Sun!

Sunny garden

That’s better.  Yesterday, I even got out to do some gardening.  Hopefully I will do the same later today.   Unfortunately, the sun shows up the smears on the dirty windows.

Murphy would like you to know that he is alive and well.  Well, he would if he could be bothered:

Murphy dozing

Friday Flowers: International Rose Garden, Portland, OR.

On Sunday morning, Jean and I escaped from the Sock Summit, yes they let us go, and headed out to the International Rose Test Garden.  We were obviously there at the right time of the year, as there were rows of roses:

Roses as far as the eye could see

Hadn’t I had enough sensory overload from the Sock Summit Market?  The roses seemed to smell nice too; I let Jean do the smell testing but I tell there was a nice rosey smell without sniffing individual roses closely.

There were yellow roses,

Yellow Rose Bud

light pink roses,

Pink Rose with Bee

and dark pink roses.

Dark Pink Rose

Red roses

Red Roses

and orange roses.

Orange Rose

White roses

White Roses

and cream roses.

Cream Rose

Lavender roses

Lavender Roses

and roses that dramatically changed color as they aged.

Yellow to red roses

These last are my favorite and yes, they start yellow and turn pink.  It was quite stunning.  Hmm, I wonder how many roses I can fit in my garden.

More pictures if you click on the RED rose photo.

—

Copyright © 2009 cdavies. Please ask permission to use my photographs.  Thank you

Coneflower Bud

Condflower Bud

Raspberry has Thorns

Thorny Raspberry

Raindrop

Raindrop on Grass

WIP Wednesday: Mitten and Sock

Since Christmas, wherever I have been cold weather has followed. From freezing in England to snow, ice, and freezing winds  in the US, I have only just started to warm up.  This has obviously influenced my knitting, which is currently focused on warming up my extremities, such as my hands.  Here is a mitten:

Longwool Mitten

Over in England, when I visited IKnit I bought two balls of Wensleydale Longwool, which is yarn from the same sheep that make the milk that is the main ingredient in one of my favorite cheeses.  I knew the yarn would be too itchy for my feet so I decided to try top-down mittens, making up the design as I go. While the first one came out well, I shall be making a few changes to the next one. The thumb will be moved into the hand a little bit, so that the mitten top is not twisted when worn.

Yesterday, I was feeling unwell so I stayed home and started a sock:

Stripped Toe Down Socks

This is made from stash yarn.  Free stash yarn, as many years ago Knit Picks sent it to me as a gift for being a good customer.  The needles are Kollage Yarns’ Square needles, which claim to be easy on your hands and wrists.

Kollage Needles are Square!

Knitting is going very smoothly,  especially the magic loop cast which worked first time. Since usually it takes me three or four goes to get it right, I shall give the needles credit as their clear points allowed me to pick up stitches easily.

The sock is going to be worked in stockinette as the yarn is too colorful to hold a design.  For the heel, I am using the short row heel from Interlocking Leaves.  Despite having knitted Interlocking Leaves I did not get to knit the heel exactly as instructed.  I had to change the pattern due to my loose gauge. Unfortunately when I got the heel, I could not work out what was meant to happen so, I fudged it.  This time, I have the right number of stitches so I can follow directions. Hopefully, I shall understand what is happening, so that next time I shall be able to modify the heel directions for different gauges and sock sizes. I also need to adjust the leg so that it fits my slender ankles and does not falling down.  Perhaps if I start decreasing directly after the heel?  Hmm.

Flowers Friday: Flowering Cacti

Flowering Cacti

Flower Friday: Fall Flowers

Cosmos Flower without Petals

With the frustration of the days getting shorter and cooler, I am apt to forget that there are still pretty flowers to enjoy in the garden. As well as cosmos, which are in full flower as well as losing their petals, I have asters:

Aster

Phlox:

Phlox

Toadflax:

Toadflax flower

There are more. Click on any of the pictures to visit my Fall Garden Photoset or come back next week when I will share some more.

Music Monday: Ashokan Southern Week

Instruments at Ashokan

I was thinking that I didn’t have any pictures for Music Monday, but if you click on the photograph it will take you to the set of almost 100 pictures I selected from the over 400 that I took two weeks ago at Ashokan Fiddle and Dance camp: Southern Week.

It was an amazing week. Due to the exhaustion I suffered working and playing hard at Ashokan, I rarely went to bed before 1 am and regularly got up by 8 am the next morning, I was unable to do any posts early last week! Next time I will have two weeks of posts lined up so I do not have to worry about neglecting my blog readers.

I should write any essay about the week, but it was very aural – even the pictures don’t satisfy the senses. You would have to put at least three CD players on all playing different music:

Cajun

Courtney playing fiddle

Appalachian Old Timey Music:

Radio Hour Initial Jam

Playing alone on a guitar or fiddle

Fiddler

and don’t forget singing

Singing Group and Campers' Night

and dancing:

Dancing

Conclusion for me:

• As I suspected, the singing style results being very low in my voice so I do not find it as enjoyable as classical choir, but I can do it and it is good to use that part of my voice.
• I cannot find rhythms easily under pressure and, while it looks fairly straight forward, flatfoot dancing is hard. As shown in this video:

• I tried both mandolin and accordion and decided that a mandolin would be more fun and I could sing at the same time as playing. I have every intention of getting one in the next month or so.

—

As you expected all photos  copyright ©2008 cdavies. Can be used with permission.

Murphy Monday

Because I thought you might want to see him too.