Busy Hands...Keep Me From Snacks

Due to lousy weather, two cataract surgeries, and planning menus for a new diet I've been on, I haven't had much time to get out and hike.  Although, I did hike the last 3 days with umbrella and on a paved trail (not my favorite kind of trail.)

Here are a few projects I've been working on.  This is my latest completed afghan.  Herb refers to it as Joseph's Afghan of Many Colors...a play on words of Joseph's Coat of Many Colors.  I refer to it as the Big Box of Crayons.   It's big enough to cover our Queen size bed.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of these afghans, just storing them for now.  I love the colors, and the lacy pattern.  I only used one color twice, the first and the last row.

I still have plenty of extra yarn left, so I have another afghan ready to start.  However, first I've had a project in mind for several years that I wanted to do.  Here it is completed.  Can you guess what they are?  Probably not.

This next picture may give you a hint.

We've had many pets over the years.  We loved them all, but it was getting a bit expensive to buy each and every one a nice urn to store their ashes.  I must confess, we didn't always have all of our pets cremated...just too expensive.

These boxes aren't perfect, but I did my best.  I tried to match the colors to the pet.  Some don't show up as perfect matches, but they are pretty close.  Here are the pets' pictures to match the urns.

The first box on the left:  Magnum

 

 The big middle box:  Idol

The box on the right:  Sedona

As far as my surgeries, they were great!  I only wear glasses now when I read.  My diet?  I've lost 19 pounds so far.  I'd like to lose more, but only time will tell.  I can now fit back into my old jeans.  I still have some other jeans that are even smaller, maybe I'll wear them eventually, but right now I'm content on what I've lost so far.  Hope to continue to watch what I put into my mouth!

Walking Through the Mist

Hiking the first thing in the morning accomplishes so much for me.  It gets me moving early, even if I don't want to move.  It works out all the kinks and stiffness pretty quickly.  I may be moving slow when I first start out, but as the hike progresses every part of me moves easier and quicker.

This picture is just as Finn and I came out of the parking lot to head down the path towards the trail.  What a beautiful early morning welcome for us.  I love the sun shining through the mist!

On the way home I spotted something at the bottom of a hill as we drove through the park.  I pulled over and made my way down this steep hill.  The park district left it unmowed and left natural.  As I started to make my way down I realized it was a pretty risky move on my part.  I certainly didn't want to fall on my new knee.  The ground was soft and lumpy and the grasses were high where you couldn't see what you were walking through.  I felt like the littlest daughter on Little House on the Prairie who was running down the hill and eventually tumbled down the hill.  Luckily, I didn't fall.  These pictures of the fungi are actually too bright.  But what a lovely find spilling out of the tree.

I was going to take a picture of the grassy area I had just plodded through because it had some pretty wildflowers mixed in, but I found a safer way to climb back up.  It was still steep but the grass wasn't as high.

The next two pictures are of an afghan project I just completed.  I saw the Whistling Duck on someone else's blog and I thought it's colors were so pretty.  His feet are orange.  So, I chose his colors to make an afghan: gray, tan, black, pink and orange.

I think my next project will be to make an afghan out of all of the left over yarn I have.  It will take me some time to plot out all of the color placement.  It will make me happy to use up some of the yarn in my leftover stash.

Pretty Quilts

Today's post will be mostly pictures.  There is an annual quilt show at one of our county parks.  The quilts are not full sized quilts, but various sized panels.  They depict art by Charley Harper,a Cincinnati based American Modernist artist.  He was best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations.  These were some of my favorites.  Anyone who attended could vote for their favorite.

 The eyes of the foxes were green rhinestones that really sparkled.

These last two were my favorites from another category that were non-Harper entries.  The tails on the squirrels were fluffy...I'm pretty sure they weren't real.  Haha

The raccoon's face was felted.  I was tempted to touch even though there were plenty of signs that said "Do Not Touch".

Ice, Ice...Baby!

We've had a pretty mild winter here this year and it's been nice.  Earlier this week, however, we finally got hit with winter.  It was very cold and I didn't feel like bundling up and hiking.  I would have also had to put Finn in his sweater, and I guess I just got lazy.

We finally got out again today and did our favorite trail, Kingfisher Trail at Winton Woods.

Looking over the side of a bridge that spans over a small creek, I found these pretty little icy crystals that formed on the water.

A picture of a small trickle of water melting on the right side of this little stream.  The left side was still frozen.

This view is from the top of the trail.  During the winter when there aren't any leaves on the trees it's nice to see the two little streams coming together.

Two pictures of my latest project that is almost finished.  This is a reversible baby afghan.  It was supposed to be for my great nephew who is due any day now.  His name will be James Michael.  However, they decided to have the baby shower earlier than I anticipated, so I didn't have it done in time.  Luckily, I had a nice baby afghan already finished and my niece was very happy with it.  So, this will go to the next little baby boy who comes our way.  The colors may not show up true on these photos, they are lime green and denim blue.

A Trail with Obstacles and Heat!

Another humid sweltering day in Ohio.  Our hiking plans for today were to try and go around twice on the Kingfisher Trail in Winton Woods.  Twice around was our normal routine back before I had knee surgery.  Since my surgery was so successful and I am without pain, I'm hoping we will eventually be able to go even longer than twice around.

We started out before 9 am this morning hoping to beat the heat and hopefully not run into many people.  We could hear noise in the distance as though someone was working in the area.  Sure enough, a crew was working on the lower portion of the trail.  Unfortunately, they were pretty much blocking the trail.  Not only do I have a new knee, but I'm just naturally a klutz, so I always feel I need to watch where I'm going, and have plenty of space to get my big feet through small spaces.  Here is what we needed to pass.

As you can see they didn't leave much space for people to get by.  Finn decided to hop over the rails and go down the hill.  Then, of course, he couldn't quite hop back up and over the rails.  I had to brace myself, bend down, reach over and heist his fat little body back on the trail.  Thank goodness, I kept my klutziness in check.

We continued on and headed for the steps to move to the top portion of the trail.  Another partial blockage greeted us.

They could have pulled their vehicle a little more to the right as there is a level path that runs through.  No, they don't want to make it too easy for hikers.  We got by, and continued on up the hill to the upper portion of the trail.  I didn't want to go back down to the lower portion so I decided we'd stay up top.  When we finally got to the top, my plan was to do the top portion 3 times.  Walk to the end, then go back and forth on the top portion 2 more times.  However, Finn was starting to pant pretty much, so we did a shortened version of the last 2 times.  Since he wears a "winter" coat all the time, I knew he had to be hot.  He will get a haircut later today.  Here is a short video of Finn.

I've also been busy doing some crocheting.  A few scarves for Christmas gifts this year.  Some of the colors do not show up very well.  The scarf on the far left is a soft lilac color.  The second from the right is gray.  I love the little purses I found to match.