilt that I started a few years ago. I add to it every summer and it’s probably a little more than half complete. I really love sewing by hand, watching it slowly grow has been very satisfying.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend filled with some fun. I’m going to try really hard to finish up the turtles and spend a bit of time on my Topiary shawl, which has been rather neglected lately. The fabric that I’m using for the turtles is a 4.7 ” wide, 28 count white linen with green
checkered border from Wichelt which I purchased from my local needlework shop – Thread & Eye. I know it’s out of stock there at the moment, but Kathy is very good at suggesting substitutes. The weather is starting to turn cool so the coffee pot has been filled an extra time and the quilts are ready for some time on the couch. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you’ll be working on this weekend!
A blog that I’ve read for many years, Down to Earth by Rhonda Hetzel is featuring our favourite places and spaces. Today, I’m lucky enough to be included. This place, here in beautiful Georgian Bay is where my family and I choose to live a simple, off the grid life for as long as the season will allow. One day when the children have grown, we hope to live here for half of each year. There is lots of knitting, reading. Lego, swimming and family time that we are able to fill our summers with. I’m lucky enough to have a flexible job that allows me to work remotely during the summer and different work during the school year when we return to our home in the city.
Since it can take three hours for a round trip to town for groceries, we try to plan accordingly. I stock baking supplies and pantry staples and I or my husband cook or bake every meal. There is no take out option!
In honour of possible new readers from the d2e blog, and also to use up a bit of the zucchini crop my MIL planted, I tried a new recipe for our coffee time today. Chocolate Zucchini bread – I used the recipe from here – and it turned out beautifully. Mine was not a double chocolate version as I omitted the chocolate chips. I don’t think anyone will miss them if I don’t say anything.
My garter stitch blanket start is coming along, I’ve added the third colour and now I can see properly how they will play together and I like it a lot. Simple mindless knitting is very good for the soul. So is a curled up dog at my feet……. Sarah is at home with her dad this week getting ready for the start of school and I miss her! I think maybe she misses me a little bit as well. High school already – where is the time going?
It’s stormy and rainy here still, I’ve been needing to run the generator for the water pump and charging the laptop and phone. The dogs come in wet from their morning, afternoon and evening constitutional and are really getting rather smelly. Daria (the Golden) might just get a bath in the lake on the weekend. Yes, it’s a funny name for a dog – we adopted her at age 5 and that’s the name she came with. I had a piano student once who misunderstood me when I told him her name and asked incredulously, “her name is Diarrhea????”” Ah, kids.
Also of note – we saw the bald eagle again this afternoon! He or she really seems to like the windy days the best. The nest must be close by, I’ve read they only travel about a 10-20 mile daily radius during non-migratory times. I’ve been fortunate enough to see him three times this summer.
My turtle stack continues to grow. I thought that the designer, Tracy Horner, provided an excellent write up of the inspiration for her design. I’ll include it after the picture if you’re interested.
“Centuries ago, philosophers discussed how the universe was put together, coming up with some very creative cosmological theories. Without an understanding of planetary gravity, some theorized that the (flat) earth was held atop the back of a large beast – most popularly, a turtle or an elephant. When asked what was holding up that turtle, they responded that it was another turtle.And beneath that; another turtle. In fact, it was turtles all the way down. Versions of this story show up anecdotally in various cultures and writings even to this day.” – Tracy Horner of Ink Circles
I’ve been a fan of Tracy’s designs for many years. I know I have a few in the UFO pile that need finishing 😉 Check out www.inkcircles.com and prepare to be impressed!
I’ve put some stitches in the Ink Circles turtle stack, it is a satisfyingly quick and easy stitch and seeing the turtles emerge gives me a wee thrill.
The weather here like many other places, has been very hot and humid. Our beagle Eddie, does not swim but has taken to parking himself occasionally in the lake and lazily lapping a bit to drink at the same time. Yesterday was so hot, the entire family followed suit and swam many times to cool off.
Life is slowly returning to a new normal around here. My mother in law’s loss is felt in so many ways every day. Her brother and wife stayed with us over the weekend as they came from very far away and it was very good to have them here. It slowly starts to sink in that this is reality and she won’t just be coming up the path for morning coffee. The week that she passed away, several things happened that were really quite remarkable. I’d like to post what I said during the memorial here, mainly as a reminder to myself in the years to come.
“As I thought about my words last night that I would say today, the loon began calling out on the Bay, it seemed to be a nudge that I was on the right track.
My mother in law loved birds. All types. Not many days went by at the cottage that she wasn’t either practicing the call of the loon with Nicholas, filling the hummingbird feeder (of course that was before the addition of THE BEAR on the island) or thumbing through her well worn Peterson’s Field Gude of Birds to identify one that she had spotted.
We didn’t know at the time that that Tuesday morning would be our last with her, but my memory of that morning is very special.
Sarah and I were sitting in the breezeroom in our pyjamas with coffee and tea, Nicholas was buzzing around as usual probably talking about Star wars. I heard a noise outside and asked Sarah if she heard it and did she know what it was? “Oh that ‘s just Grandma! She’s talking to the birds.” Indeed, the noise then became a whistle call to my ear and a few moments later, Grandma appeared.
On the Thursday, we were at their cottage, checking on Grandma’s garden . While there, I was on the cell phone with John who was sitting in the room with his mum. Tthe children began desperately trying to get my attention while I was on the phone. As their voices became louder and I finally looked to where they were pointing, there was a bald eagle soaring above our heads, wings spread, suspended in the wind. It hovered at the tree tops for a moment and then gave a lazy flap and left us to fly over the island.
On the Sunday, when returning home from the Blessing service for Bridget, swooping and diving around the boathouse were 20-30 terns seemingly greeting us home. It was an amazing sight.
I’ve chosen to play the 2nd mvt from Vivaldi’s Il Gardellino concerto for Bridget. Il Gardellino is the Goldfinch. Another beautiful bird and perhaps later tonight I might even flip through her field guide to identify the finch that I saw last week”
