a thing for words

You know you have a thing for words when snippets of well-said everyday language hang in your head for days. Let me explain with an example.
Saturday, Ben and I had the best of mini-road trips up the Beartooth Highway to Cooke City. Although Ben drives the winding highway at least 6 times a summer, I don't usually make the trip on my own. We packed a fly rod, a picnic and brought the dogs. I love fishing Soda Butte Creek outside Cooke. It's a cold, cold high-mountain creek that's as clear to the bottom as any aquarium, and you can watch fish dart up from the bottom to take your fly at the surface. Still I miss fish, somehow.
While I was casting, I heard Ben say, "We're into 'em now." I looked up and he was holding an agate that was about the size of a kid's tennis shoe. The jagged, clear rock was the second giant agate Ben has found in a week. The earlier one, a rounded stone about the size of a small loaf of bread, we found on the Yellowstone (photos unavailable due to technical difficulties/disabilities)
I thought the phrase "We're into them now" such an odd observation but fitting, too. It's something Ben says all the time on the river when he really starts catching fish.
I'm searching for an opportunity to use "into 'em now" in my daily discourse. But there's only a few opportunities to really "get into 'em"

Summer Slowdown

The other day I happened to notice that the days are getting shorter here in Red Lodge. They once stretched until 9:30 p.m. or later. Now, sunset is happening closer to 8 p.m. On the 45th parallel, and at more than 5,500 feet in elevation, summers here are short, and so precious are these warm, long days that locals seem to go crazy in an attempt to fit all their summertime activities into this brief window.
I admit, I am among them.

Last Tuesday I had a plan: work, then get to the mountains for a quick hike with the dogs and home again in time for Shakespeare in the Parks. But something happened, and I'm glad it did. As I walked, I noticed the heavy smell of pine duff, soaked by a brief thundershower. I noticed the stream alongside the trail washing over its banks, the wildflowers starting to fade, moose tracks, and mating butterflies. And with each observation, my efficient pace slowed. I walked on and on, arriving back at my car hours later as the light was fading.

I would have liked to have seen A Midsummer Night's Dream performed in the park near my house, but nothing could have compared to the wonder and contentment I felt when I slowed down and enjoyed my hike.

Knitting... A life changed.

I have a few things that mark my life…. My nephew being born, learning to ride a bike, and sometimes sad things like my grandfather passing away.  One of those markers for me was learning to knit.  I know, I know, knitting right?  Little nerdy, but it kinda changed my life.  It gave me an opportunity to find a path to zen.  Sometimes a day can’t pass unless I knit.  In the beginning I had a couple inspirations to learn to knit.  My grandma was an accomplished knitter.  

 Here is a picture of her “trying” to teach me how to knit.

Sadly I was unfocused and had to many things going on.  Plus Red Heart acrylic yarn was not enticing enough to draw me in.  A number of years later I stumbled across an amazing hobby shop that had an enticing yarn room with complimentary knitting classes.  I would hover but never join the classes.  One day as I was hovering I found this magazine...

Sadly Adorn is now no longer in print, yet I snagged this copy.  Mostly I was inspired by what I saw in the magazine, but also this page made me want to knit…  Really want to knit…

I wanted to make that bag!  I bought yarn and joined the free knitting class.  Turns out I was a natural knitter.  It has been down hill since then.  Nearly three years later all I want to do is knit!  I will kit things that never see the light of day!  And my yarn stash grows weekly.  All of my closest friends and family have been knitted something special by me.  Here are some of my projects that did meet the light of day.  Funny thing is though... I never knit that little handbag.  I have the pattern.  My goodness it was a fun to find that!  I had to email the former editor of the magazine to find out that it was in One Skein pattern book page number 47.  I have the yarn, but still have not done it.  Maybe that will be my next project?