She Knits By The Seashore

Cape Cod Weekend 2011

Chris and I had a restful time at Cape Cod, despite the rainy weekend. Since we couldn't ride our bikes, or visit the beach, we visited some of our favorite bookstores.

 
Scarlett is parked outside Isaiah Thomas, while we browse the shelves for used books.

 
Herridge Books, in Wellfleet (no link), has lots of newer fiction and more popular used titles.

 
Ben is back at Titcomb's after rest and restoration. He's a local celebrity, and all of the visiting authors have their photo taken with him.

 
Chris made reservations for us at the English Garden Inn. There are flowers everywhere; our photos don't really show the amazing gardens that surround the inn.

 
I love arbors and brick paths.

 
I'm not good at traveling light, and you can't even see my weekend bag in this photo.

 
Our third floor aerie. The door opens to a Juliet balcony: room to stand, but not to sit.

 
Braving the wind for a photo

 
A close-up of the ribbon embroidered lighthouse curtains 

 
The living room, where we sat to read

   
 Another pretty room

 
Breakfast Room

 
Tea! Waffles were coming.

 
Someone is very happy with breakfast food!

 
We had our anniversary dinner at the Orleans Inn, and like last year, the rain kept us from eating on the patio overlooking the water. The food was delicious, though, and someday, we will get to eat outside!

  

Believe it or not, I didn't buy any books. My one souvenir is this dress from Seabreezes, which looks much better on (and not so tent-like) than it does on the hanger. It's a soft T-shirt material, perfect for the hot days I hope we will have this summer. I can't find a link to the dress, but the company website is here.

I hope you are enjoying fun weekends and dry weather, and are getting lots of knitting and reading done. I need to do a reading update soon!
 

Happy June

The Summer Flies shawl is a pleasure to work on, easy directions but enough pattern to be interesting. I've completed one section of butterflies, and am about to start on the second.

 

I meant to post on Memorial Day weekend, and time got away from me. That was my five year blogiversary. Five years! It's amazing how fast the time goes, season after season, and how life has changed during that time for all of us.

I've debated whether or not to continue with this blog, as I can't seem to post as often as I'd like, and knitting progress is slow. But when I think about stopping altogether, it makes me sad, so for now, I'm going to keep going, even if I no longer keep up with my twice a week schedule that I used to have.

My life still feels very unsettled. Because I still have not found full-time work, I've had to take a part-time retail job. I'm grateful for the friendly people I work with there, their flexibility with the schedule, and the pretty clothes. But juggling this in addition to my shelter responsibilities, the Examiner.com articles which take a tremendous amount of time for what I don't get paid, and trying to attend meetings and make connections for a full-time job and/or my writing and editing business, and I am mentally exhausted. Add in trying to exercise regularly and take care of a house, and it gets trickier to try and fit it all in. Do you feel sometimes like you're running in circles, never making any progress? That's about the size of things. I've had a try-everything-and-see-what-works philosophy, but I'm finding that I'm not sure yet what isn't working, only that I can't do everything, and do it well.

Besides knitting and reading, one of the places I find peace this time of year is my garden. It's still very much a work in progress, and I can't buy all the plants yet that I want to include, but the plants I do have are growing fast.

 

Black-seeded simpson lettuce

 

Carrots, on the left, very much an experiment. Heliotrope, on the right, also called Cherry Pie Plant.

 

Nelly Moser clematis, looking bleached out from the sun. This was here when we moved.

 

My first peony in this garden, Karl Rosenfeld. I bought and planted two tubers last year; someone put the wrong variety in the bag, and the other peony looks like it's going to bloom in white!

 

My little backyard garden. The obelisk has a purple clematis that should bloom next month. The lavender flowers on the left are catmint. There are pink roses near the gazing ball, just starting to bloom. I am holding my breath with those, hoping the deer don't bother them. They are the only non-deear resistant plants I'm risking here.

 

 A close-up of the catmint, sea holly, and peony, with the obelisk in the background. I'm still trying to figure out what to plant in front of the sea holly. Either another of those, or the light pink peonies near the obelisk, that ended up in the shade?

This weekend, Chris and I will be celebrating our anniversary. We are taking an overnight trip to Cape Cod, and I hope that the weather will be sunny and I'll have nice photos to share with you when I get back. I want to ride my bike, and hopefully visit the Monomoy wildlife refuge like we did last year. The sandy coast, with the azure blue water, tufts of seagrass, birds, and horseshoe crabs are amazing. What are your weekend plans?

 

 I found this skirt today at the little consignment shop in my town, when I dropped off a skirt of mine to sell. It was meant to be mine. Nothing cheers me up faster than pink and sparkly.