We're All Getting Older...

Well, this blog turns 3 on the 24th of this month...
And Older Son turns 14 on the 29th of this month...
But they're both still younger than my niece, Princess Knitsalot, who turned 21 on the 14th.

How's that for a hideous picture of me? It is a toss up as to which is more heinous - me or the wallpaper!

The cake was a team effort. Older Son and I made it together. He is in charge of icing and other decorating. He will make someone a good husband someday!

Let It Snow!

This gentleman greeted me in the yarn when I got home from work on Wednesday last week. It was a perfect snowman day last Wednesday... Unfortunately it has stayed warm so Mr. Snowman has deteriorated, but the picture commemorates his brief existence nicely.
Next post marks 300 for me. Perhaps I should do something special?

Reflections on Blogging

Here we are on the 26th of July. It has been 20 days since I last blogged. While I've never seen myself as a daily blogger, this is unusual for me, although I do think that it is a part of a trend in my blogging. Is this part of the natural cycle of blogging or is it something more related to me? I have noted recently that some of the bloggers that I have truly enjoyed reading over the past couple of years have either completely stopped blogging (some deleting their blogs entirely) or have decreased their blogging significantly. Truth be told, I still read others blogs almost daily, although I don't comment as much as I once did. And since I often read them through a reader feed, I'm not even sure if it registers that I do still follow them and read them.

When I look back to my first blogiversary blog post, I think that I still blog for the same reasons that I started to blog. So why do I blog less often? It isn't for lack of things to blog about, but perhaps I feel like what I blog about is more irrelevant now than I once thought? Perhaps it is that I have pretty well given up swapping? I don't know.

I know that it is not from lack of things to blog about. C'mon - Miss Me has an opinion about just about everything! I fully respect your right to have an opinion, but I also expect you to respect my right to have an opinion that differs and to express it. I do still wonder about things. For example: Have you ever looked at looked at the neighbours section of People in Ravelry? Have you ever wondered what the implications of this might be? For me personally, I think that perhaps I need to move... How hard could it be to learn to speak either Estonian or Finnish? And then immigrate and find a job...?

And way back on the 4th of July I turned 45! And I got yarn for my birthday... I haven't even taken photos of it yet, although truth be told, one of the skein is STILL damp from my initial slobbering. It is that pretty.

And we went on "vacation" to Cape Breton again. We went to Louisbourg and I bought fibre related stuff! And I went to Baadeck Yarns and spent a few dollars...

What is the point of all this? I'm missing blogging. I'm mourning the disappearance of some of the bloggers that I regularly read. If anyone out there is still reading - leave me a comment, okay? And if I have every read you with any regularity but might have been quiet recently, rest assured that I AM still reading you! Or better still, if you read me and I don't read you, leave me a comment - I'll come by for a visit!

What I Got for Christmas

Santa brought me Opal sock yarn!Mr. Me gave me one skein of Malabrigo Lace Weight in a lovely pink colourway. Cactus Flower...
And a skein of Alpaca with a Twist "Fino". Alpaca and silk... Yum!
And a copy of "Knitting Lingerie Style". All in all - a pretty good Christmas, but it wasn't without a hitch or two. The biggest hitch? No electricity from noon until about 5PM. Made it kind of hard to roast the turkey. We ate a 10PM... But at least we had a turkey, a warm house and we weren't stuck in an airport somewhere trying desperately to get home. How about all of you? How was your Christmas?

