Rainy Days and Camping

Hello again my friends! Here I am back home for a day or two and it's raining. Actually, I love to be at the trailer in the rain, it's very comforting to hear it on the rooftop. Yesterday we had showers on and off all afternoon. I just sat in my cozy rocking chair and knitted the afternoon away. Love it. I was going to stay there again tonight and come home tomorrow, but Hubby had a last minute meeting scheduled for tonight. That meant that he would have stayed at the house in town, AGAIN, because it just doesn't make sense for him to drive to the lake, just to go to bed and then get up extra early for the drive in to work. So sad. We were both looking forward to this evening when there is no one else in the campground and it's so very quiet. We eat dinner when he gets there, and then take a long walk along the lake. By then it's bedtime. Oh well. Since he was teaching a finance class last night I was there alone. I didn't want to miss him for a second night so home I came! I'll be going back Friday morning so it's not a huge sacrifice. :-)

Here are some photos for you. On Saturday I baked a rhubarb pie from rhubarb that I picked from my garden Friday morning before I went to the lake. This was my first pie attempt in my little toaster oven. It took twice as long as normal to bake and doesn't look that great, but it tasted wonderful if I do say so myself. I'm not a huge fan of rhubarb like Hubby is so that's saying something!. Next time I'll use my propane oven in the trailer and see how that works. Then, of course you HAVE to make cinnamon chips with the leftover pie dough. I've done this ever since I baked my first pie. My mom did it too. Our kids, (and Hubby) love them. It was such fun rolling out the pie dough at the trailer. I have a fully stocked kitchen there! A few more spices and I would never need to come home!

One of my blog friends, Judy, asked me to make here a few dishcloths in her favorite colors. Judy, here is a sneak peak of what I mailed to you yesterday! I hope you like them!


Hubby and I planted 17 pots of flowers on Saturday. Just petunias, red geraniums and marigolds, (marigolds are supposed to help keep bees away). I love flowers and can't wait until they grow a bit and fill the pots. The gazebo/screen room is so nice for sitting and having a cup of tea in the morning while reading my Bible. Yesterday I sat there and read the ENTIRE book of Psalms! All 151 chapters. I had intended to read 20 and just kept right on going! It was so cozy there. It started sprinkling rain and I just sat in there reading and listening to it hit the canvas roof.


I built this little rock wall yesterday with Chloe's help and our little red radio flyer wagon. Hubby bought it out last week for me and it worked very well. We've had our little wagon for 33 years now and have used it to move furniture, mix cement and of course, the kids have played and played and played with it! It was well worth whatever we paid for it so long ago. Anyway, I built this little wall so it would be small reminder in the dark that there is a drop-off there. I may make it a bit bigger at some point, but I do like it. How about you? Any advice? Bigger or not?


I'm making two more dishcloths for a friend at the lake and then I plan to finish the socks in hot pink that I've started for my secret sister at church. What are you working on and is it beautiful weather where you live? After tomorrow we're supposed to be in for a warm and dry spell. I certainly hope so.

Have a lovely day everyone. I'm so happy to be able to call you my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy

Yarn Sale

Hello again!

I know, I know! Two posts in two days. What's wrong with that woman you say! But I have happy news for those of you who like to knit or crochet. Michaels is having a 4 day yarn sale to make room for new stock coming in June. I hope this doesn't mean that they are getting rid of two of my favorite yarns, but from Wednesday to Saturday this week you can get Lily Sugar & Cream cotton 4/$5.00 and Caron Simply Soft 2/$5.00. These are both GREAT prices. Simply Soft is usually $4.49 or so per skein. Now the important thing to remember is that this is an email sale. The prices are NOT marked in the yarn aisle. When you get to the cashier just tell them that you're buying them from the email sale. You don't have to show them anything and the yarn will ring up at the sale price.

Looky what I bought!


