Along the Waterfront Trail, Whitby

Looking towards Whitby Harbour where the boats are still encased in plastic

Took the pup and one of my daycare girls down to the Waterfront Trail this morning. It was a rather dismal looking morning, but there was no wind and it was quite mild. Soon after we got going it started to rain a bit, but we didn't get too wet as we were well bundled.

Five minutes along and I stopped to deal with the dog or the child (can't remember which) and when I straightened up I noticed we were being followed ...

Not a great photo from my phone, but it was a coyote. He was just standing there watching us and maybe 40 feet away from me. Another man came walking along, and I pointed behind me and said "coyote". He didn't believe me at first, "Are you sure it's a coyote?", but when the coyote turned away and sauntered away from us we could see his nice bushy tail. I was continuing away from the animal, but the man was heading towards it. I suggested he make some noise as he walked along to scare it away and maybe find a good stick. He crawled under a tree and came back with a suitable stout stick and went on banging the stick on the pavement. I put the child into the stroller and kept Cody on his leash and we had no further encounters. It was just a little bit creepy because of the way the coyote was very still and definitely interested in us. I'm going to say he was more interested in the dog than the child.

Below are the photos uncropped

Cody isn't a big dog, so I too found a stout stick ... just in case! Coyotes around here have been known to grab a dog out walking with their owners, so I wasn't really thrilled with the encounter and I kept a wary eye out for him.

Anyway, that was my excitement for the day. I did take some more photos along the trail, but it's not the most interesting of places.  I'm kind of glad I didn't bring the camera because of the rain. We were out for a couple of hours, and it was nice to get home and warm again.

I like taking photos of tree silhouettes while the leaves are still off the branches.

a very dried out Queen Anne's Lace

larch tree / tamarac

There were all kinds of these beautifully made little nests in the red shrubs. I don't know what bird made them, but maybe the sparrows or goldfinches?

Lake Ontario had a nice tint of turquoise today. There were lots of ducks out on the water. I think I saw a lot of buffleheads, but couldn't be sure. I'll have to go down again with the zoom lens and try to get some better photos of the water birds.

A tree recently felled ... shall we count the rings?

Cody doesn't seem to enjoy the wet weather so much as he gets older. He was quiet and walked close to me the entire walk. Good thing he has a nice thick double coat which repels the water fairly well.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy ... and Cody

Tax Time Teddy Bear Vest

As soon as it's tax time, I can think of a million other things I'd rather be doing. Suddenly, the knitting project ideas come fast and furious, and I'm stunned that I didn't think of these things during the slow months of winter. This past week, when I promised myself I would start on my tax receipts, I kept seeing this big blue teddy bear in our playroom with absolutely nothing to cover him! Well, I decided I just had to make him a little knit vest. I thought about it for a couple of days because I've never knit a garment before (apart from hats, mitts and scarves), so I wanted to be sure I could wrap my head around the process before I began. It took me a day to knit this up and two more days to write out a pattern (should you also have a naked teddy bear in the house). The pattern is on the side bar under "Free Knitting Patterns".

Now I have no excuses left, and will be starting on the taxes today ... rather than getting a haircut, or knitting another vest to double-double check my pattern writing skills, or taking the dog for a walk in the woods, or giving the house a good spring cleaning, or getting a parcel ready to send to my brother, or ... well, you get the picture. Suddenly everything seems urgent, but the tax chore sits heavy in the back of my mind until I tackle it. ugh

Hope you're enjoying some promise-of-Spring weather this weekend. We are having just that here in southern Ontario. Another good reason to get the taxes finished up now rather than when the warm Westerlies bring a rise in the temperatures luring me outside and away from the ledgers. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy

Cody is also ready for Spring!!

Chevron Blanket

I would first like to thank everyone who shared a comment on my last post regarding keeping my blog going. You have all given me such kind comments and I really appreciate the input. I did reply to most of you, but I became quite sick with the flu last weekend and was unable to continue replying. It's taken me a week to recover from that flu, and now it seemed the time to reply had gone by. I have taken everyone's comments into consideration and have decided to continue with blogging for now. I don't know how often I'll be posting, but I do want to get back to my beloved blog.

And on that note, I have a finished knitting project to share with you! I have spent the last two months working up a blanket for my son. Last fall I had purchased some yarn to make up these little leaves for an exchange with blogging friends. 

I hadn't used up much of the yarn for the leaves, and having a stash of yarn floating around irritates me. I had to use it up. I also had yarn left over from the blanket I made for my dad last year. I searched on Ravelry and found this wonderful pattern for a baby blanket by Espace Tricot ...

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chevron-baby-blanket-19

I amended the size in order to make the blanket large enough for my grown son. Of course, once I started, I realized I would have to purchase more yarn, but that was okay if it meant getting something out of the scraps as well. I worked the blanket up on a circular needle working back and forth, and I really loved the chevron pattern as it worked up. I changed the stripes a bit and really like the variation. This was a really simple pattern to knit, and I think it would be a great beginner project. The only tricky stitch was the purl stitch through the back loop, but even that is quite easy once you get the hang of it, and there are videos on youtube to assist with that. 

It's been nice to have this blanket to work on through the cold part of winter. It has grown and grown and been draped over my knees through many hours, with quite a few mugs of morning tea and quite a few snowstorms!

By the time I got to the end, I had knit a twin-sized blanket! Not really my intention, but once I had decided to repeat the pattern a certain way, there was no going back. The finished measurements are 48" x 68". You can see more details on my Ravelry page if you're interested.

The top and bottom ends of the blanket are pointed, which is kind of neat. I didn't block this blanket since it was made out of acrylic. I'm not a real fan of acrylic, but it is safe for the washing machine and drier. It'll be easy for my son to care for it when he takes it up north with him to work next month.

And a nice bonus is that the colours go well with the quilt already on the bed ;)

The only downside of all of this stashbusting? I've created new balls of leftover yarn.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy