Flowers of Alaska (and Mt Rainer)

Well, that's it. I'm back home from my vacation. Nine days of Alaska and seven days of Seattle / Mt Rainer NP. The weather was so-so - there have been good days (like the last two days in Seattle) and not so good days (like most other days when it rained or was foggy or simply overcast). Not the best way to get a tan ;)

I did read Harry Potter 7 within two days (it was raining, what else was there to do?) but I also did get out for some hiking. And while hiking I did a few photos of flowers (they do have the advantage that they don't run away when one gets close ... most animals are not so accommodating)

As I don't have anything to show stitching vice (I haven't stitch anything (at all) while on vacation) and only knitted one sock (which I'm not even sure I like and might frog again), here some of those flower pictures.

The quick tour of the flowers in South East Alaska and Mt Ranier National Park

Fuchsia at the B&B we were staying in in Craig (Prince of Wales Island):



Fireweed (all over the place)


Salmonberry (taste good too)


pretty flower (might be a Columbine flower)


another pretty flower


Indian Paintbrush

Some sort of bell flower (might be foxglove)


Maybe, next time, some land scapes - and then I should have something to show on the knitting or stitching front ...

vacation update - the wildlife

Well, vacation is well underway - I've spent the last week in Ketchikan, Alaska, with a friend. A nice, quite place to relax. We also went for three days to Prince of Wales Island (to only way to get there is to take a three hour ferry ride) and checked out the wildlife there:








As you can see, we got a bit :)

Tonight, I fly back to Seattle for one more week of sightseeing (and shopping - never forget the shopping)
I've picked my books store for tonight to pick up my copy of Harry Potter 7 - all I need is a nice, comfortable place to read it.

vacation

Yeah, as of today I'm on vacation for the next three weeks. I'll flying of tomorrow to Seattle and then on to Ketchikan (Alaska) to visit a friend. Then back to Seattle on the 20th, just in time to be in the cue in the book store for the 7th Harry Potter. Back home one week later (after some sight seeing and shopping)

I've made the labyrinth from last week into an ornament.


It's much more sparkly in reality.

I've also started a table cloth (can you call the piece of fabric 80 x 80 cm a table 'cloth'? ... hmm, I'm not sure) - it was a kit I've got at Aldi. Here one of the leaf groups.



I've bought the kit twice, with the idea in mind to use the second one for a pattern with owls I've got, but so far I didn't manage to get the printed lines for the leaves out. They are much, much paler now, but still quite visible. I guess, I'll end up dying the whole thing in blue.
Well, the kit was really cheap - if it doesn't work, it was still worth the try.

I'm off, but I might be able to blog from far, far away ;)

3.8 - 180 - 42.2

No, this is not my age (though one number is getting scaringly close ... more about that later), nor my weight (luckily!!!!).
Those numbers, in kilometer, is the distance one has to swim, cycle and run in order to call himself (or herself) an Ironman - and all that in one day.
Every year for the last six years, the Ironman European Championship takes place in Frankfurt, and the starting point is the Langener Waldsee - a very short distance away from were I live.
Now, I've been thinking to go there for the start for a a couple of years now, but there's a little problem: the Ironman in Frankfurt starts at 7:00 AM - basically, in the middle of the night!!!
This year I finally drug myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6:00 AM (consider, it's Sunday!!!) and got myself over to the lake and to the starting line. I didn't quite made it in time - traffic was a bit more than I expected.

Even though more than 2000 people swimming in the lake is an impressive sight, it doesn't photograph so well I did take some pictures and here's a small collection:

Nothing works like a bit of encouragement ...

Rainer, go wild, it's only 224 km to go ;)


That's the leading group - one of the guys had to give up after 140km on the bike, but the rest made it to the finishing line.

Changing area swimming to bicycle


And off they go - only 180 km on the bike and then, to cap the whole thing, a little Marathon.

I have to admit, I'm deeply in awe of those guys (and gals)

BTW, this year, Timo Bracht won in 8:09:15. The women took almost an hour longer, but, and that was really exiting, the race was decided on the the last 100m before the finishing line. The two ladies, Nicole Leder and Andrea Brede, did run the Marathon side by side, and in the end, Nicole Leder won by only five seconds!

If you are interested, here's some more information.

