On Safari for the Wild Delaware Butterfly...

Willow's class had a field trip today to the Ashland Nature Center, where the park rangers suited us up with nets -



And let us hunt for butterflies!



I had never done this before and some small part of me thinks that maybe I had more fun than the kids. There are two fields in the park where you can catch butterflies, and once you have caught them they are brought to the Butterfly House (a greenhouse-type structure covered in netting rather than glass) and set free inside it. There are all sorts of flowers and bushes in the Butterfly house that butterflies love to eat and it lets people see some pretty neat butterflies up close. I am proud to say that I caught three butterflies all by myself (it seems odd at my age - let's just say thirtysomething - to say 'all by myself') - two cabbage whites and one little blue guy with orange spots.

Here is a girl Willow's class holding my blue butterfly - I am not sure if you can see it through the plastic:



Here is a picture of a black and orange butterfly inside the Butterfly House:



And here is a Cabbage White on a red flower:



We were so worn out on the busride home - who knew that chasing after insects would be such hard work!



I think this is the sweetest photo - here is Willow and Soren holding hands as we were leaving the park:



People who don't know these two think that they are fraternal twins - and it is surprising how much they do look alike. Soren is a little older, but they are the same size, have the same colour hair, same eye colour, same face shape - completely different personalities, however.

Baby Blanket Received

My sister Jaime received the package I sent her full of baby things, and she sent pictures back of Liam in the Tangerine Dream blanket I knit for him. Isn't he adorable?



I love babies when they are sleeping like this. When they are so new I always wonder what they dream about.



See - I wasn't the only one who thought of the colour orange. Our other sister, Teri sent William a orange sleeper as well:



Um, yeah. I don't think that baby is going thirsty.

Here is a picture of the proud grandpa -my father, Guy:



Like the little pins on his hat? He cuts those out and paints them himself. Dad - I have an idea for those - I will have to talk to you after I make a trip to the craft store...

I only have one sleeve left to knit on Satomi's baby sweater (so much quicker than a blanket!!). I need to find some pretty buttons to go along with it. Since Satomi's baby will be a little girl I am feeling the need to get some girly pink or purple buttons considering the fact that the sweater itself is a pastel turquoise colour. I hate falling into these gender/colour stereotypes, but that feeling is tempered by the frustration I would feel when people would always ask me if Willow was a boy or a girl... well, sometimes regardless of the colour I dressed her in.

Am I Blue? (or, Some of my Favourite Things)

I started thinking up this post yesterday and was hampered by one little thing - my craptacular mood. I tried thinking of all the blue things I liked - for example, blue skies:


© Lonely Planet Images

But then the snarky PMS-y part of my brain said, "Yeah, but it's spitting with rain and you couldn't even go swimming if you wanted to." Then I thought of my cable-knit blue cardigan... but that has a small hole in it that I need to repair and thus cannot wear it right now. So, after a few more examples like that, I decided to leave well enough alone and just stew rather than to vent online.

I hopped on over to Webshots this afternoon and looked for some of my favourite blue things to show you. I had hoped to be able to import larger photos more easily, but it looks like to you will have to suffer through thumbnails. Please feel free to click on the thumbnail to get a better shot.

Sapphires:


by jordanrich1

Any coloured stone, really. I love emeralds, rubies, garnets, peridots. I think diamonds are boring and really have no desire to have a diamond ring. It's funny because some of the ladies I work with have some absolutely beautiful (and humongous) rocks on their ring fingers - but it is just not me. I love the dark cobalt colour of this particular sapphire - it ranks up there as one of my favourite shades of blue.

Blue Water


by dethlefsen

I didn't see much of this growing up - I mean, I grew up in British Columbia and of course there is water everywhere - but it isn't blue like this. Lakes sometimes in the summer, but certainly not the ocean or the Fraser River. Just looking at that shade of blue makes me feel cooler. Who needs airconditioning when you have colour therapy! Okay, maybe a little airconditioning...

Blue and Green Together


by sugartoestoo

I remember someone telling me in grade 8 that blue and green should never be seen together outside of the washing machine. Why the hell not? I love blue and green together. Most of my clothes are either blue or green.

Blue Heeler Dogs


by joangela104

Okay, while not technically blue, they do have the word blue in their names. I would love to have a Blue Heeler someday. I love herding dogs, and how compact Blue Heelers are. I also love the mottledness of their coats.