Bus Blogging

Edit: Links have been added...
I feel like a very bad blogger these days, but I'll swear that someone has shortened my days recently. I could really use a few more hours in each day...
With winter flexing its muscles today, it looks like it might be a longish trip home. Too dark to knit or read and still too wound up from work to sleep makes for an excellent blogging opportunity. It also helps that I remembered to charge this little Blackberry beast last night. I could go for weeks without charging my old cell phone, but this thing needs to be fed regularly!
On the knitting front: I finished the Arch Shaped Socks for my MIL for Christmas. I knit myself a pair of Lucy Neatby's Mermaid Socks for myself. And a new hat, too! Remember the toilet seat cover? The yarn has become my Little Red Cap. I don't think that I would say that it is PERFECT, but I am generally pleased with the results.
On the needles: A pair of Azure socks. And a sweater. And probably a dozen other things that I have currently forgotten about.
On Christmas: See my request for longer days above... Although I need to give a great BIG public Thank You to blogless Kristie in Maine for giving me a hand with a little Christmas magic. Could someone please explain the logic international shipping fees to me? What? No takers??? Probably because there is no logic to it.
The drawback of bus blogging on my Blackberry: No links or pictures. I'll try to remember to come back to it later...

Christmas Knitting

Announcing my first finished handknit Christmas gift! Ta-da!!!

Pywacket socks for my SIL. Note the detail of the lace, how it looks like little pawprints. Yes, she is an animal lover. The yarn is the lovely Trekking yarn that I won earlier this year in (Not-so) Cynical Knitting Gal's contest. They were knit on 2.25mm needles, smaller than I would normally use but considering the lace, I needed something a little bit smaller. Since (Not-so) Cynical Knitting Gal is an animal lover, too, I really hope she'll be pleased with the end product. I was going to knit myself some "coffee" socks, but the yarn told me it was wilder and furrier than coffee... Mouthy yarn...

Reality Check

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving and as I write this it is just around noon. So far today I have made the dressing for the turkey, stuffed the turkey and put it on to roast, started the turnip puff, made the blueberry crisp for dessert, washed all the pots and pans, turned on the dishwasher and washed and hung out to dry two loads of laundry. The truth is that I am feeling anything but thankful. Resentful and grouchy would be closer to my current state...

However, if I take a step back and look at my life, I really should be more grateful and thankful. I have two wonderful children, who are both bright and healthy. I myself am healthy. My husband is healthy. Both Mr. Me and myself are gainfully employed with jobs that allow us to afford a beautiful home and some perks that we truthfully take for granted. We live in a democratic country that affords us rights, priveleges and freedoms that many can't even dream of. (A special note to my fellow Canadians, don't forget to vote tomorrow. I don't care how you vote so long as you vote your conscience.) So even though I'm going to go and iron now, I really should be more appreciative, although I'd rather be knitting!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We're 141 Today! Happy Canada Day, Eh?!

In celebration of our birthday, here are a few facts about Canada for you:
1. Canada has more inland waters and lakes than any other country in the world.
2. Winnie, from Winnie the Pooh is short for Winnipeg - Lieutenant Harry Colebourn's hometown. Lt. Colebourn left the bear at London Zoo while passing through London on the way to France.
3. Canada is the second-largest country in the world
4. Canada has a population of over 32 million
5. Canada has the world's longest coastline.
6. Forests cover almost half of Canada.
7. In Canada, if a debt is higher than 25 cents, it is illegal to pay it with pennies.
8. The first prime minister of Canada was Sir John A. Macdonald.
9. Canada is a federation of ten provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan) and three territories (Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut).
10. Canada's east coast is closer to London than to its own west coast.
For more facts about Canada, have a look here.

And what have Canadians done to enhance your lives? Well, we invented:
1. Insulin
2. Penicillin
3. Basketball
4. The Canadarm
5. The Zipper
6. Instant Mashed Potatoes
7. The Lightbulb
8. The Garbage Bag
9. Superman
10. The Gas Mask

Now I know that there is some dispute about the Canadian-ness of some of these inventions, but since today is Canada Day, today they are decidedly OURS!!!

See? I Have Been Knitting!

So I feel like I have been very absent recently... I have been knitting, although I haven't been good about either blogging or keeping up with some of my favourite blogs, so if some of you find me commenting on old posts, it's just that I'm getting caught up, although I may just try to get caught up without commenting. Let's hope that I don't miss anything crucial in anyone's life! Since the kids are away for the next 3 WEEKS I hope to be around more over the next little while. I love my kids, but I appreciate them more after they haven't been around for a while.
Yesterday I went to a baby shower. It was for a second baby so I wasn't quite sure of what would be a good gift, but you can't go wrong with a handknit sweater can you? Last weekend during my LYS' WWKIP sale I bought a couple of balls of Marble to knit this very sweet top down cardigan. I started it last Saturday and it was good to go by Thursday evening. How's that for instant gratification? Since I don't have any babies around, I recruited Older Son's teddy bear, Big Bear, as a model. Didn't he do a fabulous job?

And after the baby shower, I meet up with some girlfriends for supper. This is something that almost never happens, so I thought that it was an excellent opportunity to bring out my SoTSii stole. This has been finished (and blocked) for ages, but I haven't had the chance to either wear or photograph it.

Big thanks to special guest photographer, Older Son.

Blah, Blah, Blah...

Why isn't winter over yet? C'mon, it's been long enough already! Not only am I fed up with all the snow, cold, slipping and sliding, it's just really all bringing me down... It's especially bad when I see all of the ab-fab flowers that some of you Southerners have. One season? Two seasons? SOLD!!! So long as none of them involve snow, okay?
March came in like a lion in New Brunswick, so hopefully it will hold true to form and will leave like a lamb. Although in the meantime, our forecast for Wednesday includes 25 - 35 cm of snow. For any of you Americans, 10 - 14 inches of the white stuff. Nice, eh? NOT!!!
Just to give you a little perspective on my life tonight, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Moncton right now. Just me, my laptop and nothing much on TV. I'm only staying over one night, but I brought two knitting projects with me. I'm sure that there is some logic to it, but I haven't figured it out. I cast on the first of my SKP socks this evening. Any illusions that I had about competitive knitting died a very, very quick death when I logged on to get the pattern on Saturday morning only to discover that some of the European knitters had already finished their first socks! How fast do they knit?
I made good progress on my SOTSii stole over the weekend and am actually only 10 rows away from completing clue 7 and being completely up to date. Now if could have brought this with me to finish, but that would have somehow violated the aforementioned logic. Nope - I don't know how, but I'm sure that it would have somehow thrown my knitting universe off kilter and into a tailspin. Considering my winter blahs, I just didn't want to risk it.
It's March break for the kids this week and they're very much looking forward to a week off. I'm not quite sure why they need it considering all of the snow days they've had, but I guess that I shouldn't begrudge them some time off school. I'm planning on taking Thursday and Friday off with them. Mr. Me has suggested that we take the boys to Huntsman Marine on Thursday for a day out. Do you think that he'd notice if we accidentally ended up off course here?

Having Tidied Up 2007 - Happy New Year!!!