Cross-stitch: I did a little detour on my two big projects (the packaged from the US still hasn't arrived)

The pattern is called Christmas Labyrinth, but I changed the colors. I guess I'll make it into an ornament (eventually)

Ehr, and one final thing ... it's my birthday today. So I'm off to do a little bit relaxing before turning in (you know, I'm not getting any younger ....)

just a quick update

No photos this week - just didn't have anything new to take pictures of.

Medieval Tiles are making progress, though slowly.
No progress on King Tut (I packed him away a few weeks ago and haven taken him out since)
The package with the golden cord and the GAST threads for the two projects are on the way since last week. I hope it arrives before my vacation (it should ... normally it take 8 ~ 10 days for a package from the US). There's something in that package I need for a birthday present - the person in question had her birthday in May *sigh*. It would be nice to have everything together before I disappear on my vacation.

I did some booking for my Seattle / Alaska trip today. Hotel for one night in Seattle on the 10th (my flight to Ketchikan is on the 11st), rental car for a week in Seattle and such.

Yesterday I've had a Body Shop party at home - think Tupperware but with cosmetics. Was fun (we had foot bathes ...) and my friends bought a lot of stuff (and I got more rebates from this than I can - or want - to use)

Next weekend we'll help a friend to paint her old apartment as she's moving.

And, lo and behold, I'm still busy with Zelda - I guess I'm going to beat today, but only if I forego ironing .. well, I should have enough to wear in my wardrobe :)

Squared

Well, I still spend too much time with the Gamecube - it's just too much fun :). I'm almost through with the first game, but, alas, there are more ....
My stitching has suffered accordingly - King Tut didn't see any progress last weekend at all.

The Medieval Tiles on the other hand, got a little bit done, due to the fact that I can't take the Gamecube with me on my business trips. So an update on this one.


I'm still waiting for the GAST thread for the blue squares (the two empty squares closed to the center). Last Friday I've got the info that the package has been sent out, so there's hope (this package also includes the gold cord for King Tut)

Last Saturday (9th June) was offical Knitting in Public day. I didn't knit so much in public, but at least I did knit and there were other people around, so I guess it counts (I was visiting friends)
I'm working on the Lizard Ridge Blanket from Knitty's 2006 fall issue. So far, I've finished 3 squares.




The plan is to buy three or four skeins of a new color whenever I get some extra money (like overtime payment, bonus ...) and spread the cost for the project over a longer time. I've still got three skeins left, so there's no hurry at the moment. I need a total of 21 skeins (for 24 squares)

And, in case I'll get very bored and think I've got nothing to knit (and may I laugh out loud at that thought), I've bought a new book.


At first I was a bit awed by the patterns - wonderful stuff that would take forever to knit. But after a second (and third) look through I believe there're a few patterns I would dare to try after all.

Last Thursday, when I was driving back from Dresden I just got through a thunderstorm (one of the kind where you voluntarily slow down to 50kph) when the traffic suddenly grinded to a total halt. And didn't move for a good part of an hour (good thing I've got something to read with me). I could see that whatever happened, did happen not too far away, as I could see that there where no cars on the other side of the valley. The radio said there was a tree that blocked the road, so when it finally got moving again, I had my camera out and tried to take a pic of the accident side. Well, the tree picture wasn't something too exiting (they already cleaned up real good), but a short bit later, I saw a Golf escorted by two police cars (or one police, one fire department ... not that it really mattered) that was banged up pretty good.



I would hazard a guess and say this car was under the tree when it fell.
But, that that's what's pretty cool, it was still moving under it's own power. Good thing to know that that when my Golf should ever get under a tree, I have a good chance to get out of it alive.

Distractions

Sorry about the none-blogging of last week. I did borrow a Gamecube from a friend of mine, and now I spend far too much time with playing 'The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker '(and have loads of fun doing it too)

My stitching has suffer a little bit because of it (*gough, gough*), but at least I've still got a few pics to show from before the game hijacked me.

Latest update on King Tut
I've finshed that middle panel underneath his chin, which was all stitch with one strand of thread instead of two. I don't know why I hate to stitch single strand, but I do...
I'm still waiting for the gold cord - I've cancelled my first order, as I didn't hear anything from them for 3 weeks and they didn't reply on my first reminder, but it looks like the second order doesn't go that much better.

The two mini-kits I've did while I was in Japan:


As I've seen kiwis (admittingly only in the zoo) as well as penguins while I was in New Zealand this brought up some memories.


