I'm shooting for a posting a month....

It has been an incredibly busy month....not with work, but I. TOOK. A. REAL. VACATION. Last year our vacation was ab-ended by the passing of my beloved MIL. We were really looking forward to this year. What did we do? Whatever we felt like. Whenever we felt like it. For me that meant yarn shopping, reading, knitting, drinking/tasting wine, walking in the woods. For him that meant watching sports, and sports talk shows, sleeping late, drinking/tasting wine and walking in the woods. Please notice only two of those overlapped. Barely noticed. It was blissful. If we didn't feel like doing something we had tentatively planned...we didn't. What a concept!

But now I'm back and here's what I'm thinkin':

• This administration makes Nixon, Haldeman, et.al. look like Michael the Archangel, the seraphim, and cherubim. Who'da thunk it. Apparently, it's OK to outright lie - if it suits your agenda, it's dandy to not be accountable FOR. ANYTHING. (where the hell DOES that buck stop?), and whatever happens--blame someone else.

• The shock of the voters who put this obfuscater in office is really humorous. It would be more humorous if we all weren't paying for it.

• I worry that there are more dupes in the electorate just waiting to be harvested....

• We are re-watching the 80's SciFi "opera" Babylon 5, and I am stunned that it feels like we are living a real version of Babylon 5. In one season 3 episode ISN (Inter Stellar Network) news "came back on the air" making excuses for the [corrupt] government  and claiming they (ISN) were sabotaged by extremists. Life is now imitating art.

As a palate cleanser, a(nother) Christmas gift, finished:

 These are Retro Rib socks from Favorite Socks. They are done in Dream in Color, Smooshy, Blue Lagoon.A lovely yarn that has been marinating in my stash for practically ever.

 I include this daylight photo, for a better, but not perfect, representation of the color. My sister is on a rowing team and asked for warm socks. The Schuylkill gets cold in the winter apparently. Her "team" colors include turquoise. This is actually has more green in it than it shows here.

Hidden Valley I miss you!

A little of this....n'at.

We've been busy...so busy, I'm exhausted. We have spent the past three out of four weekends out of town...where I'm sure you're wondering (said in a sarcastic tone, I know it isn't important).....

Well, first I have to show you the wine we drank on vacation:


Who doesn't love a cheap wine with a llama on the label? And with a name like Funky Llama. Well.....

It is from Chili. It was all of $3.99 in a PA State Store (so you know it was cheap). We were not crazy about the shiraz, but the pinot grigio wasn't bad. And the entertainment was in the label anyway.










The rest of the time was spent at a music festival then hiking.

This is Pine Creek. It was blistering hot, but much cooler in the woods. We spent most of the time trying to photograph the raptors that were soaring over the "canyon".

Those two specks in the center of the frame are a pair of hawks who were playing.


















We saw many hawks, which I cannot identify, a turkey vulture which was a first, and what we think was a juvenile bald eagle. There are nesting eagle pairs in this area, so it is not unusual to see an eagle...for some people. For us it was another first.

We had a weekend off, then went to visit my mother for a surprise 80th birthday party. She had spent about 6 weeks trying to convince us that she was "too old" and "too decrepit" for a party, so don't bother. We didn't bother to tell her and she had a great time. Does this lady look too old and decrepit to anyone?

I think not! Notice the snazzy purse. Hardly that of a little old lady. Sheesh

We had the party at the Mohegan Sun Casino at Pocono Downs. My sister was having second thoughts during the prior week of inviting elderly people to a casino (for brunch), but trust me...as soon as it was polite, the elderly guests were heading to the slots. So a good time was had by all whether it was for food, drink or to feed the one-armed bandits.....

This was my first trip to the "local casino" and I learned a lot. Like why casinos are a cash cow for the states and local towns. And the number of jobs it creates! And that there is too much noise and too many blinking lights for me. It was a stunning day outside, and we had folks following us to our car to get our parking space so they could go inside in the loud, flashing dark to gamble. No recession here.....

This past weekend was spent outlet shopping. All I can say is that if there is a recession...I didn't see it here either. Our hotel was a madhouse on Sunday morning of families going to Hershey Park (supposedly the "sweetest place on earth".... but more like, "where you can have a nervous breakdown and no one will notice"....but that doesn't look good in advertising... not catchy enough.) And when did it become deriguer for parents to ignore their offspring, or send them to get their own breakfast in a crowd of people in a public place? These are little people, and this is not your kitchen!! Sheesh....parenting people, parenting!!

