Yesterday we visited a great Farmer’s Market in Ft. Collins.   There were people selling honey, eggs, wine, cheese, and some vegetables.  There was also a group there from two local alpaca ranches.  We enjoyed talking to them and plan to go tour a ranch maybe in the spring.  The alpacas are beautiful.

I bought some yarn.  My yarn is a 2-ply from two Alpacas:  Angel and Wyoming.

It’s really soft.  I am not sure what I will make with it yet.  David says a hat with earflaps would be neat with it.  Maybe a shawlette?  It will have to wait for awhile.  Too many projects ahead of it.

Then we bought mushrooms.  They were organic and these guys grow them in storage sheds.  I learned that I know nothing about mushrooms.  I bought 2 kinds.  Cinnamon Caps and Lion’s Mane mushrooms.

The Lion’s Mane mushrooms look like cauliflower.  The Cinnamon Cap ones came in a big bunch and were a little scary.  The big meaty bite of a mushroom kind of freaks me out a little anyway.  But these were so good!  I sauteed them with zucchini in butter and a little olive oil.

I was about done eating mine, when it occurred to us that maybe I should have made sure they were actually edible.  Wouldn’t that be a great story?  The psychopath who travels from farmer’s market to market selling poisonous mushrooms to unsuspecting buyers?  Well they were both edible.  In fact, Lion’s Mane mushrooms are supposed to be very good for you.  The Chinese recommend them for all kinds of ailments.  There’s been research done lately that they may combat against dementia and Alzheimer’s.  Anything to preserve the brain cells I have – I am going to see if I can find them at one of the health food stores here.  They were delicious too.

It goes without saying that Davey did not try one.  When we were at the market, the guy gave Davey a Cinnamon Cap and told him he could take a bite.  I saw that Davey’s nostrils immediately flared, and he looked fairly creeped out by the idea.  I can’t blame him.  Eating a raw mushroom has never been my favorite either.

Ok back to Christmas preparations.  We baked cookies.  Now I am off to buy some yarn.  David’s brother wants a hat.  So I’ve got to go get some yarn.  Such a hardship – having to go to the yarn shop!  Davey loves this shop.  They are very nice to children and have a great little play area.

We went to explore Ft. Collins today.  We’ve decided we really like it there.  They have this historic Old Town area which was really fun.  It was really cold outside, but we bundled up and Davey was ready to stroll.  There was an ice skating rink.  We watched people skate.  Santa was in his house, and the kids were lined up in a line that extended outside way beyond the door.  Davey is not real hot on approaching Santa this year.  David told him that he’d email Santa instead.  Davey wants a bicycle, and he wanted Santa to know.

I loved this big sculpture/rock thing with the ice all not flowing down.

We stopped at a local Mexican place to eat and warm up.  Davey told me his nose was so cold!

There was no story on this picture. I  just really like it.

After we had lunch, we walked around some more.  Davey wanted ice cream.  The thought of eating ice cream made me even more cold, so he agreed that a cookie sounded good too.  I’d heard about some good yarn shops in Ft. Collins, so I was looking it up on my phone as we walked towards Mary’s Mountain Cookies.   Suddenly, I feel this pain on my leg.  I look down and there’s this dog.  He bit me!  No growl or warning.  I hadn’t been paying any attention, and I walked too close to him. Apparently it was a sign that I had no business buying any more yarn and to just forget it!  The dog  just startled me.  I have a small bruise, but that dog should not have been tied on a bike rack.  He snarled at everyone who came by.

Here he is.  I know he doesn’t look too vicious.  I should put a picture of a chihuahua here or something.

David hunted down the owner.  The owner was not apologetic.  He was actually indifferent.  No sense no pain I guess.

The cookies were great.   You can see that Davey enjoyed his.

Despite the dog’s warning, I did buy yarn!  But I want to post about that later.

So we highly recommend a visit to Ft. Collins.  We’ll definitely be going back.

