Let's Shrug Off the Cold, Ellen!

Shrugging off the cold was no sweat for Ellen today! I finished the shrug for Angela's birthday. Sorry Ange! You'll see it here before you receive it. I'll put a surprise in the box to make up for this. :-) The pattern is from the book Knitting In No Time by Melody Griffiths. I love the way it turned out, but you can't see the crossed stitches very well because I used Patons Devine instead of the yarn the pattern called for. It's warm though, I'll tell you that! Just having it on my lap while finishing it made me warm. So, even though it was -6C today, Ellen was all toasty by the side of the pond.

We went all over the place today. First I thought we could go down on the apron at St. John's Harbour, but when we arrived I thought it was too industrial for Ellen (besides being super cold and windy!). So I just took a few shots around the dock. There was a guy driving a loader and dumping snow in the Harbour and it seems that it's a great place for sea birds to hang out. I don't know what the attraction is, but as you can see, there's a zillion of them. Behind the loader, you can see a big pile of something - that's where they store the road salt.

Last week we went up around Battery Road, but only got a few pictures. The roads are narrow up there and there was a lot of snow around. We kind of felt in the way with the residents coming and going, so we went on again. In the next post, I'll show you some summer pictures of the Signal Hill Trail and Battery Road that I took while walking the Trail.

Today, after visiting the Waterfront, John suggested that we drive outside the City Limits to see if we could find a nice pond or snow-covered trees where we could find shelter to do the photo shoot with Ellen. It was a great idea. Lots of frozen ponds and snow covered trees. We even met Sparkie the dog who was out with his owner who was cross-country skiing on the trail beside the pond. Sparkie ran right up to me and stopped. Then he ran ahead and looked back. I knelt down with the camera and whistled at him. He came running as fast as he could, then came to a full stop within a foot of Ellen and me. Happy fella and not a bit camera shy!

Upper and Lower Battery Road in the distance.

Pier 17 - taken from Battery Road.  The dots are sea birds!

The Narrows - taken from Battery Road

View of St. John's Harbour - taken from Battery Road

See the pile of road salt behind the loader? Some winters they use all of it.

More sea birds

A lot of the houses had icicles hanging from the roof-tops.

Sparkie

Sparkie again!

We drove by Portugal Cove on the way home.

That's Devine Ellen!

What's devine?

The shrug I am hand knitting for Angela's birthday using Paton's Devine yarn, that's what! It looks like a mess in the ball, but when knit, it's quite nice. It's bulky weight so knits up fast. And, this project is a stash buster! 

I'm hoping I'll get this shrug knit in time for Angela to receive it by mail in Vancouver on Feb 15. If we get all the snow in the forecast for the next few days I should have no trouble finding time to knit.

We had a snow storm yesterday. I took a photo for you when the wind died down enough to go outside. There's another photo below of our bar-b-que on the back patio. All you can see is the brand name on the cover. It was practically buried. John dug it out today, bless his heart!

Meantime, Ellen is tucked away in her apartment enjoying the heat of the fireplace and perusing pictures of adventures we had before she came to live with us. She thought it was a good idea to show you some pre-Ellen photos every now and again through the winter when we may not be able to get out to take some new pics. I think that's a pretty good idea, so today we'll post some photos of Conception Harbour, taken on April 11, 2010 - a sunny Spring Sunday. We even got a Doggie Paparazzi picture and one of motorcycle riders who stopped for a smoke in Holyrood.

I was telling Ellen that Angela and I did Doggie Paparazzi pics long before Angela named it "Doggie Paparazzi". We've been taking pictures of random dogs and sending them back and forth to each other for a long time.

Back to the knitting. I have one sleeve done.  Angela just might get this in time.  :-)

Taken through the patio door window - just the brand name peeking out!

Crab pots on the wharf in Conception Hr. - getting ready for the crab fishery.

Sunken vessel - been there a long time.