Anyone remember the Kauni/cardigan (Rav link) craze of 2007? As is the case with so many "knitting fads", it was kicked off by the Yarn Harlot. Folks were purchasing Kauni from Denmark and translating the pattern...etc. For some reason I loved that sweater with the white hot passion that only a knitter can understand, but I thought it was too much of a PIA (and too expensive) to order the yarn from Denmark. I'm also not really a lemming (French Press Slippers aside). Well, last month my LYS got Kauni, and reignited my romance with the cardigan...but now, thanks to Ravelry I have become acquainted with the damask pattern. So I couldn't resist:




I will be making the damask patterned sweater. I will also be joining a sweater knitting group for the steeking and patterning support. As Cynthia from the LYS says..."there's a lot going on in this sweater. "

I may be crazy.

Re-entry is a b&*ch!

It took all of about 40 minutes to feel like I hadn't left. And daily it is getting worse because classes are starting next week, the traffic is horrific, and the invaders are gravitating back. We have a love-hate relationship with the students. If they mostly behaved like the adults they are supposed to be, well, it would be fine. However, when the bad driving, urination in parking lots start again, well, you quickly forget the positives.

Each year when we take some time off, we make an accidental trip to somewhere. By accidental, I mean we are actually going somewhere else, and the plan falls through. This year we were headed to Steeler Camp, but a late start, and road construction season here in PA conspired to make the trip not worth while (that day). So about 15 minutes west of Altoona, we decided to turn around, and spend the day in Altoona, and maybe go to the Curve game in the evening. Must. Be. Flexible.

Well, we got off an exit on I99 to turn around and there was a sign, "Horseshoe Curve 7 miles". For the uninitiated, the Horseshoe Curve is mecca for train enthusiasts. (And the Altoona Curve is named for this engineering wonder.) During WWII it was on a Nazi sabotage list.

I am making it my business to go to places, in my own backyard, that I've never been to, and that visitors come to all the time. Visitors actually stay at a nearby inn just yards from the train tracks so they can sit on the porch and watch trains. They set up serious looking cameras to take pictures. It's amazing.

So when we saw the sign, we said "let's go". The best times turn out to be those that are unexpected and unscripted. I'm sure of it.

It was a hoot!! We were there nearly 3 hours, and I would never have believed that watching freight trains would be so entertaining. Seriously. (I grew up with a dad who had about six complete sets of the original Lionel trains, that he set up in a room sized display. As a kid my brother had the "train bug". I forgot that it was probably in my genetics.) So we walked up the nearly 200 stairs to the observation park, brought our lunch, and watched the trains wrap around us, going both east and west. It was So. Much. Fun. (Keep in mind that I'm easily entertained.)

This is the view from the park looking east. We had to walk up the steps because the funicular wasn't running. There was a sign in the window of the gift shop to
alert customers to that fact.











A view of the funicular from the top.

















Didn't think you were going to get away without seeing a train or two did you? This shot shows a locomotive coming up hill from the east and shows the curve. You are actually standing in the center of the horseshoe, and the trains run around you- up and down the mountain.









The engineers usually wave to folks standing by the tracks....which led us to the discussion of what do modern day train engineers actually do? Neither of us have any idea. (If you click to full size you can see the engineer waving.)










This is the train running past the curve, and heading west.












It was a grand time, and I am still kinda stunned by how much fun this actually was. And to leave you with my favorite train car....


Seriously...this is not an animal carrier, so who knows what this is supposed to mean......

And just when you thought it was safe...

I've finally finished my long sleeve CeCe, and here's a photo. Don't mind the hair...I've since had a haircut ... and I'm not scaring small children anymore. At least not with my hair. Also don't mind the fact that a burgundy sweater DOES NOT match a tobacco brown skirt and a bright orange t-shirt. I took the photo, with my timer before work one morning.

CeCe by Bonne Marie Burns
Her sizing is spot on...just make sure you swatch. She uses cotton a lot, so also make sure you wash. This is Classic Elite Four Seasons. I don't know if they make it anymore. It is 70/30 cotton wool. You will notice that it is longer in the body...and the sleeves are long, rather than 3/4. I like 3/4 sleeves, but I felt I would use this more if I made the sleeves long. You will also notice, that the V isn't as deep...that was not by design, but by a pleasant coincidence.

Also, on Bonne's suggestion I didn't put in a button hole. Instead I used hooks and eyes and then decided it needed "something". I bought this hook at JoAnn Fabrics. I think I like it.


