Puppies, Puppies, Puppies!!

My sister Susan and I took a drive out to the country today to visit a couple of doggy friends who have litters of puppies right now. I can't think of a better way to spend time than cuddling with lots and lots of puppies!

Below is Susan with a litter of three 3-week old miniature long haired dachshunds. Mama Ten (aka Ch. Torihill's Savvidax Prrfect ML) is watching over her babies while at the same time waiting for her pats and compliments on such a lovely litter. Can't you just smell the puppy breath?!

The dachsies own and love their human, Daphne Bowering of Savvidax Miniature Long Haired Dachshunds. Congrats, Daphne!

Susan and I then went over to see Jean Juno of YBF Goldens. The scene there wasn't nearly as calm as at Daphne's! I would have loved a picture of all the puppies with the top of the gate open, but at 8 weeks old not much was going to hold them back and they were determined to escape their puppy pen.

Get ready to "Awwwww!" Is this little girl cute, or what?

The end.

Green Leaves and Snowmen

Katie was just out making a snowman with the wet sticky snow. I couldn't help but notice that the majority of the leaves on the trees are still green. Only in Saskatchewan...

Winter (Bah Humbug!) Wonderland

This week end is Thanksgiving in Canada. And like any long week end the weather was not cooperating. We got our first snow storm yesterday. And did we get dumped on! This is what my back yard looked like this morning...
It has been a very odd year weatherwise. Until today most of my garden and bedding plants were still alive and frost-free. This is almost unheard of in Saskatchewan. I would have had more plants still growing on my patio if I had bothered to water them at the end of August. But at that point I didn't see much reason to water as I figured that they would be dead very shortly.

Here you can see some pink Impatiens peeking out of the snow mound. I brushed off the snow after taking the picture and amazingly I think they are still alive! The snow must have insulated this very tender plant so that it didn't freeze.

If all this snow didn't depress me so much I would have been able to see the beauty of it. But ask me what I think of snow come January. At least now the sun is out and the snow is quickly melting.

When I came inside after digging through the snow to find some carrots in my garden for a pot of soup I am making did it hit me that only in Saskatchewan would my winter boots be sitting next to a pair of sandels.

I finished another pair of socks just in time for the snow. These are Trekking 106. I was completely paranoid while knitting the second sock that I would run out of yarn again like I did on another pair of Trekking socks. I had already completed one sock with exactly the same needle size and stitches cast on before I remembered. But this time I actually had a bit of yarn left over. Go figure.

It's a Rough and Tumble World

Katie is looking a bit the worse for wear right now. The picture doesn't show it very well, but she is covered in scrapes and bruises. The shiner she is sporting is the icing on the cake. It was actually green all around her eye in the picture. You can't see the bruise on the other side of her face and the gash under her chin. She got one bruise from bo staff night at kempo and the gash on her chin from a fun night at the kempo school called Gladiator Wars. It is hard to imagine that Katie is actually a real girly-girl. She is just a real tough princess. The black eye came courtesy of her father. Dallas had her up on his shoulders while coming out from grocery shopping. I opened the back door of the van to load up and Dallas thought she would duck. She didn't.
Another mom who is a nurse was teasing me that we had better hope that she doesn't do anything else like break her arm that would require a trip to the hospital because we would be flagged for child abuse. Scary thought!

Christopher has managed to keep himself unscathed lately. Here he is getting his green belt. It is always a big deal when the kids earn a new belt colour, the highlight for them being the trip to McDonalds to celebrate. Presenting Christopher is belt is instructor Anna Mravcak who is running the New York City Marathon in a few weeks in support of Team for Kids.
With the cooler weather here I have actually been getting a chance to knit a bit more. No completed projects yet, but I will post pictures of some that are almost done in a few days. I have a pair of socks for myself and one pair for Katie that are just about finished. And I finally started something that isn't socks! Although the afghan is getting old really fast and it may take me a while to get it done. Give me a pair of socks to knit any day!

The Amadeus of Our Generation

When I was in high school (should I even say when that was??) I went on an Easter break trip to England. As the bus full of kids went down the motorway we saw a bill board advertising an Elton John concert taking place that evening. Eighteen teenagers groaned and complained the rest of the trip that we hadn't known about the concert before hand.

I have never forgotten about that missed opportunity.

So 30 years later (you do the math) I finally got to go to an Elton John concert. We went to the Rolling Stones concert a couple of years back (little ole Regina got 2 - count 'em - 2 shows, the only stop on the tour to get more than one date) and that was fun and all, but it was Elton John that really defined the music for my generation growing up.

We were very lucky to get tickets for the concert (without paying exhorbitant scalper fees). Sir Elton played two shows here also, but tickets were nearly impossible to score. Our seats weren't too bad. We had a clear unblocked view of the stage from fairly close. My pictures are very poor quality since I was afraid of taking my good camera with me. I needn't have worried, though, since no one even asked to look in my purse on the way in. It must be a sign of the general age of the audience when the security was almost non-existant.The concert was amazing! Elton sang and played for nearly 3 hours straight - no opening act, no intermission. There was a camera on the keyboard and watching him play was incredible. This man is simply a musical genius.

Of Potatoes, Socks and Squirrels

I went out to the garden this morning to dig up some potoatoes for our dinner. The ground was fairly muddy and the potatoes came up covered in gooey muck. So I left them sitting on the ground to dry off in the sun while I ran up to my favourite LYS to look at some Jaquard dyes. As soon as I pulled up in front of the store I had to smack myself on the head since I always forget that they are closed on Mondays. And with gas at $1.45 a litre I was quite ticked at myself for the wasted trip. So now I have pretty much everything I need to dye some yarn except the much-needed dye.

Anyway.... I returned to the garden this afternoon to gather the potatoes. And found little tooth marks on a few of them. Too big for mice, way too small for a dog (and a dog wouldn't be stupid enough to leave any sign of evidence). The only thing I can figure out is that the neighbourhood squirrels had to sample a few to find out that they didn't like raw potatoes.

Oh well, at leasts this kept the squirrels on the ground and off the overhead power lines. It seems this summer they have been frying themselves quite regularly and I am getting tired of losing power everytime they do.

I am actually knitting a sock that isn't stockinette! I knew the time would come when stockinette would start to lose its appeal and I would become ready for more of a challange. Baby steps, though, baby steps. These Bamboo Walking Socks (although, I am doing them in Opal Smoke) fit the bill nicely. It is still a very simple pattern, but creates a nice look the with varigated yarn.

I am still a complete knitting idiot, though, and need a counter to keep track of the 3 row (2 of which are stockinette!) pattern.

I was reading She Knits Socks' blog today and when I read that she was lusting after Opal Petticoat yarn in the 1290 colourway I remembered that I had a pair! These were the second pair of socks that I ever knit. I really love this yarn also. I am a complete sucker for pastels.

Dyeing for Dummies

I had my first lesson in dyeing yarn yesterday and just as I feared it was pretty fun. So now I suppose I will have to start slowly buying all my own supplies. I really like how the blue skein turned out and am eager to see how it will knit up. The green one is another matter. The colour chart showed the two greens matching far better than they do in real life. I will have to head back over to my sister Susan's and try some overdyeing to see if I can come up with something that tones down the brightness of the bits of leaf green poking through. The picture is actually flattering to it. When it dried it became more pronounced.

I have made a vow that I will not touch my sister's spinning wheel for at least another year. Regardless of the cost, I simply do not have the room for one of my own!








I did finish a pair of socks the other day. Here is Lisa Souza Pink Ribbon.

The mounties would be proud.