My vacation was pretty unforgettable, but I felt relaxed and ready to go back to work by the end of it. Yes, back to work = I'm still working.
Lyn had a birthday during the vacation. He's a person that is hard to shop for - he never wants anything. He thinks presents are a waste of time, but I'm a person who thinks you can't have a birthday without presents. So I ignored him and went for a theme at the Backyard Bird Shop.
I found this plaque to put in the garden that a river flowing with leaves in it. The calligraphy on the side of the river says, "Leaf falling on leaf, on piled up leaves. Rain splashing in pools of rain." by Gyodai.
My other favorite gift was this owl carved from a Tagua nut. Tagua nuts are huge nuts grown in South America and they are huge with all these bulging protuberances that are the nut that is often called vegetable ivory. This little owl is all white and it sitting on a brown branch. Apparently the nut stains well and often you see colorful jewelry made from it, too. I like the figurines, myself.
Then there is this birdbath with a little clay frog in the bottom. It's clay on the outside and the bottom is blue ceramic.
Lyn also bought himself some black bamboo. I think he enjoyed the presents and I'm going to continue to ignore his "I don't want anything" requests from now on.
I only read one book during vacation, The Passage by Justin Cronin.
Okay, it was about vampires, but it wasn't true horror. It was a great adventure and a very long adventure at that. However, I was never bored and I didn't want the book to end. There's going to be a sequel and I have to wait 2 more years!! This book went beyond my vacation - I finished it on Saturday evening. I guess it's the last book I've read this summer. I had a great reading experience this summer. All the books were lengthy but I loved everything I read.
I finished some butterfly socks - socks I had been working on awhile. These are knit from a prepatterned commercial sock yarn called Online and this particular line is painted with butterfly wing patterns. They fit perfectly and the orange matches an orange sweater I recently bought - a pumpkin orange.
Friend Betsy McCarthy recently revised her Knit Socks book and I started a pair immediately upon buying it. I'm using one of the first sock yarns I ever bought at the Loopy Ewe. I can't recall the name of the dyer, but the colorway is called Cattails. It's a gorgeous golden brown with stripes of turquoise. This particular pattern works well with variegated yarn and the yarn doesn't pool. I love it. I'll add a picture in a few minutes. I should finish the sock soon and may wait to show the yarn then.
I tried to take pictures of Madeline, but she's not cooperative when she sees me pointing the camera at her. I know this really freaks some dogs out, so I'll try to do more picture taking of her when someone else is handling her.
Here's an example of Madeline looking like she'd rather do anything than look at me and pose. She's sitting nicely by the couch, but I think her expression tells me she's going to run away soon.
Sure enough, she slinks away.
And then reluctantly stops and looks at the camera again.
My son-in-law finished his special education certification program this summer and then began a tedious and frustrating job search. He found a job outside Salem the second day of school and we're all excited for him. I think he and my daughter will need to move closer to Salem, but at least it's not Texas!
So, that was my summer vacation, not overly exciting, but I got to do things I enjoy doing and it was restful, which is exactly what I wanted.
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