I seem to be averaging a post every two months or so - sorry to my one loyal reader! this will be a photoless blog - I haven't had a camera handy on my latest outings.

Wanted to let you in on one of the best wildflower runs I have ever done. I had to go up north to Finland (Minnesota that is) last weekend. After spending an hour and a half driving, three and a half hours in a meeting I headednorth another 15 miles or so to one of the sweetest sections of the Superior Hiking Trail - at least in May! I ran from Cook County Rd 1 to the Gasco Rd (an old logging road) and back. This section goes through an RNA, similar to an SNA but established by the forest service vs the DNR. It is an old-growth maple forest. For wildflower geeks that means awesome spring ephemerals. I hit it perfectly. Following is a list of what I saw in that 5.8 mile rooty, rocky, steep trails run:

b=bud; f=flowering; l=leaf

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) - f
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) - f
violet species - white & purple flowers
Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) - f
Bellwort (Uvularia species) - l
Clintonia (clintonia borealis) - l
Adoxa moschatellina (a species of special concern in Minnesota and a special treat and find from that day) - f
Carolina Spring-beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) also a species of special concern - f
Early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiensis) - f
various tree species - aspen, birch? (my allergies say yes)

Couple spots had moose scat, even more spots had wolf scat. No fresh tracks that day. I called in a few chickadees and a flycatcher (?) while I sat and stretched after my run that day.

Since then I have been cruising around on trails in the Duluth area and have seen:

Corydalis species - f (either yellow or golden, though due to timing I am thinking yellow)
Coltsfoot (Petasites palmatus) - f
Hepatica (Hepatica americana) - f
Wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia) - f
Wild strawberry - f
Viola species - white, pale purple and in my garden - fuschia - f
Wild leeks (Allium tricoccum) - l
Wild ginger (Asarum candense) - f

The turkey vultures are now out in full force. So are the ticks. Last Wednesday I went for a very hot run in Jay Cooke State Park and picked at least 15 or so ticks off of me throughout the run (those steep hills and slow walks up them are good for something besides catching your breath) and another two that evening, plus a few that lingered in the car and were discovered by others. I also had my first mosquito bite that evening!

The trees are all starting to leaf out so the spring ephemerals will be gone soon. My lilacs are budding, the plum is in full bloom and my hops are growing so fast I swear if you sat there watching them you could see it. Of course that means I should be out there encouraging them to grow up the trellis not onto the lawn. Speaking of the lawn, we have already needed to mow and almost missed the magic moment. The combination of a reel mower and our slope means it is best not to let the lawn get to long.

Obviously I have been spending more time outdoors and less time knitting so no major projects to report. I finished some half mittens from the jitterbug, plus a pair of socks and a hat all from the same colorway. I did end up getting a second skein of yarn to do all of that, so now have an bit of jitterbug looking for a small something to be. I also finished a baby surprise from sockyarn held with another fingering weight yarn for my newest nephew. Pictures to appear someday. On a cold couple of days I dragged the Rambling Rows queen size afghan out and worked on some applied i-cord edging. I have just a partial side left and the edging will be complete. Just in time for the warm weather to hit :->

I'll try to post sooner - and with pictures next time.

Thanks to Chris for suggesting a solution to my uploading of photos problem. Based on her suggestions I did a bit of playing around with iphoto and figured out how to shrink down the pictures so that they would load in my lifetime (love the dial-up). Hence I feel like I can share what some Duluthians do with two feet of snow.

Our front porch is about 8 feet or so off of the ground.

I spent an hour snowshoeing the Superior Hiking Trail near our house, packing down the trail ( I was the first one out) and watching Porter struggle through the snow. He is 100 lbs, tall enough to reach the top of the table without stretching, and was up to his chest in snow for most of the walk. Good work out for both of us!

Last night we got it all in Duluth. High winds (60 mph), thunder and lightening. Drifts on Park Point are over 10 feet. We are still waiting for a plow to come along on our street. Today there was hardly any wind and just some nice fat snowflakes drifting down most of the day.

Back to knitting. Details of the Bobble cable hat. The pattern is from Interweave Knits, originally designed as a baby's hat. I have made a few minor changes to the pattern. I had knit it up about a year or two ago, kept seeing it on the head of the person I had gifted it to and decided I needed one of my own.

This version is knit up in Jitterbug - Blue Parrot colorway. Jitterbug is a 100% superwash merino. Very soft. part of my christmas gift from my family this year (the gift certificate was - I chose the yarn).

