I live in a beautiful place.
The little island you can see in the distance we call Loon Island. There are nesting loons on our lake every summer -- we are right at the southern limit of their range -- and several years they nested on this island. My boys tell me that it is covered in loon excrement and very stinky in summer.
Here is the view from my laundry/craft room window on the back of the house. Matthew hasn't blown the snow yet.
The building half-hidden by the hill is the garage. The other is a 28'x40' pole barn for my husband's car collection and assorted oddments.
As you can see, we got fresh snow for New Year's -- after it rained for 18 hours straight. Lucy was glad to come in after her outdoor break on her chain, which is the straight line downward from the birch tree in the middle of the picture above. She refuses to use the doghouse, no matter what the weather. Duh.
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Here's where we grill our steaks and burgers, on the little deck outside the laundry room. Poor grill looks pretty sad after all the rain and snow and melting.
More of the lake side of the house:
The bird feeder on the deck railing hangs right outside my office window. But the goldfinches don't seem to like the last bag of thistle seed I filled it with. They steadfastly ignore it, whereas in the past there was a steady stream of little yellow and black birds feasting there. Come spring I may have to bite the bullet and throw away $10 worth of unwanted thistle seed. Finches! There are birds starving in China -- get over here and eat your seeds!
I've been listening to Brenda Dayne's Cast On podcasts, starting from #1, and she mentions there how beautiful is her spot in Wales. Like her, I thank providence every day to be lucky enough to live where I do.
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Other bloggers seem to be toting up their 2006 production so I thought I'd look back, too. It seems that my speciality this past year were the small objects d'knit.
37 hats
12 (or so) warshrags
9 baby bibs
3-1/2 pairs socks
3 Korknisse2 3 scarves
1-2/2* sweaters
1 pair fingerless gloves
1 pair felted clogs
...and a partridge in a pear tree.
* Re the 2/2: I knit about half a sweater for Dulaan, then decided that worsted on size 7s wasn't warm enough, so I frogged it, bought some Knit Picks worsted to double-strand with the original Lion Brand variegated, and knit it again -- I'm about half done, again.
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This weekend I cranked out a couple newborn hats for Caps for the Capital. Apparently the head of a newborn child in the third world is slightly smaller than an ostrich egg. Who knew?
