October At Home

October Ornamental Grass: Miscanthus Sinensis Silberfeder

I can't seem to make it out of France without being felled by something or other - cold, flu, food poisoning... This time, I almost made it out of the country. I had only a scratchy throat on the high speed train from Lille to Paris. And I might have made it over the Atlantic and broken my record of illness on French soil if the flight had not been delayed for over an hour because 3 passengers checked their luggage but didn't show up at the gate. Who does that? And why? Had they been drinking in the departure lounge and lost all track of time? Are they just mischief makers? Security conscious activists testing the system? Was it the result of a relationship break up at the interminably long and never-moving line up at the Air Canada baggage check? Alas, the longer we had to sit by the departure gate, the stronger the scent of French perfume as more women who had tested the wares in the duty free shops or who were examining their very recent purchases with renewed enthusiasm joined us. And there is nothing worse if you are asthmatic and coming down with a respiratory based flu! It accelerates the fact and the knowledge that you cannot breathe as well and you are not going to breathe as well for a long, long time. I did make it home after a seemingly endless journey to a clean, orderly house, a tidy garden and two very happy dogs. Hadley and Ryan (our neighbourhood golden boy) had taken such good care of the place, inside and out, that I was able to crawl into bed for a week and wallow in on-again, off-again fevered sleep.
We’re into the third week at home and I am only now just getting off the Ventolin inhaler. I can only hope it was the seasonal flu or the swine flu and I now have immunity against at least one of them. If it was a weird and unrelated, totally French strain, then I am afraid the next round to hit our region is going to carry me off. And, gee, I have only just learned how to say "Cecile" in French!
I knit very little in France. There was so much to do – making play doh dishes with lovely little bits of play doh food, blowing bubbles on the deck, walking to the park to say hello to the sheep, geese, and ducks, playing on the slides and the wooden car, singing and dancing in the park bandstand, reading books, doing puzzles, peeling oranges – oh the days were busy and full. There is nothing sweeter than watching the ongoing development of a clever little mind.
It seems to have taken forever to get out of the haze of medication, wheeze, cough, fever, and a longing for Lucy.
But I am back on the needles with a handsome pair of socks!


Pattern: BFF Socks
Designer: Cookie A.
Yarn: Lisa Souza Sock!
Color: Garnet
Needles: 2.25 mm circular