A nice cool, crisp morning with no rain today for my walk. I took the shorter way around the lake route and only walked 5 miles because I knew I would be walking another 2 miles in the afternoon. Quite a few people out around the lake enjoying the beautiful morning.
This sidewalk leads from the back of the shopping center across the street from where I live to the front of it. I usually start my walk walking down this sidewalk.

A deer along the way.

Another photo here on the way back of the same deer. This photo is zoomed in a bit. That's why its a bit grainy.

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Talked on the phone to my Mom this morning. We email a lot but its nice to hear her voice once in a while. :-)
Went to Walmart because someone told me the yarn I buy on the cone was for sale for $2.50 (regular $6.97). Only one color was for sale for $3 and since I asked about the other colors they gave me another color for $5. I only bought one of each because I have a lot of this yarn in reserve or as knitters call it "my stash."

Did a bit of reading early afternoon after lunch and then at later on I walked to a friends house a mile away. She is a knitter I met at my knit group and I took her a pair of needles that she wanted to borrow. I was supposed to meet her at 3 but she wasn't home when I got there. I left the needles by her door. She called me later to apologize for not being there - she got tied up at work. Well, it was a nice afternoon for an extra walk. I saw another deer on the way home too.

Kenny picked me up and went to Five Guys for supper. I know those French fries are not good for me but I love them. They are the best fries ever!!

I hope your Friday brought you a bit of happiness.
Karen :-)
No one is useless in the world who
lightens the burdens of another.
- Charles Dickens

Slippers once again

Back to misty mornings. Not enough to get me wet, just a bit damp. I walked my 6 miles around the different neighborhoods without going on any particular route. I like to go up and down streets where I've not walked before. Sometimes what looks like a little side street ends up with lots of other streets off of it and I'm amazed at all the houses there are. Its easy to lose your way for a while - which I do! :-) Not many people out on such a dreary morning. I spotted quite a few deer and saw a fox as well. The fox never stays around to get his picture taken. He sees me and takes off like a flash.

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It was a pretty dreary day with drizzle, mist and rain all day.
A good day to stay home and read and knit.
Here are the two pair of slippers for my two youngest grandkids - Scout and Japhy.
Here's the pattern for the slippers if any of you knitters out there want to knit a pair of your own.
Slippers - Basic Pattern
Size 5 knitting needles.

Cast on 40 stitches.
Row 1 - Knit
Row 2 - K15, P1, K9, P1, K15

Repeat these two rows until 13 ridges.
Bind off 6 stitches at the beginning of next 2 rows.
K9, P1, K9, P1, K9

Continue till one inch of desired length.
Toe
Row 1 - P1, K1 all the way across row.
Row 2 - K1, P1 all the way across row.
Do these two rows 3 times.

Cut length of wool for sewing and with sewing needles pull through stitches on knitting needle and pull tight. Sew inside out.

I used size 3 needles and two strands of yarn.
You can make them with one strand and change yarn and needles to the
size you want.
I've used size one needles and baby weight yarn to make tiny slippers too.
Here's a picture of some baby slippers I made a while back.

I've finished one slipper of my own. Here's my foot modeling it.
I finished reading another book in the cat series by Lilian Jackson Braun called The Cat Who Lived High and it is number 11 in the series. I like all of these books.
A good evening for soup so I made some tomato soup and grilled cheese. A nice quick, easy and tasty supper.

I hope you enjoyed your Thursday and you had some happy times.
Karen :-)
Faith is taking the first step,
even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Not much to say today

A nice but cloudy morning for my walk today. I did my usual 6 miles. Walked around the neighborhoods and on some of the paths. I found some coins - two pennies and a nickel. Not many people out today and didn't see anyone I knew.

Here's today's walk picture.

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Stayed around home during the day. Just did some house stuff, a little reading and some knitting.
Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for my weekly knitting group and I left the house at 5:30. The knitting group was on the small side this evening but those of us there had a good time. I knitted on slippers - finished the ones for Japhy and started some for myself. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Not much to write about tonight.
I'll watch a little television now that I'm home and then read until bedtime.

I hope you had a happy Wednesday.
Karen :-)
We could never learn to be brave and patient,
if there were only joy in the world.
- Helen Keller

Slippers one and two

Good Morning.

This is what the sky looked like when I got to the lake.

A great Fall morning walk - cool and sunny. I walked my usual 6 miles. It was very calm again like yesterday and the lake was like glass. Almost everyone I saw today was wearing something red. I saw Jeanne walking and we stopped for a chat on one of the bridges we walk over.

I stopped to take this picture along the way.

Can you spot the heron?

Here is a close up - the zoom makes it a bit grainy.

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Went out and about this morning. Didn't really have to go anywhere but it was so nice out and I felt like driving my car. I dropped a couple of books off at the library and then picked up a few items at the commissary. Such a beautiful sunny day.

I finished knitting the slippers for Scout and have started on the pair for my grandson Japhy who is her brother. I've chosen two different colors of green for his pair.Ken came over after work this evening and we went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then back to the house to watch a little television and have some ice cream.
That's it till next time......

I hope something wonderful happened to you today.
Karen :-)
Live! Love! Laugh! Be Thankful!

The sun has returned

Ah yesterday and today we are having lots of sunshine and blue skies. I only walked 4 1/2 miles yesterday morning. I ran out of time before I had to get ready to go to church. But today I was back up to a walk of 6.3 miles. No wind at all today. The lake was very calm like a sheet of glass. Lots of people out this morning, all enjoying a beautiful morning!!

