Fran Sale Stafford

Distant Visit

Son 1 and DIL asked me a bit ago if I could make them 60 bars of soap to use as office and neighbor gifts and I was glad to oblige. They have membership at Costco and we don’t have one near us, so they keep me supplied in the oils I need to make it. We worked out a plan to have a socially distanced meet up that worked around his end of semester grading at the University, DIL’s work schedule and the weather that dumped a foot of snow on them early in the week. This is the second meet up we have done, one in the fall, and today. Our initial plan was to meet up about 5 or 6 miles south of Afton Pass on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it was still closed as of yesterday from the snow and ice. Son 1 suggested Natural Bridge State Park, less than an hour and a half drive for us, a bit more than 2 1/2 hours for them and it seemed like a good plan. I hadn’t been there in years and the last time it was still a private park. We again planned a picnic, each contributing to it and we grabbed a couple of picnic tables in the sun on the edge of the creek and had lunch. Then took a hike along the creek to the end of the trail at a waterfall.

Except for eating and taking a couple distanced photos of them, we all remained masked. It was great to see them and be able to exchange gifts for Christmas.

The young one, our oldest grand child is now 15 1/2 and it looks like he has grown at least another inch since we saw him in the fall.

He isn’t as tall as his dad yet, but he passed Granddad and he is 6’1+”. It is so good to see our kids off and on for short stints, safely distanced and masked. I can’t wait to give them hugs again. The picnics are icing. It was a nice winter day, sunny and it got up to or near 50f so to take our walk, Son1 and I shed our coats and left them in our cars when we carried the picnic goods back up. It wasn’t a long walk, only about .8 miles each way and not taken quickly as we walked and talked and the trail was quite wet and muddy in spots.

We got to spend about 3 hours with them and exchange gifts to open on Christmas. On Christmas Eve, if it isn’t raining, we will meet up with Daughter and her kids on her back patio to give them their gifts and for Granddad to do his traditional reading of “The Night Before Christmas” still requested by Daughter and Granddaughter.

Here’s to a hope that by next Christmas, we can again be with our families.

Crafting frustration

About 22 months ago, we were rear ended while stopped at a stop light. After weeks of dizziness and headaches, I was diagnosed with Post Concussive Syndrome. A couple of years prior to that, I had taken a spectacular fall skiing when I hit an icy patch and once gathered back together and down the mountain to assess the damage, concluded that the blow when my helmeted head hit the ice, that I probably had a concussion then too. I recovered from that one with no obvious effects, but the accident one is a different story. I ended up in vision therapy because my eyes weren’t tracking together, the dizziness continued for months and still certain visual movement like waves on the pond or water beads from rain on the windshield can trigger a wave of dizziness.

Another side effect is a short term memory issue that I never had before. I used to be able to make a grocery list and if left at home, could still remember all the items once in the store. Now if I don’t have a list in hand, items get missed. I only go in the grocery when curbside can’t fully fulfill my order and doesn’t provide alternate suggestions. The most noticeable short term memory issue is that I can’t seem to remember even a 4 line knitting pattern any more. I have to keep the pattern close at hand, carefully note what row I’m on and refer to the pattern.

I have no trouble with spinning on the wheel or spindles, no pattern required there, but other than plain vanilla hats and mitts, I have trouble knitting. As a result, I haven’t been knitting much. In May and June, I spun a gorgeous skein of gradient yarn in peacock colors.

My initial plan was to knit a sweater for me with that skein as the yoke with gray Shetland yarn as the body and sleeves, but hesitated to knit a sweater, so I put the skein in my Etsy shop to see if it would sell. With no craft shows because of the pandemic and few purchases being made from the shop, I decided to knit it into an asymmetrical triangular shawl, a pattern I have knit several times. I started it day before yesterday, knitting while hubby was watching television. Last night while he was watching the football game, I realized that there was a glaring error that was causing the lace edge to grow wider which it wasn’t supposed to be doing. I ended up ripping out about 30 rows to get to a point where there were the correct number of stitches on the lace side. That was about 3 inches, 1/5 of what I had already knit. The shawl is back on the needles, the two lace rows completed again and I have the correct number of stitches, so I will continue.

I will have to make sure each time I complete the lace edge, that I count to make sure I haven’t managed to add any stitches. Eventually, the greens fade to blues, then on to purples. If I can keep my focus on it, it will be a pretty finished shawl, but the frustration of not being able to knit anything that isn’t plain vanilla wears on me.

The Snowstorm that didn’t

According to the weather gurus, it was cold enough up high, cold enough down low, too warm in the middle. Snow was forming, falling into the warmer layer and melting, dropping into the cold area near the ground and freezing. The temperature here hovered between 26 and 32 until after dark when it went up a couple of degrees.

After the near catastrophe with the ice covered stone path first thing yesterday morning, we just stayed put. Fires were kept burning in the fireplace and the woodstove in case the ice took out the power.

As ice accumulated on the deck and walkways.

It seemed prudent to stay inside with chili simmering on slow cook in the Instapot, started early before any real accumulation and knowing that if the power did go out, it could be put in a large cast iron pot on the woodstove in the basement to keep it simmering until dinner.

Mid afternoon, the falling ice let up and I donned all my outdoor gear again to take the rolling log cart over to refill it and to walk up to see if the mail delivery braved the icy roads (she did but it was just junk, not worth her time nor mine.)

The trees were pretty, but I worry about ice crusted pines. Especially since there was still snow expected late afternoon into the evening. As we were eating our chili and cornbread, it began to snow and quickly accumulated just an inch or so on the ice that had already fallen. It was pretty in the outside lights on the house and covered the lawn and fields, but as the temperature rose overnight, the snow all but disappeared. You can see traces of it in the woods, under the pines, in deeper areas of the yard and fields. The top of the mountain where it stayed below freezing looks like a wonderland from down below.

We should have no trouble getting out and down the mountain to get the flat tire checked, hopefully repaired, and reinstalled on the car. Though my car is the older of the two, it has a few thousand less miles on it and is the more reliable of our cars, so it is the one we want to use for our socially distanced meet up with Son 1 this weekend.