09.09.09
I Was On Vacation - from Knitting!
I’m back from summer vacation. How was your summer?
No, I didn’t go any where exotic, but I was on vacation - a vacation from . . . knitting! (Only partially, as you can tell from the photo)! It wasn’t anything I planned, it just happened that way, and instead of guilting myself about it or forcing myself to pick up the sticks, I just went with the flow, which is what summer is all about.
You can see from the evidence it wasn’t a complete abstinence. I occasionally did pick up one project when my knitting girlfriends got together around a large pitcher of frozen margaritas. I finished this:
Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks
Ravelry link here, with more photos. This pattern is from Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush. The yarn is Socks That Rock on DPN#1. I figured my honey deserved to have these done for fall - perfect for those weekend mornings lounging on the couch and watching the tube. He’s a patient guy, considering I started these in January!
End of summer also means summer harvest. On a visit to my parents, my father sent me home with these goodies from his garden:
Bounty from my father's garden
I knew we couldn’t eat these all so I embarked on a blanching/freezing project the evening we got home from our trip. Not the most fun project on a warm and humid summer evening, but I knew I wanted to freeze the green beans while they were fresh off the vine to capture all that summer goodness.
Fresh green beans
The colors of summer
These veggies look luscious. My dad grows the long string beans, in the background, for the Filipino dish, pinakbet. I should learn how to cook that dish, but because I don’t, I decided to cut the beans into bite-sized pieces. I blanched and bagged three quart-sized bags of cut green beans. On a cold winter day, I will take these green beans out of the freezer and cook them to remind me of summer.
Labor Day, the official end of summer, was spent visiting my favorite New Hampshire cutie:
Two New Hampshire cuties & a Brooklyn cutie!
Munchie keeps getting bigger and cuter. Three months ago she was just beginning to crawl. Now she crawls and can walk around while holding onto furniture or pushing one of her push toys. She’s sooo close to walking on her own.
Sunday, we took a trip to beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. If you were on the East coast, you know it was a gorgeosouly blue and cloud-free weekend. The light is beginning to change, it’s quality almost brighter and sharper as the summer changes into fall. The leaves are still mostly green but if you look closely you can see flashes of reddish-orange popping up.
We went on a round trip boat cruise from end to end of the lake. The lake has hundreds of islands scattered about. This island caught my eye because it’s mostly house on this tiny island.
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The people who live here must wake up every morning extremely happy. (Although I wonder what they do if there’s flooding? ) It was a peaceful day, watching the water, the boats, and eating hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches. It was a pleasant way to say good-bye to summer.