How Time Slips By
Yes, I know it's been much too long.
Diana Cooper was my 20,000th visitor (wooo hooo!) and won the prize package. Here is the silk bookmark I knit for her:
She also won the magazines, a linen tea towel with Canadian West Coast First Nations art, and a matching ceramic coaster, plus a 2 lb. cone of slightly-heavier than lace weight wool.
I had lots of fun doing this contest, and think MAYBE I'll run another one when my blog is approaching its 50,000th visitor.
I also knit a bookmark for an exchange partner in Washington State. She and I both belong to a monthly bookmark knit-along group. She sent me some beautiful things, including a bookmark she knit from silk she had spun herself, and a tiny tatted bookmark, along with some other cool things. On the left is the bookmark I knit for her.
And, of course, the wedding of the century distract
ed me for some time! Here is my daughter-in-law's wedding garter:
(The Richardson /Buchanan wedding garter)
We took our Freecycle motorhome to Victoria for the wedding, and parked it in my sister's and brother-in-law's driveway. This was waiting for us when we got there:
The motorhome is a 1976 Brougham, on a Ford chassis, and yes, it was FREE on Freecycle. We spent some time cleaning and painting, etc., as well as repairing the brakes and some other mechanical checks and repairs, and took it on our very first road trip for my son's wedding. I can't begin to express the gratitude Dorne and I feel for the Nanaimo freecycler who offered it, and eventually chose us to receive it. It's still a little beat up on the outside, but by next year's camping season, she'll be glistening and gleaming. Here she is!
Twenty-three feet of lovely old motorhome. Yes, that is duct tape on the door. Red Green would be proud of us! (I think 3-M should give us a duct tape subsidy). (This picture was taken in our own yard in Port Alberni.)
The wedding was fabulous. I will do a separate post, with pictures. The day was perfect, the bride and groom were perfect, the guests were perfect, everything was ... PERFECT! To me, the icing on the (wedding) cake was the fact that Eric's father and his wife came all the way from Halifax. My family welcomed them with open arms, making an already incredible family occasion that much more monumental.
The summer was long and hot, and we spent time cooling ourselves in the pool. The pond was a very busy place this year, with breeding goldfish increasing the population! I was absolutely amazed one day when I was doing some cleaning in the pond and saw a teeny fish scoot away from me! Careful observation revealed many babies, of varying ages (from a few d
ays to about a month old) hanging around, under the lily pad leaves, all eating voraciously. Here are the adults (lusty bunch that they are!):
The fruit trees were extremely productive this year, too, yieldin
g Gravenstein apples that were more than ten ounces each (yes, EACH!), copious quantities of pears, green seedless grapes, concord grapes, a few nectarines, plus
rhubarb, strawberries, and a rose bush which gave us bags and bags of hips. We have been making apple sauce, apple butter, apple leather, and our own invention .. apple jerky! Who could just compost all those great apple peelings? Not us! We pureed them and spread out the puree on a cookie sheet, and let it sit in a very slow oven for a day or two. Voila! Apple jerky with fabulous taste and more fibre than a whole box of All Bran!
The concord grapes were shared with my daughter-in-law'
s parents. They made jelly and when I dropped by yesterday, they gave us four perfect jars of grape jelly! Look at those gorgeous grapes:
The kiwi vines
were productive, and gave us a few fruit this year. Next year, after a good pruning and some vine refinement, we should have a bumper crop.
The pond (which was simply a hole in the ground last year, which Dorne and Eric redug and expanded to about quadruple the original size!) and the deck Dorne built (with decking from a fellow Freecycler!) are the jewels in the crown of our yard. What used to be a useless corner of the yard is now a beautiful spot where we relax, gaze and ponder. Well, ok, I knit and Dorne does crosswords ;-)
Last week, we took the motorhome out to MacKenzie Beach, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Here is my favourite prairie chicken,
viewing the Pacific Ocean from the couch at the back of the motorhome, and a few other great shots from our four days out there:
And just to
make our lives a little crazier, I filed nomination papers for the local school board. Civic Elections are on November 15th, and I'm hoping that I'll be one of the twelve candidates elected to one of the six seats available. I was a school trustee on this board for 12 years, and really look forward to getting back on the board. Keep your fingers crossed!
Ok, that's it for now. Stay tuned for more updates!