Okay, so I'm a few days late... Given the weather, I could have hibernated through the first few days of the year. So far, the jury is out on 2008 as far as I'm concerned. The first scheduled work day of the year (January 2nd) was a "snow day". We got clobbered. I haven't uploaded the photos of the snow piles in the yard from the camera, but once I do, I'll post them. They are pretty darned impressive. Our snow plow man had to use his tractor with the bucket to move the snow... The half tonne with the plow blade just wasn't going to cut it anymore... If that wasn't enough, it has become bitterly cold. Fortunately, I had a block heater installed in my car in 2003 because without it, I wouldn't have been going anywhere the past couple of days. It is supposed to be warmer over the weekend, followed by above freezing temperatures next week. Oh - that should be fun - NOT! I imagine all sorts of flooded streets that will later become impromptu rinks... Given my clumsy tendencies, I foresee bruises to both my body and my ego in the near future. Most spectacular falls are pretty well guaranteed to happen while I'm dressed in business attire - read: skirt and dress boots. If you see me, try not to laugh, okay?
So did we do anything special for New Year's Eve? Nope. Why not? It SNOWED! We had planned on attending our local First Night activities, but I doubt that we could have gotten out of the driveway so it was a quiet night in.
On the knitting front, I am working on the Cabled and Rib Scarf from Knitspot. The yarn is 100% Superwash Merino from The Sweet Sheep in a yummilicious colourway called Orchid Petal. The scarf is for ME! Me and my new black coat deserve a new scarf. I'm sure of it! The pattern and yarn were the last installment of the Flavour of the Month Club that I received for my birthday. I don't think that I posted photos, but I will try to get a true colour shot of the WIP to post. No promises - indoor photos with artificial light are, well, sucky!
With an enabling nod of thanks to Cynical Knitting Gal, I joined the Secret of the Stole KAL. This will be my first "mystery" KAL. I'm looking forward to it! I finally made a decision about the yarn and ordered 4 skeins of Knitpicks Shadow in Oregon Coast Heather. Of course I ordered some other things, too, but since they're birthday presents for January birthdays, I'm not going to mention them since the January birthday knitters do sometimes drop by for a visit... Now let's hope that everything arrives promptly so that I can knit my swatch for the stole and get some birthday gifts delivered on time (for a change.)
I still want to tell you about my knitting related Christmas gifts, but that may just have to wait...
A belated happy 2008 to everyone - may it be a good year for everyone.

The Pics, Ma'am... Just the Pics

So you've seen the brown box before... And I'm still having issues with the uploading of photos with Blogger... To be precise, I can upload, but I can't move them around. And since Blogger inserts each new picture at the start of the post I've had to load the photos in reverse order. Is this why my brain hurts? Since I received not one, but two packages in the mail today, I was determined to post the photos from my SP11 package first. More swappy goodness later... Here we go - first glimpse of the box contents -

The group shot.

The Cadbury Magical Elves. They weren't really moving all that fast. It must have been me shaking in anticipation of getting to eat them! Chocolate with "popping" candy. Very yummy and FUN!

My beautiful new tote bag.

The very cute card.

Non-dietary fibre. A hand blended batt from Spritely Goods and 2 balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino that may end up as this. Aren't the colours gorgeous?!

Pampering bath products.

Patons Cables booklet. There isn't a single pattern in this booklet that I don't like!

A porcelain spoon from the Franz collection. Isn't it pretty?

I'll thank Jinxsa again now that you've seen "the goods" and I understand that a few of you have been over to visit her and have had a few laughs... Sorry - I should have included a "spray warning" about reading her!

More photos later. Next up - Winter Wonderland Coffee Swap package and a big "thank you" for Cheryl in Texas and my SITMT spoiler who sent me a package all the way from Norway! I'm feeling pretty special today. I'll post pics of both packages soon - hopefully tomorrow.

And I still want to tell you about the knitting goodies that I got for Christmas!

Sometimes It's Not What It Looks Like

It looks like just an ordinary brown box, but is it? No - it's not!!! It's my final SP11 package. It arrived the middle of last week. I've been trying to post about it but Blogger has been feeling cranky... Maybe they had a really good office Christmas party and Blogger is feeling a little hungover? So - does anyone want to know who it is from and what's inside???

My very fabulous SP11 spoiler was Jinxsa! And I must say that Jinxsa has made me feel very spoiled with all three of my packages. Looking back, it looks like I neglected to post photos of package number 2, although I know I mentioned it. We backed everything up to disk given the computer's recent health issues, but Mr. Me (who is in charge of tehcnical issues) didn't save them in such a way that I can find anything. I'll try to find the package 2 photos for posting, but I'm not hopeful... I may just have to share it's yarny goodness. And speaking of yarny goodness, shall I get on with the photos? Okay...
Oops - maybe not. Blogger seems to think that the brown box photo is enough. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! There will be photos later showing off my fabulous new tote bag, yummy fibre (I'm going to have to learn to use that spinning wheel), chocolate elves (RIP dear elves - they didn't live long), delicious mohair, a beautiful porcelain spoon, spoiling decadent bath products, a wonderful Patons pattern booklet and the sweetest card with a white Scottish Terrier on it. I'm sure that I have forgotten something but without the photos to jog my memory I'm completely lost!
If I don't get back before the 25th, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it, and enjoy a day off to those who don't. Jinxsa works in retail and has a special post planned for tomorrow... Drop by if you're curious.