During my vacation I've had some visitors, so I did bake some cake (I love baking cake, but seldom have the opertunity)
The strawberry-rhubard cake before baking (I've left bit of the egg white cover off for the photo)

And after:


The original recipe is more for fall with grapes and apples, but I really like the taste of this (even though, after baking, the dough turned out to be a bit on the soggy side)

Roses are Red ... and White, and Yellow

This is going to be a very flower and picture heavy post.

About 3 miles from where I live is a smallish castle called Schloss Wolfsgarten. Normally you can't visit there, as it's private porperty, but on two weekends in May the gates are open and you can go in and visit the lovely park and look at the castle (though only from the outside). The family that owns the castle is related to the British queen and I've heard that she actually stayed in Wolfsgarten a couple of times while she was visiting Germany (though probably before I moved here).
The gartens are famous for the rhododendron that's growing there, though this year most of the blooming season is already over, and only a few bushes still had fresh blossoms.

Now, for some pictures:

The small lake in the park with the bridge (reminded me of pictures by VanGogh)


Somebody living in the lake



Nymphaea


Rhododendron



And, (for the title of this post for today) some roses





As you can see, I've given my new camera a bit of a workout and I'm really, really happy how the pictures turned out.


Update on the stitching front:

Medieval Tiles - I skipped one of the smaller squares as I've decided to use the recommended GAST Midnight thread after all. I've ordered it, now I have to wait for it to arrive.



As I've got the next week off - *yeah*- I've got back to King Tut. I hope to make quite some progress on him over the next couple of days (though, I've got loads of other stuff planed ...)

Home, Sweet Home

Got home from Japan pretty much okay, except that we had a delay of 2 1/2 hours. This time, I couldn't sleep on the plane and 11 1/2 hours can be pretty damn long when you can't do nothing but sit around and wait for the plane to get you to your destination. The plane was also somewhat fuller than on the flight to Japan, so I had less space (though, luckily, the plane was not completely full and the middle seat was still free)

So, here's the update on the pictures from last week.

Mariner's Light:

I think it turned out really pretty and I will frame it soon to have it go together with the other picture from the series. Though I probably will try and couch the long stitches in the background map down a bit more. In the stitching frame it looked okay, but now I can get them to lay straight.

For Japan I took along a set of small kits I've got over the years.

The top three I've got in New Zealand, the knot pattern I got last year in Scottland, and I think I've got the border collie in South England a while back.
I did finish the Kiwi bird and the penguin in Japan and started out on the border collie, but didn't get very far. I just did not have that much time while I was there.

And a quick peek at the new traveling project: Medieval Tiles from Dracolair



I finished the upper left square today and started on the next one. Loads of blended colors and many, many quarter stitches - a speciality I've seen in several Dracolair designs (this is the fourth pattern I'm stitching)

My DVD burner seemed to have died on me - I was in the middle of the process of burning a DVD when the program stopped and now the computer doesn't even know there's a second DVD drive on the computer. Can't open it either. Ah well, here's a chance of getting something newer and faster.

I also switched from the old Mozilla browser to SeaMonkey - with the Firefox Mozilla browser I couldn't blog anymore. Every time I tried to open my dashboard, the program crashed. No problem so far with the new program, though I need to find out how to import my bookmarks. I've tried, but obviously I'm making something wrong *shrug*
I'll work on this next week, when I have more time, and am not quite as befuddled by jetlag.

Please Order Hope of Cleaning

or: Big in Japan, part 2

The line I've used as the title comes from a little, laminated card that I found in my room today (actually, I probably has been here all week, but only tonight I've noticed it). The full text goes like:
"Please order hope of cleaning to the front desk between 2:00 p.m from 9:00 am"

(anybody any idea what this might mean ....?)

I just thought I let you in on some of the things I've notes here in Japan over the last couple of days.

