The park near our home has a pretty big drawback for a mom with two kids running in opposite directions: it's situated right next to an intersection, and with no fence. What this means is that taking the boys to the park is an athletic event for me, as I herd boys, swivel my head in all directions, nervously eye the traffic and the big kids, and try to be in two places at once. My visions of sitting peacefully on a nearby bench, quietly knitting while watching my boys play, is laughable.
I recently learned of another park, just a bit further from our house (a 10-minute walk as opposed to 5-minute), and it is like a dream-come-true. I never knew I could love a park so much. It is tucked away from busy streets, but not too isolated, wide open with rolling green hills and lots of big trees. There is one big play structure and one swing set - so no trying to manage boys who want to be in two different places. And it is not too crowded.
Also, I have found a perfect knitting spot:
From this bench, I can knit in peace while watching my boys play just a few feet away. No swiveling head, no running after kids, no heart palpitations. Or, I can put the sock down and join my boys on the playground.
(no, I don't usually leave a size 0 dpn
lying loose on top of the sock while I run off to play)
It has been a great place to discover, especially this busy fall when I am in such need of a quiet place to get away to, one where I can also bring the boys and know they will be safe and happy. There are times when, in the press and crush of deadlines and stress (including this week's news of My Old Man's recently
bricked hard drive, which has not been backed up since April, which is two months out of warranty, which contains the first part of the book he has been writing, and from which no data can now be retrieved), a person just needs an oasis. Ah,
oasis. Even the word makes me feel happy and calm.
Oasis: | 1. | a small fertile or green area in a desert region, usually having a spring or well. |
| 2. | something serving as a refuge, relief, or pleasant change from what is usual, annoying, difficult, etc. |
Exactly what I was looking for this week, and found in a city park on a hot afternoon.
And I'm not the only one who has found an oasis there.
He loves the oasis too.
How about you? Where do you find oasis in the midst of a busy week?
From this bench, I can knit in peace while watching my boys play just a few feet away. No swiveling head, no running after kids, no heart palpitations. Or, I can put the sock down and join my boys on the playground.
6 comments:
Aaaaah! The new park sounds wonderful! We have two getaway places close to us. One is a park that is quite small, but only a couple of blocks away. The park is set back from a not too busy road and up a hill, so the urge to run into the street is curtailed! It has a little play structure and some swings, as well as two nice park benches for knitting. Our alternate oasis, when the weather isn't cooperating is another block farther at Caribou Coffee. They have a kid-sized table and a box with a few toys that can keep the kids entertained for a while so I can sip a coffee and knit.
I'm a big coffee shop knitter, although most of my knitting happens in front of my computer so I can watch DVDs and check e-mail.
I have not yet knit outdoors, but, now that the weather is getting cooler I'll definitely give it a try. Great post!
It sounds divine, you must be so glad that you found it (and the extra few minutes walk sound really worth it).
Oh god, the hard drive??? That sounds awful. How hard have you investigated data recovery? Last month Matt's hard drive died, he took it to the Apple store, and they told him it was toast and that they could send off someplace to try to have the data recovered (for a MINIMUM of $500 and a maximum of $5K). Instead he bought a $100 piece of software that not only recovered his data but fixed the hard drive completely (he continues to use it with no trouble today). The software, incidentally, was Disk Warrior, which is for Macs, but I bet something similar exists for PCs if that's what you have. I'm just saying, be sure you don't give up hope prematurely!
I'm glad you found your oasis. It sounds perfect. Maybe someday we can meet up there. It's only a 150-day or so walk from my house. :)
Lovely park! We've got two that we haunt on a regular basis. One is totally my oasis. Knittybaby can wander around 'till his heart's content and I have no worries; I can sit and knit.
The other park, however, drives me nuts. It has all sorts of high places to climb, places that Knittybaby insists on following his big brother up to. There is no knitting there for me! :-)
I'm still finding the parks in our new neighbourhood, but right now my oasis is my backyard -- autumn is in full swing here, and there's nothing better than getting a few rounds of a sock or scarf knit, coffee at hand, watching the birds on the feeder and the squirrels racing by!
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