Emma – Page 14

A Knitting Trail

Published on October 31, 2013October 6, 2024 by Jen9 Comments

Emma and I have been working on our home trail in recent weeks.

It is to be a knitting trail ! ! !

Our trail begins right next to Jeff’s workshop…

And takes off into the woods, just follow Emma.

It goes upwards very quickly…

It meanders along old deer-trodden paths ,

which Emma and I have enhanced with our footsteps.

It passes by tall firs,

oaks & bays,

madrones & maples…

You will see my short rows of sticks on occasion,

they are trail markers in sections where the knitting trail goes one way,

while the deer may go another…

Emma is charged with purpose as she surveys the forest, and the wildlife.

There is at least one mountain lion which lives in the area, sighted many times, and I often wonder if it is the lion which she smells. I think I would like to put some places to sit (and knit) along the way. Just sit, knit, and listen to the wildlife.

Some small sections are getting the shovel treatment, like here at the trail-head.

(Yes, that is our house, and my car, which I try to drive as little as possible)

So you see, I have been working like an ox lately, for this is the time of year I love most to be outside toiling away, among the falling leaves of Autumn. There’ll be more photos later, as the Knitting Trail is honed to perfection !

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Its the last day of October today, and that means it is Halloween! For the occasion I thought I’d post a photo of something remarkably ominous from the woods! The raven’s cultural and somewhat spooky symbolism is not to be debated, however here they are just a cheerful and welcomed presence, and flock about year round. They make themselves very comfortable, eating the berries in the native trees, and fruit & veggies from our garden, and pick from our compost pile too. I think they are fascinating birds, possessing a truly amazing regal intrigue and even sense of humor (they like to tease Emma every chance they get), and they are the stewards of these woods all the same. Here is a photo I took last week, zoomed into the branches of an oak while this fellow and his mate were making deep throaty chortling & clucking conversation…
jenjoycedesign©Raven

Seasonal

Published on October 8, 2013September 22, 2026 by Jen13 Comments

This knoll of Autumnal vines above I photographed last year in late afternoon, as its leaves yellow’d and fell into the ground or floated in the gusty breezes. Where I live , on a mountain ridge which borders Napa & Sonoma valleys, the seasons show not only in the trees, but strikingly so in these mountain vineyards. But something very dismal has been taking place on the mountain very near by.

Change is difficult, but I suppose is necessary all the same, or we’d become rigid as logs in our outlook of the world. Well, one colossal change which has taken place in my life, is that the vineyard very close by, through which rows and roads Emma & I walked frequently for years (her whole life), acres of historic vines, has for the most part been ripped out of the ground, and are presently heaped in massive sad piles. They are gone, and yet,at least I am grateful that I have these photos to remember them by.

These vines which were plucked out of the rocky soil of the mountain only weeks ago, once produced wines which won ribbons in blind tastings in France in their glorious past. They were beautiful and they were as jovial friends I’d pass by and wave to so often, as I would also the friendly workers who tended them.

When they were colorful and turning gold to crimson in my favorite months of October & November, they spoke of the cooling marine air pouring over the ridge, and they reminded me how happy I was that it is indeed Autumn… finally !

When they were bare as we walked along their long shadows in January, with uncut branches like tendrils, they spoke in words wintery and woody, and they spoke of the promise of a new year ahead.

As they became cropped & pruned it was as if they were led to the starting gate at the race, building excitement from within, in February, with thick grasses carpeting the earth.

Then to leap out at the blink of vernal influence, and their main branches sprouting new growth in March !

And in April & May, the poppies come…

I have in recent weeks mourned their death. These old vines as I walked by them almost everyday while knitting, were very important to me, a part of me. Ah but this life, death, and rebirth, and planting new is to be expected. I wanted to make acknowledgement to the changes in this post, and my bereavements too, and even Emma’s as surely she notices, and misses her meadow walk along the canyon cliffs….

* * *

But hey, let me cheer things up a bit I thought I’d mention a happy thing ! Kirra has won the giveaway from my book review & interview with Jean Moss, and I want to congratulate her !

((Kirra, I have sent your address to Taunton press , who have replied already that the book is on its way, and hopefully very soon the book will be in your mailbox, in time for you to make those great little gifts for your friends & family.))

