Socks and Shoes

Yup.  My feet are in 'em.

Hear that faint voice?
That's my muffled toes trying to yell "No!  No!  Not 8 months of foot wear again!"

 As much as I dislike colder weather necessitating socks and shoes, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the autumn colours!  I swear I could die this winter and go out with a smile on my face thinking "it was the most beautiful autumn ever"!

That's my morning bus ... waiting for me!
LOVE the colours behind the bus shelter!

Just look at the amazing colours running down the centre of the avenue!  Same kind of tree, but each one unique!

And the size of the wild rose hips!  Wow!

It's been very foggy the past 10 days or so.
This was a fairly clear day - some days it's been like pea soup, you could barely see beyond your own nose!

The last rose(s) of summer?
Even these roses are spectacular in colour!

 On an entirely different topic, I thought I lost Miss Boots this past week!  Let me tell you, I was just HEART SICK!  I just plain do NOT want to imagine life without Miss Boots!

This is our balcony railing.
Those are the frozen remains of a late Morning Glory vine on the right.

This is our balcony railing ... and the balcony railing belonging to the apartment next door to us. 
That stucco wall between the two railings is 10 inches thick.
That's like ... um ... 25 centimeters in Metricspeak?

 You need to remember that our apartment is 3 floors up ... as in a LONG WAYS DOWN should you happen to fall!

You also need to remember that Miss Boots is an indoor kitty who has regular "manicures" to keep her claws short and my furniture in one piece.

Miss Boots and I were both out on the balcony about 8:30 pm, enjoying a last cup of tea and surveying "The Queendom" to make sure all was peaceful for the night, when my phone rang.  It happened THIS fast ... 3 steps inside to pick up the phone and I heard a frantic scrambling ... turned my head and NO CAT!

I grabbed my flashlight and peered over the balcony railing ... expecting to see a broken kitty lying on the ground ... but NO CAT!  So I ran downstairs (in my jammies and flip flops), around to the back of the building, thinking she was so scared that she just RAN in whatever direction she landed, and thinking about the pair of fox and the bear that frequents the green belt behind our building that would enjoy a quick snack of domestic kitty!

I spent an entire hour (in my jammies and flip flops) peering into every bush, every clump of grass, calling and calling ... and NO CAT!  Finally, with frozen toes and tears, I headed back in.  The hopeful part of me thought MAYBE she didn't fall, that she was still on our balcony, maybe hiding under the BBQ, so I shone the flashlight up the side of the building ... AND HEARD A VERY PLAINTIVE LITTLE meow.  It took a while, but I finally caught the reflection of her big green eyes in the balcony next door ... so I raced back upstairs, out onto our balcony, and CLIMBED ONTO OUR BALCONY RAILING.  No, I wasn't THINKING ... I was on adrenaline "must rescue kitty" mode!  I know, I know!  No lectures please!

She was crouched back against the wall, and NO amount of calling or cajoling was convincing her to come anywhere near the balcony railing!  Naturally, or maybe fortunately, the neighbours were not home ... and being Canadian Thanksgiving, might not be home for several more hours.  I didn't know if she was hurt, but I knew I couldn't leave her there.  Eventually, I managed to swing one of my dining room chairs over onto the neighbouring balcony and then coaxed her up onto the chair.  Once on the chair I could reach around that 10 inch stucco wall to grab her and bring her back.  Then I had one heck of a time retrieving my chair!  It was about that point that I realized I was hanging off my balcony railing (in my jammies and flip flops) 3 floors above the ground!  And I'm scared of heights!

"Not going out there.  Nope.  Not EVER again!"

 A week has gone by, and Miss Boots is still rather uninterested in the balcony.  She wasn't seriously injured ... just one scraped paw pad, probably from trying to catch a grip on the stucco.  No hu-moms were injured either.  Phew!

Since Miss Boots became an EVEN MORE INDOOR cat this past week, she decided the best place to be was in the hu-mom's lap.  And what can be better than a hu-mom's lap?  Why, a hu-mom's lap underneath some cozy knitting!  With her ... ahem ... "assistance", we finished this 72 inch long kid mohair and silk shawl.  It's hanging over a curtain rod in this picture ... I spritzed it generously to block it and bring up the fuzzy halo of the mohair.  I've already given it away, but I think I want one for myself now.

