one lazy summer afternoon

i spent the day finishing mom’s sweater. i hate finishing, it’s sewing, not knitting, but i poor job of finishing can ruin a wonderfully knit sweater. i worked out on the back porch. the sun was shinning and the birds were singing in the backyard. i had one earphone in for the ipod, the other ear was listening to a symphony of bird song. it was a breezy day out, all at once the wind kicked up and it poured, a perfect summer shower. no warning, just rain, the sun was still shining so i stepped out into the yard in search of a rainbow. i didn’t find one, however the cat looked at me as if i had lost my mind. she spent most of the after noon curled up in a ball on the chair opposite me.

once the rain had stopped almost as suddenly as it began, the sun streamed down between the trees and shone on my little garden in the backyard. the hedges and plants were just a bit more green than usual, the sunlight glistening off the still wet leaves, the astillbe shown brighter than usually a fuscha color, it looked most brilliant against a greed backdrop. it was quite simply a prefect way to spend the day.

my friend tony says i shouldn’t be feeding the birds right now, they should be eating bugs. i have five bird feeders in the backyard, and i love to sit and watch all the different types of birds that stop by for a snack.

i got up this morning and finished everything up, put the buttons on, and grabbed my things and headed out the door. i got all the way to my parents house when i realize i forgot to bring my camera, fortunately my sister had hers. so, do you think mom was surprised?

needless to say, she loves it.

i tried to get a good picture of the buttons but the flash kept whiting them out, and without the flash the exposure was long, so it’s a bit blurry.

i did a 3 needle bind off for the shoulders.

the rest was sewing. you knit the buttons bands separately and then sewed them on, this is the only thing about the sweater i didn’t like. it’s made with barocco’s ultra alpaca light, it’s a light worsted weight, 100% alpaca, the sweater is very heavy and will keep her very warm.

the cat, by the way, still napping

cross country trail

still getting over this cold, it’s the type that lingers on a bit. yesterday was the first effort at exercise in almost two weeks. i am climbing back on the band wagon, after getting a good sift kick in the pants from this cold. i know myself well enough to know that once i get out of the habit of exercise it’s hard to get back to it, this is one of the reasons i committed to daily exercise when i started this challenge, this is also why i don’t allow myself a eat whatever you want day, i will turn everyday into eat whatever you want, promising myself i’ll do better tomorrow.

yesterday’s trail was the cross country trail, it’s one i had never hiked. a very small portion at the end overlaps the lake trail which i have hiked on a previous challenge, this trail has been the toughest to date. it climbs a very steep hill, then continues to meander it’s way up, down again on a somewhat steep grade and back up again on an even steeper one, finally working it’s way back down to kendall lake.

i climbed the first steep hill and by the time i thought about taking a picture of the trail to show you just how steep it was, i didn’t want to back track, so i took a picture of the trail ahead, it was very peaceful.

this picture is also at the top of that steep hill, this tree has all kinds of vines, i have no idea what type of tree it was, but they were everywhere in that part of the woods and really interesting and fun to see.

after trekking through the woods you walk out into a meadow, the day was overcast and i was lucky not to get poured on, it rained earlier in the morning and there were a few rumbles and flashes of lightening in the evening but it never really stormed.

this meadow, along with another i came into later, are part of a cross country skiing area in the park. parts of the area were also farmed at one point and i did see part of a metal fence in the woods, as you left this meadow and walked back into the woods, it was over near this tree.

as i have mentioned before i am a big attractions kinda hiker i want to see waterfalls or giant mossy rocks, well this tree was worth the 2.5 mile hike. the trunk of this tree was so wide i couldn’t wrap my arms around it, and if someone was standing on the other side, i am not entirely sure we would even touch fingers. it was breath taking. i wonder how old it really is. my trail guide for the metro parks says that most of the forest is second growth. i wonder how long this tree has stood there. it looks like it may have been someone’s farm or private property at one point.

a little further into the woods there was a small babbling brook.

the trail let you out into one final meadow, it was very tranquil here. you then overlapped with the lake trail and headed back to the parking lot. this is definitely a trail worth visiting again.

