Growth

Here's our newest addition to Knitsburgh:

He's got two sides, a summer side and seen here, the fall side:

I can't tell you who made the Tree Friend, but I can tell you this, it was not I. Someone else who lives at Knitsburgh made him for the Wee One. You can rule out those who don't have opposable thumbs and you may be able to guess...

Here is a Red Velvet Cupcake of the dozen that were made for Bill's birthday. Vegan of course. I am not the biggest fan of Red Velvet cake but the recipe, from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, is so close to the original, I swear Bill wouldn't have known they came without any animal byproducts whatsoever!!!

Besides the Tree Friend, there has been more visible growth. It was so lovely outside we took an urban hike this past weekend. We felt the sunshine on our faces and heard the birds. We saw a small garter snake who ran too fast from me to get a good picture of her. We heard a woodpecker but didn't get to see him.

I'm trying to grow in other ways besides the physical. I'm also saddened and frustrated by others who don't seem to be growing much, who falter down the same wretched path time and time again, who think there is no other way. I'm trying not to shake this person and yell at them and tell them what I think is the way they should handle things. Truth is if I lived closer to them, I might have done this already; I curse and thank the distance at once. Truth is it's not my issue, not my decision, not my life to choose how to live. So I will sit here and continue to grow. In silence. There is nothing more to do right now but let it be.

Offroading

Once I went offroading with Nature Boy. We lived in Colorado at the time and he had just gotten his CJ-7. That's a type of Jeep for those of you not in the know of those things. She was silver and had a soft top and we were camping in the Rockies and just "happened" to be close to an offroading area. So we went.

I had never been offroading before. I figured it would be a little bumpy.

Basically, we were traveling down a steep sloping, boulder-infused, avalanche-prone dusty mountainside.

The vehicle went way up in the air on my side while it went way down below on his side, then switched as it traveled over the rocks.

I told Nature Boy to stop, got out and walked down the path. He drove down and didn't tip it over, which is really what I thought was going to happen. We have a picture in a photo album of me at the end of the trail, sitting on a boulder with my sunglasses on my head and the jeep in the background. My ams are stubbornly crossed. It always makes me laugh.

Well, I went offroad again this week, but in a different way.

With knitting. I was on the "main road" aka "pattern" then swerved off to make my own way.

This is the result.

The last picture is of two hooligans, Lulu Bea and Quandary Bartholemieux, who live at Knitsburgh and look for trouble. They came in to see what I was doing and since Lulu is so elusive and shy and rarely appears without her brother, I had to take a picture of them.

The pattern was called Greenleaf and you can see it here. It doesn't differ very much but I made the leaf on my own. I was trying to make it look like an oak leaf, then ripped it out when it didn't look so hot and made a much more simple leaf shape. Will the Wee One be like his father and want to go offroading when they are older? Or will they be a bit of a chicken like me and prefer the feet on the trail? I hope they are like him!