the Month of May, Episode No. 32

The Temptations sang about it... the perfect time of year that lends blue skies and flowers to those who have missed it... I've said it before and I'll say it again -- May is such a  beautiful, beautiful month. This year it brought 3 weeks of sunshine that was much needed in these parts. There was no time to complain about the weather; I had some of the best weekends I have had all year, including the Bliss Handmade Sale I posted about last time. I had my wonderful lovely mother to help me and sold a good-sized bowl full of these very cute washcloths:

The next weekend, I spent a weekend in Portland catching up with the Holloway crew there, which is always a fantastic time. Aside from the good quality family fun, I attended a machine knitting and hand knitting seminar where I learned some amazing tips from the knitting master, Lily Chin herself. Her contribution to knitting and incredible talent is my newest inspiration for my own endeavors. I'm so very glad that I took the opportunity to learn alongside such an amazing instructor; I even won about $70 of super-luxe Cascade Lana D'Oro and a couple of new patterns to play around with on my machine.

A trip to the rhododendron park at Hendrick's Park had been on my list of things to do for a very long time, and the following weekend I took along some wonderful company and checked out tree after tree of gorgeous blooms. This was our favorite view (even if it wasn't quite as sunny that afternoon):

Memorial Day (aka our birthday) weekend was a crazy good time -- Mom and Dad rented a 4-bed, 3-bath house for their 40th anniversary overlooking the ocean in Lincoln City and we had a blast, from 10pm on Friday night when we arrived, to Monday around high noon, when we finally hit the road back to Eugene. We even made a detour to Mary's Peak, and although we didn't hike to the top this time, it was a small preview of some of the outdoorsy-ness I'd like to re-visit this summer. I could write a blue streak about everything that went on those three days at the beach house, but I'll spare you the journal entry and instead post a sampling of photos that depict some of the madness that ensued, including this modern remake of an old-school Polaroid:

I didn't get much knitting done over that weekend, even on the car ride there and back... but I spent an equally-good amount of time laughing, eating, hot tubbing and just enjoying all the good company that was around :)

In light of the warm fuzziness I feel when I look over these pictures, I would like to end this very long entry with a nod to this video by the Beatles in my late cousin Cary's honor, because I think of him a lot this time of the year, and just hearing one line of Yellow Submarine puts a huge smile on my face each time I hear it. It's perfect music to knit to!