milan, ohio………………..check

i have been wanting to go to milan ohio for some time now, i finally went yesterday. i can cross it off my list of things to do now. what’s so special about milan ohio? it’s the birthplace of thomas edison. his great grandfather was a loyalist during the american revolution, the family fled to canada. his father was involved in a rebellion in canada, and the family fled again, back to the united states eventually settling in ohio. his father built this house in milan in 1841 and thomas edison was born in a downstairs bedroom on february 11th, 1847. the family moved to michigan in 1854, the house was sold and remained outside of the family for 40 years until edison’s sister bought it in 1894, edison bought the house from her in 1906, although he never lived in it again. the house was dedicated as museum by edison’s second wife and his daughter in 1947.

milan was a small canal town, they had built a small canal from the huron river and edison’s backyard opened up to the basin, he would’ve seen schooners being built, loaded and unloaded right outside his back door. the canal basin is long gone. (this canal was not a part of the ohio erie canal. i was chastised by one of the museum guides for asking) i also visited the milan historical society which include the homes of two other prominent citizens of the day, the doctor and a ship’s captain, there was another private home on the tour closed for renovation, the fourth home on the tour housed a doll and toy museum, full of creepy ass dolls, it made me think of amy, who’s mother collects creepy ass dolls. they also had a small peace garden on the grounds which included these four busts called the four seasons (they look nothing like the mowtown group) each bust represents a different season of the year.

i walked around the town which believe it or not is even smaller than my town. it had a quaint public square with a gazebo at one end, and war monument and flag in the center, and a statue of edison and his mother at the other end. edison’s mother home schooled him, he had a lot of childhood illness which contributed to his early deafness, and which kept him out of public school. he was the only of her seven children that she home schooled.

i had to snap this pic of the police station, from 1886. it’s smaller than my house!

i have to say my favorite part of the tour were all the inventions, things edison invented himself or things that he improved upon. you’ve heard of ticker tape parades? western union sold ticker tape machines mostly used in financial offices (like wall street) that would conintually print off stock quotes, edison did not invent it, however he improved upon their design and sold them the paton for it, for $40,000 in the late 1800’s. (he would’ve been set for life had he stopped there). he also worked briefly as a telegraph operator able to transmit and receive messages at the same time.

he continued to invent and/or improve upon things patoning his ideas and then selling the patons. he improved up the telephone, invented an xray tube, that picture in the upper right hand corner is a picture of edison clocking in at one of his own laboratories. they had a time card there showing he worked 112 hours in one week!

he invented several types of light bulbs including one made of bamboo, and a battery powered flashlight and fan

he invented a motion picture projector, and a revolving movie studio, a building completely painted black both inside and out with a trap door in the ceiling to allow in sunlight, the entire building revolved to keep up with the sun.

of course he is well known for inventing the gramophone.

birthday officially postponed due to illness

i woke up this morning at 2 a.m. coughing and gagging and choking. i decided no one should have to be sick and miserable on their birthday. therefore i am rescheduling my birthday to a later date to be announced, and will spend this day napping, knitting and wallowing in comfort food.

i actually had plans for my birthday weekend, starting with the memorial walk yesterday which was a bust. i woke up late, felt like a scrub, missed part of the course and then went home and went to bed. i had planned to hike another trail in the challenge today but after schlepping through yesterdays walk i decided to wait. it’s not merely about finishing the trails, i actually want to be able to enjoy my time and i can not say that i enjoyed yesterdays walk. so i will plan a day to do something fun, without thought of the price of gas, but just relax and enjoy.

marlene wait memorial walk

i signed up for a 5k run/walk. i had signed up about a month ago. i even had to choose between the walk or the knitting event at my lys. sine it is/was my goal to get in a minimum of 30 mins daily cardio, i choose the walk. the plan was no more than 3 skip days a month, june is blown, this cold has knocked me on my ass. even my eyes hurt. no doubt i will still be hacking and snotting everywhere tomorrow. i thought i had set the alarm for 7am, i woke up at 5 mins until 9, and the event started at 9. in a panic i got dressed, slapped on a minimum amount of makeup, my eyes are too swollen for contacts, so i wore my glasses. grabbed a t shirt off of the cedar chest and a pair of jeans from the floor. i drove over to the park, and the runners were just taking off, a very nice police man let me in to park. i found the registration, got my t shirt and started walking.

