Knitting update

A few days ago I mentioned I was knitting a shawl. Well, here it is, all done! I have no idea when or where I'll wear it, but at least it's done!

Sunset

I found this picture on my memory card last night, from a couple of weeks ago:

My favourite time of day...

Foggy evening

Yesterday evening I looked out and was surprised to see the fog rolling in. What was really interesting, was that is was very low, lower than the tops of the trees, making it look like the trees were floating.

Knitting... and Coyotes

For the past few days I have been doing a lot of knitting. I think its the weather lately that has inspired it. Although the thermometer says 20-25C, it feels much cooler in the house. Maybe that's why I've had the impulse to knit a shawl (Malabrigo lace, Citron shawl), and a shrug knit from 100% alpaca. Unfortunately, I ran out of the alpaca yarn last night, so that project is on hold until I can get some more. Next up on the needles: baby gifts.

As for the coyotes: David and I were in the office the other night, I was browsing Ravelry and David was playing a game, when I thought I heard something from outside. It kind of sounded like a dog, but it was coming from an odd direction. One of our neighbours has a dog that likes to bark, but they live across the road and down a little ways... this barking sound was coming from the property bordering our backyard property line. I went to the back deck to see if it was what I thought it was. Although it was very dark and no moon, I knew what I was hearing was a coyote (you may remember that we saw a pair crossing the back field earlier this year). It sounded like it was communicating with another pack on the other side of the highway. 

I think the sound half way through might be a cat

going through the cat door...

Catching up... again

So far, this month has been pretty crazy... as evidenced by the lack of posts!

On May 4th, I performed in Vanier's 40th anniversary choral concert with the college choir. It was a huge work, very... different...

We still haven't managed to tackle the two remaining gardens that were covered in hay in the fall. The gardeners were supposed to come by in the middle of the week to mow our lawn so we wanted to deal with the hay that had been raked off one of the gardens before the mowers got here. Tuesday evening (May 10th) we raked everything up, and decided since it was decent out, to burn the hay rather than fill countless bags. Needless to say, we got a good roaring fire going!

The following weekend we had some visitors Saturday afternoon, and Sunday my parents came by with lobster for Mother's Day dinner. Boiled lobster, corn-on-the-cob, rice & veggie stir-fry, and cheddar-bay biscuits... topped off by a chocolate-fudge cake... yum!

Last weekend was our busiest and most anticipated weekend! First, it signalized the beginning of our vacation (sort of... we traded 2 days for the following week). Our jobs have a temporary lay-off during the summer, so we'll both be off until mid-August. The weekend kicked off on Friday with alpaca shearing at Magpie Hill Alpacas in North Gower (just south of Ottawa). This is the same farm we helped out last year.

Cria (baby alpaca) with full fleece

Half way through...

 All done!

We had a great time, and we both learned a lot!

Sunday, our nephew was baptized, and I must say I don't think I've ever seen a more quiet baptism... not a squeak from him!

We has a few days to ourselves before we were back to work to help one of our suppliers set up equipment in one of our labs on Thursday, and back for workshops the following day. A great time was had by all, as we learned about ELISA antibody tests and protein analysis through electrophoresis...

That's me pipetting our sample into the gel for electrophoresis

Finally, yesterday we had a beautiful summer day... the thermometer read 25 degrees! David and I managed to finish working on 3 of our gardens: annuals were planted around the deck; our garden by the garage was edged, filled, planted (with dahlias & peonies), and covered with cedar chips; and the garden in front of the barn was edged, filled and planted (with gladiolas) as well! We put some garden lights in the two new gardens, but last night decided that they just didn't fit in there. So, this morning I've moved them to the garden around the deck (the photos were taken yesterday).

Facing driveway                                        Facing Back Yard

Dahlias & Peonies

Gladiolas

We also made another trip for plants this afternoon, and.... Ta Da!

and more gardening...

Yesterday afternoon we managed to finish working one of our English garden beds. Most of the grass removal was done on Saturday, so we only had a small area to work on yesterday. While David was working on teasing the soil out of the grass root (I would have loved to help but the spiders, centipedes, and ants kept me away!) I worked on laying down some mulch for the rock retaining wall, repositioned the rocks, and rebuilt the wall. By the time we were done, we had another reclaimed garden. We managed to keep the daffodils, and another flowering plant (whose name I can't remember)... I can't wait to fill it will colourful flowers!