So.... CeCe by Bonne Marie Burns
About 11 skeins of Classic Elite Four Seasons.
I needed to go down one needle size, which I always seem to have to do with cotton. If you swatch and get gauge, Bonne's dimensions are spot on.

Mods: I lengthened the body by 1.5 inches, and it grew a bit more with blocking. I reworked the sleeves, with help from Bonne. She asked that I not share her sleeve stitch counts etc. But if you contact her, I'm sure she'll be happy to assist. I modified them further than her suggestions, however, because I felt the sleeves were too sloppy for my long, skinny monkey arms.

Here's a hint I can share. When you need to sew accoutrement on your knitwear, use embroidery floss. (I also use this to repair sweaters.) you can always get a color to match, and I think it holds up better.

I am going to do something I rarely do, and post a WIP. This is what I will be working on next week when I'm out of the office gearing up for the invasion two weeks from today. (It can't be!! Summer just started!)


On the left is my just started Cozy. I have lots more fascinating shawl patterns to knit, but I've had the yarn for this for, shucks, probably, at least, five years. It was one of the first wraps that interested me. I felt it had marinated enough, and though I could have used the Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool for something else, I felt this was fated and should be completed. I'm also trying to knit up some of my stash yarn. I don't have tons, but I'd like to use it up in some way.

The sock, the sock....I've been hauling this sock around all summer. No idea when I started it. This is a "bed sock" for Mr. KnB. (Yes, those cold winter nights are right around the corner.) You might notice it is also a Steeler sock. I finally finished the toe yesterday, and now have to start the second. I certainly hope it doesn't take me as much time. I kinda didn't follow the pattern on this sock, but did make notes, so I hope I can replicate the second one (at least so no one will notice). This is a pattern I've used numerous times in the past I got it here. This knitter was regularly posting when I first got back into knitting 6 years ago, but as you can see, doesn't so much any more. However, she was a very talented sock designer. I'm using Lorna's Laces for these socks, and though I like the yarn, I don't understand the hoopla about it. I like Dream in Color, Bugga, and others just as well, if not better. I had to up the pattern count by a repeat for these socks, and I didn't think it would make that much of a difference, but now the sock looks huge to me. Other mods as well, but I'll figure out how to account for those later.

So that's where I am. I'm also itching to start Miss BB. (There's a story here too, that involves stash yarn and purchasing more with a different dye lot, and how that will work, but it will have to wait.) If I make some Cozy progress, I may in fact start her, before I hit the ground running again.

All's well that ends well, eh?

Not so fast sister.....

As we continue our saga (I had to take a time out for proposal evaluations and re-evaluation, and re-evaluations....etc. work re-entry is a bitch)you may remember that hubby and I decided to extend our vaca one extra day because we rolled craps on the weather. It was supposed to be a hiking vacation, and we had not done one step of actual trail hiking in in 6 full days. Fortunately, we usually schedule an extra day of vacation after our planned trip, and we used that to stay over.

We did finally get to walk in the woods. Sigh....it was lovely.





This is Jones Mill Run. As I said in a previous post, PA woods are lousy with these little runs.








Here's a little artsey fartsey shot of the run. Because of the six days of unrelenting rain, there was no shortage of water.













The difference with this particular run is that this is what you see at the head. Yup, it's that pretty.














Here's Dan'l Boone on the rocks next to the dam.









Anyway, the next day we headed back to reality. What's the one thing you don't want to hear when you walk in the door? Let me tell you.....it's hubby going into the half bath off the kitchen and saying "Uh oh!". Trust me, you don't want to hear "Uh oh" about anything after you've been gone over a week. (Last year the "uh oh" was because his car battery was dead and parked closest to the back door, and we had to unload the car from many more yards away.)

In this case, the "uh oh" referred to the fact that he was standing in stockinged feet on a wet bathmat. When I looked in the door he was staring up at the ceiling, which was marked with brown water marks and water droplets. Good gravy, what now!???

Apparently, something was leaking in our upstairs bath, though we couldn't find it, and had run down, into the walls, and out the exhaust vent (for the most part). Turns out, a washer blew, on the water line under the upstairs sink, and we had a pretty good drip going on. The good news was that it had probably just happened in the prior day or so. The bad news is that we still have to repaint the downstairs drywall...now that it has had a week to dry. The fun just never ends.

