Damp & Murky

And I’m absolutely loving the weather change! Though I do miss the sunshine, I am definitely not a lizard. I have so much more energy in the cooler temps and I’m so happy I can spend time upstairs in my study/studio without melting my eyeballs. I’ve been trying to make up for lost time! I spent quite awhile using the big computer and scanning and printing patterns and organising my knitting queue better. I want to start about 10 different things. But I’m also trying to finish a few first.

And the finishing continues with the end of the Beaded Bias Scarf. I only have to block it now and of course photograph it. It’s too damp and dark today. Of course one project off the needles means I can start another! But which one to choose? So far I’m holding off (barely) and working on my Green Star sweater instead. I also have the Hot Spring Socks to finish for my DIL, The White Lady. Her birthday is in September while I’ll be away on vacation and I’d like to get them done before I go. They are no longer “spring” socks any more! Not sure why I lost the momentum but sometimes other things jump in front and demand to be worked on instead. Blame the heat. Or just the fact that I’m not feeling the Big Love for these. The pattern kind of gets lost in the yarn’s variegations. But, as I’ve mentioned before, she likes them and that’s what matters. They’re pretty much down to the heel flaps and should go faster after that. I’ll just have to try them again sometime with a more muted colourway.

What else? I froze nearly 2 kilos more of my beans on Friday. I was getting tired of having several huge bags of them taking up my fridge space. Besides they don’t last that long after picking. Now I need to get some new canning lids and some vinegar to make relish with the zucchini excess. I have lids but they are so ancient that I’m concerned they won’t seal properly and I don’t want to take the chance of ruining my relish. Lids are cheap; my time is not.

All the drying, freezing and canning reminds me of some news items I read recently where they were talking about the growing (hah! pun!) trend towards putting up produce while it’s in season. The gist of it was that more people are doing it these days as if it’s something “new”! Cracks me up. How do you think people had something to eat in winter back before the advent of the local supermarket? I do know why they would rather buy stuff already packaged though. It’s a LOT of work! But so satisfying. Food gathering and preparing is so basic to humanity. I’m sure it’s in the DNA.

Amusing story: I learned how to make dill pickles when I was a young newlywed – from my then-teenaged brother-in-law, no less. He took a cooking class in high school and shared the recipe with me. I still remember standing in the sunny kitchen over the tiny stove in our first basement-suite apartment and boiling up the brine. Now my daughter makes them too and many other pickle variations as well. Just passing it on. Come to think of it, I still have a jar of her delicious carrot pickles in the fridge. Yum!

We had Princess Pink’s birthday party yesterday. It was going to be at a park but the weather was rainy in the morning so it shifted to their house. Kind of crowded and noisy with all the cousins but fun. She got lots of lovely girly loot! Five years old now. Sigh. I remember when she was just a little sprout.

This is going to be a busy week for me. I have a party at my dentist tomorrow. Yes, really! He’s celebrating 20 years in business and we were some of his first patients. Most of the extended family go to him now too. Expensive but good. And Wednesday my friend Kirsten and I will sit the Hanji paper exhibit at the gallery at Emily Carr University. And the day after that is the paper fashion show. I have tickets for T-Man and myself to go. I still don’t know if my shawl will be in it but I think it depended on whether it was easy to extract from the exhibit or not. I don’t mind either way.

Enough of the babbling. I’ve got work to do while it’s still cool enough to think. At least I don’t have to water the garden.