Knitting on Impulse

Back to Reality

Nobody really feels like getting up for school on the first day after holidays.

 

On a Damp and Dreary Day

 

The dog's sole reason for living consists of watching for the squirrel.

 

He's a cheeky little devil too - touches noses with her through the patio glass while she huffles and fusses. Good thing he's so cute.

Resolution Day 9/26: La Nina

We blazed a trail to the bus this morning through thigh deep snow, and there's no signs of it letting up any time soon. While other places might rate that somewhere between irksome and paralyzing, for Whistler, it's as if a flock of sparkly unicorns flew into town pulling sleighs full of rainbows and chocolate. It's hard to overstate what a grand thing a La Nina year can be for a west coast ski resort.

The dog thinks it's grand too:

 

It's supposed to stay below zero and  get sunny in another couple of days, so there should be some nice winter wonderland shots to be had at that point. (Right now the light is seriously dim, and the density of the snowfall obscures any attempt at detail.)

The sweater is now 10 rounds down from the neck, with the first short row complete, but since I have 48 little Advent packages to wrap after the kids fall asleep, I doubt it will progress much further tonight. The monthly school newsletter came home today, announcing the concert for Dec. 14th... and declaring the theme to be "tropical holiday".  Parents are requested to dress in flip flops, loud shirts, etc. so I guess I'm off the hook for that particular sweater deadline! Maybe I'll think about December 31st instead... I've been toying with attempting the Flickr 365 self-portrait project and a new sweater would be a nice way to kick things off.

River Play

Very close to our home, there's a secluded little bend in a side channel of the river. The path isn't obvious, and I hope it stays that way, because it's a splendid way to pass a hot afternoon with kids and dog.

Making mud pies:

Leaping and splashing:

And sticks. Few things are more satisfying than a really big stick.

It's a good life.

  
   

Slightly Mad: Hipness, Puppy, Crochet

We are in the penultimate throes of tax hell at the moment, so blogging may be ever so slightly eccentric and obscure.

Like... totally jumping on board the Hipstamatic trend:

The girl was home sick today, much to Eowyn's delight:

 

The girl is getting to be a pretty good little stash-buster in her own right. (That's a dog blanket she's crocheting, by the way.)
  

Snowy Spring Sprint

The advantage to a foot or more of sloppy snow the day before Easter is that our favorite Lost Lake trails were nearly deserted, and hence perfect for an off-leash romp.

I never tire of greyhound action shots (and off-leash in the woods, there isn't any other kind of shot to be had). At the risk of sounding obvious, her speed and athleticism completely amaze me.

Coming (she mostly remembered not to slam full throttle into our knees):

Going:

The high speed turn:

which is even more fun executed around a kid:

And of course, the ever present hope of a snowball to chase:

Life is good.

 

Happy Birthday, Eowyn!

We celebrated Eowyn's first birthday yesterday. Our little girl....

is growing into a fine young lady:

She was a little worried by the concept of fire on food:

But once we got rid of that, she proclaimed her "cake" to be quite satisfactory (though not, of course, as good as cat food. Elixir of the gods, that is - and the cat feels the same way about her kibble.)

Happy Birthday, sweetie - we love having you in our family!

A Snowy Romp

First time properly off leash - we chose the golf course, with fresh deep snow, kids along and nobody else around.  She was in heaven!

Bad Dog

I created a lovely yin/yang spiral shawl pin today from copper - hammered, filed, tumbled and polished it - set it on the dining room table, and turned my back for a moment.  It disappeared.  Now I freely admit that I am somewhat distractable and have been known to forget where I put things, but this was pushing it.  After a fruitless and increasingly frustrated search, I had a hunch, and sure enough, discovered a wee something carefully buried in the duvet:

 So... for the record?  Copper shawl pins are not greyhound-proof. They do a pretty sturdy job of holding together shawls and sweaters, but should probably not be used to entertain a large dog (or for that matter as a floatation device, safety harness for rock climbing, etc.  You know, just to cover the possibilities.) 

On the other hand, maybe I could sell it as genuine greyhound art... she did leave the clasp intact after all....

Ah, Productivity!

School yesterday was just an hour, during which the parents stood around drinking really bad coffee and catching up on life... so it didn't count. Especially since it was followed by desperately out-of-season shoe shopping for the kids.

Today, however - I was magnificent.  The dye pots went on the stove before the sun came up, I took approximately four thousand yarn photos (some to go out with custom yarn invoices, others for tomorrow's site update), I worked a bit on a new look for the website (at least the homepage) and the blog, got well underway on a new hat design/Christmas gift, rinsed and hung up a million new skeins of yarn (give or take) AND walked the dog. Twice. After school, I even helped the kids start blogs in which to write their own stories (Good Parenting box - check).

Sadly, all that was only about a third of the day's To Do list... but it still felt good.

Better than Eowyn's day anyway:

Not only did she spend her first day ever out of sight of the children (oh, the plaintive crying after they left for school), but it rained buckets. All. Day. The sloping patio created a moat between her and the garden, and there were huge awful globs of water falling out of the sky and her precious princess skin got all cold and splattered when she scooted out to pee.

 

The sun came out just in time to meet the bus, however, and I have no pictures of that because the reunion was a little too jubilant to permit safe camera use. So all is well.

Web update tomorrow (ie. Thursday). For sure. (No exact time promises though.) Also, the copper shawl pin offer resumes at that point... details then (for those who weren't here for the first one.)