Jacquie's Journal

It's Me Again...

I couldn't not post this "Never thought I'd see this" scene  It must have been very cold for this to have happened! And just  in case you thought Edward was taking a rare break from his computer games,  we pull back for the full picture!

I am a Rockin' Girl Blogger!

I have been awarded a by Alarming Female I think on the strength of my fabulous taste in music for the Shuffle Music Meme I did the other day.  Thank you Alarming Female!

Now it is my pleasure to present Rockin' Girl Blogger awards to 5 deserving bloggers.  I have to have an order to my list but all are equally deserving.

The first is an honorary award because this person does not have a blog, but she deserves an award for being a Rockin' Girl anyway - my sister Carolinne.

Second Mary Beth, one of our Sewing Divas, at The Stitchery  who has recently had to be very brave and strong.

Thirdly Eileen at Midnite Sky who has also had to be brave for her DH who is thankfully OK.

Number Four goes to Deb the Brit aka Melody Yarns  for being a wonderful co-admin at Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns 

Numbers Five goes to Terri Knits for doing a great job moderating on Crafty THreads 'n' Yarns and for her fundraising efforts for Autism.

Luckily Auntie Noo has already received a Rockin' Girl Blogger award - otherwise I would have had to break all the rules and award her one as well.!

I didn't know what to do for the best at the dog park yesterday but I had to do something!  When we arrived there was one dog already there but no humans at all.  The dog didn't have any tags either.  We were there for 30 minutes and no sign of an owner so I called the Police to come and get her.  She couldn't stay there forever.  We left after an hour and she was still there and the police must have got her shortly afterwards because they rang to check which dog it was.  She was a beautiful and very friendly dog - maybe a German Shepherd mixed with Labrador and she had one blue and one brown eye.  I hope she was left due to a misunderstanding and wasn't simply abandoned and she is reunited with her owners soon.  If she was abandoned I hope she gets a new loving family soon.

Charlie Can Swim!

Yesterday we took Charlie for a hike up Mill Creek Canyon - the next canyon up from ours.  We took the Big Water Trail at the very top and made it all the way up to Dog Lake, a six mile round trip.  It is a good hike for several reasons:

• On odd days no bikes are allowed and dogs may go off leash.
• Although it is in the mountains long switchbacks make for not a too steep path.
• At the top you have the reward of sitting by a lovely little lake surrounded by fir trees and mountains
• It is nice and shady even on a hot day.

Charlie was very good staying by us all the way and when we got to the lake we knew she would go in the water to fetch sticks but up to now she hasn't been interested in going out of her depth.  Perhaps it came as a surprise to her too but she was so desperate to get this stick that she suddenly found herself paddling like crazy.  She looked so cute, the concentration made one ear stick up and one stick out.  Once she got herself into a rhythm I think she quite enjoyed it and didn't even seem to mind when she went right under once or twice.  She played in the water for ages fetching sticks and perfecting her stroke.  Of course we didn't have the camera to record this momentous event but we hope to go up there again soon - the leaves will probably start changing soon.

Stardust and The Bourne Ultimatum - we went to see Stardust last week, very good and very funny.  We were surprosed to see David Walliams (Little Britain) in the cast list because we hadn't noticed him in the movie - apparently he was Sextus, one of the brothers, but they were all so heavily made up even afterwards, looking at stills from the movie I can't tell which one he is??!!  Then yesterday afternoon we went to see The Bourne Ultimatum.  Good I think, but in these action movies I tend to switch off a bit during the fight and car chase scenes, assuming that the right person will win/get away/be caught and all will be well in the end.

It's David's Memorial Service today.  I couldn't go but I have been thinking about him and his family a lot over the weekend and I am still having trouble believing we won't see him again.  Rest in Peace, David.

Menagerie a Trois

Here we are then.  Let's get it over with - the inevitable collection of cute photos from the  besotted new owners of little fluffy kittens.

This is Penny. She's very pretty, but someone might want to get her one of those ear hair trimmers fro Christmas!
This is Desmond (You watch Lost right?)
I'm still cute too!!
We think Charlie's probably OK but we are not 100% sure just yet.
We have to explore everything.  What does this do?  Oh I see!
Can the fishes come out to play?
Just one more.

Boston T Party

Today we took Charlie to a Meetup.com meeting for Boston Terriers.  There were three sets of humans and four dogs at Sandy Dog Park where we often go anyway.  I am sorry to say I can't remember the humans' names, but the dogs apart from Charlie were Harley and Junior, and a young brindle Boston called Spike.  The human who set up the meeting brought a kiddie pool and we all brought water and as it was set to be the warmest day of the year so far (100 degs)  it was very welcome - the dogs loved it.  We all found each other very quickly and after hands (human) were shaken and butts(canine) were sniffed the dogs and people got on very well.  Charlie got a bit possessive over the pool and a ball at first but was generally fine.  The dogs were all very friendly and liked cuddles and giving BT kisses.

	Camera shy!  Bostons are far too busy to hang around for photos.
	All four little guys in one picture at last - kinda!  Charlie in the water, Spike behind her and Junior behind him with Harley looking on on the left.
	Junior pretending to be an agile mountain dog
	Junior at the back, Harley in the middle and Spike in front.
	Spike loved the pool...
	He really did!
	My pool... and my ball OK?

It was a fun time and I hope we will all meet up again soon!

