Yesterday I was up early. I had a knitting retreat to go to. A knitting retreat on a beautiful island where (drum roll please) there is no cell phone service. (Note that there is wi-fi, so I’m not entirely cut off from the world.)
Of course I’d been up too late Monday night. I was up late trying to get ready to go. I wanted to have the car all loaded and the bags all packed so in the morning I’d only have to throw a few last-minute items in and off I’d go. At least that was the plan. So I was up late packing and such. Tuesday morninn when the alarm went off… I told myself just 10 more minutes… And that 10 minutes turned into 45. So I was running late. And that was not good because I needed to pick up the lovely and unfortunately blogless, Simone, who was my companion on my journey. And I was supposed to pick her up at a set time. And she lives across town from me (but fortunately on the way).
So I jumped out of bed in a bit of a panic and ran out to the kitchen where I poured water into the coffee maker and added grounds and turned it on. Then I ran back to my bedroom and jumped in the shower. I’m so glad that I’m mostly ready to go! I was so proud of myself for planning ahead so well.
Clean and dressed and with the final items added to my bag, I ran out to the kitchen to feed the cats and pour my coffee. And found the cats sitting on the kitchen floor staring at a growing pool of gently steaming brown liquid. They both turned an accusing eye in my direction. WTF?
Coffee.
You may have noticed, gentle reader, that I skipped an important step in my coffee making. The carafe sat where I’d left it on the kitchen counter.
With a glance at the clock, I snarled to myself and cleaned up the mess. I added fresh water and grounds to the coffee maker and pushed the brew button. And pushed the brew button. And jabbed frantically at the brew button. And banged the whole thing on the counter a couple of times. And gave it a whack on the side for good measure. And noticed that none of the lights were on and that there was… steam… inside the time display. There was no doubt, I finally had to admit. It was shorted out.
I cannot drive for 4-1/2 hours with no coffee. That’s just not going to happen.
I fed the cats, sent a text message to #1 Son to remind him to check on them now and again and not to make coffee while he was at it, and drove to the nearest drive-through coffee place. I handed over my empty travel mug and requested a fill up. And called Simone to beg mercy. She giggled gentle and told me not to worry. We’d get there when we get there.
Fueled by coffee, the rest of the trip was mercifully uneventful. Traffic was light, construction was minimal, and we made awesome time. And is it ever worth it!
Eat your heart out, because this was the view this morning as I took a short, pre-breakfast stroll. My companions are a gaggle of wonderful knitters. My neighbors are sheep and alpaca. Yep. I’m staying at a B&B that’s a working ranch. There’s knitting and learning and knitting and walking and knitting and sight-seeing and knitting and animals and knitting.
This morning, along with fresh-brewed coffee, breakfast started with homemade granola (from organic ingredients), fresh squeezed orange juice, apples, bananas and fresh-baked sweet rolls (from organic, whole-wheat flour). I thought I’d died and gone to some breakfast nirvana. But our hosts apparently feel that we might be in danger of fainting from hunger, because in came the real breakfast – an artichoke heart scramble sort of thing made with the ranch’s own eggs, local potatoes and sausage from the ranch’s pigs. I thought I might never eat again. But then came lunch: homemade cream of tomato soup, fresh green salad, Greek salad, cheese and crackers, served with freshly brewed ice tea.
Let you fear that this become a list of amazing meals, let me reassure you that so far I’ve only eaten those two meals and so can only add that apples and bananas are always available, along with these amazing white-chocolate, macadamia nut, cranberry cookies. Fresh baked, naturally. Lest we become weak from hunger, you know, and be unable to lift our knitting needles.
my friend Oreo, and my friend Oreo
This morning I realized that I’d forgotten a few things besides putting the coffee pot under the drip. Like yarn. I had four different projects with me, and the yarn that goes with them, but no extra yarn to knit into other things that we’re learning about. Oops.
After lunch it was obvious that at least a little bit of exercise was called for. So, having the afternoon free, several of us wandered over to the neighboring alpaca farm. There’s a store there. That sells yarn. And other lovely things that I will tell you about later. But for now, let me introduce you to my friend Oreo. She has soft squishy fiber that has a wonderful hand. I picked up one skein for fingerless gloves for #1 Son (shhhhh… don’t tell him because it’s a surprise). The picture is Oreo in my hand and Oreo out in the field. Pretty girl, eh? She’s expecting her first little one.
From there we went into town where there exists the wonderful shop Island Wools. Although it’s not a large shop, Island wools has lots of yarn. I had no problem finding something perfect to practice with. I did have a problem not buying half the store. But I showed what I consider admirable restraint!
And Island Knits is only a block from this gourmet kitchen store that has an entire rack devoted to all kinds of licorice from all over the world. And another rack devoted to chocolate. But since I wasn’t going to talk about food any more, I will skip telling you how badly my wallet was dented there.
But it is so worth it!
Happy Wednesday.