Dogs and Fall Flowers

Saffy loves when I stand on the end of her rope toy, so she can try to tug it away from me. Here are a couple of pics I took this morning.



Saffy and Silas had a cute moment together and I snapped a pic, but it's hard to photograph a yellow dog and black dog together as one is always washed out and the other is always too dark!

There are still a few blooms around the yard like these pretty asters.

Blackstone River Bike Ride

Jeff and I had a lovely bike ride on the Blackstone River Path yesterday. The trail goes along a river and canal and you see remnants of the Industrial Revolution like brick mills, a dam and train tracks. Here is a picture of a bridge we crossed over on the bikes and a picture of a stretch of the path along the canal. The nicest thing about the path is that there is only one road crossing, so you can really relax and enjoy your ride.



On the ride, we were able to reach our goal of 300 miles for the month! We're currently at 301.55! Woohoo!

More Loot from the Bookstore

I bought a copy of the September Simply Knitting last night at Barnes and Noble and love the little, stuffed dog pattern! I'm going to have to put that on my knitting to do list! I also got "Thud" by Terry Pratchett in paperback and a Rachel Ray magazine since I hadn't read one yet. I think there are a couple of quickie recipes in it I'll try.

I am so excited about the premiere of "The Office" tonight :-)

Weekend Visit, Today's Cooking

Saturday, my husband and I had a lovely visit with She Knits By the Seashore and C. We met up in Niantic, CT, at an enormous used book store called the Book Barn, but it should be the Book Barns as it consists of multiple buildings and levels crammed with books! We bought a stack of books before venturing on to the Book Barn Annex downtown where we found a couple more books! Around the corner from the bookstore, we found a bike shop to investigate. Jeff and I bought a set of tools for our bike trail kit. For lunch, we drove over to Mystic and went to a Mexican restaurant called Margherita's. Then, we worked off lunch with a 14 mile bike ride around the seaside towns of Mystic and Stonington and enjoyed sights like a stone lighthouse, early New England homes and old stone walls. The weather was gorgeous and we had a wonderful time! I got to see Debby's Central Park Hoodie too. She is working on the back and the tweed she chose is so pretty!

This morning, I made a French Onion Soup since I always crave soups in fall. The dogs were initially excited to see me doing Things In The Kitchen as they usually get treats (whatever I drop on the floor). But today was very disappointing for them as dogs do not get onions. The hopeful, smiley gazes quickly turned to woeful stares and long, theatrical sighs. How could I neglect them so!!!


I got the recipe from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and it's one of my favorites. The soup came out great as usual (I got to sample it for lunch) and we'll have it for dinner with some French bread and melted Jarlsberg on top. Yummm!

Doggie Pics

I was just out with the dogs and snapped a few pics for you. Silas and Saffy enjoy snuffling around the yard everyday.

Saffy consented to posing next to the hydrangea shrub,

then she smelled it and considered eating it.

Quick Update

I am working on the hood part of my cabled hoodie sweater. It's going quite well. I actually tried it on yesterday after I seamed up the sides. After the hood, I still have to knit the border around the front opening and the sleeves.

I began the fall veggie garden cleanup Tuesday by pulling up half the drip hoses and then mowing with the tractor. It's fun to drive over everything and have the blades chew it up. I left the grains, sunflowers, zinnias and 4 o clocks standing as they still look pretty. I still have to harvest peppers and tomatoes and then I will mow down that half too. Jeff is planning to till soon. We want the garden to be all fixed up this fall, so it won't be much work to prepare in the spring.

While I was mowing in the garden, I noticed about 10, huge, praying mantis bugs!! I guess we have a big population of them because of all the butterflies that visit the flowers. They are so creepy looking!

The weather has been good for biking. We've only skipped one day so far this month and we've already ridden 180 miles for the month. Our goal is to try to ride at least 300 miles total for September. It will depend on the weather and how much off pavement riding we do. We don't go as far on the rough stuff. Here's a pic of Jeff riding in the woods last Saturday.


The dogs are sneaking into the edge of the garden to try to eat tomatoes and peppers off the plants!! Bandit keeps cleaning out his food dish and meowing for more. I think he is trying to bulk up for winter despite the fact that he's an indoor cat!

Meeting Other Bloggers

It's really fun to get to know other knitting bloggers online and I thought it was interesting that sometimes bloggers arranged to meet in person. Well, I had the pleasure of meeting another knitting blogger in August! She Knits By the Seashore lives fairly close by, so we arranged a day to get together. We met up at an ice cream shop, went to Sakonnet Purls to admire yarn, then went on a bike ride along with our husbands followed by dinner out! It was really a wonderful day and we are already planning another visit.

As it was my birthday in August, Debby brought me a very pretty package! I have been slow to post pictures of everything, but only because I have been enjoying the gifts so much. The items got separated around my house as I read/used them and only now have I rounded them up to take pictures!

A card and journal and the beautiful ribbon that decorated the package:

A vintage gardening book:

The first issue of Yarn Magazine from Australia:

There were also poppy seeds for my garden!
Thank you for the gifts, Debby!

CPH Progress

It's really dim out today so I had a hard time taking clear pics, but I wanted to show you the progress I've made on the CPH. I've done the back and left front and am currently knitting the right front.




CPH KAL post: Progress

August Mountain Bike Totals

I think I'll post my totals each month to help keep me motivated!

August, 2006
Hours: 21:43
Miles: 250.83

I'll post the July totals too, but we bought the bikes toward the end of July and just got in 7 rides, so the numbers are low.

July, 2006
Hours: 8:03
Miles: 103.2

Central Park Hoodie Started!

I cast on August 31st and worked on the back section of the hoodie. The cables are fun to do and easy. I was able to discard the pesky markers early on as I could follow the pattern from the previous row. Here's a progress pic!

Cascasde 220
Color 4001 "bluestone"
Needle Sizes 8 and 10

I've made a similar post about this at the CPH KAL site:
Started