I leave you with a photo of Ishbel (I wish I knew the origin of that name.) I finally finished it...still with the tinking. I do love it though, and am considering wearing it in Denver, where I'll have to travel (under duress) next week. Only I would get sent to Denver where they are currently getting FEET of snow. Why couldn't the damn conference be in Tampa? Or New Orleans? Or Charlotte? Sheesh!!



Ishbel (blocking).
STATS:

1 skein Handmaiden Cashbah (some left over)no colorway on ball band - Loopy Ewe Sock Club skein.

#6 circular needles (48 inches)

Wingspan 48", depth 19"


There is also a shawl size. I'm going to wear this like a scarf. (Doesn't point to my worst ass(et) that way.

I would definite knit this again, and am thinking about taking version #2 as my plane knitting.

So how the heck have I been .....

... some of you may have noticed that we here in Central PA had a "bit" of snow last week. If you watched the Weather Channel, you were led to believe that the most pressing problem was that PSU banned tailgating around the stadium and it was homecoming weekend. (The grassy areas were muddy, and there aren't enough paved areas to allow the huge RV's to set up their tailgates.) Never mind that there were folks who were without electricity from Thursday evening until Saturday evening (in some cases). My boss told me he came to work on Friday just so he could have electricity. I mention TWC because that's how we found out how nasty it really got. You see we were supposed to be hiking in the Laurel Highlands. I say supposed to be, because we really didn't get to hike.

I'm no shrinking violet. I've hiked in rain, I've hiked in cold, but on Wednesday afternoon, when I went outside to decide whether to wear a down vest, and realized that it was not just cold, but raining and sleeting, I gave up.




Cold AND rainy, means I'm not going anywhere. Add heavy duty fog to the mix, and well, you get the drift.












We heard about the snow in Centre County when I got a PSU text message on Friday morning informing me that classes were running on time, but that the snow was continuing to fall. Huh? Snow?



A look out the deck doors showed me unrelenting rain and fog, but snow? PSU began an emergency text messaging program not long after the VA Tech tragedy. They text message emergency announcements from water line breaks to panels blowing off the scoreboards and closing roads, to class delays.







An odd manifestation of the system is that my phone interprets the P in PSU as



Poetic, no?

So after getting the message I turned on TWC and by golly, one of the weather weenies was in a parka standing in a driving snow storm in front of the stadium. He was telling us that the University had prohibited parking in the grassy lots, and what were the homecoming tailgaters to do? It was surreal. Especially since here I was at a ski resort in the "mountains" and THERE WAS NO SNOW! (Not that I wanted any, mind you.)

So here's what I did instead....



Meet Ishbel and Ishbel meet Handmaiden Cashbah, no idea what colorway. It was the first yarn in the 2009 Loopy Ewe Sock club. It is so lovely...the color is no where near as lovely as it is in person, that I couldn't bare to put it on my stinky feet. Ishbel is a lovely pattern. Lovely, if you're smart enough to pay attention. I, apparently, am not nearly smart enough and have spent about 20% of my time tinking. First in the stockinette portion of the program I somehow added an extra stitch on one side and pulled it out 3 or 4 times, until I figured it out. Then, I can't seem to "read" the lace pattern, and make silly errors, on a regular basis, that I can only fix by tinking. The one thing I can tell you, is that if you have the time to put into it, it is a fast knit. I really should have been concentrating on my Christmas knitting, however, I have been itching to start this forever! I blew through the first three charts and stockinette in no time, and since I've been home, have knit two (count'em 2) rows. This job just really cuts into my knitting time.



So we missed the catastrophic snow storm. Here's what I saw on Sunday morning.








Sad part is that on the way down, there were still a lot of green trees. With all the "weather", it seems that many trees dropped their leaves without ever getting a chance to turn. The pelting rain, and heavy snow, just pulled leaves right off the trees (and in the case of Centre County knocked large branches down all over the place). We ended up extending our stay by one day, because, wouldn't you know....Monday, the day we originally planned to leave dawned bright and sunny -- cool, but dry and bright. The past two days it has been in the 60's.

Timing is everything.

Miss me?

Don't worry, I know you didn't. So'K. I was away for a much needed break. That away was from the office...oops, excuse me while I change my voice mail back to standard.....

Done. Being away means away from the internets too. Yeah, I checked in once in a while, but really, we didn't try and do too much.

We went here.

This is the Pittsburgh Steeler Training Camp at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe, PA. We were only there about an hour, and a thunderstorm came on fast.