i was amazed at how quickly i got caught up to the group, hit the halfway point at about 2 miles and started back, that’s when i realized i got caught up because i had inadvertently skipped half the trail, so i probably walked about 3 miles in total. i dredged my way thought the trail and i was happy to be home, jumped in the shower and laid down on the swing in the backyard for a nap. the rest of the day was spent watching tv and knitting, i can’t wait to be over this cold.

it’s june………………right?

today is my brother’s birthday, he’s 36. happy birthday dj, hope you had a great day.

any excuse to use that picture!

we are half way through june, two weeks away from independence day, and it dropped into the 40’s last night. two weeks ago i opened all the windows, put in all the screens, closed them up tight again the other night. i took the last of the winter blankets and the down comforter off the bed and hung them on the line to dry, i put the comforter on the bed last night so i wouldn’t need to turn the furnace back on (in june) and slept in sweats. i wore a jacket into work this morning it was only 45 degrees out.  i feel like i am dying from a chest cold that is trying to creep into my sinuses, i can’t stop coughing and i can’t breath. the first day of summer is only days away.

global warming is out there, it’s real. we’ve been taking and taking from this planet without giving back. polluted our land and waters, and air. destroying our ozone layer, killing off our wildlife. i am the first one to complain about the price of gas and how it’s affecting me personally, but let’s face it, we have it coming. the united states uses more oil than any other country in the world.  finally they are getting serious about alternative fuels, but it’s a bit late. they have gas electric hybrids, they are working on cars that run off of hydrogen, but they are already putting a tentative price tag of $30,000 or more on these cars, and i can not afford that, now imagine someone working minimum wage trying to pay off a car like that.

in the meantime what can i personally do to help out the planet?  i have been recycling plastic bottles and newspapers, the drop off center near my home also recycles cardboard food containers, you know the box your lean cuisine comes in. i drive less, try to run errands on my way home from work. in the summer i line dry clothes. i have been trying to do better about turning off the lights when i leave a room.

let’s face it there are plenty of things i can do to make a difference, and every little bit counts. i may not change the entire world, but i can change my little corner of it.  one of my favorite things to do in the summer is to hang out in my backyard with the birds and my flowers, under the big tree next to the house. i would really miss these things if they were gone.

it’s 2 a.m, let’s talk about last weekend

i’m on call, and i am sitting here waiting for transport to bring an e.r. patient over, so in order to stay awake, i’m writing. no promises on how coherent this post will be, right now song lyrics are running through my head. 2 a.m. and she calls me cause i’m still awake, can you help me unravel my latest mistake, i don’t love him, winter just wasn’t my season.

saturday we went to zoar, a little historic village with about 75 families currently living there. the town was once home to a group of german immigrant separatist. (they believed in the separation of church and state.) they purchased 5500 acres of land in ohio in 1817 and settled there, life was harsh in those times so the original settlers decided to start a commune, everyone had an equal share, everything was common stock. by 1827 the ohio-erie canal reached zoar and the commune was commissioned to build a 7 mile section of the canal, they came in on time, and were paid $21,000 (in 1827) and were able to pay off their land entirely. with the canal zoar was able to do business with the outside world, they became a tourist stop for people from cleveland. the commune was nearly self sufficient, with a bakery, cobbler shop, wash house, sewing house, dairy (among other things) providing for it’s members, they also had a park, and were well known for their garden. they had a tin maker, blacksmith and an iron works. they also operated the zoar hotel (supposedly haunted) for outside visitors, but mainly they were an agricultural society. by the mid 1800’s they had accumulated assets of over a million dollars.

