owen goes to sea

bright and early, this fine day, owen and i went down to the sea...

to watch chuck work (fixing buoys for summertime)

 run run pant pant silly willy nilly pup

 wait. who do i see coming out of the ocean?

 oh! look!!

 yipee! it is my most favorite person in the world!!

 happy puppy dance

 hello hello lick lick kiss kiss kiss!

 <3

 my turn my turn

 okay! your turn!

 hee hee, owen changes his mind about the sea (he might have a bit of chicken in him he thinks)

 land.

 whew.

 time to put things away, time to stay put little pup

now for a little breakfast and then get ready for the work day. wee owen will no doubt spend his time napping, hopefully reliving his ocean going adventures in salty sand filled dreams.
have a wonderful weekend dear friends! xxx lori

june gris

early summer. may grey never really happened, but instead we are enjoying june gloom (june grey, gris i say!). our heat wave was replaced with dense fog. fog that has ebbed and flowed, rolling in and out different times of the day, cooling down the sea and the shore. if i'm lucky i get out as early as i can, at first light. sometimes the fog is like a giant curtain, just like in narnia, you have to pass through it to get to where you want to go, either to home or to the beach. i love being enveloped in it where ever it is.

i've been working lately and making small preparations for my summer trip. (i am so sorry if i'm talking about this too much!) i have to share just one thing this post. while demonstrating to chuck how i would pack my carry on, he asked 'where will your knitting go?' aww so sweet! do not worry honey, there is room!

around the house, a project that's needed attention, are photos. i have one million photographs per child. and then there are the travel photos and knitting photos and pet photos and just because photos. many many photos. (this does not include digital files,these are all physical photographs i'm sorting right now). i think i've finally figured a way to organize them, and have been chipping away, seeing the end in sight. yay! following are photos that were sitting undeveloped in one of my vintage (thrift shop) cameras. finally got all the orphaned rolls done and sorted. except for the first one, that is an iphone photo (and oh i have a LOT of those too! more sorting...)   :)

these were taken with a (very old) canon ae-1 and a new to me vintage pentax. if you are on instagram you may have seen one or two already. yes i succumbed. but back to the cameras, oh how i love this pentax. i ordered film for it to bring on my trip, i hope it will help in capturing a tiny bit of shetland magic. i've finished my dress, the bressay. hopefully it will be photographed soon. thank you so much for the kind words for the hap shawl. oh my goodness that was a fun pattern to make, if you would like an easy lovely shawl ~ blanket i can't recommend the hansel enough. with a baby on the way in our family, i get to make another!

 my husband's commute

chuck came home after working a week out at the islands, i surprised him and met his boat. :) :) :) we went to yummy thai food and got all caught up on the weeks activities (i worked i knit i hiked. he worked he hiked, he did not knit, nor will he ever. darn!). here is an article he wrote on california's channel island national park for american forest magazine. if you look closely you might see me in there. hee hee :)

have a wonderful week friends!

ode to a black hap shawl

o woolen shawl

your charms inspired

it was gudruns design

that i aspired.

made with shetland wool 

in the traditional manner (oops! ...)

(...forgot to trim those ends)

it should be warm and cozy

 for the shetland isles

dear friends, today was such a good day, chuck and i finally found time to photograph my new hap shawl,  hansel by gudrun johnston. i know i say this a lot, but this is really the most fun knit ever. it's repetitive, in that comforting way, easy to memorize the different parts, as you go. it's got garter stitch and lace. it's a perfect size. yes, this is a pattern to keep, and repeat. i used organic shetland wool, in natural black, in a dk weight. this is my travel shawl for my trip to shetland this summer. raverly notes here

this morning while we were taking these photos, something amazing occurred

as we began to take photos, a fox stepped out on the road!

oh!

honey! look! are you getting this!?

we watched each other for a good while, that fox and i, till he had had enough and finished crossing the road. we took it as a good omen. you take good care little fox. what luck we were out here so early this saturday morning!

today was a good day. today was my birthday. i think one of the best ever. i saw the fox, had breakfast with my in-laws, did the beach all day with one of my kids and grandkids, had the happy birthday song sang seven times! mail and messages from family and friends. and then a romantic dinner with my love (roses from him too :)

and the count down has begun. i actually leave in fifty two days, i'll be spending some time in edinburgh before meeting up with the shetland trip group, the ltp (the lucky trip people we've been dubbed. SO grateful!). all details are firmed up, trip insurance purchased, ouch, now that i'm 'older', so expensive! hap shawl done. check. bressay dress. almost done. check. try to stay in the moment and not while away the next fifty two days daydreaming. check. 

have a lovely sunday dear friends. xoxoxox lori