You can see the darkening sky in the distance. They chased everyone (all 5,000 fans) off the field, and we made it to the "Steeler Store" tent, just as the sky opened up. Now conventional wisdom (from here at weather weenie central), is that a massive storm usually is fast moving and lasts around 20 minutes. In other words, stay protected for about 20 minutes and you should be fine. Well, more than an hour later, and we were still waiting for the pounding rain to stop. They were trying to close the tent. We didn't have any rain gear with us at all, so I had to buy two Steeler ponchos (you know those plastic bag thingies).

I ran to the basilica (St. Vincents is a Catholic college and a monastery) and DH walked the half mile to the car. By the time he drove back to pick me up, the rain had finally slowed to a drizzle. My hero.

We spent a few days at a music festival in the north central woods--and I'm not kidding about "in the woods". Tioga County is so remote, GPS couldn't get a fix on our location. You'll never find the place on Google maps and it's a black hole on the satellite map. Don't bother carrying your cell when you hike. It is of no use. But you also do not hear cell phones ringing all over the place either. Nice!

The concerts are in venues all over north-central PA and the Finger Lakes region of NY. Most of them in the Wellsboro/Mansfield area. And many of the venues are churches, and in a few cases the County courtroom. This makes the concerts intimate. You can be an arms length away from the tympani or the concertmaster. And the music is superb. And this is all done via local volunteers, and resources. It is truly pretty amazing.

After a weekend drinking wine and listening to fine music, we hiked in the "Grand Canyon".



Pine Creek, best trout fishing in the north east, was running higher than we've ever seen it. The rocks that you see in the foreground...well, there are more, but they are not completely covered. We usually sit on those rocks. In fact, people have been known to wade across the creek, and hike up the east side of the canyon (this view is from the west bank). The only problem is that you are then 12 miles away from your vehicle, if you parked on the west rim. It is a long way by road or trail from one rim to another. (Except directly across the creek.) No one was wading on Monday. As it is, the hike down on the west side of the canyon, is a rather rugged two miles, along narrow ledge-like trails, with a sharp drop to a run along one side. The trail was also unstable in spots, and slippery due to the recent heavy rains. It is plenty challenging when the trails are dry.





View of part of the trail on the way UP out of the canyon.




















View of "run" on the drop side of the trail. I'm not sure, but I think it is "Little Four Mile Run".



















This is one of those little falls that dot the runs all along their length.













And so we're back, and this is what we were greeted with yesterday.





Yup, rain. Again....sigh. At least we got something of a break from the exhausting political news.

I'm back....

Didn't know I was gone didja? I actually started this post about a week ago and....well, got ANOTHER $&*%#^ summer cold. So I stayed home on Friday. I spent Thursday night coughing up a lung, and not sleeping, so I just gave up.

When last I deigned to be here, I was moaning about not finishing my Hanging Garden Stole....well, voila!


On the first day of my vacation (way back in August), I soaked this baby in the sink, spun it in the washer to get the water out, and blocked it on my living room floor with blocking wires. (I know that using the washer as my spin dryer horrifies some folks, but I put the piece in a "delicates" bag, and watched very carefully.) Though I expected the blocking wires to be a major pain in my rear, they were not, the thing blocked beautifully. It is about 24 inches wide and 84 inches in length. Seeing this confused my husband, who thinks I'm a lunatic anyway, but he wisely refrained from mentioning the knitted piece lying in our living room. You can't tell from this photo, but there are "tiny tim" (4mm x 6mm, tear drops) heliotrope beads on the ends, and druk (round) heliotrope beads throughout. Heliotrope beads are blue with a silvery wash. Very pretty.






You can see the "tiny tims" better here.













And the druks here!






Hanging Garden Stole, Sivia Harding pattern
KP Alpaca Cloud (3 skeins) laceweight in (I think) Tidepool
For more experienced lace knitters this is probably a slide on ice. For me it became a slog. I think it was the laceweight. But I do love the finished product. I ended up using TWO lifelines at a time. Because it was a 40 row repeat, each time I hit rows 20, 30, etc. I added a life line.




I then decided to concentrate on finishing my Ribbi Cardi (another Bonne Marie creation), and started a moebius (yes, another) in Apple Laine for my cousin. Let me tell you about my cousin. She is about 10 years older than me, I was a piss ant kid and she was a teenager. Now she's in her sixties (early, I'm not ancient yet). She takes care of both her mom (my Aunt Monica) and MY mom, her aunt (Monica's sister). All I'll say about this woman is that she is going STRAIGHT to heaven. No questions asked! None. Nada. To take care of two elderlyish ladies is something that leaves me in awe.

