Happy New Year!

We are back from Korea, Japan, Missouri, ready to dig in and face the rest of winter (maybe)!

O dear! I have been absolutely terrible about posting. This is why, mostly:



Yup! I am finally learning to spin on a wheel. (Ooh, and we have a new couch, which is also nice.) The wheel is borrowed from a lovely lady from the local spinning and weaving guild; she is also the one teaching me. I have produced probably almost 300 yards of a natural-cream colored 2 ply worsted. It's hypnotic and soooo much faster than attempting to make yarn with a drop spindle.



I have also been thinking a lot about my garden for next year, inspiring this swatch for a pair of socks now on the needles. Brussel sprouts, or, as I think we should call them, fairy cabbages.




Saskatoon continues being quite picturesque; the above is a shot of downtown, and the Bessborough Hotel, the big castle-ish building near center, is considered emblematic. Below is a shot of the sky and the river, which I think are just about the nicest parts of Saskatchewan. Some seriously wild clouds hereabouts, and they move scary fast.



I hope y'all had lovely Thanksgivings--don't worry, we got our turkey on this weekend, even though I forgot to take a picture of the bird.

We've been up to some mature, grown-up pursuits here. I've finally managed a lovely batch of whole wheat, worth showing off in the lovely new pans gifted to me by some very thoughtful friends/coworkers. Even baking, yay!


More pie, of course, since it is fall--cranberry apple, as there is a brand-new apple vendor at the farmer's market. All the apples therein have unfamiliar names, like "prairie rose."


And, even more grown-up: pumpkin carving. Halloween is not a big holiday here, and certainly very few adults get in on the action. As you can see, the back yard has melted and re-greened, so we could hide back there to do our digging and carving.



Ted went for cheery this year, while I attempted scary. No telling which is which from that description, perhaps, but here you are:


I know that I am behind on responding to email and making calls, but resume editing just takes too many brain cells; sorry!

Why Wikipedia is far superior to traditional sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Duckduckgoose.gif

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Everybody!

Any excuse for pumpkin pie, eh?

PS--I can't find Libby's up here, can you believe it?

The Farmer's Market is Year-Round on Saturdays, but....

Well, it's a good thing I finished knitting this vest:



And that I pulled up these cuties (they're "Easter egg" radishes), along with all the greens:



Cuz, yeah, it snowed. For real:



Apparently Saskatoon is skipping fall this year; the leaves are all still green on the trees, and everyone's flowers have been flash frozen. We got a hard frost and several inches of snow, all in one night onto rapidly cooling ground, creating the most ice-rink-y driving conditions I have experienced in some time. (No salt trucks or plows at the ready yet, see?) Very exciting.

Snowy weather always makes me homesick for Ithaca and Albany and Missouri at Christmastime. There's nothing more comforting than being cozy inside with friends and family. With apples. I MISS APPLES, ARRRGH!

Back

Hi, all! Well, I have been back for a bit, but, what with one thing and another....

Had an uneventful and delightful trip back to Missouri and up through Wyoming. Weather was great for the most part, and Dad and I had a great time being tourists. We "took the waters" in Thermopolis:



Ew. Way more sulphurous than those at Saratoga, fyi. Fun to soak in, though.

Saskatoon is much as I left it, though colder. Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, and so I'm off to buy hot chocolate mix at the grocery store. It'll warm me up after I finish pulling everything up out of the garden.

A Break

Sorry to drop off the map, but I am off to Missouri to visit the folks for 2 weeks. I promise I will be filled with interesting news with which to update when I return.

News here in a nutshell--we're just back from viewing fireworks on the river, it being the second night of the fireworks festival. They were fabulous. We skipped the farmers' market this weekend, but we did go last week. It's much bigger than Ithaca's, and much more inclusive, but also much more crowded. I clumsily fell in a hole last Sunday (while taking a picture--the Nikon is unhurt, of course) and sprained my right pinky finger pretty badly, which has limited my typing. Even though we haven't yet received our insurance cards, I ended up chickening out and having it looked at on Thursday. 3 x-rays and more time with a kinder doctor than I can ever remember getting at an urgent care facility, and it cost me $57.75. Socialized medicine is looking awfully good right now.

Here are some links to entertain and delight: harvest humor and pickle innovations.

Cute as a button?

So!

As someone pointed out to me recently, no matter where I go, I have adventures with wildlife. Check out the number of magpies that like to hang out in my yard:


There were eight of them at one point, each the size of a very large crow. Sorry they're blurry--they kept hopping around and I kept involuntarily following their movements. Their blue-green feathers are very visibly iridescent in the bright sun we usually get here.

I also just returned from the compost heap, and look what I spotted there!




I am almost positive that it's a button mushroom, oooh ah--it certainly looks and smells like one. See its cute little pink gills? That means it is not, at least, a death angel. I'll be doing a bit more internet research before consuming it, though.

And, yesterday evening, there was this down the block:

Hooo, Chilly!

It's down in the forties every night; can you believe it?! Shades of things to come, I guess.

So far this morning, I have repeated my round of phone calls to various US accounts--that our new zip code has 6 characters instead of 5 is just too much for their automated systems. I will be continuing with the unpacking and then, perhaps, I will settle on a recipe to use the extremely prolific rhubarb plant out back, seen here in low light.



Here are a few shots of our spacious new kitchen, which is growing rapidly more cluttered:



And I will leave you with a pic of the restaurant we visited this weekend. Even though the food wasn't great, it was sooo worth it to see that it was just up the street from Doc Hollandaise Grill.

Tourist-y goodness

Our trip to Saskatoon, in photos.

We're here!

Now to get the phone hooked up and insurance and bank paperwork and blah di blah di blah done.