Nora Goes To The Cottage And Proves To Be A Champion Dock Diver

 

Woobie, Gracie, Emery, and Nora

 

Nora And Her Bestest Friends

 

Wet And Happy

(All photos courtesy of the brilliant Brittany Ernst)

 

Happy Day At The Cottage

 

Bombs Away!

 

 Off We Go

 

Contemplation

 

Then Action

 

Are You Guys Sure The Frisbee Landed Here?

 

 

Water Girl

Water Breezes 

Hey, I Can Sew Buttons With One Hand!

 

Well, at least I can sew large buttons with one hand - albeit in a slow and painstaking manner.

 

This cotton sweater is perfect for the summer. It has 3/4 sleeves that slide easily over my cast. The only downside to the cardigan - big pink plastic buttons that did nothing to enhance the garment. Yesterday, we were in Mahone Bay and I stopped in at Have A Yarn. I will not be able to knit for a long time but I felt that a few minutes in that lovely shop would have a restorative effect on my spirits. I was right. And I found these lovely ceramic buttons. They make all the difference in the world to the look of the sweater.

 

And we picked up a new garden bench. Even a few years ago, I would not have entertained the thought of garden furniture made with resins and other synthetic materials. However, years of scraping, sanding, and reapplying paint to wood in a humid, rainy Maritime climate have changed my mind. This bench is very attractive and, ironically, it is more comfortable than the wooden ones! As the wooden Adirondack chairs crumble, they will be replaced with chairs from this line as well.

 

I like growing fresh herbs on the deck in the summer. It is easy to step out the door and take some clippings for supper and the aroma of the herbs wafts by in the summer breeze.

I always add a flowering plant to the herb pot. This calibrachoa provides colour to the pot of sage and Mojito Mint.

 

 

 

Father's Day Cake

 

New York Cheesecake

Made by the Marvelous Movita Beaucoup

A Forced Knitting Hiatus and Community Supported Agriculture

 

This is my hand, though I can barely recognize it as mine, as there is still so much swelling a week and a half after taking a very hard tumble. I had my feet (foolishly) on the coil of a long lead - the end of which was attached to beautiful, 57 pound, ten month old Nora. Nora heard a car coming up the drive and bolted happily toward it. My feet were swept from under me and I fell sideways with an equal amount of force in the opposite direction. The result is a rather complicated fracture with the tip of the radius fractured, the wrist bones compacted, and a small triangular shaped piece of the radius gone. This second cast extends to my elbow and the final course of treatment has not yet been settled upon.

Every knitter who reads this blog will understand how frustrating and sad it has been to have to set all my lovely yarn and works in progress aside for weeks on end. I am sure that every passionate knitter out there dreads the thought of a hand injury. But when it occurs, most of us will focus on what has to be done to enhance the road to recovery and, for the sake of those around us, keep the moaning and lamenting to a minimum!

 

Everyone has been sterling - from friends and family to the orthopaedic team at the QE11. Movita has given up so much of her personal time, just as her own gruelling school and work year has wound down, to either drive me around or chop vegetables at the kitchen counter! I manage surprisingly well but there are a number of things that require two hands!

 

 

On a far more positive note, today, Movita delivered our first Ironwood Farm food box of the season! This is a program of community assisted agriculture and our adult children paid the season fee as a Christmas gift for us and it is so much appreciated. Every week during the growing season, we receive a box of fresh produce from the farm. The box may be quite full, or not quite as full, depending on the weather and the other variables that our farmers have to work around to produce good quality organic food.

 

Visit Heather and Rupert's blog and look at their beautiful farm.

 

 

Such a gorgeous collection of vegetables inside The Box - including leaf lettuce and chard

 

 

Spring onions and white radishes

 

 

Mint

 

 

Beet Greens

 

And around our garden this week: 

 

 

 

The Chinese Tree Peony is in bloom

 

 

 

And the Percy Wiseman Rhododendron

 

 

The Little Princess Spirea

 

 

And the Jane Law Rhodo