two things

One: our very first rhubarb harvest!


Actually, they're still a bit small to be harvested, so I only took the biggest stalks (because I had promised a friend some for today), and we'll harvest the rest when it's ready (hopefully in about two weeks — we have plans that involve rhubarb then!). We think we may have missed the very first harvest this season — I remember the stalks had been nice and thick (and red) sometime during the June heatwave, and then ... we did nothing. Which I guess also means that we'll have even more rhubarb next year. Actually, there's no guessing involved; I've already located one new plant.

The garden continues to surprise. I discovered a massive stand of garden sage next to our porch, underneath the forsythia, while weeding a week or so ago. And then this weekend we discovered a stand of rosemary intermingled with our lavender. This is in addition to our chives, which are ... everywhere. So now I feel kind of silly worrying about my wee herb strawberry pot, since apparently my garden just springs forth herbs at random. On the other hand: fresh herbs! Everywhere!

Two: we just got a brand new toy. (Well, new to us. Not new-new.)


We'd been thinking about upgrading for a while; the D40 was always a stop-gap measure for me. The primary incentive to upgrade was the lack of autofocus servos on the D40; while manual focusing is fine, it doesn't give us the full pleasure of some of the lenses we've bought. A secondary concern was the addition of LiveView in the D90, which is a fun perk — although I've noticed that I'm so used to using the viewfinder now, I completely forget about LV!

My favourite thing about the camera so far is the almost tactile clunk that the shutter makes as it opens and closes. For some reason, I find the solidity deeply satisfying.

knitting blog

This is what I would like to say: that I haven't been blogging because I've been tremendously busy living my glamourous and exciting life.

This is somewhat closer to the truth: I haven't been blogging because I have been a) lazy; b) busy strategizing how to maximize the time spent in air conditioning while simultaneously minimizing the time spent in our warm, muggy house and, failing that; c) busy playing LEGO: Harry Potter on the Wii.

We have just tamed Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban. It's very good.

I have also been knitting. A lot. I'm not sure if I've just been knitting more than usual, or if I've definitely gotten faster (and I'm sure it helps that the two sweater projects were mostly stockinette, and the scarf was garter stitch), but I've been piling up the Finished Objects a lot more quickly these days.

To wit:


The Liesl tunic (Rav link). The yarn is the Louet Euroflax sportweight that I bought about a month ago. (It was bought specifically with this pattern in mind.) The colourway is "Steel Grey," and I have to admit, I was hoping for more grey and less ... purple. At any rate, I still love it. I finished this before the cottage, actually — literally at the last minute. I set it to block the night before, but it still wasn't dry when it was time to leave in the morning, so I threw it into the dryer (I love this yarn) for 20 minutes, put it on and walked out the door.

I knit this with a deliberately tighter gauge than the pattern called for (because the smallest size was a bit too big for me), and it somehow worked out perfectly.


So, with that done, I needed cottage-knitting: Scaruffle (Rav link), a garter-stitch scarf knit on size 13 needles. How much easier can you get? The yarn is a four-ply cotton with long colour changes by Wolle's Yarn Creations, in the Strawberry Hershey colourway (it's an appropriate name). I had to restart this scarf three times in order to get the right length so that I could get the full colour gradations without making it too wide.

Here's a close-up of the colour-change at the edge of the scarf:


I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this. It's very pretty, but I'm not sure if I would ever wear it, so ... I'll revisit it in the fall, and if I decide I'll never wear it, I'll gift it to someone.

I then started on an Aeolian shawl with the 1200 metres of pink Fleece Artist lace that I bought at the Frolic.


I've gotten through the easiest lace bits, so I've put it aside for when I can concentrate on it — it's no longer streetcar/work knitting.

Since then, I've been finishing up a pair of socks for Pd that have been hibernating since March:


"Cauchy" socks from Cookie A.'s book, in Dream in Colour Smooshy. The yarn is a bit lighter than I'm used to, which was deliberate as these were supposed to be spring socks ... I guess they'll be fall socks, now. I've turned the heel since this picture was taken, and should be done within the week.

Which is perfect, because then will be just in time for me to pick the Aeolian back up while we take the plane to this place:


I know. Glamourous and exciting.

this just about made my day

Do you see?


Here, I blew it up for you.


Hee.

(Photo credit to Pd, who actually took the photo.)

Canada Day fireworks at Creemore

These are kind of self-explanatory.







...
We also participated in the great migration to the Muskokas that happens every summer weekend.


We sat around on the very sunny dock.


We fed ducks that were as tamed and fearless as any in the city.


And we learned valuable lessons about the relative buoyancy of consumer beverages. To whit: Glass bottles sink. Anything else (including aluminum cans and plastic bottles of Coke shaped like soccer balls — don't ask) floats. Floating, which you would think is a good idea, is actually bad if you happen to be using a giant fishing net and the lake as a cooling device, because the first foot or so of water is the warmest layer. So, while the beverage in question can usually be recovered (we never did find the aforementioned soccer ball of Coke), it's usually warm. And shaken. But it is entertaining.

...
It actually feels kind of odd to be back at work — my last two weeks have been three-day work weeks due to the G20 and the Canada Day holiday (I took July 2nd off to bridge the gap). Now I'm back to full-time, and it's good (less stress), but feels odd (less vacation).

gone fishin'

Happy Canada Day! We're off to the family farm (literally), and then the family cottage for the rest of the weekend.


I am bringing three books and only two knitting projects (after Pd talked me down from four). Do you think that's excessive?