Mostly Knitting

Yesterday, I went for a walk in the Bois de Vincennes.  First stop was at Stade Pershing to see some of the game between the PUC and the Wallabies. PUC I get; it stands for Paris Université Club and the baseball section has been around for more than a hundred years. It might not sound great in English, but we speak French, here. This is the club I belonged to when I was a scorekeeper and this was Louis' club when he played. Wallabies? They are from Normandy, from Louviers, not far from Rouen. Why did they choose an Australian animal?
Back to the game. I don't know what the score was when I strolled in, but I think I watched 2 innings, maybe it was only an inning and a half. There were so many errors on the part of the PUC defense, I couldn't keep track of how many runs were scored. Then, when the PUC finally came up to bat, without hearing the slightest clink of the aluminum bats, I saw too many walked in runs. The bleachers, if that's what you can call them, have been condemned, already, for several years. The city replaced the old splintered wood with plastic that melted out of shape, almost immediately. So, you climb over the barriers and sit, sort of, for as long as you can stand it. It was warm and sunny, but after losing all interest in the game, I got up and continued my walk.
The fall colors are starting to show up nicely. Lots of people were out rowing on the Lac des Minimes. I finished going around the lake and had, what I assume will be, my last ice cream cone of the year from the stand. I turned towards Fontenay-sous-Bois and came home that way. According to MapMyWalk, that was a 5.67 km. walk.
I got home and picked up my crochet work. I'm adding a scallop edge to the skirt hem of a dress I knitted on the machine last week. It's an Anne Lavene design. I'll add the same edge to the sleeves and to the waist, when I join the bodice to the skirt. I made it with a fully closed skirt, seam on the side. I used Yeomans 100% Cotton Slub CK2, which, I have decided, I don't like. The idea is to dye this once it's all assembled. That's why I chose it, but the yarn kept getting all knotted up, coming off the cone, and I found it tedious to work with. Even crocheting, it gets all knotted up, so it's not because of the speed in machine knitting that made it do that. Also, it knitted up slanted, so it's awfully hard to block and get straight, again. I'm still not sure the center of the bodice will find itself in the center. One think I can say in favor of the yarn is that it is economical. I bought 2 cones and have not even used half of the first, even though I made 2 bodices! I thought I had made a mistake, when the first one looked so off-balance, so I made a second one, paying extra special attention not to make any mistakes -- and I didn't -- but it came out just as skewed. I'm going to finish this thing and see what it's like all put together.
Before that, I had tried to make a sweater for Paul, a double-knit. It looks all knit on the wrong side and on the right side, it looks like vertical stripes. It looks all stretched out in the picture. Doing the 5-stitch crossed cables every two rows turned out to be too much for me. There were some dropped stitches; I had to start over; again, dropped stitches, again, start over. When I discovered the dropped stitches, again, I gave up. The color doesn't show well, here. It's a dark, inky blue. Beautiful, fine, merino wool, also from Yeoman's. I had the yarn shipped to France. Yes, it was a bit expensive to do that, but still cheaper than a trip by car to England. (I ordered a lot of yarn!)
For anyone still interested, AARO had its own presidential election debate on October 19. We invited all four parties, but the Green party did not respond to our invitation. We posted the video the next day. It was a good evening. Cordial. Nothing like what we see going on in the US.

Glorious Spring

Our greengage plum tree is in full bloom. There were bees buzzing all around it and I hope that means we'll have some plums this year. The other plum tree is also in bloom, pink blossoms. I've planted the radishes and started other seeds. I've cleared the raspberry patch of weeds and now that there is lots of empty space we'll be able to transplant the newer raspberry plants that have started in front of the patch back to the pack, but I think it's best to wait until they've produced their fruit for this season. 

Today, France and the rest of Europe went on to daylight savings time, called "Summer Time" here. We are back to 6 hours difference with North America.

Today is a perfect day to go to a ball game. PUC 1 is playing Pessac in a double-header (PUC 1 and PUC 2 are always Sunday double-headers with a picnic lunch break between games.) and it's the first home weekend. I'll probably go for the second game, after lunch. 

Eating at home is a bit of a challenge right now. The painters are going faster than anticipated, but we've had to put on the brakes; there's just no space to move the furniture. They have to finish the living room so that we can store in there. Right now, they've almost finished the living room, dining room, and hall entry. The furniture is upstairs and in the entry and access to the basement. We wiggle around it. There is dust everywhere, of course. We do manage to have lunch and dinner, but it's a dusty atmosphere. Luckily for us, we are not prone to allergies or asthma. The floors, at least on the ground floor, should be sanded and varnished at the beginning of the week. Then we can move back into the living room and they can do the stairwell and hall upstairs. The repair and painting should not take as long as it has downstairs, so all in all, they will be finished with this almost a whole week before we expected. That means they'll want to dismantle the kitchen and do the electrical installations before we are ready. The new kitchen will be delivered on April 10, not before.

Must be off now -- to the market, lunch, and the ballpark!

PUC-Montpellier, Game One

I declared on facebook this morning that I wanted to go to the ball game. In France, the Elite division plays double-headers on Sunday and we're getting to the end of the season. The last game I went to was last year in the spring! I had said I was going to the game last week, but we had lunch out with the family, instead and I never got over to the ballpark.

One of the advantages of living in Nogent is that the ballpark, "Stade Pershing", is within walking distance, in the Bois de Vincennes, just behind the sports school, INSEP.

My walk, so you can see how close it really is. If you click on the map options you can choose the satellite view and see the ballpark.

Swan family in July

Game One is supposed to start at 11:00 a.m., so leaving home right after lunch, I thought I'd make it in time for the end of the game. I went a little out of the way to get an ice cream cone at the Lac des Minimes. On my way around the lake, I heard there was a Jewish wedding reception going on at the restaurant (the music gave it away) and the baby swans I took pictures of early in June are thriving. Here are two of them with one of their parents. The other parent and little one were out of range. And the picture of them from June 4!

Swan family in June

When I got to the ballpark, I went immediately to the scorers' booth and spent most of the time up there with M.D. who was scoring on his own. We caught up on news of our kids, our spouses, ourselves and watched the game. It had started late, so I really hadn't missed much. I only knew a few of the players. Others are altogether new and some were just kids last time I saw them play. I did see some old friends in the stands and others who came up to the booth. No pictures, though. Sorry. The game didn't end until after 3! PUC lost, 6 to 9. 

There's nothing quite like a baseball game in France. The pitching was off, so the first pitcher was relieved by a center-fielder who has a strong arm -- not really a pitching arm, though. There were errors. There were hits. You have to really pay attention because anything can happen. You think it'll be an easy out and you end up with another run in and another guy on base. Professional games are downright boring, in comparison.