Cornflowers


by sjefu1

These grow wild on the side of the road where I grew up. You would drive down the freeway and see little patches of them everywhere in many shades of blue and white. It's too bad that British Columbia doesn't have the same approach to wildflowers as Texas does - it would be breathtaking to see fields of these flowers blowing in the breeze.

Turquoise


by lindas_shinythings

While not a fan of the colour of turquoise, I do like the stone - especially if there is a lot of black marbling through it as in these earrings. I don't know what the marbled effect does to the value of turquoise - but I certainly think it gives the stone more character.

Okay... maybe you have to be Canadian to get this one...


by peajacket

Anyone want to venture a guess?

I do have some blue knitting going on right now as well. I am working on Satomi's baby present (she is due the second week of September) and I am about 60% finished - hell, I might even finish this one within the month of June!

Cool Blue

What I wouldn't give to be here right now...



Photo courtesy of Webshots. I am not really sure where it is, but I think somewhere in Canada would be a good guess. It is so hot and sweltering here right now... and there are still three weeks before summer officially starts. This is one thing I desperately do not like about living on the East Coast. I don't think people here believe me when I tell them that we never had airconditioning growing up - it simply was not needed. I remember we got ceiling fans when I was in high school, but it was a nice thing, not a necessity.

Lolly at http://www.lollygirl.com/blog/ has asked us to flash our blue stash... so here you go, Lolly :) I have to say, pulling all this out made me think I need to cull through the stash again. What is in this pile? Well, in no particular order, Wildflower DK, Hot Socks variegated, Super Bulky from http://handpaintedyarn.com/index.php , Caron Bliss, Encore Worsted, Lion Brand Wool Ease, a merino/alpaca mix, Patons Astra, some Turkish rug yarn, Knitpicks Wool of the Andes... and lots of other stuff.



And here is a close up:



And for more Project Spectrum photos, may I present squares from Willow's I-Spy quilt made by her Great Aunt Daryth. Please forgive the blurry shots - my camera doesn't have a great zoom feature.





Trust me when I say that each of these sqaures means something - and Willow's is 16 squares by 16 squares. She has had the quilt for 18 months now and I am still finding new things in the quilt.

And Here He Is!

Say hello to my beautiful new nephew, William. His parents haven't told me yet how they plan to shorten that - Willow doesn't quite get the pronunciation so she has been calling him "Willy Am.
"


He's quite the bruiser, isn't he? Well, his Daddy is 6'5" so he definitely has genetics in his favour.



I can't wait to hold him!

And Plus One is a...

BOY!

William David M- was born by C-section at 9:07am this morning - which was a good thing because he ended up being transverse breach. Don't know what that is? Think of a baby doing the splits... He is 21 inches long, 8lbs 4.5oz, has dark curly hair and is all legs. I want pictures, Jaime! Good luck and much love to you and Chris!

Yippee! I'm an auntie again!

I Would Like the Record to Show...

...that the Tangerine Dream was finished at least 12 hours before Plus One was born.



It is 10:45pm EST and Jaime's c-section is scheduled for 8:45am PST tomorrow morning...



Now, to finish Willow's halter top and start Satomi's baby present.

And sleep.

Juicy Red Goodness

Guess what we have in the garden right now?



Don't these look yummy?



I have posted many photos of my in-laws' garden over the last few weeks. In the years that I have lived on the east coast, I have come to divide my in-laws' garden in my mind: the flowers are my father-in-law's domain, and the fruit and vegetables my mother-in-law's domain. It's still early for produce, but we have been picking asparagus and rhubarb for the last few weeks and in this last week the strawberries have ripened in amazing numbers. Of course, getting to them before the slugs do is the trick - my mother-in-law places tin plates of cheap beer throughout the strawberry patches which you have to navigate around when you pick these juicy lovelies.

I have a new addiction. Battlestar Galactica ( http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ ). Andrew is a fan, and I had watched the odd episode if he was watching it and I didn't want to give up my knitting perch. This past weekend he rented the entire first season from the local videostore and OMIGOD! I have been watching 3-4 episodes a night and getting away (rather sluggishly) on 5.5 - 6 hours of sleep a night. I only have one episode of the first season left to watch - and then the SCIFI channel is starting to replay the second season from the beginning next Friday. I really like this idea of being able to watch an entire series of television all at once - and I have been able to put a good 2 inches on Plus One's Tangerine Dream every night.

