POT OF PINKS ... and other pleasurable pursuits

Robbie's new video

2009-11-08T08:43:00.000-08:00

What a fun video from Robbie. I must say, I am very impressed with the sound of the new album and can't wait to get a copy this week.

A 'New' Love Affair Begins

2009-08-11T20:17:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if it will go down as a 'love affair' or merely a 'brief tryst', but quite suddenly of late I have found myself KNITTING after quite a lengthy (decades really) absence in my life. And for a few days, I haven't been able to put it down.

I popped into Michaels the other day for some beading supplies and found myself standing quite by accident beside the supply of cotton. It wasn't my fault, it was on the end aisle. All those bright pretty colours just calling to me!

With the combination of the facts that my grandma knits lovely dishcloths and Lynn had just been working on some fabulous bee design dishcloths - of her own design, I found myself putting several balls of this lovely cotton in my basket.

I briefly tried a crochet pattern on the ball of wool and found that it was nice, but a little too thick. That's when it struck me, why don't I try knitting again. So, I climbed on a chair to get to the knitting needles, and look at what we have.

This was the first pattern I tried, can't really call it a pattern as it couldn't be more simple. Cast on 37 (I prefer 35) stitches, and garter stitch until it's square. For the really bright vareigated wools it remains one of my favourite patterns despite it's simplicity.

This is one of the more traditional patterns, in fact it's called "Grandma's favourite". I'm not totally happy with the corners. It's knit on the diagonal and the pattern calls for you to begin with 4 stitches, but I think it would work better starting with less. In future I'd begin with one stitch to make sharper corners.

And this one is a box pattern stitch of knit and purl. I think it would be very nice in a solid colour where the pattern could be the star.

Lynn has finally talked me into joining Ravelry, and I must say I'm very impressed. Great resource for thousands of free patterns, but also really helpful to see what other people have done and how things look in various types of wool.

I've also found some other great resources like Knit to Donate to Charity or Care to Knit or Knit a Square for knitting and crocheting for good causes. I think my Grandma and Auntie Carole might also like these.

The Room of Unfinished Projects

2009-08-07T21:31:00.001-07:00

My craft room goes by another name. It is also known as 'the room of unfinished projects'. There are rather a lot of those - and a wide variety too. Quite a lovely room really.

I'm not sure if it was a recent stint of intense 'working' (for which I need a 'balance'), or the incessent rain (which always seems to inspire creativity) but something of late has sparked my crafting side and I'm revisiting all sorts of things I haven't done in ages - and tackling some projects I started in the decades before this one.

This is just one of my 'major' cross stitch projects that is 'on the go'. I can't remember when I started this but it's been a few years at least. I've done very few cross stitch projects in recent years and only small projects like Christmas ornaments. Although it is large, the counting is quite simple with nice large blocks of colour, so it is very relaxing to work on, and fun to watch the picture 'develop'.

Okay, it's going to take a while, and no doubt it'll get put away again 'for a rest' during the process, but it I have found it quite enjoyable to be tackling a larger craft project, and it's pretty rare for me to just sit and stitch, which I probably should do more often.

Hopefully this should give me incentive to give you updates now and again so check back from time to time to watch it grow! and other projects develop.

Next time I'll take a picture of the pattern so you can see where we're headed. I know you're curious.

All Hail Summer!

2009-08-04T13:57:00.001-07:00

Hail? Summer? Such crazy weather. Although the day started warm and sunny, it ended up covered in ice ... Poor wee planties. So destructive. Not the greatest picture through the glass and pouring rain but there was no stepping outside for this photo.

Although we didn't get the worst of the winds that are in the area, or the loony sized hail reported not far away (that's like a 50p hail for the british followers) it rained like crazy here, and we got some very heavy smaller hail.

At one point I saw a poor little skunk caught in the deluge digging itself cover under our fireplace. Hmmm, that's not so good though I've known for a while there are some living nearby.

Considering we live on sandy soil, it was pretty impressive the way the lawns were becoming lakes, and even our deep front ditches were completely full of water. It's a shame we can't send this rain to British Columbia where it would be very helpful.

Pretty silly of Rob to park the car so near to a river, don't you think?

And now, half an hour later .... sunny and blue skies. How strange is that?

August already?

2009-08-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

Well hello again. It looks like the "lazing" went a little longer than the "Sunday afternoon". And here we are in August already. Very hard to believe, but at least it's looking a little more like summer after a July that resembled an April.

A quick wrap up of the last few weeks...rain, rain, rain, ... work, work, work.

For the last week our Marley has been quite under the weather but I am very happy to report that she seems to be almost completely back to her old self. What a relief!

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

2009-07-12T14:41:00.001-07:00

Maggie and the boys are enjoying the sun streaming through the craft room window today especially after the major storms yesterday. Freddie and Oliver will be two years old later this month and sometimes they are extreme opposites, and at other times like this, enjoy snuggling and act as one.

Lots of non-new-job things to catch up on today, so it's a very quick update.

Enjoy the lazing on a Sunday Afternoon. And with that, I'm of to put some laundry on and update some travel blogs.

First Week of July in the Garden

2009-07-05T20:58:00.001-07:00

Well it turned out it was a rainy week - and what a crazy week. It seems I'm going to be busier than ever in the weeks and months ahead, which is all good, but the blog updates won't be daily and it's going to be a little tougher to find some arts and crafts time. Perhaps, though, it may be even more important now to have a reason to stop regularly and 'smell the flowers', or carry on with those unfinished projects, and having a blog update to do might keep me a little more focused.

The sun's come out this weekend and although it's been a little cool, the flowers have really come on with all the rain and now sunshine. I hope you enjoy 'This week in the Garden' - you can change the amount of time per slide to speed up the show.

It was a rainy day ....

2009-06-29T19:41:00.001-07:00

Rain. Rain. Rain. This is what today looked like, and the rest of the week too if the weather forecast is to be believed (though it seldom is). With the odd brief break of blue sky and sunshine we've had massive amounts of rain and the flowers are soaked.

I feel bad for those people who've taken holidays this week, but other than that I don't mind the rain one bit. It always feels so cozy inside and it's great weather for being creative or just curling up with a good book.

We had a lovely visit yesterday with Lynn and Gavin and I am very excited about my super comfy new socks hand knit by the very talented Lynn.

Scanning Old Slides

2009-06-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

One of the big projects I'm working on these days is the converting of old family slides to a digital format. We bought Dad a slide scanner at Christmas, but after we both tried a number of things found it to be pretty useless. I don't know that slide scanners are any good unless you are spending large amounts of money, and this was an inexpensive model. All was not lost though as I've come up with another solution. I am photographing the slides using an old slide sorting light box.

I have found that the best method for capturing the image is to use a tripod and remote shooting through the computer. This way you're not adjusting for each shot, you get the steadiest results (who knew my hand shook so much?) and you have a much better means of reviewing the success of the shot on your computer rather than the small camera display which won't help for this.

Step 1 - Capturing the image

Once you've captured the image the next step is to crop. I find this is as close as I can get for a decent picture, but it would depend on your camera/lenses. Make sure you are shooting on the highest quality image setting so you can retain the best quality after you crop.

Step 2 - Cropping the image

After you're happy with the cropping, adjust the RGB colour settings, and any brightness, contrast or saturation settings until you're happy with the result. I find that about 80% of the photos require a fairly standard 'fix', while 20% will need a little more finagling.

Step 3 - The new 'digital' image

This photo is of Mum and I up the Eiffel Tower and I think it looks quite fresh given the fact it's 36 years old (of course, we haven't changed a bit).

Songs of Pluto

2009-06-26T17:08:00.000-07:00

There's a beautiful strong breeze blowing this evening as the last of the sun filters through the trees in the back garden and my new 'Songs of Pluto Musically Tuned' wind chimes sound just beautiful.

If you pull the dangler they're pretty loud (and I like it!) but blowing in the wind - and even strong winds - it's surprising how quiet they are. It's a very gentle sound that you suddenly realize you have been hearing. Quite lovely and as promised - musical.

Some day I hope to find again the 4 ft' long diatonic scale windchimes I fell in love with at a Renaissance festival many years ago. I dream about them often.

These lovely chimes were a birthday present recently on a trip out for lunch in Niagara-on-the-Lake (click on the link for an aerial view), which is such a pretty little town.

Whenever we go it's a stop at The Scottish Loft (for fruit pastilles, lemon barley, dark chocolate Bounty bars and a pot of Shippam's Crab paste), and lunch at The Olde Angel Inn with Swayze's ghost (that's either fish & chips or steak & guinness pie depending on the mood).

For years (okay decades) I couldn't go without going into the 'Just Christmas' shop but I should like to state for the record that

a) 99% of the time I went there for ideas only and
b) I have actually given it a miss 3 times now.

Hmmm .... must be due for a visit next time.

