Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Word-recognition seems to have done the trick. Please let me know if you’re having trouble. I’m always a bit scared when confronted with one, and sometimes they’re not at all easy. The example Blogger showed me was perfectly straightforward – I hope they’re like that in practice.

I couldn’t exclude Anonymous because Ron often logs in like that.

Well, here we are back. We had a good time, if an anxious one. I am mostly afraid that my husband will fall while pottering about in the garden. I did, twice, gentle falls onto soft grass, no harm done. He wouldn’t be able to get up again. But it didn’t happen. I can’t even assuage anxiety with cider while we’re there – a crisis might require me to drive. In Edinburgh, I could just dial 999 for an ambulance and have the vapours.

I was taken aback at my own decline – I’m used to his. How stiff I have become, and how exhausting are previously routine tasks. I devoted most of my limited time and strength to arboriculture – weeding, manuring, and watering the two trees we planted last year – the pinus bungeana, a Chinese temple tree put in to replace the Golden Scots Pine our children gave us as a Golden Wedding present (eaten by neighbour’s horses); and pinus sylvestris, the Scots pine itself, planted in memory of my husband’s sister.

I don’t know what she would think of it. She was never entirely reconciled to Scotland. But the tree is doing well.

And I netted the Summer Pudding Bush, which has set a good crop despite neglect; and hoed the potatoes; and did some weeding. Hat, the Babington leeks are hanging in there – i.e., alive, but not growing on their own yet.

Knitting

A new blog post from Franklin – they’re rare, these days. He promises us an e-book – that's something to look forward to.

I stumbled, this morning, via Zite, on the fact that I can watch Craftsy classes on the iPad although Archie and I have so far failed to upgrade the operating system so I can’t have full access to class material and so forth. So I watched Stephen West’s final lesson, on blocking. It contains a marvellous passage in which he has rolled a newly-washed shawl into a towel (as I do myself) and then stands on it on his head (as doesn’t happen here) while continuing to deliver the lesson.

While we were away, I started his Barndom shawl, from his newest collection, Westknits Book 4, “Made for Movement”. And have made good progress with it. I probably should have left it behind to be a Strathardle WIP but life seemed so uncertain that I brought it back. It’s a fun knit. I’m using one of the recently-purchased skeins of Rowan Art Yarns, and some not-quite-white madelinetosh sock that I bought when I thought I wanted to stripe the Relax.


Relax2 reached the divide-for-front-and-back point yesterday. It’s looking good.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:20 PM

    Welcome back home! It sounds like a very productive weekend. I am looking forward to the next rounds of knitting progress photos.
    Finally starting to feel summer-like in Toronto.
    LisaRR

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  2. Glad to have you back, a little Jean with my morning tea has become a ritual. I am a bit stiff myself from weeding. And weeding. The raining spring has seemed to help the weeds more than the crops. Things are big enough to mulch, now, so I hope to get to that. I just stand on my rolled up in a towel lace with my feet.

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  3. I am glad that you are home safe and sound and that you have been able to do something about the spam thing. It is good to get our hands dirty and take part in the cycle of rebirth and growth. I would love to see your commemorative trees.
    Ron in Mexico

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  4. GrannyPurple1:57 PM

    I am contemplating stripes for a third Relax--I find it the most comfortable garment I have ever made, and it could be a real stashbuster in sock yarns! You're much fitter than you realize with all that hill walking in Edinburgh--it's just the things you don't do all winter that take getting used to again!

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  5. Lynne in Florida6:38 PM

    Welcome back! I won't say "home" because "Home is where the heart is" and yours would seem to be in Strathardle. Some of my ancestors were from Scotland, and I dearly would have loved to visit, but that would no longer seem to be possible. I greatly enjoy reading about it, and your knitting, and your life in general. It's become an everyday habit. Thank you for taking the time to share yourself with the world.

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  6. Beverly3:18 PM

    I sit on my rolled up towel... as my husband laughs.
    Beverly near Yosemite

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