A wonderful summer day.
We did NOT ride the Round Up but the spectators are in line at the Tilt-a-Whirl.
Tag: summer vacation
Last Day of Summer Vacation Before School Starts
I need to gather up my knitting bag, the computer bag and the camera bag- pack the suitcase- load the car. And the grocery bag with the sock monkeys that the girls helped me stuff but still need to be handstitched. The eyes embroidered. The tails attached.
I’ll be heading home in a few hours. A 3 1/2 hour drive. Just can’t sleep.
The Summer unstructured time has been grand.
Although I’m up at four today, setting the alarm for 5:15 is going to be the tricky part. Getting up tomorrow for the familiar drive to school. The freshman will come on Friday so that gives me a couple of days of clerical time and Prof Dev meetings. All students start on Monday.
Here’s the pastry case and breakfast from Sunday’s brunch at La Chatelaine after church.
My Tall and Thin Shadow Portrait at Sunrise
Although I’m not at the beach this week, I think about the beauty of the water and sand and the sunrises and sunsets I witnessed. The rhythm of waves.
Tonight I found this photograph.
A self-portrait. No diet necessary. Just early morning sun for a loooong look.
I like how the tire tracks and my legs intersect.
We went to the very end of St. George Island in the state park.
In order to enter the state park, my hosts had to get a special pass and code to enter as the number of cars and people allowed each day is regulated.
The Satisfaction of Completing a Lengthy Project
A few months ago, I was knitting a little baby blanket which called for 4 skeins of yarn. My granddaughter Anna loved how the blanket felt to her touch.
She asked if I could make her a blanket. A big one. Certainly.
Eleven skeins later (and a lot of time sitting in the knitting bag, not being knit) summer break from school and a few long swim meets ( I perfected knitting a toasty blanket in 90 degree weather by draping it on an adjacent chair) the handknit blanket got finished!
I was returning home today (Tuesday) and completed the final stitch at yesterday’s swim meet. Phew! Anna would ask me how her blanket was coming along. I promised myself, I wouldn’t start another new project until this one was complete.
When we got home, Anna put it in the washing machine and sat and watched it for awhile. She set it for “quick wash” and then it had to be dried. it’s 100% man- made polyester (I know some knitters will disapprove it’ s not made with natural fibers )
But she said she didn’t like it, she LOVES it!
What else could a grandmother wish?
Monday night at the washing machine. Watching the time.
Tuesday morning. Piano practice.
The blanket reminds me of a chenille bedspread from the 1950’s. It is soft and squishy. Because the yarn is variegated, the color falls in random splotches.
And yes I moved my position to capture her profile with the backlighting from the open front door.
Bernat Pipsqueak Yarn, Color Sittin’ Pretty
Pattern is the old basic dishcloth. Knit on the diagonal
Cast on 4 stitches.
K 2, YO, Knit to end. Repeat until half your yarn is used.
Then to decrease. K 1, K2 together, YO, K2 together, knit rest of row. Repeat until last four stitches then bind off.
Suitcase Race for Home and Then Off to a Baseball Game
After six days in Pittsburgh- they got out of the car,
retrieved their suitcases and headed up the hill.
They were happy to go to Grandma’s and happy to return home.
Michael stops for a moment to get a better grip on his Playmobil catalog
Maura made it to the stoop first, Jack’s suitcase fell over. Michael was watching Jack.
The boys changed and we headed to the baseball field
Waiting on the bench
Jack as catcher
After the game, Anna set up this photo of the four of them when I said let’s get one of the four kids together. Cheesy but fun!
Anna enjoyed her week as an “only child”.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Between
Friday afternoon at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Hall of Architecture.
With three of the grandchildren, one of them is always “between”.
This week’s challenge is hosted by the Danielle Hark founder of a blog I follow-
“Danielle is a photographer, writer, life coach, and the founder of the online gallery and nonprofit Broken Light Collective, which empowers people affected by mental illness using photography.”
Michael between Maura and Jack- Hall of Architecture.
Chiseling and brushing off the sand from fossils- future Paleontologists.
Taking a rest on the bench
Feeling the diplodocus femur
10% of the Surdick family collection of insects native to Western Pennsylvania, donated to the Carnegie Museum.
In the sculpture courtyard-oops, where’s Jack? The yellow sculpture , Three Forms, between the two- (Artist James Rosati)
Practicing Portraits on the Front Porch
The grandkids came out to the porch, one at a time, and let me photograph them. Willingly.
I told them I was practicing. The ambient light was nice as it was late in the day, after supper.
They look to be enjoying their vacation at Grandma’s house.
They didn’t mind helping me check out my replacement 24-70mm lens. We went over to the playground afterwards since the rain stopped and the sun appeared.
I’m photographing a wedding on Saturday and wanted to get the feel of the weight of the lens. It’s lighter than the 70-200mm of course, but heavier than the 50mm I’ve had on this particular camera. This is my favorite lens. It was a year ago, almost to the day, that my lens fell and broke into smithereens.
Maura
Jack
Michael
Jack playing with his sub in a container of water on the front porch. I liked the light on the shirt wrinkles.
Industrial Strength
As I left the school today, I noticed the big barrels of janitorial products and a giant mop wringer system. Ready for action! Industrial Strength Action.
I read the labels and they seemed poetic. Purplematic. Pink Concentrate. iShine.
Three more days to go. And the the custodial staff will make the building ready for the new school year.
Our school is a really clean one and you can see why.
Please Do Not Climb on Top of Cheese
Anna and I were on FaceTime Wednesday evening and she asked me what I was going to blog tonight.
I didn’t have a plan, I said. She said to tell her when I was posting it so she could be the FIRST one to see it.
So I am choosing a summertime August afternoon from their recent visit. Before school started.
Storybook Forest in Idlewild Park. Ligonier PA.
The grandkids in the cheese. Well, three of them that is. The fourth, Maura was looking at her siblings peeking out of the holes.
And then tonight as I uploaded, I saw the sign on the side which I had not seen before.
Anna said “the cheese stunk.”
Stunk like what?, I asked.
She said “I don’t know, it just stunk. Like elephants.”
(Maybe it stunk but we had a great day!)
And a portrait of cousin Parker in the cheese
Do Not Rock Cars!
Atop the Ferris Wheel. The sign said Do Not Rock Cars.
No kidding, but Jack (6) my grandson would have loved to rock the car when we were stopped at the top!
Mr. George Washington Gale Ferris although born in Illinois founded a company to test metals for railroads and bridges- G.W. G. Ferris in Pittsburgh PA. Mr Ferris lived on the North Side and died in Mercy Hospital Pittsburgh of typhoid fever.
