The Places I Walk

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Jen

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I was out early this morning walking, before I got a chance to get carried away with projects. This Autumn I am recommitting to getting out and walking as I use to do, since about the time when I first started this blog. Each time I go out into the changing landscape I feel its healing influence in me as it ebbs back to health from the wildfire, the prolific growth on the branches and at the stumps of burned trees everywhere remind me of a vibrant desire for life, even though so many trees must give in to lifelessness.

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I walk alone, without distraction, listening to the grasses sway and the browning leaves shake in the breeze, and as I walk it feels like I am turning stones along the way, seeing glimpses of my past, unavoidable as I’ve walked these very steps and places so many times before. This landscape has seen lifetimes of people walking along here in the very same places, back to the indigenous race who’s arrowheads I have found, and sometimes it is as though I walk through time, feeling the ancient geography and the presence of walkers of an ancient time. Or maybe I will feel happy Emma as a puppy in her explosive energy, or a friend I walked with once . . . all whispers in the wild.

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Everyday I need to be out in the wild, knitting to keep my hands busy, but sensitive and pondering, ready to let tears fall if they want, or a new exciting idea take hold, whichever seems to be inevitable for the moment. I am determined to see the landscape change to normal again, and it is what I consider to be the best thing for me, and when I get home I make a cup of coffee and get things done, and all the while I let myself be swept along by the knitted stitches, and that is as good as it gets.

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Out into Autumn

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Jen

jenjoycedesign© October 21,2018 Out walking I see the Mayacamas mountains rolling southerly down into their foothills.

I am enjoying Autumn now that the leaves are beginning to cover

the blackened forest floor from last year

This sparse ground cover is only the beginning of the leaf fall,

they will continue to flutter down until winter is here.

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I woke today after having seemingly dreamed almost consciously about a new fresh start in life walking a little more every day, away from stress of the wildfire, restoring a positive feeling about myself and my life, so that when the house is finally ready for us to move into it, I will be rebuilt too. Its been a rough year for me, hands down, and I have existed in a self spun cocoon trying to not think about the stressful things, but I really do believe committing to walking increased distances will cure all that is wrong in my world. Just one walk at a time.

Knitting on a bridge…

Posted on August 11, 2018 by Jen

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Jeff has built a bridge from logs he salvaged from the loggers’ waste, and he hoisted them cross across the small gully which heads over to the garden in now what I am calling “the path of least resistance” with planks nailed to the top from old boards, it is an excellent & rustic installment to the woods and I am super pleased with it! I helped only minimally, as I did the original “wedding bridge” which was burned in the wildfire. A new bridge & my sooty knitting trail has of this morning been improved inexpressibly for the better! Emma inspected & approved…

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There eventually will be builders at work making their presence felt in my quiet seclusion, and this lovely little bridge continues me my private trail out to the garden without having to walk up the road to the house where the chaos will be going on, and down to the garden from there. Planning ahead brilliantly! A short-cut to the garden, a bridge to bliss, a bridge across difficult terrain, so metaphorical. The garden is life, and inspires me in its quiet little way with bees bobbing about, fluttering butterflies, and small little birds bathing in various bowls and cups sitting about, as well as a fat wild dove flocks bombing about on occasion… tall seedy foxgloves still standing through the perpetual heat. I chase away the drought with my series of old-timey sprinklers, sitting beside them in the mist as I soak in the moist air and knit. It is a very rustic & secluded spot of calm, where one is really fairly hidden away.

I am trying to settle into a productive life of a busy recluse, and I have been thinking about things. Post trauma disorder has changed things a bit. I will very likely never get over that day of wildfire, for at that time forward is etched into the rhythm of how I experience life, and its injury as much a part of me now as anything could be. That blink of time when I hurriedly drove off in my car with Emma, my mandolin, recordings of my music compositions, a small box of photos, and a few clothes, my computer, and a tote full of my needles & favorite yarns to keep me busy in the days following — while instantly regretting other things which I forgot, so much from my life. Those things which seemed to define me were suddenly gone, especially those rooms, spaces which were integral to my happiness.

But let me tell you how I’ve been thinking about things, about feeling glad and comfortable with realizing that the only real thing I can ever own, and the only thing which defines me, are my accomplishments. So that is why I strive to live the busy life of a hermit in newly built hermitage, and the rooms will be far less cluttered and intriguingly sparse, so that I can build on my accomplishments. My family, and short list of close friends will allow me this reclusive life. I would like to add that I appreciate all of my pen friends from around the globe with whom I have kept company and shared my days in a more secluded way, I am ever so immensely grateful to my knitting fraternity!