Seasonal times indeed, with the gift-giving time of year nipping at crafters’ heels, time for us to leap for our needle cases and dig through our stashes and shop for more yarn as its officially 11 weeks until Christmas…yikes!!!

:: crack of whip echoes ::

Lets make tea and calmly collect our thoughts, shall we?

What gifts you planning to make this coming holiday season?

Prudence

Published on August 6, 2013June 13, 2018 by Jen20 Comments

Third time is a charm as they say ! Well, as to be expected, my early start on my nieces’ Autumnal Sweaters has now become a late start. First I thought I’d use up a huge pile of yarn left over from a project last year, as it happens to be the perfect color for Niece Who Is Thirteen, who’s eyes are the very same milky aqua. Elation! I set to work knitting very deep wide ribs for a vest, and I knitted it for two days. Somewhere along the way I fell into throes of indecision and … blast ! … it was suddenly horribly wrong.

I ripped it all out.

Okay, so changing gears again, and with a very bad clutch, I had ordered some more of the same tweed yarn but in different colors, for Niece Who Is Ten , and in a completely different knitting mood I set to stranding two colors in stockinette stitch, sketching in an improvisational way I always have liked to do in the past. Seeming to be fun and colorful, I knitted for two days. It was fine outside of the fact that the combination of colors eventually started to melt into each other, be very muted and soft, which is very *moi* , but so completely mismatched for the spirit of Kid Of Ten.

Ripped it out.

Back to the Blue Tweed. A new vision came to me of a full cardigan but with just two stripes on cuffs and bottom, knit in plain stockinette stitch. As I knit on I just couldn’t stomach the second stripe, and then the voice of a simple 4-stitch repeat peerie just spoke to me from the ethers (I have a fondness for this particular peerie ) … so here , now, two days into knitting a third time. Prudently, I’ve established a simple stripe & peerie border to be the total decorative feature of the Cardigans To Be , outside of the very flecked tweed texture, which is in itself rather busy and well stands alone.

It seems that so often, with almost everything, I have learned that to temper my impulses with *prudence* gives me the most personal satisfaction. Played-down & modest is my new aesthetic. So I am naming this cardigan “Prudence” , to well mark the lesson I have learned.

Prudence : Caution with regard to practical matters; discretion; economy; frugality.

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So it’s a muggy and slightly less than a glaringly bright sunny day, and I’ve just given Emma a bath ! She was only minimally tortured ~ it was over before long ~ and she is now surrendering to the task of drying into a fluff. Here is a photo of her in her post-bath ambivolence…

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As I drafted the above about prudent knitting, two days ago, I am now almost ready to start sleeves and so I’m making a fresh pot of tea . Irish Breakfast Tea. In the static quiet vacuum of the afternoon, I feel compelled to ask, hoping I will make contact with All Who Read Yarnings ~~~ What are you all up to?

Summer Landscape In Morning

Published on August 1, 2013March 11, 2019 by Jen17 Comments

Its been deliciously foggy down in the valley in the mornings lately , typical of later summer and Autumn around here. Emma and I set out early today, at 6:30 a.m. to get up to the peak and take some photos of the fog before the sun was too high. On the way up the ridge the light in the grass was just so entrapping , I couldn’t stop taking photo’s of Emma in the dried grass, she was just glowing !

At the peak about 7 o’clock the sun was already high, I’m so glad we didn’t set off any later than we did !

First shot, facing east. . .

However, the fog was dense and packed like a snow-covered lake, like I wanted to see it. In the next frame, you can see a division between of two ridges in a darkening foreground (actually I see a third very slight sillhouette)… our house is between them, down further at 2000 feet elevation, but it is not visible from where I am photographing, at 2600 ft. Its my guess the top of the fog must be around 1700 ft.

Emma surveys from the precipice at the top. . .

On the way down, a meadow bordering to the west of tall forest, the dried grass still not gilded golden by the morning sun’s rays seems as lifeless as you can imagine !

Next is the whole early morning hike in a slideshow ~~ going up to the peak, then coming back down, with the last shot in our drive. Arriving home from such an excursion before 8 o’clock in the morning makes me feel so invigorated, and so I celebrated as I often do, with another cup of fresh coffee, buttered toast & tasty home-made jam !