fudge

One of my cousins lives in Nanaimo (home of the Nanaimo bar), which is about an hour's drive north of Victoria, where my aunt and grandparents live. We got going in late morning, and made our way up island. We had brunch at the Longwood Brewpub, which was wonderful. It involved a buffet with lots of tasty food, and far too much dessert. :-)

water comes from the sky

So driving through Oregon and Washington isn't very exciting, though it takes a while.  It turns out that you're not allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon.  That was a little weird.  The internets tells me that apparently, the general public can't be trusted to pump their own gas (even though 48 other states think it's ok... it seems New Jersey has a similar law).  It was a bit odd.  I'll just have to try to avoid getting gas in Oregon on the way back.  At least it's not any more expensive than it is anywhere else.

travelling pumpkin

Shiny phone

This morning, I went to the pumpkin patch with a small child.  We found him a pumpkin, though he was much more interested in holding my phone.

Preparing for travel (don't worry, it was not on the dashboard while driving)

Then we got back to my friend's house, and I acquired a travelling companion in the shape of a pie pumpkin, grown by my friend.

road trip

I am driving to visit my grandparents in Victoria, Canada. I decided to drive because I have friends along the way.

This morning, after many delays that involved not having cleaned sufficiently and not having packed prior to this morning (the planned departure date), I finally got on the road.

cotton musings

I have been knitting an inordinate number of dishcloths recently. This means that periodically, I'll do pictures of too many dishcloths :-) Boring post, but hey, it gives me something to put here :P

monkeying around

A few days ago, I finished my Monkey Socks.  They were quite fun to make, and I rather like the way the colors worked out.  These happen to be the socks I wore while sailing - and while my feet and legs got damp, my feet were never cold, so I consider them to be a triumph.  These are the same socks I was working on in the post about heels.

Perry helped.

sailing

Crowds on Pier 39

Yesterday, my father and I had an opportunity to go sailing out on San Francisco Bay on a catamaran.  The group we were with had arranged for the sunset tour - and it was spectacular.

rain

With the advent of the rainy season comes hot chocolate and blankets.  It's easy to make hot chocolate without resorting to overly sweetened instant packets.

blocks and turns

Tube pre-turn (i.e., the leg of the sock)

The heel turn is one of the niftiest parts of a sock.

The outside of the heel turn

A sock is essentially two tubes that go around a corner with one end closed off.  The tricky part, when knitting a sock, is how to get around that corner.

hawk trapping

 Falconry* is the art of working with a bird of prey (an animal that does not necessarily want to work with you) to go hunting.

In order to do this, you need a bird.

There are two common ways to acquire a bird - buy one, or trap one.