♥ ♥ ♥

A Hopeful Spring

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Jen

From this , to this…

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Just before harvest, a few years ago, a regionally famous mountain vineyard ‘next door’ was sold. The bordering woods, meadows, and canyon cliffs, as well as bumpy old connecting roads between the quiet & quaint old vineyard clearings were my favorite places to walk with Emma, and we had to abandon it. I go into more detail in this post, but I am trying to focus on the new replanted growth now.

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For an epic pause in the life of this mountain landscape there has been rattling machinery disking the earth, pounding great big steel things into the ground, deep trenching miles for drainage, electric conduit, irrigation, erecting a water tank the size of a house…. the usual sprawling construction project of a corporation taken over a couple of hundred acres with jeeps & four-wheelers buzzing about everywhere all of the time.

But now there is a calm.

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Eventually, and ever so gradually, nature softens the work of men, and this mountain vineyard is whispering of spring growth again.

Since the original design “Vineyard Rows Tam” I have been off & on playing with a series of designs all conceived as tribute to the memory of the beautiful historic vines which were destroyed and the natural wildness of the place that I loved. Onward. Early this last winter I designed Winemakers Waistcoat, honoring the history of California’s industry in wine, but most recently I have felt a sort of turning about of attitudes; away from a yearning tribute to the past, toward a hope for the future in this place, and maybe even that I sense the presence of the wilderness returning. At least a little bit.

My most recent design, as yet only one mitt, and no pattern yet written, expresses this with motifs of trellises and budding vines eager to branch and fill the expanse. I am sharing with you my latest design a little prematurely, but what the heck…

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Trellis Mitts!

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The mitts design is an evolving prototype, but here it is nestled into an ensemble with the other two in my Vineyard Rows series.

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Just waving hello to everybody with this one mitt, as I immerse myself in a hopeful spring, and lots of knit-trekking up the mountain (yes, past the vineyard) on the way to the peak…

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I hope you are all enjoying this transformative season!

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Knitting In The Wild

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Jen

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We have been walking through the morning hours of Autumn. Miles of yarn and prints of dog paws, and shoes, side by side. More chaotically spaced actually, mine straight forward, destination ahead, focused on the rounds of lace, of sleeves, of precious warm cardigans, and Emma’s prints with her own agenda, as the wild life is speaking to her and new smells are exciting her in zig-zag directions and renewed vigor giving her incentive to come up to the peak with me these days.

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Our walks journey through Autumn, with the arrival of rain, we seem to be experiencing a gradual awakening of our dormant selves, as is with the succulent green mosses everywhere … our joy of joys.

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To the peak we have walked a few times this Autumn already. On the ridge right before the peak, like a comfortable old bed, there is a soft pine needle layer from an eerie forest of stick-like old trees composting on the jutting toothy rock beneath … it is so dreamy to walk through, I just had to hang my knitting on it and be silly.

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Everything is in its place, and life is good.

Anniversary Socks

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Jen

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March of this year Jeff and I have been married one year, and 21 years together, and I thought as an anniversary gift to Jeff, with whom I have backpacked the John Muir Trail many many miles, that I would design him trail socks !! He seemed to be okay with the idea, however, he is very picky about scratchy woolly things and socks, and anything ‘gear’ related. Made of super fine quality Merino-superwash & nylon sock yarn, in granite tones, the socks ended up very soft & completely not scratchy, and the nice cushioned heel, instep & toe are ultra comfortable in and outside of a boot. Now two & 1/2 months after our anniversary, here is the final result ~~~ and he approves!

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Shown are Wild Wool Trail Socks, designed for and dedicated to Jeff.

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This is actually the first real pair for Jeff that I’ve made since releasing the pattern, delivered a little belatedly.

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Incidentally, the last time we were in the Sierras in July 2014, it was for our 20th anniversary of being a couple, and we backpacked to Granite Lake in John Muir country, where the inspiration came to me…

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Well, it may have taken me a year and a half to ruminate this design from inspiration to finished pattern, but perhaps for good reason, for the timing of events involve a spooky coincidence of anniversaries! To start, our 20th anniversary in 2014 was 100 years after Muir’s death in 1914, this year is the centennial anniversary of America’s National Parks established August 1916, and lastly, I just happened to have submitted (unknowingly) the pattern on John Muir’s birthday April 21st.

In forthcoming posts, I may go on with presenting you finished projects, both of my own and of other knitters, so that we can have a bit of an extended tribute to John Muir.

Sock details on Ravelry HERE.

Walking With Wool

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Jen

I walk in the wild places each day. I walk while I knit wool into things, and I walk while beguiled by the season. I walk into the places which pluck my thoughts from my mundane worries and meaningless schedule and bring them onto a grander stage, extending in all directions and arching from the present to a sort of gelid idea of my future.