None of us siblings live near my mother. We're all about 2 - 3 hours away by car. So, close enough that we can hot foot it home if she needs help, but far enough that we can't drop in for dinner. So this cousin sometimes does things like driving said mother to appointments and things when she can't drive herself. (You know, pupil dilation, sedation etc.) So I started the moebius so I could send her something to thank her. She needs to know that she is appreciated now, and doesn't have to wait for the "big escalator" to the sky.

So I started the moebius on said August vacation. Worked on it for about a week. It made great car knitting because it was round and round and round (and round), and when I wasn't contemplating how I was going to murder my DH and hide the body (his putzing around made us way late for a concert that was about 90 minutes from home, we did make the wine and cheese reception though), I was knitting. Then on my birthday, my second day back at work, I began to feel "yucky", I had to go out of town on business, the next day, and by the end of the week, yoi! I just happened to get an appointment with a PA in the doc's office to look at a mysterious "rash" on my legs (you really don't want to know), and they found that I had a low grade fever. Clearly, I was failing. The reason this is important is because by Saturday night my low grade fever was going up to a full blown fever. I spent a glorious (weatherwise) Sunday, sleeping, and when I dragged my carcass out of bed to make me some tea, I sat down with my moebius, and promptly discovered that I screwed it up. If you've ever knit one of this babies, you'd discover, that while it is a simple knit, it a mess if you drop a stitch. And this is a lacy pattern. (Damn that Viggo Mortenson!) I ended up spending about an hour trying to retrace my steps, and then pulled the whole mess out. This is also a chore with a moebius, by the way. Ten days later I am NEARLY back to where I was. Sometimes I knit fast, sometimes I'm positively glacial. But it's the journey, right?

Anyway, I'm hoping to finish this piece sometime this week/weekend. Then a photo shoot. You've seen it before, and the color is reminiscent of the silk one I did a year ago. I love to knit them, but they take forever. You cast on 181 stitches and you are effectively knitting 360 in each round. Who knew. I am still on second sleeve island on the Ribbi.

One last thing. I'm not watching the conventions with any real attention, or at all really. Kool aid drinkers patting each other on the back have no real attraction for me. I watch O'Reilly occasionally for the "high/low lights", but feh....reruns of the Office are better. However, I was home last Friday when the Palin nomination was announced, and I couldn't help grinning. I had seen the ad from McCain, congratulating Obama on his historic nomination, and all I could think was he (McCain) knew, that less than 24 hours later, he'd be announcing an equally historic nomination. It knocked Obama out of the swooning news cycles. (The other thing I found interesting was that the first comment from the Obama campaign was "She has no experience." Huh? "Pot, kettle, kettle, pot?" That's all you got?)

Anyway, central casting couldn't have come up with a better character than this women. Can you just imagine the conversation? "We need a traditional conservative, female or minority, who doesn't press their views, fights corruption, doesn't stand on ceremony, and is an independent thinker. Portfolio experience more important than specific experience. Maybe this person should have "real life" experiences too." I don't know if it will work out, but it is truly a brilliant strategy. Me? Cynical?

Happy Anniversary Darling!!

And no--it doesn't feel like 200 years. It just feels like a good 20!

Here's to 20 more!

The money shot....

Last week we were away--away from work, away from ringing phones, away from nearly everything we usually do....OK not away from sports, but you can't really have it all. We did what is nearly impossible to do on any vacation. You try to do a lot of different things, and end up so exhausted, the vacation ends up a lot like work. Well, somehow that didn't happen. Even though we hiked, went to a jazz concert at a museum, visited two wineries, hiked some more, went to a beaded jewelry and costume showing at a gallery (me), and visited Kentuck Knob, we didn't wear ourselves out. It was wonderful. And as a bonus, I got this shot when my dear husband, on a whim, decided to stop at Tharp Knob in Ohiopyle State Park, just to see the overlook. It had been raining all day, and I was not happy to walk across sodden meadows...that is until I saw this.



You just can't plan a shot like this. This is above the Youghiogheny River, Ohiopyle State Park and the town of Confluence. If you look closely you can see the homes of Confluence, and the bend in the Yough (lower left). Also notice how green the leaves were--still.



As we turned to leave I got this.....





Look closely [again] and you can see a kite caught in the branches of the tree on the right in the mid-ground.



Damn he does have a good idea now and again........