OH THOSE GIRLS

oh, those girls are pretty amazing. on fathers day they came over and made their dad some of his favs- fish cakes, beets, salad and dilly bars for dessert. we ate on the porch, it was cooler there than in the house ( and yes we have central air but i have not turned it on yet). well eric was in hog heaven, he loves fish cakes and with an amazing tarter sauce from scratch…wow! then beets and salad with homemade dressing( my only contribution), only to be topped with dilly bars from dairy queen. oh yes those girls know how to put the lovin on their dad!

i’ve been under the weather this week, home from work last two days with an earache! i have never had an earache before, but this one knocked my socks off-the throbbing and pain to even touch my ear, mercy me!!! i’m on the mend now, feel as if i turned the corner late this afternoon. have been treating it mainly with garlic and mullein oil, it works with a lot of patience and rest! i did manage to roam in the front yard early this morning and took some pics with my i-phone as the sun was rising. 

i was thinking, that now,  daylight will start to get shorter-i prefer shorter sun light days and cooler. 

yes i am a cool weather gal!

since i have been laid up, i have been knitting …a lot. hopefully will get some pictures this weekend for the blog. 

YARN ALONG/SUMMER SOUL CAMP 2015

what a morning already, I have been up since 4am, not because I wanted a jump start on the day but because I have a whopper of an ear infection! I’m all swollen on right side of face, hearing in right ear immensely decreased and achy. so it will be off to the store for mullein/garlic oil this morning, then warm presses and apple cider rinses for the rest of the day.

I finished one sock this week, though not super happy with it. the sock fits but a wee bit too small. I started with 68 stitches, decreased down to 62 and still tight to get sock on. I guess I will start with 72 on next sock. I use to make them too big for me, now the opposite problem…ugh!

also started the pi shawl {elizabeth zimmermann} using the blue cakes pictured above. This is the last of the yarn from china!(tear). the pi shawl is an absolute delight to knit, easy no brainer summer knit. the best part, it will take several months to complete, no rush, great put down and pick up again whenever.

no pattern just multiply pi~ numbers.

joined summer camp 2015 over at beauty that moves.  love heather’s writing, not a big fan of summer, so thought maybe this 10 day course will help reframe my negative summer thinking!

Of course the gods have to throw in this bothersome earache to get me off to a wonderful comfortable start. (2nd ugh)!

reading several books at same time, but what I really want to read is my yearly summer book,

to kill a mockingbird. I read this every summer for the past 15 years for some reason. 

please join ginny for

yarn along

and stop by 

beauty that moves

ps: any ideas for a natural remendy for external ear infection?

THE ABBEY

St.Walburga

crucifix made from colorado clay

crucifix inlaid in ties on floor

see the nun with her apron over her blue robes?

it was 97 degrees today! i would not want to be doing labor in long sleeve robes and a long veil….

i went up to Laramie today to meet a friend for lunch and on the way home i stopped at the abbey.

i am so glad i stopped, what an amazing place! the abbey of st.walburga is a benedictine monastery of contemplative nuns, roman catholic. the abbey has 21 nuns that are totally self sufficient, i mean they grow all their food, make their clothes, do all the labor on the land ! amazing! the order of nuns came to united states in 1935 to get out of nazi germany, settling in the boulder area till they out grew the property. in 1997 they relocated in northern larimer county. 

the abbey has rooms to rent for personal solitude and pray at an amazing price. also they have hikes and prayers and of a mass said several times a day, most impressive though is they do monastic chants, if you have never heard monastic chanting you are seriously missing an amazing sound. oh, and they have a cute little store that i saw some hand woven rag rugs, hand made bees wax candles, plus of a lot of literature regarding the abbey. 

i’m going to go back to the abbey, hopefully next week to look around a bit more. on my drive out i noticed “station ave” which is a beautiful foot (all natural) path that winds up the hill with crosses placed every 100 feet or so. it’s the stations of the cross! (if your not familiar with catholic church, here is an explanation).

how i would love to spend three days in silent , meditative solitude up in those beautiful mountains at the abbey. 

WOOL PARTY

yarn from my stash to needle punch a rug.

We were wondering how this goat was going to get out this fix, ( getting his head through the bars with his long horns)?

We watched him for awhile but he never paid us any mind, he liked the hay on the other side of the fence.

It was a lovely day in Estes Park with Eric. We wonder the aisles, looked at a lot of yarn, spent too much money, ( Eric being no help on restraining me), had a good lunch, looked at lots of woolly animals and watched the sheep dogs do their thing. 

And to beat the band, I got to knit while Eric drove and told me all about some crazy laws that Colorado has enacted this past session. To be in politics doesn’t mean you have to have any common sense, oh the problems we weave for ourselves ;-(

Had wonderful weekend with Eric

the weather turned out nice too.