poems

Grand Prismatic Spring

~ Jenn's Knitting and Cats ~ Leave a comment

I decided to drive to the Grand Prismatic Spring today. It was, as expected, busy. I just went with it and parked down on the side of the road with the rest of the rabid tourists :). It was not as smelly as I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, there were wisps of that over-boiled Easter egg smell, but otherwise it was just steamy. The walkways were very busy and I must admit that I was a bit nervous with the narrowness of the walkway. The tourists not very considerate of the width of the walkway and the near death experience that was right below. I managed to watch them as well as my own feet, and get great pictures along with trying not to worry about the plausibility of a sudden, burning death. I’m being overly dramatic, but it is a very narrow walkway with a lot of people on it trying to get that must have picture.

It was great besides my paranoia :). The drive there and back was not too bad and I got to see a Bison who was right next to the road. You do know that your supposed to stay at least 75 feet away, but everybody was pulled over and standing right next to this huge animal. Luckily for them it was blithely going about its lunch. A few Elk made an appearance, but I was persistent with my mission, the Grand Prismatic Spring. I wasn’t going to let anything slow me down. I’ll leave off Old Faithful for another road trip.

Yellowstone

~ Jenn's Knitting and Cats ~ Leave a comment

The drive was beautiful. This early in the season the tourist, myself included, craziness hadn’t taken full effect, but I’m waiting for July, then we will see. I got to see a few Elk and the ever present Bison along the Grand Loop Road. My friend Christy and I having never been into Yellowstone before and were unfamiliar with how the roads were organized, completely missed the turnoff for Hayden Valley and headed off toward Old Faithful. We tried to stop at the Prismatic Spring, but it was too crazy. So, on we went. We hit Gibbon Falls and stopped at Madison Junction for the view and a necessary bathroom break. We wanted to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and it was great, but the pics are on another camera so will have to wait for the next post :).

So, we hit up a very smelly Mud Volcano and the Sulphur Caldron. Imagine Easter time and the fun and silly activity of boiling eggs so to color said eggs bright colors, your seeing it in your mind right? Well, ramp up the smell of hard boiled eggs to 1000, and don’t forget to add the ever present badly burned hard boiled egg smell, and you have the smell from those geysers. But, beyond breathing very carefully and trying to stay away from the shifting cloud of sulfur, it was really cool.

Mud Caldron area
Sulphur Caldron
Mud Volcano Map
Sulphur Caldron info
Mud Volcano

The best part of the Mud Volcano area though had to be the Dragon Mouth Spring. It really sounds like something is growling and steam is constantly gushing out, as you can see from the bottom middle picture. Pretty cool, huh?

It was an interesting day and I”m glad to be back home.

Am I Lost?

~ Jenn's Knitting and Cats ~ Leave a comment

Depression deepens with age,

Dark, silent hands sweep aside courage,

Disease draws out life, desire, delight,

Forgotten memories are swept away like snuffed candlelight.

Family binds tighten, but memory slips away,

Forever brilliant, but always fading,

Fear celebrates each slip, each ebbing thought,

Gasping, grasping, holding tight.

Am I family?

Am I still here?

Am I remembered?

Am I counted, loved, seen?

Do I matter?

Is it all for nothing?

Is it forever?

Is it necessary?

Why? What is it for?

Memory, lost memory.

J. Windsor

Work in Progress that is NOT in Progress

~ Jenn's Knitting and Cats ~ 1 Comment

Work In Progress

Design by design,

Stitch by Stitch, magic happens,

Frogging ruins days.

Well, I think I’m being too impatient with this pattern book. I started over, twice, and once only did the lace pattern to see if I was doing something wrong, I was but we won’t mention that. Now all is good and I’m afraid to start again. What if it still looks horrible?

Also, who write a pattern book that does not follow any type of pattern in the directions. Of course, there are the charts to follow A, B, and C. These are easy enough to figure out. There is the written instructions as well if a person does not like pattern charts or who cannot read them yet.

But, BUT, when the instructions say cast on this many and then follow this pattern set up, then follows that with seemingly simple instructions, you would think everything would flow. No, of course not.

The charts seem to expand upon one another, and you would think that the written instructions would include a cascading pattern that would incorporate all three into the design, but no. It only tells you to cast on so many and use chart A till you have so many stitches then start the the lacy edge. It makes no mention of chart B or C until the lace edge, but if you only follow the Chart A pattern for the body, it looks jacked.

Sigh, I think at this point I’m going to do it my way with chart C and see where it goes. Anything is better than beating my head against this pattern book. And the patterns are so beautiful too. Sad.