in the beginning of the commune there was an eight year marriage ban, the women out numbered the men two to one and it was felt that the women would be better utilized working for the commune than staying home and raising families, those who had children already before the ban stayed at home until the child reached the age of 4, then the child was sent to live in dormitories, where the older women of the commune no longer able to do physically demanding work, cared for them. the society also built a grand home intended to be a retirement home with individual apartments, although it was only used as such for a very short time. after the death of their religious leader the society quickly declined, by the late 1800’s zoar was no longer commercially competitive, the society chose to disband in 1898 with a division of assets, each member received land, house, furnishings and live stock.

this is the greenhouse, only flowers and plants were grown here, all of their vegetables were grown in the fields. the flower garden was intended to be a community park and was laid out with diagonal intersecting paths leading to a great pine tree in the center. the tree represented heaven and you could only get to heaven by traveling the straight and narrow path.

this is the village school house still in operation as late as the 1940’s, the dry goods store was still in operation as late as the 1960’s.

this is the zoar hotel, which is now closed for renovations, i peeked inside but i didn’t see any ghost. the hotel once served a bustling tourist industry during the short lived canal hay~day.

zoar had it’s own iron works and sold furnace to the outside world as well, there are not too many left.

my family was teasing because it was my idea to visit the village of zoar, i read a book titled knitting america, about the history of knitting in america, and the zoarites were famous for their mittens, men and women alike knitted them and they were sold to the outside world to support the commune, in the zoar historical museum there were many examples of the communes needle works. as my family teased me about making this trip just to see the mittens, i reminded them that they are all non-knitters, and they came along. one of the volunteers was kind enough to take my name and address and offered to mail me the original mitten pattern.

we visited the zoar cemetery where we learned that over 50 members had died during a cholera epidemic, the earliest grave markers were wooden planks, the names and dates long since eroded. the original settlers believed that no one was above anyone else in the eyes of god, all cemetery markers were the same.

later generations used granite markers, most of which have german writing on them

on sunday we had a family gathering to celebrate my godparents 50th wedding anniversary. my parents were married on june 15th 1957, and ralph and jean were married on june 14th 1958. ralph and my dad are best friends from childhood, jean and my mom worked in a five and dime together when they were in high school. my parents were dating and they introduced jean and ralph.

from the left jean, ralph, mom (betty) and dad (del)

while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, my sister fed her squirrel friend, this little squirrel climbs up on her porch, my sister leaves peanuts out for her. the squirrel buries them all over the neighborhood and will take them right from your hand.

she provided hours of entertainment for the easily amused!

and i just have to throw this picture in, my brother’s fathers day present from his kids, i couldn’t stop laughing!

i also managed to get some more yarn wound for mom’s sweater

along with some other yarn for someone special

it’s 5:30 a.m. now, i’m going home and going back to bed.

the ledges

when looking over the list of trails for this years hiking challenge, i mentally checked off the ledges trail as being one i had hiked before. the trail is actually the ledges loop, and although the park gives you credit for 1.5 miles, the trail markers all say 1.75 miles (the park rangers are ripping us out of a quarter mile). i have been to the ledges many times before, i am a big attraction kinda hiker, i want water falls and huge moss covered rocks. i had always approached from a different trail, so i was pleasantly surprised when i started hiking the ledges trail, it took me around to areas i hadn’t been to before and only a very brief part of the trail was familiar, every thing else was new. i had no idea the rocks had extended this far, and that the ledges were so big. i had only hiked a very brief portion of it. this is one of the reasons why i like hiking the somewhat annual challenge, it takes me on to trails i normally wouldn’t choose myself.

the trails takes you around the base of the ledges, giant moss covered rocks,

the forest is dense and lush and everything is green, there are giants ferns all around

this is the trail i usually take, i was happy to avoid these stairs!

there were little chipmunks scurrying about, i finally got one to stop and pose for a moment

as i continued along the trail i got to a section of the rock that looked different, it had sort of a honeycombed appearance, and unfortunately i don’t know why or what would cause it. i just found it very interesting

the thing i love most about the park system i hike in, is that the trails are clear, and very well marked. it’s easy to follow, and although i have gotten lost in other parks before (no need to panic, if you continue on a trail long enough you eventually reach a trail head where you can get your bearings and then find your way back) i have never gotten lost in my park system. many of the trails, markers and facilities were constructed during the depression by work relief programs.  teddy and franklin roosevlet were both conservationist and it’s thanks to them we have national parks to hike in.