The missing house - dug out the next day. The drift is at least 5 feet deep over his house - a bit more in some spots.

Last night Porter asked to go out - as he usually does - but couldn't find his house (look under the drift in the previous post). This is what he thought of the blizzard!

Okay - the missing photos from last night and a few interesting ones from today - One at a time :->

Snowed in! We have gone from winter drought to the possiblitiy of catching up, all in one week. Last weekend we got a foot of snow, took until Wednesday to dig the cars out. Today - Thursday - the Duluth Schools were closed, but the DTA was running so off to work I went - for awhile. The clinic closed at one and will not reopen until Monday. The roads looked pretty good up until about 3:00 pm, then the snow started. Heavy snowfall and winds gusting up to 60 mph give you the first photo (one car buried, another on its way and believe it or not they plowed today!)

Porter has a doghouse out back - care to try and find it in the picture of my neighbors house? Look under the drift at it's highest point on the house. Earlier today Sarah had dug it out so Porter could get to it! Notice Porter's reaction to not being able to find his house for his evening ritual of heading outside to sleep for a few hours.

The Bobble-Cable hat is finished. One photo shows details of the cabled rim, the other shows the whole hat. Knit with Jitterbug - Blue Parrot colorway.

Stay warm and snug. I am casting on for a baby surprise and thinking of all the fun to be had digging out in a day or two. The cross-country skis may actually get used yet this year! Plus, we just gained some great insulation if the temps drop again (still in the mid 20's F here, though with winds at 55 - 60 mph who knows what the windchill is).

Addendum: after waiting for 40 minutes and having only one picture load I am giving up for the night. I'll try and post the rest of the photos tomorrow.

Attended a knitting retreat today. Spirituality of Knitting - at the McCabe Renewal Center in Duluth. Very nice overall. Marred at the beginning by the need to be a mom ("Hi, are you at your thing....", followed by two more phone calls for help in dealing with a flat tire). Why does chaos break out on the only afternoon I have set aside for myself??

But, like a said a nice retreat once I could settle into the space. The McCabe is a wonderful place. Calming atmosphere. Beautiful building, lovely grounds, etc, etc. Nice group of women there - only one who I knew! Surprising in a town of this size.

One quote from the day:

"Knitting is very conducive to thought.
It is nice to knit awhile, put down the needles, write awhile, then take up the sock again."
- Dorothy Day

I got much work done on my Bobble-Cable Hat. Have I mentioned this before? I am working in Jitterbug - Blue Parrot colorway. Everytime I knit this pattern I have to rework the numbers - last time it was decreasing after picking up the stitches on the brim, this time it was increasing. The jitterbug is a lovely, soft yarn. I am currently getting something like 8 sts to the inch on size one (2.5) needles. The yarn label claims a tension of about 7 sts to the inch with size 3 (3.25) needles!

Pictures of hat in progress to follow. I shot a pic of the brim shortly after I picked up stitches. I am now starting decreases for the crown, so may wait to post until the hat is finished.

The question in my house: "How many hats do you need?!"

My question to you all (okay, I guess to Chris - my only reader (that I know about) is:

How many hats is enough?

And does this mean I should do a hat inventory? Whose hats do I count? Mine alone? The ones I share with Jon? Those I have made for the kids? Only hats that are still worn regularly?

Another question: How do I get blogger to post my pictures where I tried to place them - in the middle of text?!?!

Another try to upload the other photos of the socks. Blogger seems to not be cooperating with me right now (or for the past day and a half).

Close-ups of the heel gusset and heel shaping for you sock geeks.

Long time no post. The weather is quite the opposite of this summer - though the ground looks about the same as it did during the heat wave - brown. Temperatures have been mostly below zero - for highs- the last 10 days or so. Schools even shut down one day as the air temp was -22 F and the wind was blowing, leading to wind chills int he -40 to -50 range. Funny, once it warmed up to newar 0 F it felt like a heat wave :->

The bonus to all of this cold weather - SUN. Lots of it. Every day. A rare thing up north in the middle of the winter. Too bad I work indoors all day 9though good for staying warm).

So, the reason i am posting is to upload some photos of one of my latest projects. My eldest asked me to knit her some socks before Christmas. She even took me to the store and chose the colors. Florescent lime green and blue - stripes please, and oh, yeah, heels and toes different colors from each other.

