This one's for you, Mom and Dad

So, I told Mom and Dad I'd show them some more Alaska pics.  Here we are in Sitka by the statue of a dog, whose name I can't remember, who is famous for something else I can't remember.  It was touching though.  Roger will remember, and will retell the story, completely embellishing with fabricated detail and narration.  It'll make a good story. 

 Dorothy, Larry, Doug, Roger and I with the Mendenhall glacier in the background.

 

 Since it's 100 degrees outside, I just wanted to look at this again.

 I made them do this.  They were good sports.  You can't see, but they were copying the totem.

There is a beautiful park in the middle of Sitka with trails and totem poles.

 Hi Mom!

 We're checking out the bordello section of town.  Of course it's all shopping now that the gold rush is over.

 In case you forget, there's salmon in them there waters.

 Buchart Gardens, Victoria, Canada.  It's an old limestone quarry made over into gardens, and it is GEORGOUS!!  I put this picture here to remind Roger that this is exactly, to a tee what I mean when I say pergola for the backyard. 

 This one's for you, Mom.

 The sunken garden.

 More sunken garden.

Juno, Alaska with our ship The Rotterdam in the (harbor? fiord? bay?) In the gift shop you could buy shirts that had various "dam" puns on them.

We stayed neck and neck with that gigantic Princess boat the whole trip, and it was kind of fun to keep track of who was winning.  I don't know why I can't seem to enlarge this teeny photo. 

this and that

So, the days keep going on, cram full of I'm not certain what-all.  Aislynn spent the night over with Ethan, and much fun has ensued.  She is determined to have as much fun as her brother MUST be having in Oshkosh with their grandfather.  That cracks me up.  Their main activity when not outside, has been working on plastic mesh canvas baby blocks for the humanitarian activity I'm working on for RS.  I taught Ethan how to see how hard it would be to teach children (the activity is mother-daughter), and he really caught fire with it. ( I also taught a neighbor girl who is 2 years older, and she had a really hard time with it, so I see we may have our work cut out for us.)  It is really fun to see them hunched over their needles, absorbed and creative.  Pictures tomorrow; it's really late.  Good night!

Happy 24th

Today is the hot hot hot hot 24th of July, which also is a holiday in Utah. Breanne had to go to work, and I asked Brandon to tame the ivy in the front, which turned into a big, bad hairy job. Thanks for sticking with it Brandon! Later we celebrated by going on a quick hike up pocket canyon, or rather; Roger, Rick, Ethan and Toby hiked quite a bit more than me. I sat in the shade and knitted after my quick hike, and I didn't get a single picture. Sheesh. It was lovely, deserty, and hot.

Roger showed the camera who's boss; here's the garden pictures:

Tons of grapes.

Tomatoes, and some variety of squash. There will be a marker buried somewhere in there. I know I started a sweet 100 cherry tomato this year, but none of these are! Dunno what to make of it.

My herb garden. Aunt Pam told me what to do with all the fennel, but I have forgotten. Does anybody know what to do with fennel? It's a monster, and I totally didn't leave room for it, it's hanging over the rosemary, which I love. Gotta move it come fall. The cilantro has totally gone to seed.

This year Roger put up a trellis for the green beans. That's grapes on the right of the picture. The raised bed along the fence used to have asparagus, but it all DIED, which made me quite sad and my neighbors's raspberries are creeping under the fence, so I'm letting them come. But I'm disgusted about it. Since they are still a little sparse, I have put in some pumpkins this year also.

On the knitting front, I FINALLY finished my nephew Brookes' Christmas poncho! I had Breanne model it before I mailed it off - maybe Brooke will send me an action shot? pattern: A very Harlot Poncho, by the yarn Harlot. Yarn: Encore, (wool and acrylic.)

post #2

Yikes. Perfectionism hits when I consider doing a blog post. So I ask myself why do I want to blog? Well, just getting with the digital world is a start, and I wanted a knitting blog, a garden blog, a journal, and to communicate with my family, especially my parents currently living in the East. So..............how about all 4! If you EVER happen to read this, skip the parts you have no interest in. I realize it's terrible, but if I try to be funny, insightful or interesting I'll be sunk before the start. So here goes........

State of the garden:

Nope. Can't find the pictures anywhere. I know I took them yesterday, but the camera denies all knowledge. (I'd call Roger at work (WORK!!) but he's so sick, and this is the 4th day on the job, so I'll wait till he gets home. Can you believe it? The poor man gets a job after 3 months unemployment, and catches either the flu or a bad bad cold the day before he's to start. He really likes what he has seen of the company so far, and it only takes 20 minutes to get there.) So while the cranky camera mutters about no images on the memory card, blah blah, I'll just let you know the zuchini, basil, lettuce and tomatoes have been delicious, and we're waiting on the green beans with baited breath. Or maybe that's just me. The lettuce is done though; I pulled all the rest out for being too bitter. Only sweet optimism in my garden, thanks.

So here's some cruise pictures. Please keep in mind the crankiness of the camera; it absolutely refused to zoom without shutting down. Also, I think we were too stressed out to fully enjoy the whole thing, so we weren't as photo happy as normal. Unemployment= nagging tension perched on your back. A clench in the jaw. If we could have just known he would have a job offer within a week of getting back from the cruise! Have had more faith.

Anywhoo

Wow, that was really hard to get the picture where I wanted, but I called Bonmama and she set me on the straight path. Anyway, a beautiful crew, no? This is all of Roger's siblings minus two, and their spouses, (plus one sister-in-law and her spouse) Truly, the best group EVER to cruise with. Highly recommended.

Rick, Roger and Doug, on their salmon fishing excursion, where, no, they caught no fish. Roger saw a whale though.

Everyone on deck while the ship did a drive-by of the Hubbard Glacier. I froze my (various body parts) off for 2 HOURS, only to have the glacier calve minutes after I left the deck. Apparently it was spectacular.

The glacier. See how blue it is? I had no idea. Even the floating ice chunks were blue. Really, really cool.

Roger eating split pea soup on deck, which is a custom on Holland ships while doing drive-bys, (or something like that)

Well, I was going to put up more pictures, but this has been a little traumaticly complicated, and I'm going to go do some Relief Society visiting. I think I'm getting this though, so I'll be back!

We'll see how this goes

I've shared an email with Roger for 25 years. It's a system that has totally worked for us; it's been good. But lately with Roger looking for a job, and the consequent networking, it's been hard to wade through it all. The kids recommended gmail - I thought I'd give it a try. Robbie, and Robbie Butler were taken, and I knew I'd never remember RoB/Bie.butLER_123 and the other recommended ones, so the kids said - pick something you like, something that describes you, or something beautiful.
"Try lush gardens, or your favorite flower" says my son, (awakeningavatar)
"Or try kanitsy or some cute and poetic knitting phrase" offeres my daughter (tearfulghost)
Well, I'm enjoying the 1st season of Bones on netflix right now, I think to myself,....so...... prettydarnprosaic@gmail.com it is!!