As I mentioned on Friday, I’m on vacation this week. It’s a mostly stay-at-home vacation and that’s just fine with me. My plan for the week is to post a picture a day of something I’ve been doing on vacation. This way you don’t have to miss me too much and I don’t have to work too hard updating the blog. Sound good? So here’s today’s photo:

Sock knitting at Cape Cod Canal. It was beautiful and breezy and much cooler than at home. I could have sat there all afternoon except that the rock I was sitting on was so damn hard.

See you tomorrow!

This beautiful and vibrant Lamb’s Ear Rose Campion (thanks, Ann and Marcia!) is right outside my office window. Pretty, yes? But I still won’t miss it when I’m on vacation next week.

Have a great weekend!

The start of the Summer of Socks inspired me to finish the Heads Up socks last Sunday. I was going to show them to you a few days ago but saved them for today for a very special reason – which I’ll explain shortly.

As you may recall, the yarn was dyed by Scout after being inspired by Dale’s flagpole accident of last March. The colors are really wonderful and the bright yellow adds a great off-beat touch. One of the reddish browns reminded me of dried blood but I tried not to dwell on that too much.

Okay, so the reason I saved this post for today is because it’s Dale’s birthday. I don’t want to get all sappy (because yesterday’s post was sappy enough) but I can’t help but thinking that my husband came very close to not being around to celebrate this birthday. That accident shook both of us to the core and I look at these socks as a reminder of the frailty and uncertainty of life. It’s a big job for a pair of socks but I think they’re up to the challenge.

So with all of that in mind I took this photo. Dale is holding my Heads Up clad feet in this hands, symbolic of the fact that he holds my heart in his hands every day. I’m so blessed to have him for a husband. He’s kind and funny and dependable. He drives me crazy sometimes but the truth is that he’s absolutely perfect for me.

Won’t you all join me and wish him a happy birthday?

This jewelry box belonged to my mother and it was one of the first things I brought back to my house after she died. I bought it for her for her birthday in 1975 when I was 10 years old. I saw it at the store and fell in love with it because I thought it looked like something a princess would have and of course my mom was a princess to me.

Honestly, I don’t know if she truly liked it or not. The green certainly didn’t match her bedroom and the style was probably a little fancy for her taste. But she used it for the rest of her life and that’s saying something.

Even though it’s been on my bureau for over ten years now I’ve never actually cleaned it out and moved my jewelry into it – it’s still filled with her rings and necklaces, earrings and pins. Boy did she have a lot of big pins!

When I was little I would go in my mom’s bedroom and play with her jewelry. I would put on her rings and necklaces and pretend I was a princess.

Now all this jewelry belongs to me and someday it will belong to Hannah. I love the continuity of that. J is for a Jewelry box full of memories.

Last week I joined a flickr group called A Day in the Life Of . . . it’s a place to post photos of your life on a particular day. Saturday was the most recent day to post and I want to show you the 5 photos I chose but first I need to take care of some housekeeping and show you my Sweet Swap Package from Elizabeth.

Luckily for me Elizabeth went on a trip to Hershey, PA right before she mailed me this package so it was extra sweet! There was candy and yarn and books and roving and lots and lots of wonderful treats. Thank you to Lynne for organizing the swap and thank you to Elizabeth for sending such a terrific and generous package!

The theme for this round of A Day in the Life Of . . . was green. I tried to incorporate green in all my photos as I spent the day . . .

gazing at the sky from underneath my scaevola plant

knitting in the adirondack chairs on my deck

attending a party, sitting on a deck and observing a very active hummingbird population

watching for bunnies in a beautifully green backyard

It was fun to carry the camera around and look for ways to document my day of green. I’m already looking forward to the next time.

There was a teeny bit of stealth knitting going on here at Carole Knits this past month. You see, I knit a Branching Out scarf for my wonderful sister-in-law, Mary. Her birthday was yesterday and that means that the scarf has been gifted. That also means that I can finally share it with you all.

The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Royal Llama Silk and I bought it in Florida last January when we were visiting the kids. I think Mary will really appreciate that the yarn has a connection to Brant, Heather & Ambrynn. I had 3 skeins of the yarn and used 2.5 to get the length that I wanted.

The pattern, of course, is Susan’s Branching Out. It’s a terrific lace scarf and I’d certainly recommend it to any beginning lace knitter. For the more experienced knitters, well, it’s just plain fun.