Now I didn't buy all of this yesterday. I bought 16 balls of dishcloth cotton and 10 skeins of Simply Soft to restock my supplies. I may or may not go back today and get more!!!
Do you see the two layers of cotton? I really like this bin for keeping it in. I've tried several different storage methods but this seems to work best for me. I can see the colors through the clear plastic, even on the bottom layer.

Okay friends, I'm off to trim bushes in the yard. I just wanted to get the word out to those of you in the U.S. about the sale. Have a WoNdErFuL day everyone.

Blessings,
Betsy

Home and a Computer!

Hello Friends!

I think I've learned this week that I can post to my blog through my phone with words only. No pictures. I don't know what has happened since last week, but blogger won't let me upload from my phone. So if I blog from the lake it will have to be just talk-no photos. But here I am home for a day or so, I have my desktop so I can post a few pictures for you. I woke up to snow on my car this morning at the lake! It melted by 6:30 a.m. so it was short lived. You can see the fog/mist this morning in the picture. The lake is warmer than the air temperature today. It was 75F there yesterday. What a change! We had a rip-roaring wind come through in the afternoon bringing rain and snow at the higher elevations. There was a tragedy on a local lake during the wind. It overturned a small aluminum fishing boat and the couple in their 50's were tossed into the water. The man drowned but the woman made it to shore. So sad. It's a week of terrible weather in our country isn't it? My heart goes out the the people in Oklahoma. Having lived my first 32 years in Nebraska, I know the ferocity of tornadoes firsthand and they terrify me. When Hubby was offered a job here in Spokane, my first question was, "Do they have any natural disasters?" We had spent most of that spring in our tornado shelter with our children as it was a particularly bad tornado season that year.

I had a busy day last Friday. First of all, I'm not used to driving 6 hours with no one to talk too. Not even Chloe was with me for company! I arrived back in Spokane from Portland by 1:00 and switched cars with Hubby. His new truck had a tire that he had added air to twice in the three days I was in Portland. Switching cars meant unloading everything out of mine and putting it all in the truck. Then home to unload it all again, start the laundry and off to the tire shop. There was a nail in the tire and they repaired it at no charge. Thank you Perfection Tire! Obviously with the truck being new, we hadn't purchased the tires from them and they still repaired it free. Great guys.

Next came a stop at the grocery store, back home to finish laundry, re-pack for the lake and guess where I was by 5:00? Sitting in my chair with a glass of ice tea and my knitting while watching the skiers on the lake!

Saturday in the early afternoon the park delivered 6 truckloads of crushed granite to our site and our friends, Larry & Nita whose site adjoins ours. That is their motor home that you see. In the picture of Nita and I with our dog babies you can see our trailer on the left. The guys shoveled and shoveled and the backhoe came in and flattened it out some. One it rains on the granite it will harden to be almost like rock. This has expanded our sites about 5 feet to the back toward the lake. They have been doing this with all of the sites that want more space. This way we can move our fire pit farther from the trailers which will be nice for safety and for smoke getting inside. After they finished shoveling granite they built our new gazebo. Hubby and I bought it half price on clearance last fall and have had it stored all winter. This will be very nice and keep the bugs off of us while we eat and play cards, etc. Monday and Tuesday I sat at the table and did my Bible study and it was so peaceful. The week days are so nice there. No week-enders to make lots of noise. :-) Last night it was just myself and our friends, Willie & Dixie in the entire park. Solitude is nice. Willie baked lemon bars in the middle of the storm and invited me down for dessert last night. Yum!

One last photo of little Miss Piper in a different Mother's Day pose than the last one I showed you. This picture is destined for the trailer, while the other is on my bedside table at home.

I've been busy building my stock of dishcloths. I'm still not sure about selling them. It takes some of the joy out of making them to sell. I love to give things that I make away as gifts. I also forgot to take a picture of a half done sock. The first sock is finished to after the heel turn. I need to start on it again and get it done before I get "one sock syndrome"!

Have a lovely day my friends. Remember to hug your loved ones a little tighter today and everyday that you have them. This week has been a reminder of how a "normal" day can quickly change your life forever.

Blessings,

Betsy