Bridges, blends and ramblings

Last Saturday's walkabout gave me a hint of just how much had changed since I last rambled over to Normal Heights.

The Cable Car Cafe and its moth-balled trolley cars are gone. The Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses is going to become a medical clinic. The restaurant on the corner of Adams and Alabama which was once Korean and is now Italian appears to be becoming something else again. Paper Antiquities has moved from 5th Avenue to Adams Avenue and an old fave thrift cottage is now the Tibet Gift house. Clearly additional excursions are in order.

In a things don't change moment, the resident cats were out and in serious purr and pet mode at Adams Avenue books and the selection of European history books held at least two titles that demanded to come home with me.

The round trip banked another 5.4 miles of walking onto the day's total of 7.6 miles, saw another flip-flop blow out (I so need to replace my Havaianas) and, since I was winding along the way, left me with no more excuses not to cast on for the pentagon sleeves project.

I reluctantly decided that I should blend the two dye lots through out the whole body of the garment. Reluctantly in part because having decided that I will knit this flat and work both front and back at the same time, the actual knitting will have me juggling (read tangling) four balls of yarn and switching yarn every row.

I got little more than the cast on done on Sunday's trek and Monday's efforts were hampered when a repaired Crystal Palace circ decided not to stay repaired.

As of Tuesday morning, I had about a half inch of the ribbing done and decided that a photo comparing the blend to the other dye lots was in order. My intention was to use the sleeves in waiting as the background for the three ribbings but the sleeves were so clearly in need of a wash that I settled for the insulation board.
When the sleeves dry I'll try for a better image and with a bit of luck there will be more knitting on the needles as well.

Sunday's ramble was mostly about knitting the mystery mitten and venturing into neighbourhoods I'd not visited in some time. I started with the usual Park Blvd through the park trek but then let my feet wonder through Banker's Hill, Middletown, Mission Hills and home to Hillcrest (roughly 7.4 miles). Along the way I crossed both the Quince Street and Spruce Street bridges, I could have sworn I took a shot of the former (but my camera says no) so here's a look at the Spruce Street from the West end.
I don't know whether I'd forgotten about the stairs that lead from Eagle down to Reynard or if I'd just always turned on Curlew or Dove but I chose that route and took the snap to prove that they really do exist.
I wonder if these stairs, like the ones that lead from the end of the sidewalk by the Palomar Market on Washington up to a rather rugged "block" of Titus Street, are considered part of a street.

These two, the ones that go from W Upas and India to the NorthWest end of Columbia near Thorn and the ones that lead out of Pioneer Park in Mission Hills are familiar to me but I wonder how many more hidden and not so hidden stairs acting as streets are out there.

I still haven't stumbled upon my hillside garden spot. It seems to me that it might be in the streets that stop and start at will above the Shake's but it might also be more in the killer hills around California and Bandini. I'll just have to put them on my revisit and rediscover agenda.