So here they are in all their glory. I named them the "Fishing Lure socks". Teased her about needing sunglasses to work on them. Pattern inspiration came from Nancy Bushs' Folk Socks - St. Peter Port Stripes. Modifications include: stripe pattern based on a 3, 5, 7 sequence. Only one row of braid at the top. Heel is the same - Balbriggan. Toes are the same - Wide Toe version #1. Enjoy!

Icarus unblocked II.

Not sure what happened, but 40 minutes of uploading of pictures interspersed with writing disappeared. Aargh!

It has been two months since my last post - yeah, about the way I write letters too.

The whole point tonight is to share pictures of Icarus. Completed almost a month ago, languishing in its' unblocked state. But hey, I finally got around to taking pictures of it!

First photo is of Icarus on my Haralred apple tree. Good crop this year and so far no broken branches or bear maulings. The apples need to be picked soon, but they are a good eating and storage apple, so we will be enjoying them into the winter. I should have gotten a picture of our plum tree and it's crop. We had to prop some branches and were begging people to come share in the bounty. Lots of plums were eaten (even Porter likes them) and shared in the Duluth area.

Second photo is a close up of the edging. Pretty nice as is - can't wait to see it after a hard blcoking.

Third photo - Autumn crocus at the base of the apple tree. One of my favorite flowers. Emerges just in time for my birthday :->

The last photo is a good visual description of why I have been away so long. We started the game with 9 players (full team is 11), eventually got 11 players and even a sub or two for the injured players :-> I had run a 6.6 mile trail run (Bangin' in the Brush) the day before and the photo is from the second half I believe.

Some pictures from last Saturday's hike north of Grand Marais. The orchid was a highlight. As were the falls and Devil's Kettle. All of these are located within Judge Magney State Park.

In knitting news: starting Chart 3 of Icarus today. Slow going on any knitting when temps top 100 in Duluth. Yesterday we had a cool down (loving those winds from the east) and knitting became possible again.

Take care in the hotter parts of the state. Duluth will be joing you again when the wind switches!

Thank you Lake Superior!

For those of us living in Duluth, todays' weather took a surprising turn. High today at my house was 89.6 degrees farhenheit. That happened before 10:00 a.m. this morning. The temperature in town has been steadily dropping since then and is currently 68.3 degrees. All it took was a wind off of the big lake. Thank you Lake Superior for never really warming up! You really are God!

"One of the many pleasures of living in Duluth is that you have to look at the lake a lot," writes Barton Sutter in his 1998 book Cold Comfort: Life at the Top of the Map. "You might only mean to get some groceries or a hammer from the hardware store, but on your way you see something so grand, so terrible and beautiful, that you absorb your daily requirement of humility just by driving down the street....I finally realized that the lake was God." (City Pages February 2001)

HOT!!!!!!

Need I say more!? Downtown Duluth and the lakeshore hit 100 today. The high at my house? 98 degrees fahrenheit! Did I mention most Duluthians (including me) do not have air conditioning or central air?

HOT!

This has been going on long enough - and the nights have been so warm - that closing up the house is pretty pointless. We still try, but by the time early afternoon rolls around, opening doors and windows to catch the wind is better than stewing inside the house.

Friday Lake Superior was a refuge. Cool water, but not so cold your feet went numb seconds after entry. Ah, but today the wind was blowing hard from the southwest (which is why it was warmer by the lake). Out blew all the warm surface water, in came the frigid stuff from down deep. Provides a lot of entertainment in the form of watching all the humans behaving like plovers, running in and out of the water quickly, but lessens ones ability to just sit in the water cooling off.

Worked on Icarus a bit last night when it had cooled off enough that the yarn wasn't sticking to my hands too bad. Just a few more rows and I will start the second lace chart. I've been keeping an eye on the Yarn Harlot and her progress on the shawl. She is ahead of me, but not by much.

The socks are coming along. Finished one as I stood outside the International Flights area of the Mlps/St. Paul airport waiting for my daughter to appear. Worked on the second sock while sitting in the sun today watching the same daughter play soccer. Temperature when we left for the field: 88. Temperature when we arrived home an hour and a half later: 91. Number of players on her team today: 8 (yes, there should be at least 11, but you can legally play with 7).

Kept working on the sock later as we sat in the Rose Garden, overlooking the Lake and watching Dances on the Lakewalk. This was the 10th Anniversary of this event and the girls and I have attended every year. By 7 pm there was shade to sit in, but the dancers still had to perform in the 100 degree heat.