Yesterday afternoon Ken and I went for a drive and ended up in the historic part of a town called Mt Airy. We walked around the town and went in a few of the shops that were open. We stopped here at Laurienzo and ate lunch outside and watched people walking by. It was a lovely afternoon!

Once we got back we sat out on the deck for a little while and then I made us lasagna for supper. Afterwards we watched an episode of Dexter from Netflex and then Ken left.

I read Going Gray by Anne Kreamer.Anne decides to quit dying her hair and go gray and wrote this book about it. She researched this whole gray hair thing with some quite surprising results. I found it fascinating since I have just grown my gray hair out this past year and a half.

I've started knitting some slippers for my two youngest grandkids. This first pair I'm working on is for Scout who is 6. I'm using one stand of purple and one of yellow. I hope she likes the colors.

Got a bit of house cleaning done today including a couple loads of laundry that I got to hang outside since it was so nice and sunny out.

I had a lot of blog reading to catch up on. Staying away for a couple of days and I really got behind. I'm glad to be caught up again.

I still have a bit of time before I start thinking about supper so I guess I'll go and read awhile.

I hope your Monday was a happy one.
Karen :-)
It’s never too late to live happily every after.

A day out and about

This morning once again I walked in a mist. Just cloudy when I first started out but then came the mist and I was pretty damp by the time I got back home. I walked a 6 mile loop on streets and paths. I was hoping to see Gerti on this route but she wasn't out this morning. I did meet a woman and her dog and stopped to chat for a bit. Her dog was named Riley and he is a Blue Heeler, a breed that I have never heard off before. A very nice friendly dog.
A few runners were out and a few their walking dogs. A couple of deer about and LOTS of squirrels today.
I took 12,345 steps on my walk.
A picture taken while walking down one of the many roads I walked today.

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Ken and I spent the day together. We did various errands around town and then went to the movies and saw Where the Wild Things Are. I wanted to see it because one person I know thought it was one of the best movies they ever saw and the other thought it was one of the worst. We think its somewhere in the middle. It was okay.
We went to the early showing at 12:10 so we had a late lunch afterwards. A few more errands, the last one was stopping at Weis and getting some long over due ice cream. :-)

It was another one of those dreary cloudy misty days all day. They are promising sunshine tomorrow with temperatures in the 60's. We can only hope.

I hope your Saturday so far has been a good one.
Karen :-)
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged
to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela

Still more rain....

I must have needed a little extra sleep this morning because I didn't wake up until 7:20 so I got a bit of a late start walking. It wasn't raining when I left but it was very windy. There was a bit of a break in the clouds for just a few minutes and I saw this hint of blue sky. It didn't last long and by the time I got back home it was misting out. I didn't walk on any of my regular routes, just in and out of streets where ever I felt like going at the moment. A few people were out running and walking their dogs. I mentioned before that I don't find many coins on my walks anymore but this morning I found a quarter.
Today's walk was 12,255 steps.

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It started raining hard again later in the morning and so we have had another day of rain. A good day for reading and I read some more of my book Relentless by Dean Koontz. Had some lunch and then finished reading Relentless. The book is about Cubby, a writer who gets one bad review from critic Shearman Waxx. This Waxx character is the critic from Hell and reviews books he doesn't like with more than words. Things get more and more complicated for Cubby, his wife, genius son, and their dog, who is a bit different than your average pet. Surprises all along the way in this book and it keeps you on the edge of your seat turning pages. I thought it was very good.

After reading I finally got around to do some of that house cleaning I've been trying to do all week! I worked until Ken came by.

Ken and I went out to eat, did a few errands and then came back to the house and watched an episode of Dexter from Netflix.

I hope your Friday was a happy one and a good start to your weekend.
Karen :-)
God had a sense of humor,
and because the world is wondrous,
He expects us to find reasons to smile
even on the darkest days.
- A quote from Relentless by Dean Koontz.

More Rain

Another walk in the rain today, only this time add colder temperatures and wind. Once again I was decked out in my rain gear. I had to smile because here I was in tights, rain pants, a long sleeve tee shirt, sweat shirt, and rain slicker and a man runs past me in shorts, a tee shirt, and a ball cap like it was 70's degrees. :-)
I saw a very large deer with a full rack of antlers along one of the paths today. He was magnificent!! I walked through the neighborhoods and along the paths and on today's walk I took 12,342 steps.

A rainy day path.

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Since the library was closed yesterday I had to go out in the rain again today to drop a few things off that were due today. Just dropped them off and didn't even look around.
It was only a short drive but I met a lot of crazy drivers anyway. It was one of those days when you feel like you're invisible, with people pulling out in front of you and cutting you off. I was glad to get home safe and sound to a nice warm cozy house.

Last night at my knitting group, a friend told me about a web site that has LOTS of free knitting patterns for anything you might want to knit. I checked it out today and spent lots of time finding all sorts of things to knit. You can spend hours there!!! If you knit you have to check this out.

This evening for supper I cut up
a yellow, red, and green bell pepper and an onion.

Sprayed a frying pan with Pam
and added the peppers and onion.

Cooked it down and browned it all until it looked like this.

Put it all on a vegetable flour tortilla,
added rice and sour cream.

Here it all is rolled up and ready to eat.

It was quite tasty. :-)

I did a bit of reading and knitting and I'm soon off to watch the next episode of Flash Forward.

I hope your Thursday was a happy one.
Karen :-)
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.
Only through experience of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired,
and success achieved.
- Helen Keller