Mia Hamm Reincarnated?

Willow really wants to play soccer - the problem is, she's only 3 years old and the leagues around here insist a child must be 4 years old to even play in the baby league (oh, they don't call it that, but it might as well be - the nets are only about 20 feet apart!). She will be old enough for the fall league, but that doesn't start until September and Willow doesn't understand why she has to wait. Here is a photo of the aspiring Mia-Hamm-to-be:



I had plenty more photos of flowers to show you, but they apparently were not willing to be uploaded at the moment - so I will try to get them up later. Here is a pink rhododendron from the backyard:



And a purple one with a black smudge in the middle:



I'm frantically trying to get the Tangerine Dream finished - my sister will be having a C-section on the 29th and I would like to get the blanket sent off as soon as possible.

My Mother the Great!

I'm sorry for this belated Mother's Day post, but we have had some wicked thunder and lightning storms blowing through here each night, so I haven't been able to write a decent post. When I returned from Florida I found the dollowing pictures in my inbox, the first proving once again what an amazing knitter my Mom is:



This is the Pacific Northwest shawl from the pattern Mom bought from Elann. It called for lace weight yarn... but since most yarn in that category is wool and Mom is allergic to wool, she knit it from a light worsted weight acrylic - TLC brand, I believe. Isn't it gorgeous?!

And Mom, do you realize you inadvertantly supplied me with Project Spectrum photos? I've been strangely lacking in green photos this month, which is really odd because green is my favourite colour.

The second picture is of my Mom's fledgling clematis - she said it was merely a stick last year, so she is really proud of how it is growing:



Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you!

Guess Where I Have Been...

This was the view from my hotel room the last few days:



No, we were not on some fun-in-the-sun vacation - rather I was at a conference in my area of expertise at the Disney Resort... in Orlando, Florida. I kid you not - I was in Orlando the last four days, experiencing what felt like to me to be mid-August!

Here is a picture of the sunset Thursday night. My co-worker Marcie and I had just gone for a long walk along the Downtown Disney boardwalk, and were very happy to find a free ferry that took us back to the dock near our hotel!



There is a cool Lego World exhibit at Downtown Disney and the following pictures of statues are life-sized and look like real-life pixelated people:



Here is a close-up of the dogs:



And there was even a Lego dragon in the water:



Today was a whirlwind day - we woke up this morning to look at another house (very cute Cape Cod, but needing a new roof, air conditioning, and new windows... another $25K we aren't planning to spend), and then off to the annual Wilmington Flower Market. I'm a little murky on the beginnings of the festival, but here is a website that tells you a bit of what was planned: http://www.wstw.com/flower.php We made a beeline for the midway (and dropped a bundle on tickets - yikes! I don't understand why they don't offer a ride pass!) and let Willow go hog wild.

Willow and I on the carousel - this was Willow's first time being on the horse all by herself. She didn't want my help at all with balancing her on the horse (sniff!), so I climbed on the nearby pony and rode along:



Willow on a school-bus carousel:



And Willow and Andrew on the bumblebee ride:



Lots of fun was had by all and we are all a little pink now due to the hesitant sun this afternoon. The weather was playing games with us all day - we almost didn't go to the fair because it was raining this morning.

Oh... and the answer to what the woman is doing to Willow in the last post's picture? Willow is a sheep and the re-enactor is demonstrating how they shear the sheep (since all the sheep to be sheared had already been sheared for the season). I did find out they sell handspun wool there - for $35 for a 120 yard 2-ply skein! Yikes! Too rich for my blood!

Green Project Spectrum Package!

Thank you, Erin - for my Green Project Spectrum package - everything in the box (non-food, that is) smells like the gorgeous verbena bar of soap. The Toblerone is um... gone. I did share it. The Rowan Tween has some lovely flecks in it and I think it will make a wonderful hat. Thank you so much!



Willow had a field trip yesterday to a Colonial farm and we saw these cute beasties:



Hmm... I will twist this around the right way later - but I'll leave you to guess what this woman is doing to my daughter... I'll give you the answer in my next post ;)