Did I mention that Duluth rarely sees temperatures like this? Yeah, we are reknowned for our cold in the winter - and the summer. I rarely head downtown without a sweater or fleece shirt in the car. But now I am trying to figure out how comfortable I am with bare skin! Needless to say, running is on hold until temps moderate a bit. I had got myself used to running when temps hit the mid 70's and have even played soccer into the 80's, but this is crazy hot and this northern gal is not acclimated to exercising in this kind of heat.

Hope you are keeping cool wherever you are!

It has been awhile and I thought I would add an update:

- I am now the proud "owner" of a: Minnesota RN and Public Health Nurse license as well as a Wisconsin RN license.
- Still trying to keep to a running schedule, though the 85 degree days are messing with that. I skipped my five miler this weekend, but will need to just go out and do it tomorrow - or forget about it and continue on as if I had run it. Did I ever mention how much I hate running in the heat??
- Won my age group in a small local run last weekend!! Despite it being a hot running day :->
- Still playing soccer, still collecting bruises, still having a great time playing.
- Getting a bit lonely for my kids - they are both gone right now - a little peek at what an "empty nest" will be like.
- Icarus (the black shawl) is coming along nicely. I have just started the fourth repeat of Lace pattern 1. One more repeat and then I move on to another lace pattern. I would show you a picture, but my digital camera is in Norway.
- Socks are coming along, I have started the toe decreases on the first sock. It is now traveling with me, filling in those moments when I have nothing to do and am waiting, or am sitting in a meeting and need to keep my hands busy so that I can listen attentively.

I will try to get some pictures of the shawl up by next week (when my camera - and Gilah - return from Norway). Until then, have a nice holiday!!

Hopefully the promised picture of the sensitive fern has appeared.....

Other updates:

We had our first soccer game tonight. 1v1 with the tieing (why can't I figure out the spelling for this word?) goal (our team) coming in the final seconds on a penalty kick due to a handball in the box. Nice job Kyle on that kick!

Icarus( black lace shawl) is coming along. I am on the second repeat of the first pattern, closing in on starting my third. I read on another blog that I - being of rather limited stature - may not want to knit five repeats of the first pattern. I guess we shall see as we get there how wide the shawl is becoming (I sense a session with cotten crochet thread and a darning needle coming)

The end of my first week at work is rapidly approaching. With one RN license in hand, another on the way soon, things seem to be coming together.

wildknits

Apologies for the lack of photo. I uploaded it, but where it went? No body knows! At least, I no longer have the energy to figure it out tonight.

I will try again on another day.

wildknits

Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis). Okay, not truly a wildflower, but a cool plant anyway. Sensitive to: early frosts and being cut - both will make it wither quickly.

Other items of interest:
- passed my boards and am now a licensed RN - the sick feeling a the pit of my stomach last Wednesday was over nothing.
- started my new job today, so far so good.
- Icarus shawl is coming along, even managed to finish a few rows at the soccer game this evening.
- socks are languishing by the green couch though the heel is turned and the gusset is at least half worked.
- started playing soccer with a women's league in town. Now I have sore quads and bruises rivaling my girls'. this should prove an interesting combination with my running schedule - three miles and then a 90 minute game on a full-size field???

Otherwise not much going on around here.

wildknits

IT IS DONE! Well, at least the test is over. Now the wait.... did the computer shut off because I passed or because I failed? Did the questions seem hard because I was being tested at my highest ability level or becuase I was not prepeared? Questions, questions, no resolution for at least 24 - 48 hours.

So, do I celebrate that I have taken the test or wait for my results and celebrate ( or drown my sorrows)?

I am not sure if working on my socks is a good plan right now, gauge does matter with socks. Maybe the shawl is the answer, soothing lace... Well, that and going to watch a soccer game.

wildknits

Well, I spent the day driving... dropped Gilah at the airport (she is
off on a Norwegian adventure), got a little knitting in as I waited
for the Light Rail train to come (I love cities with good public
transportation!), then drove back home.

The shawl is being reborn! This is the first time that I have used my
yarn swift to undo a project. After winding the yarn back into a ball
(letting it rest on the swift overnight), I did a first for me. I
rewound the ball! It needed it, and I could have probably done it a
third time but I really wanted to cast on. It's lace, it will relax
and gauge is not a huge issue.

Two more days until I take my boards, then a few days of "free time"
and it is off to a full-time job.

wildknits