i stopped on the way home and bought some mulch, laid it out this evening, so now the flower beds are in order. weeded and freshly mulched

these hostas where planted two years ago and the ferns last summer, i love how huge they have gotten, i even had to move a smaller fern to another flower bed, it was getting buried under these giants

the blue salvia is blooming right now, last week it was the daylilies .

i finished the right front of mom’s sweater last night, i was up until 12:30 am to do it. i ripped it back so many times (i stopped counting after the 5th time) i knew it was going to be a pia because of the pattern, if you are off by so much as one stitch it’s glaringly obvious on a symmetric pattern like this.

both fronts are done

as well as the back

i’ll do a three needle bind off tonight and then block it tomorrow, that leaves two sleeves and the button bands and collar. it should be done in time for her birthday on the 25th.

the evening wore on

that’s a nice expression isn’t it? with your permission i’ll say it again, the evening wore on.

anyone know what movie that lines is from? give you a hint, it stars my favorite actor of all time. i finished the back of the sweater for class today. i’ll start the front tomorrow, it’ll be my weekend knittinng for while i’m at my parents house this weekend.

i still haven’t finished the right front to mom’s sweater, i am almost ready to start the neck decreases, which will be a bit more difficult on the right due to the pattern. first i need to wind more yarn. i’ll also take along everything i need for the june sock of the month, tomorrow is wwkip, so i’ll take my sock along with me to zoar village.

i had a really nice day off today, hung the laundry out to dry for the first time this year. it’s one of my favorite things about summer, even took all the curtains down and washed them too. we had a big thunderstorm come through, the lights flickered twice but didn’t go out, i was happy the laundry was dried and down long before the storm hit.

i was talking to one of my co~workers, karen about kickboxing again, and how grateful i am to tona for taking the extra time with me to make sure my knees are safe. karen said she had a punching bag at home she wanted to get rid of, a kickboxing bag. i had been wanting one for the past 2 months, but with the cost of gas (and everything else) steadily climbing, it’s a bit out of my budget right now. karen said i could have it free, if i picked it up. i stopped by this afternoon, it’s sitting on my porch. i can’t wait to get the chance to wail on it!

over all, it was a great day!

isn’t it a lovely day to get caught in the rain?

2 points if you can name the movie that line comes from. i went out for a walk just now, it was after seven, and it had finally cooled off. i started walking down the bike/hike trail near the house, i didn’t make it all the way to the other end this time, it suddenly got dark, and windy and you could smell the rain in the air, i turned back and when i got to a place on the trail where the trees parted enough over head to actually see, there were dark clouds over head. i felt a few fat rain drops and thought , i am seriously gonna get soaked. the rain stopped and i didn’t feel anything again until i got to the trail head, and started walking down the street, then i stopped again. i crossed the railroad tracks and it started raining, a little harder this time only the funniest thing happened. it was raining only on the other side of the street, on the other side of the double yellow line, and then i turned and started down the backyard heading for the porch and it followed me, i could hear it hitting the grass just behind me. i was being stalked by a rain cloud.

i am still working away on mom’s sweater, i needed a bit of a break from the monotony of the k2p1 pattern, so yesterday i worked on the sweater for my class, i finished everything that could be done before the next class, this wedsnesday. it’s stockinette with an occasional line of garter thrown in and a random cable to be placed at your discretion.

the yarn is serendipity tweed, 60% cotton, 40% wool in blooming lilac from brown sheep. the cable pattern consist of 6 stitches and a 20 row repeat.

i have been in the mood for cleaning, and well you have to strike when the iron’s hot. the house still isn’t quite in ship shape yet, the yard is almost tidied up, but today i took the last of the winter bedding off and got out the summer bedspread. i can’t tell you how happy that makes me. i also opened all the windows and got the screens out. todays was a perfect day, a great breeze and the house stayed cool until later afternoon.