Quite a lot to Show and Tell

I have been putting off mentioning our big news in case I jinx something, but at last our number has come up and we are able to apply for our Green Cards.  This is something we have been waiting over three years for so we are very excited about it.  We have been in a kind of limbo where I haven't been able to work, but soon I will be able to start looking.  My resume will need a thorough re-writing - I have even got books out of the library to help me.  Watch out job market, here I come!

We have to have medicals - they seem to be most worried about whether we have ever suffered bouts of insanity, and that we have our shots up to date.  We had a whole bunch of shots done last Wednesday.  This is what my arms looked like afterwards:

That was five shots altogether.  Only a couple were really painful and the only reaction I got was red welts where the plasters were stuck!  We have to have more to complete the Hepatitis course and we haven't even got onto the subject of TB or Hib yet.  Our medicals are scheduled for tomorrow - I think we should be OK.

Knitting next!  My Celeste project got frogged.  I think I was knitting very loosely because the yarn was sticking on my Denise cords and it was turning out huge.  I still want to knit something with the yarn but haven't decided what yet.  In the meantime I have been doing a secret swap project that I can't show you until at least the end of the month, but I can show you what I made for the Crafty Threads n Yarns Keyring Kerfuffle swap.  It took me a while to get inspired for what to do for it.  There are certain practicalities to be taken into account.  It had to be relatively small, it had to be difficult to break and it had to feature a craft.  In the end I went to our new Michaels craft store to get some ideas and found these adorable little bears.  I got one and knitted a couple of outfits for her (I am not really sure if it is a boy or girl bear - but I hope I guessed right!)  The dress was made vertically using short rows to get the full skirt and scalloped edge and the little duffle coat has toggles made from a tiny twig from the garden.

Next up - The garden.  We and nature have been working very hard out there.  Over the last couple of weeks we have been planting up hanging baskets, boxes and a bed in on and around the new deck.  Nature has been busy getting the flowers to bloom and it is starting to go crazy.

There is good news and bad news about our nesting box.  The good news is that there is a nest in it.  The bad news is that it is a wasp nest.  I think it is very clever how they build them but I am afraid it cannot stay!

Clever Charlie!

I know I am biased, and I am sure other dogs would have done the same thing, but I can't help thinking Charlie is very smart.  We were at the off leash dog park on Sunday where there is a stream.  What with it being spring and the snow melting and all, it is running quite high at the moment, but there are a couple of areas where the water pools and the dogs like to play, swim, and cool off.

In one of these areas there is a deep side then a bit of a dam made of rocks with a shallower area on the downstream side (didn't take the camera of course - it would have been much easier to show you than describe).  Charlie is still getting used to the water and doesn't like to go in deeper than her leg length.  (Nearly getting to the interesting part of this story!)  To encourage her to go in a little bit further we threw sticks in for her to fetch just a little out of her comfort zone, but instead of going in that extra few inches or giving up she worked out she could climb back out of the stream, run along the rocky dam to a point level with the stick and just wait for the stick to float down to her.  She did this several times and I just think that requires quite advanced powers of reasoning :)

Skateboard Fun

Just a couple of pictures of family fun in the sun.









Also went to Unravelled Sheep to buy yarn for our Spring Colors and Cables SnB Swap.  As usual I had a plan in mind and came home with something completely different and had to leave lots of gorgeous stuff behind for another time.  I am thinking of another bag for my contribution.  These colors remind me of bluebells in the woods in May in England.  They are so pretty!

Premonition

We have had the most fantastic weather this last week - it has been up to 80 degrees at times.  I am sure we will pay for it with more cold and snowy weather before the month is out, but until that happens it will be appreciated.  I love these warm spring days, the temperature is just right for being outside and walking or working in the garden with out getting uncomfortable and there are no annoying insects buzzing round yet.  We took Charlie for a lovely long walk in one of our off-leash dog parks yesterday morning and she even laid down in the shallow part of the stream to cool off - she's not usually bothered about going in the water.  It was one of our best walks with her - we took a ball and thrower and now she knows what it is like when other dogs steal your ball (Charlie is usually the villain in this scenario!) - we nearly lost it a couple of times but we ended up bringing it home, wet, muddy and slobbery though it was.  We met another Boston, a year old male, and she had quite a game with him.

When we got home we saw that the catkins were out on our quaking aspens.
Look at that beautiful blue sky!

Yesterday afternoon, totally illogically, we turned our backs on the beautiful weather and went and sat in the dark for two hours.  We saw the movie "Premonition" starring Sandra Bullock.  I can't say too much about it without giving anything away but it is a space-time continuum anomaly movie.   She has a whole week with the days out of order and her husband is killed in a car crash on one of them.  I enjoyed the movie and really wanted to know how it was going to be resolved.  I so want to say something about the ending but I just can't!  I didn't cry in this one even though there were sad bits.  I think I only cry at happy bits actually.

Please visit Natalya's Print Store set up to raise funds for the Clatterbridge Cancer Campaign in memory of Rose McGill.

I have been knitting. I have been working on my Mountain Stream scarf.  I haven't posted any progress pictures I am afraid.  I just have to graft the last corner together and block it and it will be done and I will show you it then.  The pattern was not as difficult as Pomatomus, but being all in garter stitch I had trouble at times working out which row I was on.  If the pattern is based on Stockinette Stitch you at least can tell pretty quickly whether you are on a right side or wrong side row - not so garter stitch.   I probably should have made it longer but I was impatient to see how the bottom corners and border were constructed.

I have also been working hard on my knitting chart maker and hope to release a new version soon.  This version will have resizable grids, build your own cable stitches, and multiple charts open at a time.  I am really excited about it.

Snow Much Fun

Charlie enjoying the snow!