5 And A Beagle

A little snippet of information pulled from the Internet for prospective tourists set on visiting the Pacific Northwest, or more specifically, Vancouver in July.

July is the least rainy month in a city famous for its rain. Visitors can expect rain about 7 days out of 31 in July.

Who would have thought that those 7 days would be 7 days in a row and the very same 7 days that we went away to Vancouver Island on a wee little vacation. Apparently we didn't go far enough "away" so as to avoid the rain. Actually, we would had to have gone east over the Rockies into Alberta or way off west in the Pacific, perhaps Hawaii, in order to find the sunshine.

The first day was actually quite nice, #4 and our 'adopted' #6 went for a stroll along the beach and saw a family of otters (twelve Mom, there were twelve of them!!!) running (do otters run?) in front of their path, heading from the ocean into the forest.





#5 and her friend K went for a swim and had a grand time heading out for what seemed like forever on a sandbar.


Later in the day #4, #6 and I went into town to get groceries and I optimistically picked up a bottle of SPF 45 sunscreen. I recall walking past a display of umbrellas for a bargain $1.47 each, thinking "hmmmm, good price, I should pick up a couple." But no, I didn't listen to that inner voice. Too bad really, because that was the last day of sunshine and our day trips to
Victoria (NO ONE is out in the inner harbour when there's a downpour), Ladysmith, Chemainus (even the horse and his buggy stay home when it's raining)















and Saltspring (fibre artists pack everything into plastic rubbermaid containers when it rains-making it hard to fondle the fibre) would have been a lot nicer with those darn umbrellas. The bottle of sunscreen never even saw the light of day (literally and figuratively) until the day we were leaving and the sun made its reappearance

No worries though, this is just life on the West Coast. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And when you don't want to be outside getting wet, there's always alternatives.

Chess







Checkers






Puzzles, Movies (the latest Harry Potter for 2 adults, 4 kids, popcorn and drinks for all and only.....get this....$40! At a movie in town, the popcorn alone costs that much!) and of course, there was knitting.



The German Stockings are finished but because I'm the fool that I am, I underestimated the amount of yarn I would need. The first sock was knit with Knitpicks merino that I had dyed last summer with natural indigo. Why didn't I dye two skeins? It became evident 3/4's of the way through the first sock that I wouldn't have enough to complete the pair so I picked up a skein of Indigo Moon in a colourway that I thought was pretty darn close. The second sock was knit with alternating rounds of each yarn. It looks close in the sunlight, but take it indoors and it's close but not quite. Take a look at these and tell me, would you wear similar, but not quite socks?
Any suggestions on overdying? Any suggestions period? As usual, the colours in the photo aren't quite true to the actual, the second (right) sock isn't quite so purple in hue, but as you can see, there's a definite difference.

They have to be mailed off on Aug 1st, so there's no chance I'll rip the first one and start again with alternating rows of the two yarns. But what the heck to do!!! Bend over and kick myself if I were pliable enough.

No, that's not what my advice was to the soon-to-be-wed Londoner. It is however, my advice to #4 and our 'adopted' #6. They've been anxiously awaiting the posting of a picture I took a few weeks back.

Have you ever tried the Beer Can Chicken recipe?. I'd heard so much about it, I decided to give it a go and of course, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the crazy looking bird before it was put on the BBQ.

Here in all of its glory is the Beer Can Chicken.

That's right, that's all it is. See what I mean about anticipation girls?

Actually, the recipe was a bit the same way. I was expecting a fantastically juicy bird, and it just wasn't that spectacular. I think this recipe is far, far better.

As for the marital advice..... #2 gave similar advice to what a few of you commented on. Don't give up on your interests/activities once your married. My advice - not so serious (or maybe it was) Don't believe him when he tells you everyone else is doing it 7 days a week, and twice on Saturdays! They're not!

Canada Day weekend has come and gone and what did we do? It seems a little "unpatriotic" to be going after the tree that bears the leaf that is a symbol of our country on the day set aside for celebrating the country, but what the heck. We thinned out the maple tree in our back yard. It's a beautifully majestic tree, but the darn thing grows like a gigantic weed. The poor garden beneath it is starved for light, so we decided to give it a thinning.

This is just a small portion of what was cut down, but I don't think they'll be missed.





The tree is still a big beast.

And when there wasn't gardening, there was time for knitting. One sock down and about 20% of sock number two done.


Cookie A's pattern German Stocking heading off to a fellow Canadian for Sockapalooza 4.
(crappy lighting today for an outside shot.)