Trip Report

It's raining as I'm writing this.  Pouring, in fact.  This is our last day of our trip to our fishing camp in Canada.  Did I mention that it's pouring?  What a miserable way to end our trip.  We got here last Friday and the first 2 days were unbearably hot & humid.  You'd break into a sweat just sitting doing nothing.  The heat broke on Sunday but it poured all day.  Almost made us wonder why we came!  But then we had three lovely days of sunshine, blue skies, comfortable temperatures, and the previous 3 days were all but forgotten.  We caught a few bass...

listened to the ospreys sing for their supper...

and watched the loons frolic in the lake...

This one floated along right beside our boat for quite some time.  They are so beautiful to watch and this guy was obviously quite comfortable with our presence.

Now it's raining...  still...  We thought the storm had passed, so donned our rain gear and headed out for one last fishing session.  I don't mind fishing in a warm rain shower, but this was ridiculous.  It POURED - buckets and buckets of hard rain dumped down on us.  So that's it for today.  As soon as it lightens up a little we'll pull the boat out of the lake and start packing up for an early departure tomorrow.  We plan on coming back at least two more times this summer, so we might catch that big one yet...  if it doesn't rain...

Have you been following the Olympic Games?  We only get 2 TV channels here, and all that's on is the Olympics.  It's interesting to follow the Games from a Canadian perspective.  They have been interviewing the Canadian athletes and it's very interesting to hear about their backgrounds, and the towns they're from, especially for me, being Canadian born.  I've been a US citizen since 1994, but my Canadian blood still runs deep.

There was a interesting story on the news here about a group of quilters in Kelowna, British Columbia who made and donated quilts to people in Newfoundland who were affected by Hurricane Igor last year.   They interviewed the quilters and the recipients of the quilts.  It was such a touching story.  One of the recipients said it made her feel "rich" to be the proud owner of such a beautiful quilt.  She was so honored to receive it.  It's nice to be reminded about how special our quilts can be, and the satisfaction we receive from gifting them.  Here's a link to the news report if you're interested...

Our local quilt guild is having their semi-annual Quilt Exhibit next month here in Wellsboro, and one of the categories is called PolkaDots & Plaids for Progress - Quilts for AAQI.  Each mini quilt will be donated to AAQI at the end of the show.  I brought my supplies with me and got a good start on mine here, yesterday afternoon.  It's called "Dare to be Different" and I can't wait to share it with you when it's done.  Each quilt in this category has to contain at least one Polka Dot fabric, and one Plaid fabric.  Of course, I didn't have any plaid fabrics in my stash, so I had to beg from a fellow quilter, and she came through with the perfect one for my quilt.  I hope to finish it shortly after we get home, so check back soon for pictures.  I'll have Haberdashery finished by then too, so I'll post pictures of both.

I did a little knitting this week too.  It's a great way to pass the quiet afternoons here when we're not fishing.  My daughter picked out a skein of gorgeous hand-painted merino wool yarn ($$$$) and I offered to make her an Infinity Scarf with it.

Well, I've learnred a very important lesson.  Never use a shiny metal bowl for your yarn if you're knitting outdoors.  Monday was our first nice SUNNY day here and I thought it would be nice to get a little sun while knitting.  I left my good ceramic yarn bowl home, for fear of breaking it in travel, and used a stainless steel salad bowl that was already here in the camper.  The inside of the bowl is polished to a mirror finish.  Sunshine - mirror finish - I bet you know where this story is headed!  I hadn't been knitting five minutes yet when I smelled something burning.  I looked up at the trailers to see where it might be coming from, then noticed the smoke rolling out of my yarn bowl!!  I grabbed it quick, but there was already a black, charred spot about the size of a dime right in the middle of my ball of yarn.  Fortunately, it didn't burn all the way through, and I just wound off the damaged part and salvaged the rest.  Lost a few yards though.  Why couldn't  I have been using cheap stuff!  This is probably the most expensive yarn I've bought!  But lesson learned.  I'm now using a black hard plastic bowl.  I've made some progress though.  I'm not a very fast knitter, so it's going to take me a while to finish all 100 inches of this scarf.  Now if I can just keep from setting it on fire again....