First of, one thing I really like about Japan is that here I have the feeling that I'm actually tall. With a height of 5'4ish, I'm at the shorter end of the scale when I'm in Europe or the US. I usually don't mind too much, but here, here I enjoy it in a way that half the people on the train at shorter than I am :)

Speaking of trains - usually the trains in Japan are not quite as crowded that one seen on the tv. Yes, sure, at rush hour in Tokyo you might get a little bit closer to your neighbor than you'd like, but I for once have never seen any guys with white gloves pushing the crowd in so they can close that door.
And, normally, the trains are very punctual - I was quite shocked then I saw that the 21:50 train from Kumagaya was 20min late (at least that what I think is what happened - it was past 22:05 and there was a sign that the next train is the 21:50 and there was something, something 20 something written in Japanese. Which I don't read very well (hmm, who do I kid - I can identify maybe 2 to 3 symbols, and it's only because I know the second symbol in Kumagaya is that little house with the funny roof, that I know which train I have to pick)

Japanese people, on priciple, are pretty much living by the clock. The bus, leaving the station to go for the factory, leaves at 8:50. Not at 8:49 or at 8:51, and if you are there 10 seconds too late, you can bow all the way you want, the driver will not stop and let you in.
Or at lunch time: it's at 12:00, so you drop whatever you do and go to lunch - never mind that half the fab is also going and there are long lines to the food. Would you go 10, 15 minutes later, there's no line and everything would be much more relaxed, but, no, 12:00 is lunch time, and it's at 12:00 you're going to stand in line for your Ramen soup of whatever there is today with the rice.
BTW, the other half of the factory goes at 12:30 - perfect repeat of the first round.

Japanese food, by the way, I do love. It is not as expensive as one would think - though, of course, there are ways to spend loads of money, if you want. And normally it's also very good. Of course, if you don't like fish, it might get a bit more difficult to find something, but there is plenty of other stuff than Sushi and Sashimi. What I love is to order (or rather point at the pictures of the menue and holding up fingers on how many of whatever you want) loads of little stuff and then share around. Most stuff is brought at the same time (no matter if there's enought space on the table or not) and you just pick and choose what you like. Sometimes, you might get something you don't like (like Nato ... brrrr), but if you're lucky somebody else at the table is more than willing to take it.

There's a lot more stuff on Japan, like the three store parking garage next to the hotel I'm in, which is only for bicycles, or my pondering that only a man could have designed the school uniforms for girls - really, those mini skirts can't be healthy - but for today I think this is enough.

Ah, one more thing. I've finished the little Kiwi bird last night and started on the Penguin.

Sayonara

Big in Japan

Sorry about the picutre less, short blog.
I planed on an updated on Sunday, but for some reason I just couldn't log in. Every time I've tried the web browser died on me. Well, just a very short update
- I finished 'Mariner's Light' on Saturday (while watching the Eurovision Song Contest with friends). I still need to frame it though.
- I started on 'Medieval Tiles' by Dracolair (originally I planed on something else, but the fabric hasn't arrived yet)
- for the Japan trip I pulled out five small kits I've bought here and there (three in New Zealand and two in UK). I've started with 'Kiwi' from Rose Alma Designs (logically bought in NZ), but didn't get soooooo much done. Who would have thought that the plane to Japan was 2/3 empty and I actually could stretch out across three seats and get some sleep.
- My new camera has arrived *big, happy grin* and I couldn't be happier. It's a Nikon D40x, a sweet little D-SLR camera and I'm sure some pictures will make it to the this blog, eventually.

Sayonara from Japan

Elbdampfschiffflottenparade

We Germans have the funny habit of stringing nouns together to form long words. We really enjoy doing that - I remember it as a game when I was a kid.
The word above is an example of this - translated it would go like parade of the fleet of the steam schips of the (river) Elbe. Just, it's only one word (and it is allowed in German grammer rules as well) *grin*

Well, there was a parade of the fleet of the steam schips of the (river) Elbe on May 1st in Dresden. It's sort of like the opening of the season. The ships of the fleet all go up the river Elbe from Dresden to Pillnitz and back. On the ships they have music groups, normally playing Dixieland music. Getting on the ships is ney impossible - they are booked out long in advance, but you always can watch it from somewhere at the river. I choose a bridge that is known as the 'Blue Wonder' (one of the first steel construction bridges of this size built 1893) and had a lovely view.



To fit under the bridge, the steam ships (at least the bigger ones) needed to tilt their main chimney over, which I thought was funny.

As the weather was perfect and I had the day off anyway, I headed up river a bit more and went to see Koenigstein Fortress, a mountain top fortress near Dresden. As you can see there's a great view all around and the fortress itself was also quite interesting.




On the stitching front, I've worked some on Mariner's Light, so a progress picture on that.

