What A Difference A Day Makes...

Click! to enlarge...

What a beautiful day today! 

This morning I decided I wanted to see the flooding on the North side of town for myself and ran all the way there. Unfortunately it was so foggy that I could barely see anything. 

But when the sun decided to come out this afternoon, I took to my trusty steed (= my bicycle) and went back to check out the roads and the fields. Behold what beauty there was all around me...

The roads were muddy where the river had run over it, but everything smelled so fresh and I even thought I heard a spring bird tjirping away overhead...

Mother Nature...

Sunset at Crystal Mountain, WA
(original picture, click to enlarge)

<new year, new header...>

Anyway, I still owe you a few pictures of our snowy trip to Crystal Mountain. We arrived in somewhat of a snowstorm, but thank goodness we didn't need to put the snow chains on the tires. (we did have to do that when we wanted to leave though, in order to get the car out of the parking lot: look at all of that snow below!)

Master C. getting ready to start digging, it took the two of them over an hour to get the car out.
Miss M. and myself were huddling in the cold a few parking lots over...

Our friends had their two dogs, Bo & Aero (Bo = 7 years, Aero = 6 months) with them and both Miss M. and myself took tons of pictures of them. Here is a particular fine one...

Made by Miss M.

And a nice panorama one of one of our walks...

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This all seems so long ago now though, since we're all of a sudden in the middle of a phase 4 (the highest!) flood alert for both rivers in our area! Lots of rain over the past 30 hours or so and rapidly rising temperatures do that...

Master C. is still home for another week so I dragged him along to have a look at the Tolt River, a 5 minute walk from our house. It was so loud! (check out my two video's on my Instagram feed)

As usual I took a few pictures:

Saturday view on the left, Monday's view on the right...

A log zipping by...

Glad we're not living this close to the river!

About the Dutch boy, a finger and a dike... <wink>

The river was lapping over its banks onto the path...

Our X-Mas tree came floating by! <wink>

A helicopter hovering and checking out the situation...

Don't worry, the roads are starting to close again due to flooding, but our house is safe! Staying inside the rest of the day though...

From Middle English ynough, from Old English ġenōg (“enough”), from Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz (“enough”) (compare Scots eneuch, West Frisian genôch, Dutch genoeg, German genug, Low German noog, Danish nok, Swedish nog, Icelandic nógur) 
(via Wiktionary)

"adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose 

or to satisfy desire"

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I've never participated in choosing a word or a phrase for the new year, but somehow subconsciously I already came up with this one a couple of months ago. Just to remind myself that what is now is enough, it just is and that is ok...

Happy 2015 everyone, hope it will be enough for you!

Wonderland...

We spent a few days at Crystal Mountain, WA, in a snowstorm, in a cabin, with great friends: it was magical!

Here only a few impressions (more than 500 photos were taken!), I'm sure more will follow...

What a great way to end one year and start another one afresh!

Reunited...

Our family is reunited again, we hope yours is too...

Textures...

(Click! to enlarge...)

Oh how I do love me some photo editing! To me it is definitely a creative outlet. Miss M. prefers the purer picture style, I like to go a bit over the top, both options are just fine...

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One more week to go before the Holidays are here. First both kids have to endure their finals/ exams though and then they will be ready for some hanging out time, as are we.

Master C. signed his first rental lease yesterday starting in the summer of 2015, what a big step, for both him and us: it is all good!

Miss M. is in the middle of her university applications and she will be leaving our household also in the summer of 2015, what a year it will be!

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If you follow me on Instagram (see link in the side bar) you will have seen me attempting some more runs and even a bike ride! I'm still enjoying my weekly yoga class as well, better even than I had thought I would. This class is not focused as much on the spiritual side which was exactly the part I was dreading the most...

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Otherwise I have started another knit project, a simple raglan sweater. I had two skeins of yarn in my stash and thought I would just buy some more as the sweater came along, but only yesterday I found out that this particular colorway was discontinued! A color-block project it will then... <wink>

That is about it for now. I will leave you with a few more textures I've been playing around with. (all pictures were edited in 'Be Funky')

(Light at the neighbors' house...)

More Snowy Pics And A Few More Knitted Items...

I just had a few more snowy pics to show you, but didn't want to stuff them all together in one post...

Same picture as above, just different editing...

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In the mean time I'm attempting to knit up my first ever  pair of socks! I'm taking yet again a class at Cratsy and love the first one I've made already. Number two is almost done...

Made in 100% acrylic Lion Brand Homeland yarn, just to try it out...

I also made this little ornament below as a 'thank you' for my aunt who hosted a most wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at her house last week...

And today I received word that my nephew's hat had arrived in The Netherlands so now I can finally show it to you...

Design inspired by my nephew's lovely red cat called Binky,
better known as 'Da Bink'!
(yarn used is 'Wool-ease' by Lion Brand, 80% acrylic, 20% wool)

Happy nephew in Amersfoort!

It is still pretty darn cold over here so my class at Little Bit was cancelled once again yesterday. Hopefully better luck this Friday with my two classes. That was it for now. See you soon!  {smile}

A Wintry Wonderland...

Oh boy, I do love me some snow! It doesn't need to be much, a little goes a long way...

Last Saturday, right after the snow stopped falling, we went out to chop down our Christmas tree. It was mighty cold out, especially after having enjoyed several days with temperatures around 60F (approx. 16C). No matter, we decided quickly and the boys started chopping.

The tree farm got partially flooded, see all the water on the right...

That would have been a fine size for me! <wink>

Cows on the hill trying to stay clear of the rising flood waters...

Barn roof top on the way...

The valley (despite all the flooded roads over the past week) was at its prettiest. A lovely day...

Since Master C. was home for a few days we had to take the Christmas Tree Cutting picture of course:

He took the bus back to Spokane again yesterday and will be back around the 20th, for three weeks that time...

Right after he left, our Christmas tree fell down once again. (twice last year!) This time Mr. G. went out to buy a bigger base and now the tree is still standing. Thank goodness we have no breakables in the tree!

Overall we had a wonderful five day break. My personal highlight was the first evening that Master C. was home and I heard him and Miss M. chat away together on the other side of our bedroom wall.: Family Time!  {smile}

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PS And oh yes, I shot some pretty birdie pics as well...