First of all, let me just say that while the colors themselves are completely dark and out of my comfort zone, I absolutely adore the three-ply yarn I just made.

Isn’t that the prettiest? I should just start letting other people choose colorways for me so that I don’t get too stuck in same old same old. I have 835 yards of this, and it’s a sock weight yarn.

I started another spinning project but that initial obsession that spring spinning is for me has waned a bit and I am now capable of doing other things as well. Projects around the house, knitting, etc. It’s nice to have a long weekend knowing I have fun stuff stretching out before me.

We kicked off our long weekend with time spent with the dogs. It rained quite a lot and stormed as well this week. Miss Rose has suddenly decided she’s afraid of storms, this is not something she’s suffered from before, despite her being a notoriously scared doggo. Due to all the rain and storms, our normal routine of taking her to the huge local dog park so she could do all her running was out of the question. I mean, it was going to be desperately muddy. So, I convinced Mr. Ink that we should take them to a local lake and bike/walking trail. We decided to take the nice long walk around the lake.

Rose, who has always been terrified of bikes, surprised us greatly by getting over that fear last night. In the past, when bikes pass by she cringes, cowers, and then tries to bolt away from us. This has made walking her on local trails very difficult. But, we kept doing it anyhow, assuming that eventually, she’d desensitize herself. after 8 months in our home, I had assumed that the terror of bikes would be permanent. So, when she decided last night to pay them no mind, not even tucking her tail between her legs, which is what she typically does when she’s scared but dealing with it anyhow, we were extremely surprised. In fact, there were times last evening that bikes would pass her and her tail wouldn’t even stop wagging. Amazing!

About halfway around the lake, Mr. Ink said “Why don’t we stop and see how the build is going on the dog park here?” You see, where we were has always had a dog park, but it’s the type for training hunting dogs rather than just a regular run of the mill dog park. It’s got lots of tall grass and it’s only enclosed on 3 sides. The fourth side is water and swamp. So, the dogs can get out if they are so inclined. But, we knew that they were looking to revise this and make a fully fenced in area and we wanted to see what that was looking like. It’s not done yet, but we decided to wander into the other area anyhow as there were a few dogs playing there. Rose had a grand old time, running like a maniac through the tall grass, sniffing all the things, and leading all the other dogs on a merry chase through the swamp. Over and over and over again. She was soooooo happy. We did have to reign her in though as she kept leading her chase farther and farther away from the fenced in area, and that swamp leads to escape. And she couldn’t leave the swamp alone.

She was a lovely muddy disaster after the fact. Lizzie fell in the water too, which was hilarious. She likes to wade but not swim. But where she decided to wade was quite a significant drop-off, surprising her completely.

After this little unexpected adventure, we continued on around the lake. We recently purchased a long line for Rose so she could do some exploring, so I brought that long line with us. We got on some horse trails and let her at it. She bounded through tall weeds, sniffed all the things, and found herself a turtle. Then, later, she decided she wanted to explore some rocks at the edge of the lake. She wasn’t too sure of them. Mr. Ink demonstrated how they were safe to get on. She tried initially, but then a big military plane went overhead and she thought that was loud and terrifying. Then she tried again. I bet next time she’ll be at the water’s edge. This girl has come such a long way! She was having such a confident night!

We were out much later than expected but we all had a truly fabulous evening and were glad to be out in the sun and nature rather than stuck indoors with a storm. And it was extremely rewarding to watch Rose continue to blossom under our care, gaining confidence and applying all we’ve tried to teach her to her adventures.

Oh, and also, in the yard right now: