Stamps

This is going to sound pathetic, but hear me out: the highlight of my week was the arrival of some books I ordered, whose passage was paid by vintage stamps. Here's the top of the stack. Are you getting chills?

Okay maybe it's just me, or rather the former stamp-collecting me. But some of these are borderline geriatric and I think it's pretty cool to see them on a parcel today.

Let's digress before I show you more stamps, shall we? It's a gorgeous day outside and I ventured out back to get a few pretty photos to appeal to the non-stamp-obsessives among us.

We ended up with white impatiens again this year after many years without, and they seem as happy to be back as we are to have them.

The hydrangeas are still blooming!

Even my beloved boxwood, which keeps getting attacked by invasive caterpillars, is fighting back with some fresh growth after I had to do a massive cull of its branches. 

 

The second infestation of the season came a few weeks earlier than expected and by the time we noticed, it was too late to save more. I would give up, but this little sweetie works so hard to survive, I have to do all I can to help it.

Meanwhile, the stamps. 

I loved our little day trip last week but the virus I picked up along the way: not so much. For almost a week now I've been stuck inside trying not to spread it to anyone else, and too sleepy to do any work. You can perhaps see how the arrival of four paperback-sized parcels with stamps on them might brighten a lonely invalid's week.

The one with the Queen Mother almost matches my sock, don't you think? Terrible photo, though. It's a bit of a grind trying to make the lighting work in my sickroom.

This one looks very patriotic, with the flag:

Fencing too! Seems appropriate during Olympics season.

Here's the last one:

That 5-cent stamp in the upper left corner is from the early 1960s, making it 60 years old! and in pretty spectacular shape for having gone through the mail system.

I can't actually bring myself to open the packages, I love the look of them so much. I will eventually though. There are vintage Agatha Christie paperbacks inside and one of them has a cover that's pink. Not the norm for the Queen of Crime.

Unfortunately this virus is one of those enthusiasm-zapping things where I couldn't even make myself knit, though I did bring my sock into isolation with me just in case. So I have no progress to report, of any kind. I am mostly reading the news, or sleeping to recover from eating. I suspect things are improving a little though, so by next week I should be able to share something a bit more exciting. Low bar, amiright?

Hope your weekend's looking lovely and thank you for dropping by today. See you next Saturday!

Day Trip

I took a sock on a day trip this week, and got through part of a heel flap:

Eventually I had to give up. It's just too hard to be sure you've counted rows accurately in a moving car, over black stitches. But it was pretty great to have a flashback to the old days, when we'd get out of town and head somewhere nice...

 

... with a modest goal of some kind.

The modest goal this round? A purchase at Maple Leaf Fudge, in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Fudge like no other! and that town is always so pretty. Niagara Parks spends a ton on gardening for the area, and Niagara-on-the-Lake is the showpiece. Check out this planting, one of a ton that line the strip between road and sidewalk:

There were visitors from Florida while we were there, and Texas too. I didn't ask if they'd brought knitting, though.

After we locked down our fudge, we went looking for a nice place for a picnic, and landed in a park where I found that cute metal bike atop a bike rack. Can you guess where? Here's another hint:

It got kinda cloudy where we were there - sorry for the dark image. 

If you're from the Niagara area, like me, or have visited a lot, also like me, or if you've been hanging around Hugs for years and years, definitely like me, you will know that spire right away as Brock's Monument. 

It really sticks up there, doesn't it! If you're driving up from Niagara-on-the-Lake, it looms over the edge of the escarpment, too. 

When I was a kid there were concerts in the bandstand here at Queenston Heights, and my parents brought me along to them, but I also came on school trips and trips with houseguests. 

Once I visited the wax museum in Niagara Falls where I saw a scene of General Brock dying in the battle that was fought here during the war of 1812. If I hadn't considered that the monument is a grave marker before, I sure did after. I also decided wax museums are too scary for me and my outsized imagination!

Compared to the thrills of Niagara Falls or the fudge of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Queenston Heights might seem like a bore, but as I realized on this most recent visit, it's really the spot I love most on these trips. I's a lovely wide space, with amazing views...

... and generous amenities for picnickers. It's often quiet, though, popular with locals and their dogs for a leisurely walk.

And it's a battlefield. Every time I go, I look down at the foliage softening the sides of the escarpment and think, people had to climb this with weapons in their hands to come into the various battles fought in this area in 1812 - maybe not exactly here, but close enough.

Here are some more pictures of the monument, which I find so striking:

And also, of the gorgeous flower beds, so carefully maintained:

We often think how nice it would be to live down here ourselves, and be able to pop over for walks through this park whenever we want. But I suppose if we did, we'd be dangerously close to Maple Leaf Fudge. Better just to visit.

Hope you did something nice this week! Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you next Saturday.

Forest Bathing

I don't know about you, but I love this spa-like term for 'hanging around trees'. This is something I do as often as possible, even if it's winter and I'm stuck looking out at the bare ones in the back yard. The rest of the year, though, I'm walking distance from a ravine park with loads of natural world features in it.

The route I take requires - such a hardship! - walking past houses with nice gardens, like this pollinator one:

Or this pretty border variety:

And then it's down through a leafy bower.

The path under these trees isn't *too* steep... coming down. We won't discuss what it's like coming back up, ahem, but it's the reason I don't do this trip three times a day.

On this particular outing, we were having a break from a whole lotta rain. On my way into the ravine the skies were still very stormy-looking, which I love:

It made the air in the soggy leafy ravine smell *amazing*... I so wish I could package that up for you here, along with the pictures. But I can show you what the creeks running through the ravine looked like. Busy!

Maybe not this side of a bridge, so much - all you can see is the churned-up colour, and maybe that the water level is sitting higher than normal:

But on this side? It was noisy. I uploaded larger format pictures this week so you can click on them and see more detail.

I always wonder what magic is happening under a bridge to produce such a change. Trolls? Probably trolls.

It's too hot to knit again this week, so I'm working on another writing project I started last fall and got to a full draft before wandering off to greener pastures. It's important to take a break from a manuscript like that, so you come back with fresh eyes and ideas, but I am definitely making a note to self - six months is too long! I'm so fresh I'm practically a blank slate.

However, it's lovely on the porch again, with a tiny breeze and a lot of squirrels hustling around while we humans laze. I'm going to enjoy it all while I can.

Hope you have some lovely moments lined up in your weekend! Maybe even something with trees. Thanks as always for spending this time with me, and I hope to see you next Saturday.

Hello again

Well that was quite a month I had! I finished writing my novel, and wrapped up two revisions to boot, and now I am tidying up the house again and looking around me at what other things I have in my life. Specifically, an unfinished knitting project to finish.

I know, presented like this these socks look like breakfast (as in, a dog's). 

My real breakfasts have been looking rather more elegant lately. In my effort to actually eat 8 different fruits and vegetables a day I've taken to grazing on them from the time I wake up. Pretty, yes? 

Also, since those breakfasts fuelled my writing so effectively, I've had time the last two days to do some serious tidying up, and tracked down my collection of vintage knitting patterns. Thought you might enjoy a look at this one. I wonder if anyone ever knit those yellow socks patterned with blue, in those exact colours, and then wore them?

Back to this month's knitting project. I don't remember now whether this is the June one I'm finishing in July, or a July one, but I think I'll give myself a pass on June either way and call it July. All these socks needed was the ends run in.

One down, one to go. Don't you love this wide shallow dish? I picked it up at an antique market and the stripe around it always makes me so happy. But the main draw is that it's the perfect size for a small project like socks or lapel pin embroidery. And when I'm working on the porch, I'm always looking for something my needles won't roll off of and into the garden if I put them down for a moment. 

That's right, we're on the porch today! It was looking a little forbidding when I finally got the cushions out and everything set up...

and in just about no time it did start to rain...

but unlike the back deck where I usually hang out, the porch has a roof. I had a little mist on my ankles, and a glorious breeze, and I welcomed both. It's been hot lately.

Being back on the porch reminds me of the good ol' days when I'd set up an audiobook and spin yarn out here. I might do that again this summer, if I still remember how! The other thing I'd like to revisit is weaving. One of the other cleanup jobs I did this week involved overhauling the dining room, and as I moved the furniture around I realized it's much more textile project friendly now. When the temperatures come down a bit, maybe next month, I might actually set up there and finish the pink silk scarf I started before we renovated the house and I got totally distracted by lighting fixtures and things of that ilk.

Ohhh, that'd be a good unfinished project to finish this year, wouldn't it? Unless moths got to it.

Trish showed me how to run in ends diagonally like this, years ago, and every time I do it I think of her. Isn't it nice to associate everyday tasks with a person you like, so you kind of get bonus time with them?

There! All done.

I'm getting another nice soft breeze now and enjoying the way our front hedge is rustling under its influence. What a lovely relaxing Saturday I'm having after working nonstop for a month - hope yours is peaceful too, or at least pleasant.

I'm leaving you with one last photo before I say goodbye for the week - our hydrangeas still have mixed soil, and are not committing to one colour over another. I do love the look of their indecision, don't you?

Thanks for waiting for me all through June and for dropping in today - I'll see you next week!