I added a few beads and some fringe to each end. I really like the way beads add substance and weight to a scarf and these amethyst beads matched the yarn too perfectly to pass them up. However, when I got home I realized two things. One, the hole in the beads wasn’t big enough for two strands of yarn. This meant I couldn’t do the twisted fringe that I wanted to do. And two, I didn’t have enough beads to come up with great alternatives to the twisted fringe. Dale helped me, though, and we came up with 7 beads on each end and extra fringe in between. It’s not what I planned but I do like the way it looks.

Mary has always given me lots of comfort and warmth and I hope this scarf feels like a big hug from me every time she wears it. Happy Birthday, Mary!

This sweet pink rose bush is under our bedroom window. Don’t let the picture fool you, these are tiny little flowers, only about 1.5 inches across. I love that as small as they are, they are still perfectly formed roses.

Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses this weekend.

I realized the other day that I haven’t done a “Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” in a really long time. I’m sure I’ve thought of lots of things to put on this list but they are always so fleeting. My thoughts, that is. If I don’t write this stuff down, well, it’s just gone. Anyway, I do have a few things that have made me go hmmmm in the past week . . .

*When Hannah is out with her friends I have a rule that she has to check in when she changes location. For instance, if she’s at the pizza place and wants to walk to Dunkin Donuts then she needs to call me. Simple, right? Well, she told me the other day that this makes her feel like I don’t trust her. That’s not it at all, I just want to know where she is. So, I’m asking you all for advice on this one. How do I make her understand that it’s of my peace of mind and not a matter of trust? Hmmm?

*A family of bunnies has taken up residence in our wood pile. We’ve seen two adult sized ones (mama and papa, we assume) and a few itty bitty ones. They are awfully cute and it makes me glad we don’t have a vegetable garden this year.

*Kristi has designed a wonderful new sock pattern and all the net profits go to support The Seeing Eye, a non-profit school that provides guide dogs and training to the visually impaired. You can see the sock here and purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

*In the interest of catching up with the ABC Along I have decided that I is for Icarus and this post now counts as my I contribution. Now I just need to come up with a J. Hmmm.

*Finally, it must be officially summer because Dale and his band are playing outdoors again. We worried about thunderstorms Tuesday night but they managed to get their annual hometown concert on the common done. It doesn’t get better than a beautiful summer night of fun music with all your friends. Hmmm indeed.

Thank you all so much for the warm and kind anniversary wishes. Dale and I are all verklempt, I tell you! You all really know how to make a couple feel special.

Okay, don’t fall over or anything, but I actually have knitting to show you today.

You see, once I had that Heads Up yarn wound into a cake it started screaming really loudly, “knit me! knit me!” That yelling was just the inspiration I needed to finish the Lavender Mint socks.

Like the Heads Up, this is also Scout’s yarn and the colors of lavender, green and white are so spring like!

They are my standard picot edge stockinette sock. I honestly never get tired of knitting this plain ole sock. How could I? They fit perfectly and they are simply beautiful.

When Julie heard I was knitting socks in this colorway she sent me some of her Lavender Mint Tea and I drank many glasses of iced tea made from Julie’s special blend while I knit these socks. It was a perfect combination!

Kudos to Scout for the yarn. Kudos to Julie for the refreshment. Kudos to a new pair of socks for the sock drawer.

Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary and we headed up to Kittery, ME to celebrate. That might seem like a strange place to go but, you see, we spent our wedding night in Kittery and we’ve always meant to go back. The same bed & breakfast, Enchanted Nights, is in operation and with our anniversary falling on a weekend it just seemed like the timing was right for a return trip. Not surprisingly, we had a fabulous time.

We hit Portsmouth for lunch and were surprised to find a huge street festival in full swing. There were vendors and sidewalk sales and bands. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours. We had a delicious lunch at the Portsmouth Brewery and then headed to Kittery.

The B&B was just as beautiful as we remembered but we definitely upgraded our room this time. Whirlpool for 2, king sized bed, walk in shower for 2 and all the Victorian frou-frous you can imagine!

After we had enjoyed the whirlpool and, errr, relaxed for a bit we headed out for a walk to explore the area. I brought the camera along and took some shots.

Of pretty flowers.

And the public library.

We stopped on a drawbridge and spotted Warren’s Lobster House. Beer, mussels and lobster stew sure did hit the spot there. And on our walk back we stopped and got a pizza to bring back to the room.

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the room, watching the DVD of our wedding/honeymoon, and just being happy together. We both agreed it was the best anniversary yet!