Have a great week y'all!  Enjoy the autumn colours ... and keep your cats safe!

Monday Morning Blu - u - u - ues ...

I went to a party on Friday.  It was a sad party ... a good-bye to two special friends who are moving away.  Consequently, I've been thinking about friends I've lost track of over the years, and feeling a bit blue.

It's going to be a blue day ...

Squished Finger

Haven't been blogging regularly again, eh?  Shame on you! 

What?

Oh ... I haven't been blogging regularly lately?

You're right.  Shame on me!

But I have an excuse ... I squished my right index finger with the heavy new bear-proof garbage dumpster lid outside my apartment building.  Do you know how hard it is to type without using your right index finger???  Take my word for it ... cuz I truly don't recommend squishing your finger with a dumpster lid!!! ... it's really challenging.  And worse than that ... I can't knit or crochet with the danged thing all battered and sticking straight out!

'Pre-squish', I was busy crocheting bunnies ...

... with floppy ears and fluffy tails.

Then I devoted a weekend to finishing these socks.
(A strange woman on the city bus handed me a
plastic bag one morning and said 'here, finish these
and you can have them, needle and all'.  She had
already knit one entire sock and was past the heel
on the second sock ... I guess she decided
knitting socks was not for her (to my benefit)!

Socks finished, and more bunnies to go, I foolishly decided to do a quick lick of housework and take the garbage out.  That's when I discovered the heavy new bear-proof garbage dumpster lid.

Le sigh dramatique.

Oh well ... last year about this time, Wildlife officials had to destroy a (hungry) young bear who kept 'shopping' at our dumpster, and that was very sad.  Better me with a squished finger than a dead bear!

So ... without THAT outlet, I had to find new ways to satisfy my creative urges.

I participated in a day-long roundtable with folks from
all over our province who are involved in front-line
care services for seniors ... it was held in the BEAUTIFUL
Administration building at our local university ...

... in the University Senate Chambers. 
I've never been beyond the carved Senate Chambers

doors before.

 

I read THIS book.

And I tried a couple of recipes ...

salad type things.

Yummy!

But I'm not impressed with the author's suggestions

to SNEAK beans into brownies and spaghetti ...

some foods just don't need extra beans!

However ... if you are interested in sneaking beans

into other (regular non-bean) foods, then

I recommend this book to read.





I read THIS book.
Fascinating yet disturbing.
I highly recommend it.

I am now reading THIS book.
I'm not very far into it, so will reserve judgment for now.


Getting a little tired of reading here, so ...


I got all gussied up
and had me an evening out.
NOTE TO SELF:  those red patent leather high heels HURT!
QUESTION TO SELF:  how did that happen?  Used to love
wearing them!

 

Another NOTE TO SELF:  do NOT take eyes off cat
when wearing dangly earrings with feathers in them!

 Meanwhile ...

"It was not me who put those nose prints
all over the bathroom mirror.
It was definately not me!
I do not get up on the bathroom counter
and talk to myself in the mirror.
No, I definately do not!
I am innocent!
See ... don't I look innocent?
DON'T I???"

Since this is such a boring post, here are some random thoughts that I have written down in a small notebook that I carry with me on the city bus.  You may or may not chuckle at some of them ...

1. Alarm clocks are self-inflicted torture.




2. Always leave a spare pair of boots at the office.



3. As a rule, people who use the express lane at the grocery store can’t count.



4. Bears like apples even when the apples are in a sturdy box in the carport.



5. Beetle-killed wood is really beautiful.



6. Brainstorming is best done with pen and paper.



7. Bugs bite.



8. Bus shelters were not designed by bus shelter users.



9. Chocolate is indeed an essential food group.



10. City transit buses are only good for the next connecting bus and bus drivers tell each other who is transferring.



11. City transit buses never run on statutory holidays / after 9 pm.



12. “Company dinner” with hunting friends does not mean moose meat will be on the menu.