Framed

The place where I get most of my frames and the mats cut, had a nice sale a week ago and as I had a voucher as well, I went and had a custom frame made for the Northern Lights sampler which I finished back in January. It is a bit of an unusable size (though, after I got the frame home, I discovered that the frame for the Legends of the Dragons is almost the same size) and we debaded a while if I should have a mat or not, but in the end we decided not to have one. I brought the frame home on Friday and imidiately went on putting the whole thing together. The there was the part where I had to decide where to hang it. The space I first thought about didn't work, so now it found a home in the little corner next to the window where I have my stitching corner.

The picture is a bit on the smalish side, I know. With a double click, you shoudl get a bigger picture.

As I was actually at home last week (having a training in our home office) and not at a hotel somewhere, I've made quite a bit of progress on King Tut.


At the moment I'm working on the lady in the the right hand corner. All in all think it's about 35 ~ 40% done. At the moment I really enjoy stitching him - I love the colors and how the whole picture is done.
I've ordered the Kreinik that will replace the gold thread that was in the kit - have to see when it will arrive.

Next week the light house will get some attention again.

Here a little (very little actually - it's about one inch across) thing I've also made last week. I was doodling a bit in the training and then decided that I should try and convert it into a cross stitch pattern.


Ah, almost forgot, the LotR symphony was quite impressive, really. A large orchestra, three choirs (boys, women and men - around 40 people each) and the drawings of Alan Lee. I really liked it and it was a wonderful experience.
Only 'complain' I've had was the fact that because I know the soundtracks of the movies so well, I did spot a few (really only a few) not quite perfect notes in the brass section. And the men's choir fell a bit short on the choir used in the the films.
The boys soloists (they had two), on the other hand, were really good and the soprano soloist was very good - I liked her version of 'Into the West' better than the one from Annie Lennox.

Sound of Music

Tonight I'm going out to see the Lord of the Rings Symphony in the Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt. I've saw that this event was on when I went to something else with my parents after Christmas and we got our ticket pretty soon after. The tickets we got are actually some left over tickets - the show was pretty much sold out by then. We didn't know that they would go and schedule a second concert the same day (at 3pm) - we might have gotten better seats there.
I guess I'll let you know how it was next week :)

Quite a few things have happened last week.

I found out that I'm going to Japan for a week in three weeks.

I've booked a flight to Seattle in summer to visit my friend in Alaska (I managed to get a bonus flight, so it's really a good bargain, even if I had to buy some extra miles to get there - on the other hand I still need to buy the flight to Alaska - this one couldn't be arranged through the bonus program I'm in)

I decided to buy a new camera and use the voucher I've got from the company for 10years for it - got a pretty sweet deal, really.

I've got some trouble with my credit card - I need to call the bank to find out what the problem is.

I've finished another pair of socks:



My own pattern, a simple knit 3 purl 3 with a shift every four rows (one direction in one sock, the other direction in the other sock). The wool is Wollmeise Sockenwolle in the color 'Gewitterhimmel'.

And I made some good progress on King Tut since last week.


I've started with the gold bit (upper left), but there's never enough gold in the kit to stitch all of it - so I ripped it out and subbed it for Kneinik 102 braid I've got in my stash. A pretty good match to the gold in the kit, but I don't think I have not enough of it either. I have to see how far I get.

And, last but not least, I've went a saw '300' - I was reluctant at first, as it is a pretty violent picture, and I've read a lot about about controversity how the Persians are shown. But, with this in mind (it is the addaptation of a graphic noval after all), I did enjoy it in the end. And I was very pleased about the part David Wenham got to play (I've liked him a lot in Lord of the Rings) - I didn't know it was to be so large.

And with this the circle closes and I'm off to see the wizard ... of Middle Earth ;)

1st Communion

My middle nephew went today to his first communion. So the whole family (except my sister in Sweden) and friends came together to celebrate this event. In the restaurant we sat out in the garden and after a while everybody started to search for the shade - it's the middle of April, but it was already over 27°C (80°F). If this isn't global warming I don't know what is. It is certainly not normal for April.

The Easter feast I've prepared for the family went well and (at least I didn't hear anything different) everybody enjoyed the food.



On the needle craft front, I've finally made some progress on King Tut


I've did all that background stuff right side of his head and am now back to the mask itself (which is more fun)

So, gotta run. Still need to pack for the next couple of days and I haven't watered the plants yet.