Waiting

An old farm truck waits patiently.

Big Pool

The little ones quickly slid into the water

This is the beaver pond at Big Pool on the C&O Towpath

Found near a pond

Taken near the beaver pond at Big Pool on the C&O Towpath

Taking Advantage

Found on the steps to the ladies loo at Fort Frederick

The public bathrooms at Fort Frederick are underneath the CCC building. The stone steps are narrow and cracked.

Unwelcome Guests?

The bees have taken up residence in an old house

Taken near Four Locks on the C&O Towpath

Tenacity

Found at Four Locks on the C&O Towpath

Photo Blogging

I am busy trying to finish knitting a super secret project. So until I finish it, I am going to post some photos from a nice hike along the C&O Towpath this past weekend. These were taken near Four Locks and Big Pool. Enjoy!

Locking down into a lock on the C&O Towpath

Garden Photos

Photos from the garden at Schifferstadt where hops are grown. I knew that hops were trained to grow up but until seeing them in the garden had never seen them grown. Without hops, we would have no beer!

And since I am hoping to play with some natural dyeing, the garden there is my friend. You can use things like bean vines to dye with! I need to finish reading how to and we may be trying natural dyeing at the World Wide Spin in Public Day event.

Pickling Yet Again

I can freeze my berries and make my jam when the weather is cooler but pickles do not wait for the weather to cool down. And since I was canning yet more pickles, I decided to try pickled blackberries. Yes, pickled blackberries! You need two quarts of either blackberries or blueberries to make a batch of pickled berries. Since it costs me nothing to pick blackberries, I was willing to risk 8 cups of my very precious berries to try out this strange recipe. All I can say is that it is not worth the time or the berries to try pickling them.

My oldest nephew was the brave soul who tried them. He tried them plain. He feels they would be good on ice cream or pancakes. They have a slightly sweet and tart taste to them. The vinegar has a very strong smell of the spices used to pickle them which are cinnamon, allspice berries, and whole cloves. I can see adding a small amount of the vinegar to a glaze or a salad dressing though.

And the amount of pickled berries you end up from 8 cups of berries is only 3 pints according to the recipe. I ended up with 2 and a half pints. So it is not worth the time in my book. But on the good side, I was able to spin while canning the pickles. I mean what else are you going to do while waiting for the jars to process?

And I only have one jar left. I gave the half pint jar to my neighbor who lets me pick from his blackberry patch and the one my nephew sampled is in my brother’s refrigerator.

Photos & Heat

The weather has been really hot the past several days. Okay Maryland in August is supposed to be hot but we have been really lucky and not had any heat this summer. So the heat was unexpected. And when you are wanting to play with wool, the heat is not fun.

I have some items up in the Etsy shop although not as much as I would like. Taking a decent photo of fiber batts and yarns is harder than you would think! It is easier to take a photo of a bee than a photo of a fiber batt. Hopefully I can finish up some more photos this weekend and I will have the grand opening hopefully next week.

But in the mean time, I am going to ask for opinions. I was asked to shot a possible holiday car for the museum where I volunteer this past weekend. I did take the shots but it is hard to get in the mood for the holidays when it is one of the hottest days of the year. So I did some tweeks in the photo editing. I have narrowed it down to two shots. I am hoping that you will help me narrow it down to one to submit to the powers that be.

Short Break

I am going to take a short break from blogging this week. It is the annual Lions Club gold tournament on Friday and as usual, they wait until the last minute to give me the info for their programs! SO I am busy rewriting the program info because the “gentlemen” can’t make up their minds and printing it out and folding it.

Plus I am trying to set up an Etsy shop. There will be a grand opening hopefully next week provided I get enough inventory into the shop this week.

And there is a wonderful contest for spinner out there. There is a smackdown to see which fiber is softer and finer – alpaca or angora! Click on over to AlpacaFarmGirl’s blog for details of the contest and a chance to a lovely batt that has both alpaca and angora in it.

The bees are in love with the lavender

It has also been just too hot to go out and play with the camera. But I have been scouting locations for some new photos once the weather cools down.