SITMT Contest - Christmas Holidays

New Contest: Holiday memories and Holiday knitting. Contest starts today and will end on Friday, December 21st. All you have to do is write a blog post about the holidays. Include memories from when you were a child, Christmas knitting you are working on this year, and holiday traditions. 5 points for the post. If you include pictures, you will receive 1 point for each photo. Have fun!

I think that I will start by directing you here to see the Christmas knitting. Yes... Lots of socks, but then you all "get that", right?

Do you people really want to hear about my childhood Christmases? Are you SURE??? I guess that I'll have to admit that my memories of Christmas are not universally happy memories. I grew up approximately 20 miles away from both sets of grandparents. My grandparents could not have been more different. My Dad's parents were I suppose, middle class, and pious Baptists... Now I have nothing against Baptists, but that did mean that they were decidedly different from my Mom's parents. You see my mother is from a "mixed marriage"... No - I am not talking about racially mixed. My Grandma was raised as a Baptist, but horror of horrors, she had married a Roman Catholic!!! And my Mom's parents were decidedly working class.
At Christmastime, this often meant two separate visits, and sometimes two Christmas dinners. We always had to be on our best behviour at my paternal grandparents, while mayhem seemed to rule at my maternal grandparents. And then there was the temperature difference... I never ever remember eating a hot meal at my Dad's parents. It was always a sit down meal at the dining room table, with my Grandpa at the head of the table and my Grandma at the foot. I sat at my Grandpa's right since you need to have a woman to the right of the man at the head of the table and I'm left handed. It always made my cousin's jealous....
Dinner at my maternal grandparents was always decidedly less formal. My mother is the second oldest of five children. I have 3 cousins on my Dad's side, but there are 13 on my Mom's side. And my Mom's parents had a very small house... After at best a warm meal at my Dad's parents we would go up to my Mom's parents and take turns on the back porch to cool off. And dining? Well, that involved TV trays!
As for traditions, we had very few when I was a child. I always felt like this was something that I had missed. As we got older, I enjoyed making Christmas cookies with my sisters. We would hang sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies on the tree as ornaments. Gradually over the course of the season the tree would become barer and barer...
Our tradition now with our children is to go to the Christmas Eve service at our church, come home for a late supper and then off to bed after leaving Santa and the reindeer at bit of a snack (and a note of course). Christmas stockings always have Terry's Chocolate Oranges in the toes and a bag of chocolate money for prosperity in the year to come.

Things I've Read This Week

While I haven't been blogging, I have been reading other people's blogs, news items, etc. Some of them were quite interesting!
Earlier in the week I was reading Chan Knits. More particularly, this post. Which took me over to Crimson Purl and this post. Click on over and have a read. I think that you'll find it interesting. I know I did!
And then there was the Wall Street Journal article on Sock Wars. I sent it to Mr. Me for educational purposes. His response? "You people are crazy." I shared this response with a knitting friend who countered with "Let's see if he still feels that way after he stops getting handknit socks."
The pre-Christmas stress is building around here... Hopefully I can get back to things while Mr. Me heads out to finish his shopping tomorrow. I don't have to go because I'm DONE!!!

Christmas Knitting

I've added some links and corrected some names that were entered too quickly... Let me know if I missed something that you're just dying to know, okay?
Okay, I'd better be quick - before Mr. Me realizes that I'm blogging when he wants to write the annual Christmas letter. In keeping with the Christmas theme, I've got some finished object photos of my Christmas knitting.

