Says cranky baby, Mom and Dad here is my first tooth! I will fuss about when you feed me, sleep less than usual, and present to you all my general distress at this event.
I can't believe Christmas is come and gone. It seemed so crazy before Christmas, as usual. When will I ever learn to plan further ahead? Mr W's family STILL have not received the gifts 
we sent on the bus that were supposed to arrive before Christmas. He phoned today and due to the snow there have been long delays.
Our Christmas was spent at my parents. We woke up to a power outage on Christmas morning so scrambled around trying to pack up and drive to their place an hour away. We got there for brunch, and a nice afternoon opening presents and of course, cooking (mostly Mom!). Check out this picture of the baby with his uncle, wearing the new Canucks jersey Uncle C. got him. Baby had a busy day, and melted down a few times. I ignored the nap cues, 
wanting to spend Christmas opening presents with the babe. Oh me oh my. Not worth the screaming and crying that resulted!!! The three of us spent the night at a hotel in Sidney since Grandma was staying at my parents so we couldn't stay in the guest room. Next day everyone was meant to come to ours, but snow created anxiety so we stayed until later afternoon and took the little ferry home instead of driving the treacherous, snowy roads.
On the event side, baby started eating solid foods with gusto this week. He loves loves loves solid food. Within the week he happily eats rice cereal, banana, applesauce, and squash. Yay baby! He has breakfast and dinner, and the dinner, combined with his bottle, seems to make him almost sleep through the night. If only, instead of waking at 6, he could wake at 7? That would be sooooooooooo nice.
My three sets of fingerless mitts:
The blue set is for a good friend, the pink are for me, and the gray/pink on the left are for my sister-in-law-to-be.
And here are pics of the easy yummy yummy chocolates Mr W and I made. Pictured here is white chocolate, pistachios, and cranberry bark, and milk/white chocolate almond bark. The dark chocolate, almond and cranberry bark didn't make a very good picture, being all brown :)
We have the Christmas tunes going around here. And the weather is cooperating, it uncharacteristically feels like Christmas with all the snow and chilly weather we have had in the last week. It is quite lovely, I don't mind a little bit of snow once in awhile. This picture was taken with our cell phone which has a 2MB camera yesterday evening as we walked the dogs and enjoyed the sunset out in Cowichan Bay.
We are making several gifts this year. I have been madly knitting fingerless mittens for a few people, including my brothers fiancee (they just got engaged last week, yay!). I had knit one lovely one for her only to find out she is allergic to wool, so lucky me, I will keep it for myself and hope to knit up its partner soon. Each mitt takes about 2 nights to make, not bad, I like instant gratification.
Mr W and I also started making chocolate for his sisters and brother. We bought some fancy pants Bernard Callebaut chocolate from our fancy pants grocery store, melted it poured it over: pistachios and cranberries for the white chocolate, and almonds and cranberries for the dark. It is hard not to nibble, I finally had to put it away so we didn't keep indulging. We need to buy more of the bulk bricks because it didn't go as far as we thought (regardless of our eating the results!), but each brick is almost $10. Told you, it is fancy chocolate. But yummy!! And hopefully all will appreciate the gifts.
Mr W and I tend to know every year what we are getting for each other. We often buy it together. We don't always wrap it and put it under the tree. Seems a bit strange, this 
Mr W
, and for the wee one, we ordered a music cd. He paid about $1 for all this because we purchased the items with our airmiles. Nice!
But seriously, do we wrap everything up? Or just enjoy it when it arrives? The baby won't care if his cd is enjoyed immediately, or hidden in wrapping under a tree. I am just saying, it is strange the way we do things around here, it is :)
We had a cranky baby this weekend. On Saturday we went with my mom's group to ride the Christmas Train. This is the only steam train operating in North America, and it rides around our outdoor forestry museum, about 15 minutes. At this time of year the grounds are all lit up with Christmas lights, and I was looking forward to the outing. Baby was pretty good, met Santa, until the whistle on the train blew as we pulled out of the station, and then he freaked out and started wailing. Poor little guy was absolutely terrified of the sound and cried for the whole train ride. I would get him calmed down and the whistle would blow again. After that he wouldn't settle for hours, just fussed about the house, sleeping in fits and starts until 8 (an hour past his bedtime) when he finally fell into a proper sleep.
Yesterday we took him geocaching, out a logging road. He was pretty good on the hike. Mr W had an adventure on a zip line over a river, and the dogs had a cold swim. Baby, however, started crying
on the way home, and fussed for a few hours after that. Teething maybe? Could be. I can't see any teeth yet, but something was up, he is good natured otherwise. Today we stayed calm and mostly in our routines. I work for a few hours in the morning, have lunch, and then 3 days a week I try and walk for 5k around the track nearby. Did it today no problem, it wasn't sunny out, but was mild. We also took the dogs for a walk of course :) Must walk the beasties daily!
Who you talkin' to? You talkin' tuh me?
