g, g, g what begins with G? Goodies from the Garden, g, g, g!

On Saturday we had friends over for dinner. I made seafood chowder and salad with pears, blue cheese, candied walnuts & grapes. Today my mother in law arrived at our house and we had poached salmon, oven roasted potatoes, and broccoli & cheese. Good stuff. I'm always excited when we harvest potatoes from the garden. I love to dig them up, it's like digging for treasure. And they're so fresh and firm and beautiful. This year we grew Yukon gold and a purple variety. Can you believe how beautiful these purple potatoes are?

Seared silver salmon and Yukon gold potatoes before they went into the seafood chowder. We ate a lot of salmon & potatoes this weekend, but it was all tasty.

Rich started a batch of wine, a Zinfandel I think, and a batch of mead this weekend.

More potato pictures because they were just so pretty. This was right before I roasted them in the oven.

The sun came out this afternoon and we enjoyed a beautiful fall day. We had to get some of those pre-winter season chores taken care of. We split the bleeding heart that should have been split about four years ago. Raked a few leaves. Cut back some perennials. Scooped some dog poop. Went for a short walk. Short because Teagan's stomach started hurting and she actually threw up in the middle of the road. It was really strange, and not even a full-blown barf fest (not like the time she threw up into my cupped hands in the grocery store, anyway). She doesn't seem sick, so hopefully it was just some random weird thing.... (On another, less revolting note, don't you love my pink fence? It's one of the remnants from our little pink house. You'd think we'd have painted it when we painted the house, but no.)

In response to the comment and questions about versatility: first of all, how fun that we're knitting the same color versatility! I'm finding the dimensions to be really strange as well. I'm knitting mine on size 11 needles, and it still seems fewer than 19 inches wide, but easily stretches to that and beyond, so I'm not too worried about it. What's bothering me more is that I started on my third skein two rows before I reached the halfway point! The whole thing is only supposed to take three skeins!! At this rate, I'll have to start a fifth skein to finish it according to the pattern! If I'm consistent, I'll be four rows short of making it with four skeins, so I'm considering shortening it a little. I REALLY don't want to go buy another ball, though it would be fun to knit some matching gloves or a hat or something with the leftover yarn.

Happy knitting!

F is for Forks (or lack thereof), Flips, and (halfway) Finished objects

Lots of good F stuff today! Aidan is practicing with dishes and silverware. As you can see, the fork isn't getting much use. But the spaghetti was good enough to slurp right out of the bowl. This was a meal we followed immediately with bathtime!


Teagan just learned to do a real cartwheel. I didn't get the best shots ever, but here she is showing off her moves. She's such an active kid!



Finally, I thought I'd proudly show off my progress on Versatility. Exactly one-half is complete. Here's Teagan modeling the first half for me. It looks sort of afghan-ish in this picture, hopefully just because Teagan's wearing it like a blanket.


So do any of my devoted readers (ha ha) watch Project Runway? Is Kenley just about as annoying as can be? I like her designs, but she's driving me so crazy!! She's always so smug. And what was that crap about her getting the "pretty" girl for the last challenge? Ugh. I'm ready for her to go. I wish Blaine was back, though, I loved him and his tanorexia. He made me think of my friend Slade. Anyway, I had to dish a little about the show. I just love it; even Heidi is growing on me.

Sayonara!

Ah, fall must be here

Because the knitting bug has bit!! The turning leaves, chilly days, and lengthening nights always make me crave knitting or other crafty goodness. They also make me excited for the new fall lineup, primarily Grey's Anatomy, but I can save my television obsessions for later. This post is about my current knitting obsession. This post is for Rhiannon. She called me the other night to look at the new Knitty patterns; one pattern in particular, called Versatility. She loves it. She caused me to love it. And now I am knitting it. I'm so excited about it for so many reasons:

1. I haven't done anything crafty in SO long!
2. I love knitting, or at least thinking about knitting, accessories, such as leg warmers, hats, gloves, scarves, arm bands, etc., and this is sort of an accessory, but more!!
3. I have never knitted a lace pattern, bobbles, or cables, and this has all of them. I can't believe how long I've avoided cables; they are SO easy! And the pattern is really fun to knit.
4. The yarn I'm using is called cafe au lait. Yummy. It is the most beautiful variegated brown ever. More than anything, I'm a freak for yummy fiber (not the edible variety).
5. I love to tease Rhiannon that I'm knitting it because she wants to knit it but wants to finish her other projects first. Finish a project? What's the big deal? I rarely finish anything, as Rhiannon and my husband have been pointing out to me all weekend. But I do hope to finish this, as I really want to wear it.

Ciao for now...I have some knitting to do (oh yeah, and Teagan to put to bed, and laundry, and, well, knitting...).

E is for Exhausted

Why am I still up? This is why I don't get on the computer at home. I'm not getting enough sleep right now because everyone in my house has been sick over the past week, and Aidan's teething is driving him, and subsequently me, to distraction. He's been needy and cranky during the day and waking up a lot at night. Sigh. That's just life with kids.

So I love this little sequence. I would put it in a collage like Rhiannon if I only knew how. One day I will learn.They were so cute I wanted a picture of them together, but Aidan was having none of it.

He just wanted me to hold him, which is par for the course these days. So is this face.

But how cute is my big kindergartener? She is so big I am amazed whenever I look at her. School suits her well, and she is doing great in the Japanese immersion program. It is an amazing program; she has already learned so much! (I've been so out of touch on this blog I don't think I've mentioned any of this. But there it is: Teagan just started kindergarten in a Japanese immersion program!)

Well, sayonara for now!