MIL's Socks - The pattern is "My Petticoat Socks", and the yarn is Fortissima Colori.

Uncle Roger's socks. Briggs and Little Heavy Socks, knit in their 150th Anniversary colourway.
SIL's socks. Rib and Cable socks (by Nancy Bush) from Interweave Knits Fall 2005. The yarn is some of the Sisu that I purchased on vacation.

I've been found out... Gotta run... I'll try to get back with links later - bye!

Swaps, Shopping, Life in General

So SP11 is coming to a close. I don't have my final package all sorted out and mailed out yet, but I am getting close. My upstream pal is in a similar situation, but she's been having a few interesting challenges in her life. I can't wait to find out who she is! She's definitely given me a few laughs and smiles. I did do "my usual" with my downstream pal... Yes, I unintentionally revealed myself! Sigh... Sometimes I'm just too blonde for my own good. I haven't told her everything about me, so I still have some things to tell her about that hopefully she will find both interesting and amusing.
I'm busily working away on my WWCS package for my downstream pal. This time my pal is quite a challenge for me! But I like a challenge, so it is all good. I haven't been too communicative with her since she is very clearly dealing with some personal issues that require more immediate attention, but there is lots of information on her blog that I can work with, so hopefully she'll like her package. My upstream pal sent me a very cool link to a video of my theme song! Thanks, pal!!!
I'm not quite sure what is going to happen with SITMT... My downstream pal dropped out, for perfectly understandable reasons, but I'm still not sure what is going to happen with me. I may just hang back ready to spring into action as an angel. I'm thankful that my downstream pal communicated that she wasn't able to participate rather than leaving anyone hanging. It's the right thing to do!!! And I remain sockless from SITM... Good thing I had such a great time with my downstream pal for that swap. I would like to give full credit to AJ, our lovely swap hostess, for all of her hard work with both of these swaps. She can't control everything but has been very helpful and communicative.
Living close(ish) to the border and the strong Canadian dollar was enough to entice myself and some friends to spend the weekend shopping in Bangor, Maine. We had a very good time. We spent lots of money. We saved more money than we spent! Now I'd probably do Black Friday shopping again, but I'm not sure that I'm too inclined to get up to be at a store at 5am again unless it is a big ticket item. I bought mainly clothes, toys, DVDs... They would have still been there at say, 8am. The border crossing times were very good. We only had to wait about 10 minutes to get back into Canada. We paid our taxes and went on our way... Easy peasy. The only thing that might have been better would have been if there had been enough time to visit a yarn store or two... Non-knitters outnumbered knitters.
I'm on training for the next couple of days in anticipation of starting a new job on Monday. After 10 years of doing the same type of work, I'm looking forward to doing something different, although it is right in line with my training. I'm feeling both anxious and excited. I'll be doing very different work and for the first time in many, many years, the majority of my co-workers will be women... I'm used to working in "a man's world". Let's hope that I can adapt!
Both boys have received their report cards recently and they did very well. I'm so proud of my guys!
Unlike many of you out there in blogland, we DO NOT have out Christmas tree up! We always put up a real tree, so that won't happen until right before Christmas, but we do have up some of the outdoor decorations like our gigantic 6 foot wreath that we hang on the outside of the house and the wreaths on the stone gateposts. (That sounds far more impressive than it really is.) The house is starting to look very nice!
On the volunteer front, the start of the Christmas season means things like the church supper and working on our local First Night Activities. While both are enjoyable, why are some older "church ladies" SO BOSSY??? I always feel like I should be saluting them, clicking my heels and barking out "Yes ma'am!". They are VERY SCARY...

