Kitty's Summer

Every year, when we go on vacation, we take our dogs to stay with some good friends, who dote on them for two weeks; but we leave out kitty at home. One of the kids' friends come over to feed her and water the lawn. I always feel a little guilty because she's used to having a lot people around. I made her Wendy's a Pi Kitty Bed with some Brown Sheep wool I ordered from the The Sheep Shed a long time ago, just before we left. This is how she looked on Tuesday morning as we walked out the door, and she'll probably be in the same position when we get home in a couple of weeks!

Plums

This has nothing to do with knitting, but I want to remember how perfect our plums were this year. It may have had something to do with Russ fertilizing our fruit trees this year and with me watering them a lot. I'm not too big on plums for cooking, but we all enjoyed them right off the tree, eating tons of them ourselves and sharing bags and bags of them with neighbors for several weeks.

I remember reading this William Carlos Williams poem in college, which I thought was kind of stupid. Now, I've decided I like it. I'm thinking that if he was talking to his wife, she should have been really torqued because there's nothing like a nice, fresh juicy plum...except for a fresh, juicy peach, but that will have to wait until next month!

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Beachy Break

I can't say that I've been in need of a break since I've been on vacation for two weeks, but I have been working a lot around the house. So, when one of my friends invited me and another friend to spend a couple of days with her at her family's beach house, I was very excited. We've really enjoyed each other's company this year, occasionally going on "extreme knitting" excursions to Bakersfield or relaxing at each other's home with a knitting project and a glass or wine or sometimes cappacino or coffee. We had a wonderful time on Thursday and Friday, complete with a fun evening at the San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market, a great bike ride, several memorable meals, and a trip to Yarns at the Adobe. My friend, Janet, had been there before and raved about it, and she was right in thinking that my other friend, Denise, and I would too. It's right across from the San Luis Obispo Mission in an old adobe building that was built in the early 1800s. It's not only a cute looking shop, the owner is friendly and helpful, but not a "hover-er." We're already thinking of going back to possibly take one of their " beer and knitting" classes, not a combination that I'd usually think of, but we really should take the "Unibroue/Allagash and Scrap Yarn Project" class on November, especially since Janet is from Maine and Allagash is brewed in Maine! I only had my camera phone to take a picture of Denise and Janet in front of the shop, but I think it came out cute. As I've said a million times, I don't need any more yarn, but I bought some silky, soft Panda Silk, which is a blend of bamboo, silk, and merino. I'm knitting a table runner with it, using a pattern from the Spring/Summer edition of Debbie Bliss Knitting MagazineM. I love how soft it is, and it doesn't split like Panda Cotton does. I also bought a skein of Manos de Uruguay silk bland yarn.I felt ever so slightly guilty leaving my family behind, but they seemed to have inexplicably survived just fine without me...my little basil plant seedlings that were just coming up in my garden and which I forgot to tell anyone to water didn't, but I'd say that's a small price to pay to have such a great time with friends.

Yosemite Summer Kick-Off

For the past four years, we've our begun summer vacation with a trip to Yosemite. We go with a large group of friends and share meal responsibilities. Most years it's been very warm during the days, and we've loved hiking up to some of the falls so that we could cool off in the mist. This year, it snowed part of the time on the way up, and drizzled much of the time that we were there, but it didn't matter because it was Yosemite, and Yosemite is the most beautiful place in the world!
The view from our campsite was incredible. I had visions of sitting by the Merced River, knitting away, but that didn't happen this year.We did go for a little walk up to the Ahwanhee Hotel. The cheapest room in the Ahwanhee is over $450, so we can only enjoy pretending to be guests. Russ and I did stay there once before the kids were born. My school paid for a two-day stay for me, and Russ happily tagged along. There was a big English conference at the Yosemite Lodge that year, but the rooms there were sold out, so my generous school approved the Ahwanhee stay. I still remember that the room was $315 per night, and that was back in the early 90s. It was such a memorable experience. The rooms are actually quite rustic with few amenities, but that's not what you're paying for. We also walked to the Visitor's Center and watched a movie since Kai had a cough that kept getting progressively worse.Throughout the day, Kai kept coughing and coughing. We finally decided to admit that we weren't going to have our typical Yosemite experience with loads of hiking, and headed home a day early. Kai was in good enough spirits to play with the water pump at Wawona, but he was pretty sick by the time we got home.


I did get to finish a pair of Loksins on the way home. It wasn't quite the same as sitting and knitting by a river, but it was still knitting!