Chitchat and the occasional in-depth analysis about fiber, knitting, spinning, crochet, cooking, feminism, self-image, and a modicum of personal blathering.

Monday, November 19, 2007

you blow through here, the music goes round and round

I know this is a little unprecedented, two updates in less than a week. Add to that the fact that I am working today, Monday, and am writing this entry while at work and you get a whole new level of blogging dedication. I’m normally off on Mondays because I work a four-day, ten-hours-a-day schedule. So today, I’m at work and am using a blank e-mail to write a blog entry because we can’t access blogspot from here. Makes perfect sense to me.

We took the dogs to Heritage Park in Monroeville yesterday.

landscape

The weather was grey and cloudy and just the last few trees were hanging on to their leaves. It was nice, though, because the park was coated in fallen leaves which were pleasantly crunchy and have that great autumn smell to them. I was telling Bob that I like this part of the fall because while there aren’t a lot of trees with color, the ones that ARE there are usually pretty spectacular. I took the camera, and took pictures.

still life with picnic table

That’s one of my favorite pictures. You can almost hear the leaves rustling.

The dogs made some new friends there, one was just a blur.

the amazing brindle blur

It was actually a very friendly Pit or Pit mix, brindle, fairly young. Nice dog. Some other folks came with a young yellow Labrador and they were really overprotective and afraid of the Pit, quite needlessly. I felt bad but what are you going to do. Dylan and Lily completely wore themselves out running and chasing and trying to herd these bigger dogs and it was hilarious. They had a very good time.

dogs sniffin

I took a lot of photos, but most of them didn’t come out too well because I didn’t want to use the flash, and dogs being dogs, well, they move. Some were pretty good though.

dylan in and out of focus

I’ll be glad when I get this camera all figured out. It’s annoying not being able to make it do exactly what I want it to do.

bob n dogs

Corgis do blend in with leaves. When blurry, they blend in even better.

blurdogs

Lily got her little bandana from Petco, where we stopped to get cat litter and her food supplement, and a new collar for Dylan.

dogs blend in

She’s so dainty. And so hairy. I was pulling clumps of undercoat off of her every time she came over to me. She needs a good brushing, and soon. Dylan just doesn’t shed like Lily does, his undercoat is much less, which adds to my wondering if he isn’t part Cardigan corgi.

lily too fast

lily and bench

More leaves… lots of vibrant reds and yellows.

red trees

yellow tree

treescape

I enjoyed the contrast between the bark, the leaves, and the moss here.

moss and leaves

leaves

These trees were growing together in an interesting way.

trees twined 3

This poor tree had grown over a tie-out.

tortured tree

We found some interesting bark here and there.

bark4

bark3

bark2

And here’s Bob with flash…

bobhead

…and without.

bob in the park

One tree had this nice looking lichen on it.

lichen 2

There were also berries. I don’t know what kind. Possibly snozzberries.

berries

All in all, it was a very pastoral and calm afternoon. It’s a nice park with a nice off-leash area so we will definitely be going back.

tree color

Then the Steelers game happened, which was very un-nice and very disturbing. Playing a severely substandard team, they lost. But I cooked an excellent pot roast with a beer broth, which was both hearty and delicious, and I did manage to finish the Parasol socks.

PB181251

They used exactly a half a skein of Opal Mosaik sock yarn. You still can’t see the lace pattern. Oh well. She’ll like them, I’ve been assured.

The weekend was pleasant overall, what with the new yarn store, the trip to Trader Joe’s where I found both reasonably priced clementines and fresh, California grown plums (in November???), a nice quart of excellent broth in the freezer for future beefy vegetable noodle soup, good karaoke date with Bob, some great conversation, and fresh air.

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