A Goal Accomplished

We were doing this walk up to Spike's meadow up until the week before my knee replacement surgery, and I told myself then that a major goal would be when I could do it again afterward. It's not a very great distance but it is quite steeply uphill to the open meadow and steeply back down the other side of the hill. The upper right photo shows John and Spike at the intersection where the end of the downhill pitch meets the beginning of the uphill one.The best part of this walk is that it is one of the few places in the county where Spike doesn't have to be on a lead and can run free and it is so much fun to see how much he loves running up the trail and in huge circles around the meadow. 

He also manage a dip in the frog pond before John got him out....

We had a plan (I thought) in case I turned back to the car early or needed a little help on the downhill side. John gave me the keys to the car and I thought he would wait for me at the beginning of the downhill bit. However, when I reached it, he and Spike were nowhere to be seen. Fortunately I didn't need any help, and knew that he would remember when he reached the car and didn't have the keys.

All in all though, a wonderful walk early on a warm day with a very satisfying result.

The sashiko project is proving somewhat less satisfying, although still has the promise of being a good challenge eventually. The  cotton thread I bought at the local craft shop is quite heavy and very difficult to work with, especially as the book recommends using it double. I am also running out of said thread, so I decided to back there and get some more. They don't carry that kind anymore and what they do carry is both far thinner and comes in every color of the rainbow, but they were out of white which is what I wanted. 

This may be a sampler in more ways than one, as I bought some navy blue and will experiment with it. I was pleased to be able to park right in front of the door of the shop without paying, thanks to my disabled person's placard which I used again when I stopped by the Hammond Autowerks to get a new battery for my car key when my car told me I should.