Yesterday we put up the tree.  It’s small.  Very small.  I think I’ve mentioned that Timber, our Siberian Husky, thinks that all trees are trees regardless of where they are situated.  So they are all fair game for the raising of his leg. So this tree is above his leg raising capability.  But Davey was so excited about our little tree.  He’s been waiting for me to wrap so he can put more presents underneath it.

Standing proudly by his tree:

Yesterday, David and Davey also went shopping for my birthday.  David told Davey that the presents were surprises, and that he shouldn’t tell me what they were.  This had Davey terribly torn.  He did not like keeping something like this to himself.

Last night he said, “Mommy, your surprise….”  Then he stopped and said, “Whew, that was close.”  I guess he’d stopped himself just in time.

So today, David told Davey he should tell me if he wanted to.  So we were in Ft Collins, and Davey was in his stroller.  I leaned down and Davey whispered to me very seriously, “a purse and a….”   He whispered something else that I didn’t  understand.  After he was done, you could see his relief in having unburdened himself.

This evening he said, “Mommy.  I feel so much better since I told you about your surprise!”  Poor Davey.  It was weighing heavily upon his mind.

We got a dusting of snow again last night so we have been outside tromping around.  We followed rabbit tracks.  Davey climbed around on the playground.  We walked around and looked at the snow crystals.  The snow is so dry that you can see each individual flake.  It’s really pretty.  We also took some pictures.  Here you can see that Davey is thrilled about being photographed once again. I figure I can’t just post big happy belly laughs all the time!  (Poor little wet pants.  They are lined though.  Who thought a dusting would require snow pants.  It does with Davey.)

And here is contemplative Davey.

But maybe best of all is Super Spidey Davey!

Coming up with Super Spidey Davey innovations!

As you might imagine, it was a great idea, but in practice the basketball addition to the track didn’t work out so well.

I’ve gotten distracted on one more little Christmas idea so again The Sweater has not progressed.  And now we are heading out to finish Christmas and birthday shopping.  It’s hard to believe that I am going to be 30 on Monday.

ok.

maybe not 30.

Happy Friday!

We are in the house of colds.  David’s hit earlier in the week.  Mine came on Friday, and Davey’s started last night.  However, Davey is not too bad yet.  I hope his is mild.  Colds are miserable.

Meet the newest Christmas time member of our family.  Winkie:

Michael and Holly sent us Mr. Elf on the Shelf.  Davey quickly named him Winkie. He’s great.  Every night he travels to the North Pole to make a report to Santa.  You never know where he is going to turn up the next morning.  This morning he was in a colander on top of the refrigerator.

So today is a resting day.  I am working on my test hat.  If you want to learn to make bobbles, I highly recommend doing it with Cascade 128.  It’s a bulky soft yarn.  I made bobbles on this hat with it, and I could have happily made a jillion bobbles.  I was ready to make a bobble blanket.  Typically, bobbles are ok, but they are not my favorite.  Susan gave me a great link for a bobble tutorial as well.

This hat has so many different things going on.  I learned how to do a herringbone ridge stitch.  I had some trouble.  It involved sending Susan a photo:

I was still a little befuddled so I made a trip to her house.   I am still amazed that I met her in knitting blogland cyber space with no clue as to where she lived.    I move here and now  I could easily walk to her house in 10 minutes.  Crazy!  But turns out, I was pretty much on the right track with the stitch.  I just wasn’t confident in what I was doing.  So I am going along just fine now.

Happy Sunday!

Yesterday Davey and I went to an indoor pool to splash and play.  It had all kinds of fun squirters, splashers and a great slide for him.

I always like to watch him go through his process of  familiarizing himself to  anything new.   He walks around slowly.  He looks around.  He checks it all out.  He doesn’t engage too fully.  He just feels it all out.

Slowly he gains momentum as he gets more comfortable in his surroundings.

Once he gets going – he really gets going.  All out.