Trash, Stash & other Tales

I sit here, enjoying my Marzipan yogurt ( yes, you read correctly) with Mia growling at me because she wants me to hurry up - she is waiting for the container so she can lick it completely clean before it goes into the recycling container... This brings me to my first subject - trash.  It is another "Whaaaat??" moment for me.  A couple a weeks ago the trash company delivered our trash containers - one for general trash and one for recycling.  They are about same size....tiny!

The trash can on the left is a normal American sized trash can ( we can't use that one), the next one is the German regular trash trash can and the one on the right is the recycle trash can (it is larger than the the grey one).  Remember, we are a family of 6.  Trash pick-up is once every 2 weeks... Whaaaat??  After my hysterical laughter died down I discovered a new sport - trash jumping.  That is when you jump on your six-man , two-week trash pile to compact it as much as possible so that all of it will fit into the itsy-bitsy can.  You can see that we are expected to have more recycled trash than regular trash.  I have to jump on that stuff too to make it all fit.  Now, I must say that my hat is off to the Germans - almost everything gets recycled.  I am amazed that most packages & plastic wrapping has a recycle sign on it,  even the wrapper around little, scrumptious chocolate bars get put in the recycle bin - we generate a lot of those!!

Enough of trash talk.... on to the very fun stash - yesterday was a really good stash day!  From Knitpicks I got the following:

Wheee - I was so happy.  Ok, lets see from left to right.  Oh, first I want to mention the wonderful scarf that was gifted to me by my talented and generous friend Kim.  Kim, I want you to know I wear this scarf all the time - I just love it.  Thank you so much for giving it to me.

First skein is for a hat for my DH, poor man does not have one.  I knitted him a scarf for Christmas & this color will match somewhat.  He cannot wear the hat when he is uniform, but for our other outings it will come in handy.  The second one is for Olivia who really wants an Emse hat and I will make her matching socks ( 3rd skein) as well.  The next skein will go another pair of socks - Artichoke Socks - I saw these on a blog somewhere & they looked fantastic.  I have to have a pair!  The next skeins I took a close-up of because the color does not really show up on this pic.

The color is Lava Heather - yummmm.   I have more than 3 skeins, mind you.  I plan to knit this wrap.  I should have it done for next winter.  I think it is so very elegant.  The other two skeins will be socks for the boys.

Yesterday the postman rang our door and delivered this from the Sampler Guild in the UK.

These are all from Brenda Keyes.  The patterns are " A Contented Mind Sampler", "Over the Hills Sampler", and "A Sailor's Wife Sampler".  The book is what I am particularly thrilled about - it is almost virtually impossible to get in the States, but the Sampler Guild seems to have them on hand.  It is chock full of sampler motifs:

In case you are thinking:" Ok, she buying stash, but is she doing anything...??"  Yes, I have been steadily working on those Cornrow Socks.

Almost there with sock #1 - I only have to do the toe decrease.  Those blasted cornrows actually do take some time.  I hope that next week I can finish up sock #2.  I also finished a little over-one baby sampler for our neighbor who is expecting a little baby girl after having 3 boys.

 I just need to find a cute button and get it stuffed with French Lavender, rusch some ribbon & voila I am done.....ok, I am being totally sarcastic here.  I might just as well out myself right here - I am the world's slowest stitcher & not such a great finisher either.  We will see what the finished product looks like.

My other tales include pictures of my daily walk with the two pups.  I go up the hill toward the woods

It is all very pretty, and I love this little walk I take except for this:

See that building in the upper left corner... this is what it looks like from our house.   I wondered about this building which is really large & L shaped - you can only see a tiny bit of it here.  There are never any lights on at night....  It is a large vacant complex that has had a number of different uses during its life.  Right after WWII it was an extended care facility for German soldiers injured in the war.  For a while it was a corporate training camp for a major retail chain.  Its last use was a senior home which closed about 6 years ago.  The neighbors said that they were always on senior patrol since some of them with memory problems were prone to wandering off...

Nowhere did I read that it was ever an insane asylum...but that is what I think of every time I go up there -  I know, I know, too many horror movies.  It does creep me out completely!

Here are Mia & Max merrily & unsuspectingly running towards the property which is behind that large tree in the middle of the picture.

No doggies, come back, come back!!

If one day I don't return from my walk.... well, you will know where to look.