The promised pictures

I promised I'd post pictures from the cabin:


I told you I was busy! This is just some of the stuff I read while there. I liked Jane and the Man of the Cloth (thanks, Allison) and couldn't put Holley Bishop's Robbing the Bees down. Animals in Translation is another wonderful work By Temple Grandin. If you've never read any of her stuff, give it a try. Carrie Bebris' Suspense and Sensibility lost me in the preface. The "spirit in the mirror" isn't what I hope for in a good mystery. I'm looking forward to reading The Queen Must Die, by William Longgood. I think I've read at least one other book by him, but titles escape me. That was one reason that being an English PhD student was a challenge for me!

"Bee literature" simply fascinates me. Before we took off, I checked the hive once more, and saw things I don't understand. I also saw new bees chewing their way out of their waxy birth chambers, which left me stunned and feeling honored and fortunate. Unfortunately, reading about bees doesn't teach me all that much. I'm just getting a handle on how little I know. I imagine any endeavor worth its salt has this effect on its devotees. I know knitting is the same way for me.

Speaking of knitting, here's some closer peeks at the sweater. An adorable collar -- I just love this colorway. Maybe that's why I liked the sweater so much (although not enough to finish it in less than five years). In fact, it's been so long that the yarn in the kit has changed.


Any bets on how long it takes Thing 4 to stain this beyond recognition? Hopefully I'll keep it away from food by whipping it off of her if she exhibits any hunger signs. Little swimmy fish around the bottom:


What the things did over Thanksgiving:


You can't see it, but Thing 4 is wearing new dalmation puppy rain boots. And how tired were they on the way home?


Thing 4 is asleep there too -- you can just see her head over the top of her seat. Thing 2 didn't nap, because she almost never does. Despite my anxiety dreams about finding horrible things upon re-entry, the worst was a load of sour laundry in the washer. Or maybe the mostly-eaten mouse in the trap that had been dragged upstairs to the carpet.

It's good to be home. The cats are lovely -- I swear the kitten is bigger than he was -- and we had, in fact, left a fairly nice and clean house for our return. I have work to do tonight before I knit, and I'm going to get it done. But I am not going to weave ends in until tomorrow. That's a daylight activity.