After my day trekking at Blomidon, it was time to head for home. Of course, since home was almost 1,000 miles away, a certain amount of time and effort (and gas!) is involved in getting home. From Wolfville, I generally allow 3 days to get home. This pace allows me to stop off and do a few things along the way. From Wolfville, I go to Sackville, New Brunswick, where there's a B&B I really like. I've stayed there four times now, and would gladly go back. But I really wonder how long it will be there. The couple that runs it is getting older (as are we all); Jean seems to be in good health, but Bill looks increasingly frail and I don't know how long he'll have the stamina to be an innkeeper. Then, on my second day, I head across New Brunswick and back into Maine. I usually stop for the night around Bangor. Finally, on the third day, I end up at home.

( How I implemented my plan )

For the second phase of my trip to Nova Scotia, I drove around to the Minas Basin (part of the Bay of Fundy). Some of my favorite things to do in Nova Scotia are in this area, so I spent two days revisiting them.

( And here's what I did and saw )

My second actual trek in Nova Scotia took me to the Caribou-Munroes Island Provincial Park. Like many of the smaller parks in the province, it's a multi-use facility. There is a beach and there are campgrounds, as well as a nice picnic area overlooking the beach. I started with a picnic (leftover cold cuts from the Pork Store). Then I walked down to the beach, down to the high tide line, and set out walking. It's possible to go for a mile or so along the beach, toward the departure point for the ferry to Prince Edward Island.

While this wasn't a particularly long trek, the nature of the beach made it more difficult than, say, the walk along the Pictou water front. First of all, once I got past the bathing area, the beach was fairly rocky. If I walked below the high tide line, there was a decided angle: my left foot was higher than my right foot (and the reverse, as I was going back). But, if I walked above the high tide line, the loose sand made it harder to push off.

No matter. There was plenty to see.

( and here's a sampling )

Well, I finally managed to upload most of my pictures, so now's as good a time as any to update my Trekking vacation. For those not playing along at home (probably most of my flist), earlier this summer some intrepid knitters proposed a knitalong involving hiking (i.e., trekking) and knitting socks in Trekking XXL, absolutely the most cracktastic sock yarn ever made. I'd already made one pair of socks in this yarn, discussed here.

I made one pair of socks, without getting much hiking in (well, without getting any hiking in).

But, when I went to Nova Scotia earlier this month, there was no barrier to actual hiking. Of course, that was in part because I was away from all sorts of other demands on my time (work, laundry, the veggie garden, housecleaning) as well as from attractive nuisances like the internets.

( Click here for part one what I did )

My Trek With Me sock (in Trekking XXL color 66) is finally big enough to be taken out of the house. Unfortunately, the forecast for this afternoon was for massive intermittent thunderstorms, and I had a bunch of gardening to do, having bought a lot of flower plants on sale yesterday, to fill out my flower beds. With luck, I'd be able to finish my planting and at least go for a walk. But, after lunch, the sky turned ominous enough that the sock's only outing was helping me decide what to do.


Here, the sock is looking from my back deck across the valley toward the rails-to-trails trail. The colors (on the sock, that is) look a lot nicer in natural light than they do inside. You can actually tell that there are different shades of green. The pattern here is the Lacy Scallop sock from SockBug. It's very easy to knit, but doesn't have quite the give that I'd like. It also has a heel construction that's new to me:

Once the sock had had its closeups, I took it around the garden. Unfortunately, I ran into the depth of field problem some others have had, so I have pictures of nicely in focus sock against a backdrop of blurry bean blossoms. And I have pictures of a blurry sock against a backdrop of very clear flora. So, here's what the sock did.

The sock discovered that purple string beans have very purple blossoms.

The sock consulted on where to plant a lot of different flowers.

The sock considered the weighty question of whether the forsythia needs to be pruned. Unfortunately, it can't actually help with the pruning!

Finally, the sock took the time to smell the flowers, always a worthwhile activity.

And then we had a severe thunderstorm.

About two weeks ago, I posted about the Trekking XXL knitalong, hundreds of knitters around the world knitting socks out of Trekking XXL yarn and taking their socks on walks and hikes (and photographing their partial socks in scenic locales, an art-form innovated by The Yarn Harlot).

It took me longer than it should have to get the yarn. Apparently, the distributor limits it to brick-and-mortar yarn stores, which means that the larger internet outlets don't have it. Unfortunately, my actual local yarn stores don't carry it, which means that you have to find a not-so-local yarn store with a web presence. The one that I found didn't have great illustrations, so I'm not happy with my color selections.

However, the last pair of socks that I knit came out looking a lot nicer than I thought, so maybe these will as well. But, in order to determine this, I have to actually knit with the yarn. So, despite having a bunch of other projects on the needles (and despite the weather that will rapidly make handling yarn most uncomfortable), I selected a pattern and dug in. Instead of making a plain sock, I selected Sockbug's Lacy Scallops sock pattern. I wanted something that wouldn't be boring to knit. On the other hand, I wanted something that would work with rather than against the variegated yarn.

I started working on it Friday evening, and I've already turned the heel on the first sock. What I've found: (1) I'm still not totally happy with the color choice, but I'm less unhappy with it than I was when I started. (2) The pattern itself is easy to memorize (it's a variation on feather and fan lace, which I already know), but it has a little less "give" to it than I would like. (3) As a result, the sock is a little tight in the ankle, but I think it will be OK.

It's pretty sticky out and I have plans later, but perhaps tomorrow I'll take the sock outside and at least show it the Rails-to-Trails trail. If I go see my parents next weekend, I can show it the Appalachian Trail.

I decided earlier this spring that I wasn't going to buy more yarn unless I had a specific project in mind. Then, I realized how much I prefer wearing hand-knit socks, due to the customized fit. So, "knitting more socks" became a project, if not a specific one. Of course, for the summer, what I need to be knitting is socks with a reasonably heavy cotton content, and I didn't have much of that in my stash.

( Here be knitting omphaloskepsis, and pictures )