I long for my Walk with Wool, as ever-faithful dog named Emma trots along beside me with nostrils flaring, her nose seems to float along in determination to uncover something magnificent. We make great hiking partners even though our agendas are a little different. Step and stitch together bring me closer to landing grounded to life with a shape. My life which feels at most times so without shape, finds it’s shape this way, in the knitting, and in the walking.

Even at the times when stitches dropped, or yarn falls out of my knitting bag that is slung across my breasts shoulder-to-hip, and unknowingly dragged for a length behind while collecting decaying leaves and even stickery burrs, maybe even some twig-like things. But I feel humor in all of it, and these silly things as yarn tangling among the shrubs as Emma’s leash around things make my life feel rich as heathered colors in a strand of multi-fibered yarn, tweeded with specs of emotions and interrupted by occasional knots which are always discovered with nothing less than annoying inconvenience.

I love my yarns, as I love fresh baked bread, and coffee & chocolate, or a hand-written letter from an envelope. Their poetry is felt as I receive them from out of their bag brought home, and wound with delicious anticipation by hand off of the backs of two chairs or a swift. I love the process of tearing the label off of the skein and then encircling the expanding criss-crossing blades of wood from the swift and tied together until they open into the hoop of yarn. The swift, my new tool of trade, holds the yarn as I secure it, then admire it. Ties clipped, and the end found, gently brought out to meet my hands. To feel the swift move as my right takes the end and loosely winds it around index, middle & ring finger of my left in a way that the fingers ‘taste’ the yarn as one sips the first cup of rich coffee or aromatic tea.

These feelings, these sensual inner rhythms, are what a knitter like me feels about the things which make up my creative life. These paths that I wander along, seem to forgive that I am isolated from society but beckon me more passionately to come along and hunker down with nature, and so I am taking to pen so to speak. I am in the mood to begin my knitting-in-nature autobiographical ‘yarnings’ in earnest and at last, so I present to you a first glimpse of “Walking With Wool”.

A Storm On The Way

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Jen

Emma and I were out for our morning walk but it was different today, it was deliciously foggy. To end a seven-week-long warm dry spell of this winter so far, we are due to get hammered with a big storm tonight. A storm which is absolutely longed for … so I figured we’d go out and take some photos in the drizzling fog and cooling air. On the way up the ridge there was a pleasant surprise ~~ all the manzanita is peaking in blossom !

One of the attractions of this time of year in Northern California mountains is the precious heart-shaped and very fragrant blossoming Arctostaphylos, or as we know it, manzanita. There are mainly two indigenous species which thrive side-by-side up on this mountain, and the most distinct difference is seen this time of year, when they blossom. One has pink blossoms, and the other white …

Otherwise their form is very similar, but their leaves are also quite distinctive also. I just love to bury my face into a cluster of these sweet blossoms and inhale their fragrance. . .

At the top of the ridge, Emma sniffed and I knitted as we meandered along the knife-edge where to the north-east is Napa Valley, and to the south-west is Sonoma Valley. Just sniffing and knitting our way along.

And then finally we reach the summit, and breathe in the cloud .

We’re out a lot these days hiking & knitting, so we won’t mind staying indoors while enjoying the lashing rain forecast for the next few days. I’ll be posting more as the tail end of winter bursts into action in the next weeks, on the mountain and on my needles!

Knitting In The Wild

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Jen

Another glorious hike up to the ridge peak this morning. Shading the camera lens with knitting overlooking the ridge after ridge facing north-easterly.

Greeting the long shadows of morning as the sun’s rays shot through the pines on the crest of the ridge…

There was knitting the whole way, reknitting that is, of yoke of nieces’ Autumn sweater.

Capturing the sun streaming through black oak leaves soon to fall …Greeted the Sleeping Princess (Mt Tamalpais) as she lay like rolling blue ocean waves in the distance…
And Mt. Diablo as we started up, a stones throw from the house… and you can see the yellow patches in the trees where there is Autumnal color starting.

At the rocky top, another view across the ridges which frame the upper Napa Valley …

Most of all we enjoyed the contemplative early morning trek, with bright morning sun, mountain air, and knitting all going so perfectly together I think. Looking forward to another like it each day this Autumn, as we have been out nearly every single day . Turning of the season continues to be wonderful this way. Life is good.

Knitting In Nature

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Jen

It rained again, and the moss is glowing !

We’ve continued our walks nearly everyday this Autumn.

Out in the freshly rained-on moss, and romping around and smelling things.