13. Crows are humorous.



14. Don’t tell me your personal life story ... I don’t want to know!



15. Downtown PG stinks.



16. Downtown PGers care.



17. Every student should wait tables to learn people skills.



18. Everyone came from somewhere else.



19. Everyone in my building listens to CBC Radio.



20. Fabricland is only 0.1 hours away.



21. Formal wear is always optional at formal events.



22. I don’t “get” jogging.



23. I have come to terms with my roots.



24. I like nice pens.



25. Internet users outside the downtown core have dial-up service.



26. It’s a dry cold up here.



27. It’s not unusual to see people wearing sandals and winter jackets at the same time here in PG.



28. Local transit schedulers are not church-goers.



29. Lower BC Mainlanders have no idea about life beyond Hope BC.



30. Moose are much bigger than you think.



31. New underwear is too frequently an overlooked pleasure.



32. News is always bad news.



33. Northern BCers are very generous.



34. Northern BCers are very resourceful / creative.



35. Northern rivers are REALLY cold all summer long.



36. October is definitely too early to put up Christmas lights.



37. Offer free food and they shall come.



38. PGers leave everything to the last minute.



39. Shouldn’t the Tim Hortons Drive Thru sign say Tim Horton’s Drive Thru?



40. Summers may be short up here, but oh! The incredible gardens!



41. The same people who ask businesses to display their event posters in store front windows should return AFTER said event to take down their posters.



42. Thongs are great but you might experience chilly butt cheeks.



43. Trucks rule in city intersections.



44. Via Rail trains give me itchy feet.



45. Waiters always ask how your meal is when your mouth is full.



46. We have Dollar Giant, Dollar Store, Dollarama ... but their merchandise costs $1.25, $1.50, $2 ...



47. Wearing gloves is not eccentric.



48. White Zinfandel is great wine.



49. Why do they put gravy on your meat instead of on your mashed potatoes?



50. You can always talk about the weather.

 
So until next time, cheers from
LD with the squished finger.

Leaving On A Jet Plane ...

Infidel socks - the right one.
Apparently holding up both feet at the same time
is a feat I can no longer manage
without falling over!
(Oh damn!  The date is wrong on my camera again!)

... no, I'm not leaving on a jet plane, but if I were I might wear my new "Infidel" socks!  Actually, next week I'm treating myself to a week of "Staycation" ... a holiday at home.  No grand plans beyond a challenge to "do something tourist-y" at least once.  Hmm.  Will have to think on that.  I'll keep y'all posted!

It's been cool and rainy here, so my balcony garden is looking (mostly) quite luscious.

Look what "volunteered" to reappear this year!
These little beauties are one of my absolute favourites!

This is why MINT should be restrained in small pots!
Mint, anyone???

My BASIL needs to take lessons from the MINT!
Not even enough for one little batch of pesto!

HEY!
LOOK AT THIS!
SOMEBODY has been nibbling on the HOPS VINE!

WHO?
WHO HAS BEEN NIBBLING ON THE HOPS VINE?
WHO DARE INTRUDE ON MY BALCONY
AND NIBBLE ON MY ... er ... the ... er ...
... never mind ... I'll just go inside now ....



I really don't know what you're insinuating ...
I would certainly never nibble on the Hops Vine!

The Boots and I spend a lot of hours outside on the balcony.  However, this past week, she attempted something that might put an end to her unsupervised balcony time.  She was out there, and I was in the kitchen doing up supper dishes.  I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, glanced across our apartment to the balcony, and there was Mizz Bootz precariously performing a very wobbly tiptoe across the upper edge of the balcony railing! 

Our THIRD FLOOR balcony - summer 2010.

Mizz Bootz is an indoor kitty.  She has claws, but I keep her front claws trimmed short so she doesn't scratch things (especially me).  She does NOT have sufficient claws to dig into wood railings!  And it's a long fall down to the ground!

Anticipating a heart-wrenching SPLAT and picturing horrendous vet bills as the happiest possible outcome, I walked over as (not) calmly as humanly possible, lifted her down, and explained in a very (not) calm quiet voice the potential negative results of her trapeze ballet.  WTF?  Last summer, she was practically too chicken to even LOOK THROUGH the railing!

I want my chicken kitty back.

Next week's staycation might be very interesting!

Wild Roses

I was sitting out on my balcony recently and marvelling at the wild rose bushes along the fence behind my apartment building.

