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Back to Reality: From Palm Desert to Seattle

While I realize that our weather is pretty mild compared to much of the country, I still found that getting away from this



and into this

to be very nice. This is the view from the trail that we hiked on a little ways up into the mountains. From there you can see down into the lush green valley and across to the surrounding mountains. It was beautiful.


Our trees looked like this not long ago



The trees there look like this:

Fresh grapefruit and lemons every day!

Palm Desert in January was paradise this year. I did not want to come back.

Fortunately, there are things to look forward to. Next Saturday will be a train trip from Seattle to Portland which will include visits to at least three yarn stores. The middle of February will bring Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma, which will include taking a lace class from Nancy Bush, meeting my separated-at-birth twin, Cathy-Cate, and more yarn shopping.

I can't believe that it's January 18th and I've yet to complete a 2009 project. I guess the fact that I'm working on 5 or 6 things all at the same time, plus spinning three different fibers, slows me down considerably. All that knitting at the pool last week got me some progress on my Swallowtail shawl, but I'm a slow lace knitter. It also took me a while to decide whether or not to try to enlarge it. I'm going to take a chance and see if I can get it done using beads and one skein of Wollmeise. Others have done it, but some have failed. I put in a life line at the end of the regular number of repeats and I'm going for it. You have to take a chance sometimes, I say.

Comments

Cathy-Cate said…
The bottom trees just blow me away! I know it's really not much different a concept than apple trees, which we both have around in the area, but the idea of picking oranges from your back yard (or homeless people eating from the boulevards) is just wild.

What a nice vitamin D break in January -- especially THIS winter for you!

Looking forward to Madrona -- a month and counting!
January 18, 2009 at 8:15 PM
A :-) said…
I have too many projects on the needles, too :-)

The desert is not for me, but then neither is the brutal cold we've been having here . . . it's above zero today, so it feels like a heatwave - I was actually out without a hat yesterday :-D
January 19, 2009 at 5:03 AM
Anonymous said…
Looks like a fun trip. I could go for a sunshine and lemons break myself! Although the last couple of days here have been postcard perfect.
January 19, 2009 at 8:40 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
February 14, 2009 at 10:21 PM
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