Sunday, November 01, 2009

Busy Halloween

I knit half of a sock yesterday while driving to the coast and back, which is nearly four hours of driving altogether. The pattern is called Calendula. I saw it on Misandventures in Knitting, and decided that for once I would actually complete one of her projects instead of just ogling it. I'm on the heel right now and having a little trouble because the directions have some German terms, but I'll get it!I used to have a New Yorker cartoon on my fridge that had a woman and her husband talking to friends. The woman says, "...And we raise our own children." It was probably really making fun of people like me, but I loved it and felt like Russ and I could say that too. We could count the number of nights either one of us have spent away from our kids, not counting the innumerable nights they've spent the night at friends' houses. My point is that since we didn't have a support system other than ourselves as we were raising our kids, we have always spent a lot of time together, which was fun although exhausting too. As they've gotten older, it's been more out of habit than necessity that we do a lot together. It has also been more of a challenge to go on day trips that make everyone happy, but we've still managed usually. So, it was a big deal yesterday when we decided not to cajole our teenage children to go to the beach with us for the day. They were both invited,.. with the disclosure that our day plan included buying apples, going to the natural food store in San Luis Obispo, and finding a challenging hike that we'd never done before. Both offspring opted out: I think it was the hike that did it.Stop number one, Gopher Glen Apple Farm.I'm cheating with this picture, since Paige didn't go along on this trip, but it's a picture of Gopher Glen our favorite place to get apples. We've been going to get apples there for at least twenty years,an were there in early October but needed to replenish our supply. Thirty pounds seemed reasonable! Next, we stopped at Kelsey Winery. A friend at work had told me that we should try their apple wines. We did a little wine tasting and decided that my friend was right; all of the wines were delicious. That's big coming from me because I'm not that big of a wine fan. We bought an apple chard and an apple merlot.
We did some other fun stuff, but the "highlight" of the day was to attempt to hike to the top of Bishop's Peak. I gave up when the trail became just rocks, not because I couldn't go on, but because I thought that if I were a rattlesnake, that's just where I'd like to sun myself! It was intense and a little hairy going down, but mostly because I didn't have good tread on my shoes. Great day overall.We ended the day with a little coffee and after buying some incredible looking caramel apples, headed home to a night of little goblins knocking at our door asking for treats.

8 comments:

Knittings Nice! said...

Loving those socks and looks like you've had an enjoyable time out and about. Its been raining and blowing a gale all day here in U.K

TheBlackSheep said...

Very pretty socks! Love the colours. If you need help with the terms, let me know. I had to google (I speak normal German fluently, but don't ask me to knit in German. It just confuses me), but found them in the end.

Willow said...

It sounds like a perfect day to me!

And love the socks :)

Tracy said...

Hope that you all had a very Spooktacular Halloween... wonderful photos, and love the beautiful sock--super yarn! Happy Days :o) ((HUGS))

Tracy Batchelder said...

Sounds like it ended up being a great trip for the two of you.

Thimbleanna said...

Sounds like a perfect day! Those carmel apples are too cute -- I LOVE carmel apples and would croak if I saw some like that LOL! Love that pretty cable on your socks too!

Julie said...

I love it that you have spent so much time with your kids while they are growing up. We didn't have a support system either, just each other, and I think it does make for a closer family. What's even better is that you know you can trust the kids to stay home alone. And man, those socks are awesome!

Torhild Reidardatter said...

Hi Karoline.
Oh- what lovley pic. and ideas and food and joy and hikes and ..... alot.
thanks for chearing. the link to the mittens did not work- isn´t a version of the monkey sock?