Nothing particularly remarkable about wild rose bushes, I suppose, but for some reason this year, I find myself fascinated by them.

I have also found myself thinking about the wild rose bushes around the perimeter of our Okanagan orchard.  Long ago wild rose bushes.  Long gone wild rose bushes. 

You see, the Okanagan Valley is very rocky.  Or China is very rocky and enterprising Chinese citizens industriously pushed their rocks through the core of the earth to the Okanagan whenever we weren't paying attention!  During the 1950s and 1960s, South Okanagan orchardists spent many many many hours picking up rocks and piling them around the perimeters of their property.  Rock picking was a regular part of every summer routine.  So when we moved onto our property in the mid 1970s, there was a 2 to 8 foot tall bank of rocks all around it.  I think we even added to the piles for a couple of years because every time we dug a hole to plant a tree or fix an irrigation pipe, MORE ROCKS surfaced ... did you know those suckers BREED LIKE RABBITS when you aren't looking?!? 

The rock piles were rather nice.  They were great playgrounds for kids.  They were wonderful habitats for cool critters like garter snakes.  As a kid, I climbed on plenty of them!  (rock piles and garter snakes!)  They let you know where you were, whose orchard you were on.  They were natural fences.  As a mom, I could say "don't go past the rock pile" and the youngsters knew where their safe boundaries were.  Wild roses grew on them.  Wild asparagus grew along the base of them.  Yes, they made it 'tight' to turn the tractor and other farm equipment at the end of some rows of fruit trees.  Yes, they meant you had to 'go around the long way' when you wanted to visit the neighbouring orchard, unless you were up for shinnying over the rock pile.  Those rock piles were just a fact of life to me, having grown up in the South Okanagan during the 1950s and 1960s.  Like the freckles on my arms ... just THERE ... just NORMAL.

Well.  By the beginning of the 1980s, my mate got to seriously looking at the rock piles and announced they had to go.  They were unwanted.  Unnecessary.  He calculated that without those rock piles, we could plant I-forget-how-many more fruit trees and I-forget-how-many more fruit trees would clearly mean MORE MONEY.  As well as more room to turn the tractor and other farm equipment at the end of some rows of fruit trees, and the ability to visit neighbouring orchards without having to 'go around the long way' or shinny over the rock pile.  So he hired a local contractor to haul away the rock piles.

I-forget-how-many truckloads of rocks got loaded and hauled away.  I suppose they became rock fill for some highway bed or something.  It took DAYS to haul them all away. 

The next thing we knew, we had unhappy neighbours.  "Your sprinklers are now sprinkling onto our driveway."  "Your chickens are now scratching over here in our orchard."  There is something to the old adage "good fences make good neighbours"!  My mate laughed and replied "what's your problem?  Half of those damned rocks were YOURS and I  paid to have them hauled away!"  (I'm pretty sure he never once thought about asking the neighbours if they wanted their half of the rock piles hauled away, but that's another story for another time.)  And the more money thing?  Nope.  I-forget-how-many more fruit trees really meant I-forget-how-many more fruit trees need to be watered, sprayed, pruned, thinned, picked and cared for, but somehow never really added to the company coffers.

The sad part of the entire thing is that by the time the last truckload of rocks rumbled away, I couldn't remember what the wild roses looked like.  Oh, I missed the asparagus every spring when it didn't come back, and clearly remembered what asparagus looked like in the field and on my plate.  But for the life of me, I couldn't picture what the 'gone' wild roses looked like!  How could something that was such a normal part of my existence just disappear without an indelible recollection of some kind?  I would even have been happy with a faint and fuzzy recollection, but, nope.  Nada.  Zip.  Just ... gone.

All this has been on my mind this spring as I've watched the wild rose bushes bloom.  It's like I've never ever seen them before ... and like I'm seeing old friends again for the first time in decades ... all at the same time.  Does that make any sense? 

On the knitting front, my red socks are done ...

... and feel DELICIOUS on my feet!  I have a pair of pastel pink and dark khaki "Infidel" socks started ...

Wait a minute!  What happened to my sock? 