More Vacation Stuff

One of the best parts of my vacation was going to see The Yarn Harlot in Halifax. She was very entertaining and managed to convince me that I wasn’t all that abnormal! It is so good to find like minded people. I found myself in a room full of people to whom I would not have been embarrassed to admit that I had packed three knitting projects for a one week camping vacation… This is something that non-knitters would never, ever understand! They mistakenly believe that clothes are more important. I would agree on an adequate number of underwear changes, but beyond that? I don’t think so! Knitting trumps clothing for suitcase space just about any day.
Now one of the really nice things about going to see the Harlot was that I got to meet some of the knitters from KOL. You’ll find their link in my sidebar, and even some direct links to some of them… The downside of this is that I am now experiencing “knitting group envy”. Sigh… Don’t get me wrong – despite the fact that I haven’t made it to a meeting of the Fredericton Knitters' Group for a few months, I do enjoy the group. But KOL meets once a week… And they meet in public… And they now have matching shirts… And their leader (at least I think he is their leader) is a monster named Henry!
Getting back to the positive – I will get to meet up with them TWICE in October when I am in Halifax for meetings. No contest. Knitters versus civil servants? Knitters win everytime! Sorry co-workers but I won’t be joining you.
The day after the Harlot, we headed home via Chester Basin and Mahone Bay. Mr. Me wanted to go to Chester Basin, I wanted to go to Mahone Bay… If you’re in the area, drop in to Have a Yarn! It’s a great little shop.

Vacation Recap

So you all know from the “Sockrifice” post that we spent some time at MacLeod’s Beach, 2 nights to be exact. It is a very nice campground and I would suggest that it is a good spot for my fellow tenters. We also spent one night in Charlottetown, PEI, hanging out with some “mucky-mucks”… Only thing more fun would have been this pair in their respective kilts!

And then a couple of nights in Baddeck, Nova Scotia at the Bras d’or Campground - loads of fun! The Alexander Graham Bell Museum is decidedly worth the effort although I’m not quite so convinced about Giant MacAskill. Then one night in North Sydney after a day at Louisbourg… Louisbourg is amazing! We saw the usual historic exhibits, but the highlight had to be the archaeological dig that was in progress. Very, very impressive, supplemented by friendly and knowledgeable staff at the dig site.


And we got "mooned" by some ducks and picked up a couple of French marines!

Around the Cabot Trail,

MacLeod’s Beach, a night in Halifax with the Yarn Harlot for Miss Me,

a day in Mahone Bay and Chester and then home! All in all a good vacation, even though it wasn’t particularly restful. Now there is clearly more to it than that (like the stash I bought in Mahone Bay), but some of that may follow later!

Sockrifice

How many of you have had the nasty experience of runaway socks? I don't know what it is, maybe its the working conditions, afterall being in a potentially hot, damp and stinky environment isn't my idea of a good job, but a surprising number of socks simply disappear... This happens most often in the laundry as the socks find the magic doors in the washer and dryer, and know the password to get out and move on to sockutopia. While we miss them, I think that many of us applaud and admire their ambition to move on and find a better life. Fortunately, handknit socks tend to be much happier in their lives and socks, and far fewer of them simply leave without a word.
During our stay at MacLeod's Beach one of younger son's answered the call of the sea, leaving behind a stranded, bewildered and heartbroken mate... I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. The sock left behind sacrified itself to the great sock god by throwing itself upon a funeral pire. I can understand it's grief, but what I really hope is that it has found peace and changed our sock kharma.


Okay - so it was really just a campfire... Younger son has been playing in the surf our first night at the camp and had managed to get his socks and Crocs wet. So Mr. Me suggested that he take them off and play in the surf in barefeet... Fine - that makes sense. The only problem was trying to find a sand coloured sock in the sand at dusk! We could have just placed the lone sock in the trash, but the boys thought that a "sockrifice" would be far more fun! It got some odd looks, but whatever - it made the kids laugh! And considering this view, I can't say that I blame the other sock for wanting to stay on the beach.