Category: Trails

A rustic place…

Published on by Jen11 Comments

jenjoycedesign© Emma on trail 2

Emma and I are pushing ourselves to complete the knitting trail, and it will be indeed a rapturous and celebratory finish!

jenjoycedesign© Emma on trail 1

The equinox is in only two short days.

jenjoycedesign© trail work Emma 2

I’m sure we’ll make it,  we are already more than three-quarters the way done!

jenjoycedesign© bench

Big Leaf Maples and Black Oaks are beginning to shed their leaves, and the acorns and fir cones are dropping too.  In this rustic state of being the spicy Autumnal fragrance is faintly rising in the forest, and I am ready to crash into this season with transformative momentum, leaning into it with all of my weight, as I leave Summer’s oppressive heat,  lazy days and restless nights behind me.

jenjoycedesign© trail work

See you on the flipside!

Hello Autumn !

Published on by Jen6 Comments

jenjoycedesign©stag antler

Just in from a walk on my trail this morning and I found this stag’s antler. The amazing thing is, of all the hundreds of miles I’ve put into trail walking in my life, this is the first antler I have ever found!  Its partially nibbled by some rodent (rather badly on the other side) and Emma sure wanted to get a hold of it !  I’ll admire it for a while, and then I’ll make horn buttons from it one day, an undeniable certainty.

I’m welcoming this Autumn Equinox today with a new habit to acquire, of walking on my own trails  every single day.   Twice a day often as possible, if not three.  Moving mossy stones ‘just so’ out of the way, and preening as I go, a lot of carrying pruners to trim back bits and a bow saw for when a tree falls across…the only way a trail can transform from a deer path to a park-like setting is to walk it and groom as you go. The test of finish being that I am  able to knit while I walk the trail.

Today is the first morning one of my favorite season ~ and  with a bit of an ominous Autumnal find !

Glimpses From The Knitting Trail

Published on by Jen6 Comments
jenjoycedesign©trail-blaze
A big granite rock stack leads from our door out into the woods.

Recently Emma had a birthday ! She is nine.  Every year on her birthday I take her for a long walk and follow her wherever she wants to go.  There was a rather hesitant beginning as she contemplated what was down the road…

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Emma’s 9th birthday walk.

Then after we walked all over the place, unexpected places she led me, and I followed without question.  As our walk ended she found herself mesmerized in the sun beams of the forest, a little spellbound perhaps. There’s lots to think about when one is Nine.

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Emma in woods.

For those of you who have been visiting Yarnings for any length of time, know about my Knitting Trail, I talked about a while ago in this post.    I am gradually putting it all together, this spot and that, through forest and wood, through hilly and hollow lands.

Such a beautiful warm spring day! Some silly photos as I try in vain to get a portrait selfie photo of Emma & me, but Emma was reluctant …

And  a little knitting happened too …

jenjoycedesign©knitting trail
One of several rough-cut benches along the Knitting Trail.

Morning On The Knitting Trail

Published on by Jen10 Comments

jenjoycedesign©morning-walk

Emma and I took off for a walk along the old road, and then on the knitting trail to visit the woods with the green moss which is now absolutely glowing from all the rain.

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I have to say, of the many oddities one can find in the woods, this was the most ! I intend to include it in a knitwear photo someday.
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Well, it’s back to my knitting loft, with a new design adventure and happy pots of tea, for the sky is greying and rain drops are already plopping down on the roof again.  Happiness is rain.  Lots and lots of rain.

((And tea with home-made shortbread.))

jenjoycedesign©tea&shortbread

New (Vineyard) Horizons

Published on by Jen5 Comments

jenjoycedesign©off-the-trail
I so wanted to show you this photo taken early today ! It was a windy and cold November morning as Emma and I walked over to our newest (hidden & secret) scenic location, which we discovered only last week from trail-blazing.  Here, this morning,  happy to greet the young vines, and a south-easterly horizon  with distant blue Mt Diablo’s double peak of 3,864 feet visible from where I stood — on a big tree stump, est. elevation of 2100 ft, on a slope facing  San Francisco Bay.   ( Note,  this is not the same vineyards wherein great devastation of historic vines is going on, but a different vineyard. )

I have nearly finished my fourth redesign of the project in natural shades of Jamiesons Spindrift. It is quite an embarrassment to think I was near done, over a week ago, then to have to start over, then over again, and well… it’s a sore subject… but a labor of love and true break-through for me in design, as well as expected set-backs. If I survive this week at all, I will have something to show for all of my determination. I am sure by now you’ve all guessed the theme to have something to do with vineyards.