The little boy is getting SO EXPRESSIVE! He was hamming it up for photos the other day and my oh my is he cute. One of these went onto our Christmas Card that I designed. I can't wait to see it all printed up.
On the down side, he has started to wail when he doesn't get his own way. Yes, he has developed WILL. For example, he really wants to drink out of a cup, and when we give him one, he attacks it with glee, dribbling water all done his front. Then when we take it away he screams and cries until we can distract him from the tragedy.
This is the little boy at 4 months. He looks so GQ in this little v neck sweater my cousin knit. She has only knit one other thing - a blanket square - before attempting this sweater, amazing job!
Baby rolled over for the first time two days ago, and hasn't repeated the feat since. We were at the library on the floor mat and I convinced to go from his stomach to his back. What an intelligent baby.
Baby grasps things more often now, and can hold rattles and stuffed toys when given him. I love how aware he is, greeting me with smiles first thing in the morning.
This week he has been practicing cup drinking. He was watching his dad drink coffee with such intent we decided to try some warm water out of a glass. He did pretty well, the drinking reflex is well developed.
It is a sunny day here, a nice break from rain, I hope we get out for a dog hike today, since those beasties have definitely had fewer walks since the winter rains have arrived.
Finally, spring has come here, and the lemons have ripened.
What? Did I confuse you? But seriously, check out the 100 mile lemons I purchased from a friend at the market. Aren't they beautiful? They really were grown right here on the island, but in someone's greenhouse.
They tasted so wonderful (yes, they are now all gone), and sweet, more like oranges than lemons.
They went well with the cold that sprung on me earlier in the week. And Honey was out working far from home so I couldn't get any real sympathy. Poor me. It helped to use Best Bud's hot toddy recipe- rum and lemons, yum. That knocked me out one evening when my throat was sore.
In gardening news- there is a garden! Yesterday I got all sorts of lettuce, spinach, and radishes planted. Today I am going to plant peas, kale and maybe broccoli. In the flower garden the sweet peas shall be planted, which is exciting since I have not planted sweet peas in years, yet they are one of my favourites!
We have had 2 days of rain here on the island. In the interior of BC they have had record breaking warm temperatures, which they were long overdue, since last week the temperatures were mid-winter like. From winter to summer within a week! Above is a picture of spring flowers out a few weeks ago. The willows and currants and other shrubs are the first to bloom in the spring and put on quite a show. Right now the Easter lilies are out soon to be followed by purple camas fields- I will post a picture when that happens!
Anyway, because of the rain, the garden the Honey and I had hoped to have dug this weekend is only half complete (we had high hopes it would be all dug with new soil this weekend).
Instead I have been inside dyeing and spinning my new fibre from Saltspring bought last
weekend, and catching up on dyeing some of Grandma's skeins. It is fun to experiment with the different fibre. The lincoln takes a very bright dye, while the new wool/alpaca blend dyes to a slightly more muted colour. I really like the ease of one pot hot pour dyeing so mostly have been doing that. The exception is the blue skein in the picture. This is for Best Bud's birthday, and I was using contrasting colours so I dyed the blue and brown seperately (not at the same time).
The yellow and reds really are bright and are the colour of tulips out right now! I felt like some spring colours and boy did I get it! I am currently spinning the lighter brown alpaca (on the wheek) to ply with a skein of wool for Mom. Originally I had given her a single ply skein, but she would like a thicker yarn to knit up a hat.
My next spinning will be a blend of this beautiful orange colour
with the alpaca to make a heathery orange/copper lightweight yarn for myself. I want to modify this pattern from knitty to create a lightweight wrap sweater for summer. I know I have had my eye on this for awhile!
As for the socks, YES I have finished the first! I have even started the second, but I have been very distracted by all the wonderful roving in the house so have been spinning in the evenings rather than knitting :)
Hello! It has been way to many weeks without a post. Let's just say March 31 came and went with most consulting projects wrapped up. A few things linger, but I had a lovely lovely 3 day weekend last weekend (my birthday weekend) and ahead lies a 4 day weekend too so I am catching up on things non work related at last.
Last Saturday Grandma took the Honey, my parents and me out for lunch on Saltspring Island. We went to a local pub right on the water called Moby's and enjoyed some might fine pub grub. Mom and I both had the ploughman's lunch with Thai chicken soup, corn bread, smoked cheeses and salad.
While on Saltspring we visited the local spinning and fibre mill as well as Bullock Lake Farm where we could buy the fleece. What fun! Spring shearing is happening right now, so the fleece is getting low. Grandma bought the remaining wool/mohair mix and we both bought up most of his alpaca. As well, I got a beautiful cream wool/alpaca mix. Plenty to keep us both spinning for awhile.
After we spent our money we asked if there was somewhere to walk our dogs somewhere, and Jim (farm owner) directed us to his bottom field. What an amazing location right on Bullock Lake. So we took the opportunity for photos AND a dog run.