Diana Cooper was my 20,000th visitor (wooo hooo!) and won the prize package. Here is the silk bookmark I knit for her:
She also won the magazines, a linen tea towel with Canadian West Coast First Nations art, and a matching ceramic coaster, plus a 2 lb. cone of slightly-heavier than lace weight wool.
I had lots of fun doing this contest, and think MAYBE I'll run another one when my blog is approaching its 50,000th visitor.
I also knit a bookmark for an exchange partner in Washington State. She and I both belong to a monthly bookmark knit-along group. She sent me some beautiful things, including a bookmark she knit from silk she had spun herself, and a tiny tatted bookmark, along with some other cool things. On the left is the bookmark I knit for her.
And, of course, the wedding of the century distract
ed me for some time! Here is my daughter-in-law's wedding garter:(The Richardson /Buchanan wedding garter)
We took our Freecycle motorhome to Victoria for the wedding, and parked it in my sister's and brother-in-law's driveway. This was waiting for us when we got there:
The motorhome is a 1976 Brougham, on a Ford chassis, and yes, it was FREE on Freecycle. We spent some time cleaning and painting, etc., as well as repairing the brakes and some other mechanical checks and repairs, and took it on our very first road trip for my son's wedding. I can't begin to express the gratitude Dorne and I feel for the Nanaimo freecycler who offered it, and eventually chose us to receive it. It's still a little beat up on the outside, but by next year's camping season, she'll be glistening and gleaming. Here she is!
Twenty-three feet of lovely old motorhome. Yes, that is duct tape on the door. Red Green would be proud of us! (I think 3-M should give us a duct tape subsidy). (This picture was taken in our own yard in Port Alberni.)
The wedding was fabulous. I will do a separate post, with pictures. The day was perfect, the bride and groom were perfect, the guests were perfect, everything was ... PERFECT! To me, the icing on the (wedding) cake was the fact that Eric's father and his wife came all the way from Halifax. My family welcomed them with open arms, making an already incredible family occasion that much more monumental.
The summer was long and hot, and we spent time cooling ourselves in the pool. The pond was a very busy place this year, with breeding goldfish increasing the population! I was absolutely amazed one day when I was doing some cleaning in the pond and saw a teeny fish scoot away from me! Careful observation revealed many babies, of varying ages (from a few d
ays to about a month old) hanging around, under the lily pad leaves, all eating voraciously. Here are the adults (lusty bunch that they are!):The fruit trees were extremely productive this year, too, yieldin
g Gravenstein apples that were more than ten ounces each (yes, EACH!), copious quantities of pears, green seedless grapes, concord grapes, a few nectarines, plus
rhubarb, strawberries, and a rose bush which gave us bags and bags of hips. We have been making apple sauce, apple butter, apple leather, and our own invention .. apple jerky! Who could just compost all those great apple peelings? Not us! We pureed them and spread out the puree on a cookie sheet, and let it sit in a very slow oven for a day or two. Voila! Apple jerky with fabulous taste and more fibre than a whole box of All Bran!The concord grapes were shared with my daughter-in-law'
s parents. They made jelly and when I dropped by yesterday, they gave us four perfect jars of grape jelly! Look at those gorgeous grapes:The kiwi vines
were productive, and gave us a few fruit this year. Next year, after a good pruning and some vine refinement, we should have a bumper crop.
The pond (which was simply a hole in the ground last year, which Dorne and Eric redug and expanded to about quadruple the original size!) and the deck Dorne built (with decking from a fellow Freecycler!) are the jewels in the crown of our yard. What used to be a useless corner of the yard is now a beautiful spot where we relax, gaze and ponder. Well, ok, I knit and Dorne does crosswords ;-)
Last week, we took the motorhome out to MacKenzie Beach, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Here is my favourite prairie chicken,
viewing the Pacific Ocean from the couch at the back of the motorhome, and a few other great shots from our four days out there:
And just to
make our lives a little crazier, I filed nomination papers for the local school board. Civic Elections are on November 15th, and I'm hoping that I'll be one of the twelve candidates elected to one of the six seats available. I was a school trustee on this board for 12 years, and really look forward to getting back on the board. Keep your fingers crossed!Ok, that's it for now. Stay tuned for more updates!
posted by Rosemarie Buchanan @ 10:42 a.m.
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