Anway it was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect, a little too crowded for us now that the festival is on (and we ventured out on a week-end to boot), but the flowers as always were blooming everywhere and the fish & chips were fantastic!

P.S. Hello Grandma!

Sunshine on a cloudy day

2009-06-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

Thunder. Lightning. Black skies and high winds. And about 17 drops of rain over the last 6 hours. It's so strange under our little neighbourhood bubble - pouring rain to the east, west, north and south, and barely a drop here. But there's still time as it's constantly looking like it will rain.

Even on a dull grey day though, these fabulous drifts of evening primrose brighten things up. I dashed out to take some photos for you - funny how that's when it started to rain.

These guys are everywhere as they spread easily through the garden - and they continue to be interesting after the flowering as the leaves eventually turn quite a bright shade of red.

I'm really enjoying this excuse to play with my camera, and if nothing else this format forces me to pare down the photos I take to my favourites. Is it just me - or does everyone take 50 or 60 photos of a really pretty flower?

Sunshine and Coreopsis

2009-06-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

After the pretty purple phase of Spring with the Lilac trees, Periwinkle and Ajuga groundcovers, our garden begins to turn to yellows with masses of evening primrose and the lovely vibrant Coreopsis which are just starting this week. I think this is one of my favourite Coreopsis photos from over the years as I love the contrast with the bluish background created by the front steps.

Looks like it's going to be a good year for the Coreopsis, as many of my plants are a good foot taller than usual. In contrast, it doesn't look like it's going to be a good year for the Shasta Daisies, and an even worse year for the poor Gaillardia (jam tarts) which I only seem to have the tiniest traces of this year.

We have two types of Coreopsis in the garden - a single, and this really fluffy double version. I know no more than that as to what actual species they might be.

It's been a stunning week of weather. Really warm but still a bit of a breeze in the back yard where I'm always thankful for the filtered shade. It is supposed to rain tomorrow which I welcome. It would be a big help or else someone's going to have to drag the hose all around the gardens. In fact, I may have to do a rain dance.

Canterbury Bells get a new home

2009-06-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

It helps to have a singing frog. Or so it would seem, as these Canterbury Bells - or Bellflower - that I moved from the front to a new garden in the back last year seem very happy with their new home, complete with froggie band (there's a frog with a guitar, and a saxophonist just out of the shot).

I've had these plants in the front for years and they've never amounted to much. Although they flower, they're not strong, and the stems flop all over the place. They're scattered very randomly and they don't stand tall or stay neatly clustered like these lovely fellas.

Once they're done flowering I shall be moving the rest of the plants that have spread through the front garden to this new happy home were they seem off to a much better start.

Straggler in the front

Inspired by this sign of success, I may even have to try delphiniums in the back. I love blue flowers - delphiniums most especially - and I've never had any luck in the past, but it has been a while since I last tried.

Pretty Pink Centaurea

2009-06-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

It won't always be about pink - I can promise - but it is a good place to begin as this pretty, delicate and fluffy centaurea (Centaurea pulcherrima is my guess) is on the wane now after being one of the very few things blooming in the garden the last few weeks.

It's a great flower to photograph with such interesting things going on with the petals and the center - which looks like fiber optic cabling in some of the shots. Apparantly related to the Scottish thistle (I can see that in the center aspect especially now) and other species that can be a real problem.

I have two of these plants in different locations and the one that gets partial sun does a little better than the full sun - for me. I don't have any kind of cage around them but I'm thinking that would probably be very helpful in supporting the large fern-like leaves and the extra long stems of the flowers.

I also like the Centaurea for the fact that when the flowers are done and cut back, this plant retains a nice shrub-like shape with an interesting leaf for the summer. Not like the poppy, but that's another story.

What's in a Name?

2009-06-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

It may seem rather an odd name for my blog - Pot of Pinks (and other pleasurable pursuits) - but it is very difficult fo find available names for popular themes. So having gone through a range of names around gardening, photos, crafts, and faeries (who can think of the garden without thinking of the faeries?) I started to recall a story I had once loved in the Andrew Lang Fairy Books - Felicia and the Pot of Pinks.

As there are more than a few pots of pink in the garden, not to mention pots of paints, beads and other bits that may come in to play, low and behold it seemed a perfect name for something that I'm not entirely sure what it will become.

It was a lovely day in the garden today - a summer solstice - and such fun to play with the camera that the need to start blogging of a personal nature seemed to take hold. We shall see where it goes, perhaps with a little luck from the faerie magic.