Re-ignited

Last night, a heavy rainstorm caused an unexpected power outage that lasted until early this morning. Since dinner was done and the kids were nearly finished with homework and getting ready for bed, the inconvenience factor was pretty low. (Although, I was in the middle of winding a skein of yarn for my second Long Lacey glove.) But after the initial pause--- and scurrying for flashlights, the rest of the evening turned out to be a nice break from routine...

Just so you know, I had every good intention of observing Earth Hour last month, but forgot--- so last night gave me an opportunity to make up for it, I think. The quest for light started with these hanging sconces which are practically new from lack of use:




Then these in the 'craft room' aka dining room:





And voila, I was also able to finish skein-winding via candlelight. Mike was completely cracking up at my unabated fervor for the yarn endeavor.



Yet whenever the lights go dim, most Seattlites can't help but recall the massive power outage we experienced in 2006. What started as a mere flickering of lights, ended up leaving many residents in our area without power for at least two weeks during the dead of winter. The whole 'candlelight ambiance' thing was a moot point considering the freezing (indoor) temperatures. Since our house has not been wired for a generator, we had to pack our bags and drive to lodging in Portland.

Last night's events were much less stressful, thankfully. I took a hot bath (by candlelight) and read a little (also by candlelight), and felt pretty contented in general. I did hear a neighbor's generator kick on though, and that was a little annoying--- mainly because the sound remains linked in my memory to that harsh winter outage. It's not so awful to see neighboring houses completely dark in the springtime with frogs chirping in the background. It's another thing to have to listen to the awful drone of a generator... a nagging reminder of something not quite right.

Not that I was overly concerned about knowing which neighbor it was, the pond causes sound to bounce so it could have been anyone. But I did wonder why they needed to run the generator at all. It seemed that it wasn't being used to power any lighting nearby. The weather has been warm enough that certainly the furnace was not the issue. That left the possibility that someone was using it to run their television! Or computer--- (Mike did lose about two hours of work last night due to lack of Internet service.) But most likely the generator was powering a fridge or freezer... And I suppose I can forgive them that--- even if the noise did make falling asleep a chore!

In any case, having to consider alternative light sources for the evening reminded me of how much I like the little flames at the ends of wicks and how much I've been neglecting using the candles I have. Here is my absolute favorite candle, hand-made locally by a young woman who sells at our Redmond Saturday Market. The company is called Ascents, and she also has an online shop. Hers are the epiphany of clean-burning candles. They are completely paraffin-free and are made from all renewable plant products. The palm wax she uses keeps the candle from collapsing as it burns and has the effect of crystallizing like quartz. I don't normally care for scented candles, but I love the fragrance of Cedar essential oil in this one:



On the knitting front: I've finally finished one Long Lacey glove, just one more to go! I've been working ridiculously slowly on these--- (My friend Jasmine at Woolly Stuff has actually knitted two complete sweaters in the same time that it's taken me to knit this one glove):



I plan to work a bit on the second glove tonight--- and who knows, I may not wait for an excuse to light a candle or two while I'm at it...