Winter Knitting

It's winter, and I'm on vacation, so I've been knitting non-stop!  I've been planning projects and going through my stash and generally having withdrawal symptoms if I'm away from my needles for too long.  I bought a new book with the LYS gift certificates I received for Christmas...Coastal Knits.  I am in love...I want to make so many of the patterns.  I also bought yarn for a new sweater for me, Plain and Simple Pullover.  I'm going to knit it in a beautiful grey yarn from Palouse Yarn Company.  But for now, I'm focusing on finishing Christmas presents (yes, still!) and knitting for the plethora of babies expected in 2013!

Preschooler Sweater #1

Preschooler Sweater #2 (Matches Mama's!)

Inca Hat (From Itty-Bitty Knits)

The cloche I knit for myself on the way home from Bend!

 

Merry Christmas!

Winter's Eve

When I am coming back to Moscow, and I see Moscow Mountain, I sometimes have a sense of home wash over me, just as I used to when I would see Sharp Top and Flat Top in the Peaks of Otter where I grew up in Virginia.  It's funny how your adopted home can become just as comforting to you as your native soil, as the years wind by.  

So beautiful today, in the last light of the day.

 

Winter Solstice

 

To keep back the long winter's night, we had a solstice party with the neighbors.  We made sun cookies, and bright colored play dough.  Then, we turned off all the lights, and turned on the sun!

Winter Roadtrip

Last weekend we took a roadtrip to Bend, OR for the USA Cycling Gran Prix of Cyclocross.  I had long wanted to visit Bend, having built it up in my mind as the penultimate small Northwestern city.  

It's funny how when you built something up in your mind, it often comes out differently in reality.

Bend had way more sprawl than I was anticipating.  The downtown area was nice, but I'm not sure I'd consider Patagonia to be a local merchant.  And what the heck was up with all the traffic circles?  

However, Bend also has some really lovely features.  I love the fact that the Deschutes River runs right through downtown, and I love even more the fact that for much of the downtown stretch, a public park and walkway line the river.   We didn't even begin to explore it to satisfaction.

Bend also has big, pointy, white peaks going for it.  These should warrant future exploration.  Of course we didn't see them until our drive home, but they were lovely never the less.  And the desert is its own form of beauty.

Of course, we were also quite pleased to be back on the Palouse.  Back home.

Fish ladder on the Deschutes

The deserts of Eastern Oregon

Mt Hood

Mt Adams

Fog as we enter the scablands

What a beautiful sunset...we were amazed by how nice the weather was for mid-December!

My son took this picture!

Lights and Whites

Every day from now until the winter solstice we lose two minutes of light per day.  This week we've had wonderful unseasonable sunny-ish November weather, and it's been great.  This sunny weather has corresponded with a full moon, so it seems unusually bright.  

We spent a little bit of time decorating this weekend.  Not the tree yet...that is still coming.  But a few things.  White linens, paperwhite bulbs, lights on the house.  Enough to make it a little brighter.

Still too dark to take pictures!

 

Turkey, Off the Grid

We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with some friends at their cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene.  In a tiny little cabin filled with the noise of laughter, we weren't really off the grid for Thanksgiving, since we had electricity and plumbing.  But we didn't have wireless or cell phone service, so the kids had to entertain themselves the old fashioned way...playing Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Battleship, and Uno.  Oh, and they had to do really boring things such as go on hikes and canoe rides and all bunk out together.  We ate really, really well on a locally raised turkey and all the fixings (have you ever heard of Mama Stamberg's Relish)?!?

Perfect.

 

Thanksgiving

From a family roadtrip...next year's promise of winter wheat, already planted in Benewah County, ID

Thanksgiving is just about my favorite holiday.  And this year, Garrison Keillor summed up the essense of Thanksgiving better than anyone else I've ever heard:

"We should give what we do not have.  This is the meaning of generosity....the thing you do not have is certitude, and so you should give certainty to other people, as a gift.  Life is good....be grateful for everything that has happened up to this point, because everything combined to bring you to where you are right now, and you should be thankful for it."  -- Garrison Keillor, 17 November 2012  [listen here]

November Snow

We had another wonderful cyclocross weekend.  My husband raced in Spokane at what is definitely my favorite venue, Walter's Fruit Ranch.  So much fun!  I have to say cheering for a bike race in the snow and mud and 30 degree weather is much more fun when you've had hot spiced wine with your lunch!

But oh, winter, you are already making yourself known!
 

 

Getting Ready for Fall

Even though fall has been decidedly here for several weeks, we spent some time this weekend "getting ready for fall."  We went around the neighborhood and found pretty leaves and dipped them in paraffin wax to make a garland.  We dug up the carrots and planted the garlic.  And of course, we went to cyclocross races.  Fall.  We're ready!

Leaf garland...unfortunately it matches the brick colors almost perfectly!

Getting ready to work in the garden

Who says red and green and yellow don't go together?

The willows, looking pretty.

A rainy day for cycling...

 

Date Weekend, CX Style

We spent the weekend in Walla Walla, along with many members of our "cyclocross family"--i.e. the folks from all over the Inland Northwest who brave rain, snow, wind, and, rarely, heat, to travel long miles for an hour or two of suffering.  The weather was classically unpredictable, true to cross style, but we did catch a glimpse of fall color.  

Even though the venues are the same, each time, each race, is still unique.  Life gets in the way, so it's a different mix of "regulars" each time.  The courses change.  The weather changes, often several times in a day!  This year, my husband and I are feeling even more a part of the group.  People know us, they asked where are son was, and they laughed and teased us when we said we were on a date.  I didn't have to be the mom up at 4 am--though there was one of those!--and we could sleep in late.  Awesome!  We got to act like grown-ups and go wine tasting and have a nice dinner out.  We bumped into other friends at breakfast.  All of us are on different trajectories, from college students to empty nesters.  But we all do this crazy thing every fall and support each other.

Of course, the only thing about being "known" is that people are starting to ask me when I'm going to race....