CHRISTMAS

I've said it here before and I'm sure I'll say it again: I love Christmas. I love it all (well, except for shopping -- I'm not a shopper, and I'm proud to say I do very little of it, even at Christmas) -- I love the lights, and the music, and the peace and camaraderie, I love knitting gifts for everyone, the food and the festivities.

But I normally only love it after Dec. 1st. Any Christmas stuff that makes its way into my world before that is generally not welcome -- it feels too commercial, too much, too, too... well, you know.

So today when I was driving home from Ganges, you'd have thought I would have a negative reaction when I saw this....

... but I loved it! I came around a bend in the road and there it was... and I immediately looked for a place to pull over so I could stare at it a bit longer, and take a picture. And then, while I was admiring this tree, I looked to the left and saw this one...

Even though the tent caterpillars nearly wiped out the apple crops everywhere here on the Island, this tree obviously wasn't affected. The leaves are all gone, but there's still dozens of apples left. I would have had to trespass to pick some, though, so I didn't.  :)

I had coffee with Gillian, my FictionKnitsta author today, and she looked at and tried on several of my shawls. We've decided that I'll knit her an apple red shawl in the Faroese tradition - she'd like it to be fairly plain but with a beaded edging, and a 'house' on the back. I can do that... here's a couple of choices!

I'm excited about this project, but don't dare even think of starting it until after Christmas. Good thing I have to order the yarn for it!
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