( Emma tends to like to stick her whole head into tree caves…)

The really remarkable thing is, that while we were walking in the woods, I was knitting the very colors of the moss on oak bark, and it took me by surprise how much I reflect the colors of my surroundings.

Presently knitting the sweater for this hat , in the colorway ‘moss on oak’…

Knitting in nature is one of the things I love to do most of all.

Walking in Autumn

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Jen

First, a lovely shot from our Autumn walk the last weekend.

And now just back from a walk, out rather late we went up the ridge a little ways, by the high vineyard, (um… which is sorely lacking a vineyard for the present)…

Then we turned around , and went into the woods. Here , knitting poised on a log, and with not much progress from the last photo of it….

Then we decided to explore and left the trail, began crawling through and over all sorts of things, collecting all sorts of burrs and stuff in our hair, to scout out new places.

Oh look! Another huge mushroom growing from a dead tree!

And then….

… we ended up at a rather tall henge-like rock out-cropping I did not recognize.

(I’ll take another photo of this place another time soon, in the mist, for affect).

Seriously though, with different angles to the familiar places, I thought there for a few minutes we were lost. (not really that would be rather impossible) A glance easterly and I see Mt Diablo in the distance, a good bearing.

Then I knew where we were exactly and that there’d be close by the old dilapidated bench from one of the abandoned old shacks nearby….

Sure enough, after scrambling through a few bushes, there it was !

A great little secret picnic & knitting spot, wouldn’t you say?

Have you been out on any walks this Autumn yet?

Each Day In Autumn

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Jen

Emma and I have been out walking (and I knitting while walking) everyday this Autumn so far, and plan to walk everyday for the remainder of Autumn, bringing camera and sharing photos often here and celebrate the best time of year ! Harvest is in process, finished in this particular vineyard a stone’s throw from where we live. We passed it along our forest paths near by. Then Emma spied a big yellow fungus !!!

On through hilly & hollow lands we walk….

And with fragrances abound, Emma follows her nose rapturously…

And just around this bend (from the opposite direction of last hike posted) we end up back home …

First Morning of Autumn

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Jen

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I know two posts in one day. Its just that I wanted to share with you all my first walk of Autumn. We were out in the early hourse on this first morning of Autumn, knitting while hiking about the woods a bit, then hauling on up the ridge to the peak of the mountain (at 2600′ elevation.) There were beautiful views of the distant ridges along the way up. Mt. Diablo in the distance, rather southerly (to the right behind the trees)…
Then higher up, looking more westerly, a grand shot of Mt. Tamalpais, named by the indigenous Native Americans meaning “Sleeping Princess” (did you know Mt Tam is where mountain-biking was invented?) …
Then at the peak, overlooking Napa Valley, easterly, and the sun was already high …
We went down our favorite well-trodden paths on the way home…
and our favorite short-cut deer trails…

Then across the last oak wooded section before landing back home. It was a glorious walk this morning, and I have made progress on a little knitting too !

I hope your start of Autumn (or Spring) is equally as happy as mine.

What are you up to?

Camp Socks

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Jen

Its already been almost three weeks since we were at 9000 ft elevation and I was knitting-in-the-wild beneath a lovely brewing storm on a huge granite rock. I had so thoroughly enjoyed the quick packing trek to Granite Lake, the sitting cross-legged on the granite in complete stitching meditation, one with the darkening sky and gathering storm, the quiet of everything before the outbreak, even the fish hunkering down. Yet I remember yet distinct intermittent sounds ~~ the wind whipping the tent about and water boiling to make trail coffee. And it just doesn’t get any better than that ( High Sierra trip posted here ).

So here my friends, are another pair of Penny Candy Socks. Just a simple, wild & maybe even frivolous (and very blue) pair of socks, made on that High Sierra excursion but I hadn’t gotten around to washing & blocking them until just now.

And they are added to the slowly growing pile of knitted socks designated for xmas gifts….

Gad… already LESS than only five months away! Horror of the crafting gift-maker-and-giver is that xmas appears in a blink after sweltering heat of summer, when one couldn’t feel further away from the winter solstice and gift-giving frenzy. But I’m wise now, at my age, I’ve learned, and I am already stashing knitted gifts…

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I’ve already gotten about 12″ into one of two Autumn Sweaters 2014 , but no hints on that yet (top top secret!) . In contrast to tiny stitches of fingering & fine fingering yarn for socks, gloves, hats…. I am knitting rounds and rounds of worsted-weight, and how refreshingly speedy I’m turning out the rounds for a change!