We all headed back into Ganges for ice cream and shopping at Mouats (looking only), finished off at the end of the day by a stop at Saltspring Island Winery. I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of their wines. We bought a pinot noir, and Dad bought a blend called Aramata (just bottled). Their blackberry port is nice because it is not as sweet as other ports made here locally.
Once home the Honey and I went to a hockey game- Cowichan is still in the semifinals and were playing Nanaimo. Although they lost that night to a sold out crowd they made a come back yesterday and are still playing.
Work is so busy that at the end of the day I am trying to make myself stay off the computer. Otherwise I think my brain might get melded into the CPU! So here are some pictures to keep my blog updated.
Lots of red dead trees from mountain pine beetle.
Pretty crocus in my yard! Glad to be out of the snow and home to spring.
Progress on the sock. She is fitting much nicer with 60 stitches (on 2.25 mm needle). I love the pattern too, I made it up. Now how long to make this sock? Still debating short vs. long.
Why all my clothes have cat hair on it. Sock got sat on by Miss T. as soon as I start photographing it.
New blue yarn up at Westcoast Woolies' Etsy Store. Check it out!
This yarn is for my secret pal. It is a mohair and BFL blend. The roving was from my LYS and both were dyed by Fleece Artist. Absolutely gorgeous stuff. I did a loose ply to make sure it stayed lovely, soft and pliable.
So I, um, kinda gave up on my Falling Leaves sock. I have many unfinished socks. It
was too big. Honest! Took it too my new crafting/drinking neighbour's house the other night and she agreed with me (it wasn't just in my head). I am going to start anew with the same yarn, use 60 stitches (on 2.25mm needles) instead of 72 stitches, and keep the pattern simple.
And so blogger folks, a little shameless plugging (or pleading, could go either way). My hand spun yarns on Etsy are at a stall. The link is on the right if you want to check them out, OR click on the image to take you right to that yarn. I am shortly going to head over there and update it with FREE SHIPPING. In the mean time, have a peek at what is left. I don't have very many up right now, partly because sales have stalled. I am trying to jump start things here though so head on over, tell your friends, take pity on me etc. Thanks for looking!
Pink and brown targhee
Reds and oranges mohair
Greens merino
Purple mohair and silk
Heading out of town for a conference in Smithers as of tomorrow. I am giving a talk on the tool I have been working on for my postdoc. This tool is a model which allows managers to assess different harvest (or no harvest) methods post mountain pine beetle, given certain values. It is flexible in that the "value" being modelled can be pretty much anything: economic value (such as greatest monetary return over time), social value (such as maintenance of sacred places), or ecological (such as good quality wildlife habitat). This postdoc is almost over, so it is a nice wrap up. I officially end this postdoc at the end of February, but expect to be wrapping up until March 31. Some of the postdoc was spent preparing for my defense after all, so I owe the university some of my time and attention :)
Just made gyoza for lunch, they were pretty yummy. The intention was to make them last night, but uh well, the wine came out and I started knitting and the honey was doing stuff on the computer and suddenly no one felt like cooking. So we had soup. Back to the gyoza- pretty easy to make. I stir fried a bunch of veggies with garlic and ginger first. I had bought won ton wrappers from the grocery store and placed a little veggie mixture in each, folded it into a triangle, and sealed it shut with a little water and pinching. I then fried them briefly, then finished them off with a good steaming. Yummy! I am taking some to my friend and colleague who has been out with heart problems and now a cold. He has been immobile and so I thought he might enjoy these.
Apparently this kiddo wears the skull hat I knit him for his birthday in September every single day! Yeah successful toque! Last hat I knit for him as a babe stretched out with him and he wore it for 5 years until I finally knit this as a replacement. Picture is taken with his new digital kids camera when he was out with his mom being the junior biologist on a bird study in Nanaimo.
Four years ago I started knitting a sweater for a friend of mine. She and I travelled across Canada one summer when she moved back from Ontario to Victoria. We had a good time, were silly, drank lots of wine, camped and saw some amazing country. And agreed that I would knit a sweater for her and she would make me a dress. She bought the wool, I bought the material. Well. I decided for some silly reason to make up a pattern as I went a long. A year and a half the sweater was finished (while the dress was done in 4 months) and it was horrible. Awful. Big, ugly, bulky. I bought her a sweater and we called it even.
I didn't pick up knitting needles for at least a year after that!
But I found the awful sweater the other day and thought I should felt it up. Here it is. I threw it in the washing machine and washed it about 4 times on the hot and cold cycle. And then today I was inspired to turn Ugly Sweater into Funky Tea Cozy. Not bad eh? It is now a gift for that friend, and I can't wait to give it to her.
Here are the crocus in the lawn. 
And some views from Maple Mountain taken in the sun yesterday. This is the beautiful place I live! I am so lucky! The Honey and I went up for a hike on the mountain with the dogs and were searching for the perfect picture for the logo of our new forestry company. We got a great shot too.
