Sophia Tomten Done and a Daycation

Last weekend, on the rainiest day of the week, Mr. G and I went to Bannerman Island in New York state. Mr. Bannerman bought the island in the early 1900s and used it first to house his 2nd had war paraphernalia used for his business and later for a home for his family in addition to his supplies. When we approached the island (in the rain) we saw one of the buildings that once housed the supplies. The arsenal buildings were all modeled after Scottish castles. They are in terrible condition due to over fifty years of abandonment and fire damage.

As usual, Mr. G took amazing pictures, even in the rain. The buildings are so beautiful and I love the look of the crumbling brick and concrete with all the greenery flourishing in this damp weather.

You can see above that the rain must have been immensely heavy. I had on a super thick sweatshirt (thank you, Mom) and it kept the damp out for most of it, but my legs were soaked up to my booty. It felt strangely good, though, a nice break from summer. And it added to the whole feel of the place.

This was one of the main entrances to the seven story, once four floor arsenal. You can't go near it...or can you?

The hole in the above pic is a whole in one of the five cisterns once used to store drinkable water for the residence of the island.

Below is a shot of the family's home. The shot is slightly obscured by rain drops on the lens, and he did take a second, clearer one, but I really liked the composition of this one with the garden shed in the forefront and the weathered stairs tumbling into view.

This building is also very damaged. The people who support the site and are fighting for it's preservation want to renovate this building to set up a "presence" on the island. There's literally no where to go in bad weather and I can't imagine them meeting with press or business people to conduct island bees wax without having some place with a roof.

Mr. Bannerman had to mark the property line even in the water, but instead of going for it in a hum drum maner he rocked it with these beautiful structures like castle fortifications. Some pieces are still there.

Remember that I typed that people can't get too close to the arsenal? Well, all the rain had the tour guide's worried about us and they brought us under the arsenal staircase for shelter.

It was a wonderful experience.

On the knitting front...I was opening my needle case to seem up the Sophia Tomten, and the bottom broke off in my hand. I am very sad. My friend, Jackie, gave this to me. I don't often trust people easily, but I just felt comfortable with her right away and she means alot to me.

:(

Yes, so I was SEEMING THE TOMTEN!!!!! THAT MEANS IT IS COMPLETED!!!!!!

It took such a long time. I kept stopping to make baby stuff for pregnant people, and my clapotis, still unfinished. The buttons are from Yarn Diva in Hillsdale, NJ. I am so s Stix-n-Stitches girl, but Yarn Diva is great too, and the buttons matched perfectly.

I made it to match Griffin's (Sophia is my friend's neice and Griffin is my friend's son)

This one was for Grif...

The two are made of Jarbo Garn yarn.

My co worker, Mrs. B, who I adore is preparing for another grandbaby (number 3) so I started a baby surprise for that child.

I want to do something more purposeful with the stripes than I usually do...I pretty much just throw in a different color whenever I feel like it. So this one will be a bit different, but still using the Cotton Tots from Bernat. It feels great. By the way, my friend Jackie gave me this pretty bag too.

In addition to all this, Mom aka Lupie escaped to Lancaster, PA with dear old dad to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. They have been having a blast, but I can't wait for them to come home!:)