In the next few days my nieces will be visiting up here in the Hermitage again, for a visit in their last week of summer vacation, so we’ll be up to baking in the kitchen, in addition to just generally “chil-laxing” as they put it, and not without their ECD’s ((electronic devices of choice ))~~ but no doubt the visit will be punctuated with famously artistic and fun photo-shoot after digging through my cedar trunk now becoming quite full of knitteds. Looking forward to that, and we’ll see you on the flipside of the riotous occasion!

Note: Oh! The hand-made wooden Shaker-style box, if not authentic Shaker box, was found last week at my favorite thrift shop for $4 ~ a bargain ! It is now a lovely knitting notions box & photo prop as well, and I’m super pleased with myself for finding it.

Back From The High Sierra.

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Jen

We three ~ Jeff, Emma, & me ~ went for a short & sweet trip to High Sierras over the weekend for our anniversary. There was a little hiking, cooking, tea & coffee drinking, fishing & knitting, sniffing around….

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Restorative in many ways, as always, the alpine scenery soothed a yearning that only it can do. What is it about pitching a tent in the wilderness at high altitude to claim some spot in nature as our home for a few days?
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Something about the fragile alpine flowers …
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and gnarled trees.
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fast and furious rain storms …

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The granite everywhere and deep crystal clear blue lakes …

Granite Lake

wide horizon of jagged ridges and expressive skies.

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A storm is brewing!
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Windy thunder & rain storms which suddenly take hold for a couple of hours in the afternoon,

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sending us for cover in our cozy tent to wait it out.
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Granite Lake in Mokelumne Wilderness was just what I craved. Bundled up quite puffy in down and wool layers, knitting in the cold & windy pause between storms …

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Abandoned my knitting to go fire up the camp stove and make hot coffee!
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Jeff got to fish a couple of times, though he didn’t get even one bite, too stormy.

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Then it was time for trail coffee & tea !!!

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We found that Emma was perfectly able to handle carrying a doggie pack and hike as she did once before, and it was as if her little arthritic limp of late almost disappeared completely. 072 007

She is in top form !

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Most importantly, this trip to the Sierras was to celebrate a very important mark in our partnership,

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We were so lucky to have Granite Lake all to ourselves, at near 9000′ elevation & less than three miles from the trail-head. It is my theory that the forecast dramatic thunderstorms cleared the lake for us. We were prepared to hike cross-country (off-trail) to another lake for privacy, but had no need, it was a total stroke of luck.

With only a little over 3 hour drive, we can be in the High Sierra, fishing & knitting at a granite bowl. It just doesn’t get any better than that ! Off we go back home, but we’ll be back . . .
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Glimpses From The Knitting Trail

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Jen

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…

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.

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 …

One of several rough-cut benches along the Knitting Trail.

Morning On The Knitting Trail

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Jen

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.

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.))

First Rain

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Jen

Finally we got some rain, making it a lovely break from the dryest Autumn in many years. Emma and I just got in from a little knit-walk as it drizzled, but I didn’t bring camera in case it started to downpour. So here I am, taking photos of the wetness from inside our house. From the kitchen window above. Just look at the moss, just drinking it in . . .

From where I sit & knit by the window, and if you look closely you’ll see some stones placed in a path. That is actually the path down to the garden, but also it is part of my knitting trail, which goes off into the woods from the garden in a northerly direction . . .

On the knitting front: I have been preoccupied with a new yarn ~ here winding off 440 yards of a ‘Botticelli Red’, variegated, 3-plied, hand-dyed hank of finest sock yarn I’ve had the pleasure to knit with to date. I am smitten with Malabrigo sock yarn!

New (Vineyard) Horizons

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Jen

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. ) By all means, click the photo, and see it full-sized !

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Ahem** 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.

A Knitting Trail

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Jen

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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But hey ! 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 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…
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Happy Halloween everyone !

(( Note: I am delayed with knitting projects due to interruptions life tends to cause. ))

Golden

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Jen

Well, good news has given me a sigh of relief, and things regarding life on my mountain are not as grim as I had imagined (I talk about in this post the other week) . Not all the vineyards are uprooted, and this one, perhaps my most walked, seeming like a comfortable nest over-looking the valley, appears to remain, though its devastation is probably only postponed to next Spring. Most all of the vineyards are going to be replanted with new vines. This golden landscape photo was taken last year at this time, at end of October. I just love Autumn !

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On another thought, I wasn’t going to post again until I had finished submission of the pattern which I’ve been discussing for a few weeks. All I can say is its nearly ready, just a last-minute bout of design-insecurity seems to be my biggest obstacle. 🙂

Now, if you’ll excuse us, Emma and I are ready to walk out in this Autumnal Wonderland !

Summer Landscape In Morning

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Jen

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 !