Well ... I was happy with the colours and design, but not 100% pleased with the fit, so "a-frogging we did go, a-frogging we did go" ... back to the cuff.  It won't take long to re-knit what I ripped out.  It really is amazing, you know.  A half hour of knitting on the bus morning and evening, and I've got a finished pair of socks without any serious time commitment.  Sitting-on-the-bus time isn't REALLY productive time, so ACCOMPLISHING SOMETHING during non-productive time is a pleasant surprise.  Or is that warped thinking?

In the meantime, I treated myself to a new knitting book ...

... "Around the World in Knitted Socks".  It's very inspirational!  Great photography, easy to read directions, and ...

... socks with fancy patterns on the soles as well as the more visible sock parts!  How cool is that?  (I can hardly wait to try this pattern for Dutch socks!)

Occasionally Mizz Bootz climbs into my lap and bites me to tell me "enough with the knitting already, pay attention to ME!"  As soon as she bites me, she "kisses it better" by licking me as she really is gentle at heart.  

Happy last-week-of-June, y'all!

Golf Tournament, hunting and knitting

I survived.  No, I did not golf.  Golf is a totally pointless game so far as I am concerned.  My apologies to any golfers out there!  I was strictly in tournament organizing mode.  That made for a 12 hour day, a sunburn, and many many many mosquito and bug bites.  I am too old for 12 hour work days.  I am also not fond of sunburns and bug bites!  However, it looks like the tournament was a fundraising success, so I shall now quit my bitchin'!

On second thought, NO, I won't quit my bitchin' quite yet.  I came to the frustrating realization this past weekend that for the fifth Sunday in a row, I had to go hunting.  Some of you ladies know what I mean when I say "hunting" ...

'Hunting' tools ... tweezers and Oil of Olay ...

... "hunting" for those pesky obtrusive menopausal chin hairs!  I have generally considered myself blessed due to blonde and very scant body / facial hair.  Well!  Dang!  Those chin sprouters are like wicked wire!  Or maybe mutant boars' (sows'?) bristles!  I swear I tweezed out one that could have totally been utilized as a toothpick!  Gramma never warned me about THAT!  We.  Are.  Not.  Impressed.

We are, however, very impressed with this Austermann's "Royal" sock yarn ...

Geranium red!

It's a joy to knit, probably due to the 10% silk / 10% cashmere content.  Yes, I knitted at the Golf Course.  (What did you expect?  Wherever I go, my knitting goes too!)  Sock #1 done, Sock #2 started, and the little seedling geraniums in my balcony planters starting to bloom.

Hockey and Knitting

Are you a hockey fan?  As in the Stanley Cup series hockey fan?  I don't own a television, but grew up on Saturday "Hockey Night in Canada" and do enjoy following the game. 

"Stanley" and I followed this year's Stanley Cup Series together.

I don't know about you, but I was truly appalled by the bad behaviour following the seventh game!

"No, Stanley!  Don't do it!  Don't jump!"
Stanley, upon news of the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot,
was extremely distraught.

So where were YOU and what were YOU doing during the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot?  I was knitting ...


A new pair of RED socks with a ruffled top edge...
Austermann's "Royal"
(60% wool, 20% polyamid, 10% silk, 10% cashmere)

I didn't think I was EVER going to finish knitting my last pair of socks ...

FINALLY!  Turning the second heel ...

... cuz there was a little WOOL INCIDENT.

"Wool?  What wool?  I know not of what you speak!"

"Oh ... you mean THIS tangled stuff?
Is THIS your wool?
Hmmm ... I wonder how this got up on my kitty tower?"

"Yelling 'WTF!  ANOTHER SKEIN!' is not very polite, Hu-mom!
I don't ever yell at you!"

Let's just say it took me the better part of a week to UNTANGLE after the above INCIDENT! 

It was enough to turn this hu-mom WHITE HAIRED!!!

Consequently, I had no time for knitting pink .  Fortunately, I managed to NOTICE pink so here is some pink images for the Milkman's Wife:

Pink dump truck

Pink songbook (for politically incorrect grannies!)

Pink wild rose

Pink blossoms

I have to go to a golf tournament tomorrow.  Hmm.  I don't golf.  I don't even remotely like golf.  It's a work-connected duty.  I hear there are mosquitoes and bugs out there.  Wish me luck!