Just as Well

It's just as well that I'm a week late posting this time...unless you want to hear all about my exciting weekend doing house work and yard work...no? Right - that's what I figured, so as I was saying...

Unlike this past weekend, last weekend was pretty exciting, if a tad painful. We went kayaking down the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. The scenery was gorgeous:

and I had a great time watching the SigO flex his biceps:

The only drawback to the whole day was the length of the trip. On the way down there, it began to dawn on me that 6hrs on the water in >90 degree heat might be a bit more than I could handle. Of course, I knew the heat would only be one factor - there would also be the 6hrs of paddling - so, like a smart girl, I called ahead and told them we would be changing our plans from full day to half day. No problem they said. But when we got there, they sold us a doozy: "Oh, don't worry - the river is so high the full day is only taking about 3-4 hrs - which is what the half day would normally take. The half day is only taking a few hours."

"Oh!" say gullible, silly us "well, in that case, yes, we'll stay on the full day!"

Here's a nice picture of a bridge over the Antietam river:

This is where we were at hour #3. This is when we were ready to get out. It's also somewhere a little past the halfway point. At hour #4.5, we were ready to get out and walk the rest of the way - screw the boats. At hour #5, we finally rowed into the home base with raw hands, sunburned shoulders and aching backs. Pure misery - let me tell you!

I can't wait to go back and do it again!

That was Saturday, last weekend. Sunday we decided to stay closer to home and hike Prince William Natl. Park - one of the most under-utilized parks around VA - which I'm not complaining about. It's a gorgeous park with tons of trails.

Even though I've hiked it regularly for the past five years, I never tire of its beauty.

I didn't just hike and kayak all weekend. I'm working on the Zephyr pattern Green Gable that I bought over a year ago (pics in the next post - honest!). I also spent a great deal of time putting all my books, magazines and yarn in the Ravelry post. With numbers like these:

And a stash like this:

only a crazy person would go out and buy more yarn anytime soon...right??!! Ermmmm....

That is the one fun thing I did this weekend. I picked up Ella Rae's Bamboo Soft in mocha. Very pretty, very soft yarn. No plans for it. Maybe I'll just roll around in it.

Back to the real world

Well, the vacation in Maine is over and it's back to work, but we had a great time and got some great pics. We had some perfect days, with clear weather and cool temperatures and some overcast days that shrouded the mountains in a wonderfully mysterious cloud.

This picture was taken from Otter Point on a great day when the waves were crashing gloriously against the rocks. We sat and watched until we got too hungry and had to leave. It's actually a little astonishing that we were able to ever get hungry, considering how often we ate on this trip. Amazing what bringing teenagers along will do.

One of my favorite hikes was around Jordan pond where we got this nice shot.

Those are the Bubbles in the background. The story, supposedly, is the man that donated this particular piece of Acadia named them for his girlfriend's nickname - because they reminded him of her. Not sure if that story was true or not. The character that relayed it told a few other whoppers so who knows. The character's name is Charlie and he was our carriage driver for our trip down memory lane on the old Carriage trail built by Rockefeller in the early 1900's

Another great hike was with just me and the SigO. We hiked along Jordan stream, which passes under this bridge.

The best part of the hike was when we unexpectedly came out on a beautiful meadow completely surrounded by trees and mountains and covered in Blueberry bushes. There was a single old tree smack in the middle of the meadow that stood sentinel over it all.

We started the 4th off with a parade in Bar Harbor. It was a funny little parade since it seemed it was open to anyone who owned a business on the island. So we had a truck full of lumberjacks, another full of firemen, one for a tree service, a local construction company, and most entertaining, one for a local go-kart business

They had tracks mounted over a yellow SUV and would zip up and over this truck. Definitely the most entertaining part of the parade. I'm not sure who these guys were supposed to be:

but they played some mean bagpipes. None of them lifted their kilt for me though - pretty rude of them, don't you agree?

Since the SigO broke my circular needles, I really only had the socks to work on while we were there. I admit, I got more knitting done during the driving than any other time. We spent most of our time there hiking, swimming, shopping and eating. I did manage to finish my March STR Sock of the month.

They look really great, and I'm excited to start on May's, but I've done so many socks lately I think I'm going to take a break and do a top or something for a while.

I also finished the July BOM from my Carol Doak quilting group.

This is the second one I've designed on QuiltPro before sewing it up. I'm starting to get limited by my diminishing supply of indigos, unfortunately. The Quilt Odyssey is only a few weeks away and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the guys that sold me these indigos are there again this year. I'd really like to do a sister quilt of this on, this time in Blue and White instead of Black and Blue.

Finally, for the "awwwwwww" factor, look what we found in a hanging plant in my back yard:

You'd think this less than a stable environment to start a family, but who am I to judge. Also, just because I really love my new weeping pine, I thought I'd include this picture of the right hand corner of my yard.

I used to have a big old pear tree in this corner, but it had been pecked so much by local woodpeckers that it was mostly dead by the time I moved in. Everytime a slight windstorm came through another piece of the old gal would blow off, so we cut it down several years ago and I just recently got around to replacing it with this pine. The plants around the pine are Patriot Hostas - really loving that something is finally blooming in my back yard. I wasn't sure that was possible.

So, it may be back to the real world for me, but with a life like this, who's complaining. Right?

Hazy, Lazy daze in Acadia

Today was the first pretty day we've had since we arrived, late Saturday evening, here in Maine. We've had lots of fog and rain since we got here, but today was gorgeous. So, we drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the sights. Even though it was pretty clear, you can see there was still some misty clouds hanging around the islands. After the drive we hiked up to the top of the Bubbles. That's a short little hike (.5miles) but a tad steep. It has a gorgeous view at the top, as usual.This particular picture was taken while I was looking for the trail down the other side of the hill to hike around the lake - no joy there. I never could find that trail, even though I got a few scrapes and bruises trying.

I've done a little knitting since we got here, but after starting a little cotton top, my SigO broke one of my needles, so that put an end to that project - for now - then I started on my second March Sock of the month Socks that Rock project, only to realize after finishing the cuff that I was using the wrong pattern...so, I need to rip that out and start again. As you can see, not much progress all in all, although, I did put a nice little short row heel on my traffic socks. I used a different pattern this time and it came out better than the last one.

Also, before I left for this trip, I managed to complete the June Block of the Month project for my Carol Doak challenge:

This was my first quilt block designed with Quilt Pro, then actually created. It looks a little different in real life because the batik doesn't stand out as much as I'd like. Still, I was pretty happy with myself for being able to put it together on the computer first. My next project to construct with the computer is a Storm at Sea in blues and yellows. Wish me luck.

As my last act of "catching up" on the blog, this is the only major cross stitch project I've completed since I fell so far behind on this blogging thing.

I've done four other really tiny little cross stitch projects - you know - the kind you can finish in a few hours...those are really rewarding, especially when you're working on a never ending afghan as a knitting project. Truth be told, I've put that aside and it may never be completed. Now I'm working on a different afghan. This is from the "Absolutely Fabulous Throw Kit" from Collinette, in the Ivory Colorway. It's not exactly at it's most photogenic phase right now, but the SigO has already claimed it for himself. Finally, speaking of the SigO, check out his shin:His daughter thought he might have leprosy or something - but I know better - he's just as big a clutz as I am - thank heavens we never procreated!