I Have A Question

It was overcast and drizzly all day today but at about seven o'clock the sun broke out. That happens quite often these days. What I want to know is who plays that cruel trick on us. It's too wet to mow, too crummy for kids to play outside, too rainy for the landscaper to come work on taking out my garden and then when it's too late to do anything the sun shines. It sucks. And I'm tired of it.

This morning I saw a new flash of yellow up on top of the retaining wall and saw that a yellow iris is blooming. One tall and proud yellow flower up there showing itself off against the weathered gray fence boards.

And at the far end of the retaining wall a cluster of French irises have gotten together to bloom all at once making a swath of blue violet on top of slender green stems. Their stems are strong enough to hold the flowers, unlike the regular irises which are almost all lying on the ground because the flowers are too heavy for the stems.

The next thing in the 15-Minute Artist was a paper fan. I should have done a better job of drawing a fan because I have a collection of fans. I'm not even sure where all those fans are but they're downstairs somewhere. I should go dig them out.

Then I turned to my all time favorite 10-Steps: Nature where a sprig of honeysuckle was waiting for me to draw it. I'm sad to report that my backyard honeysuckle isn't doing so well this year. Maybe I should have cut it back last fall. I'll ask the landscaper when he eventually comes.

Because it was such a dreary day today I picked a sunshiny picture to paint. I'm especially happy with the sky and water of my painting, not so happy with the bougainvillea, but it'll do.

I was digging around looking for dishcloth cotton a couple weeks ago and ran across some small balls of "denim" yarn that looks like washed jeans. I bought the yarn with the intention of knitting Vintage Hankie Washcloths with it and never did. Seeing the yarn renewed the idea and it's been scratching at me ever since so today I dug out the yarn and needles and went in search of the pattern. I went online but the link to the pattern took me to a site to learn to play the guitar. Not what I wanted. I was all ready to be frustrated and disappointed when I thought that maybe I had saved a copy of the pattern on here. I went to my pattern folder and there it was, even in pdf so I could copy it to Dropbox and open it on my iPad in Knit Companion which is an app where you can follow the pattern on the screen with row counters and everything. It's very handy. So I cast on in the black yarn and by the time I put it away I had almost finished the body of the cloth. I'm meeting friends to knit tomorrow night so I'm saving the rest to do then.

Today's toss was a pair of kid-size Adirondack chairs that LC and OJ have outgrown. I hosed them off and scrubbed the dirt and spider nests off and now they're in the back of my car to go to Goodwill the next time I'm out and about.

DD called this evening so I caught up on all the Kentucky news. The big news is that IT is now in the 4-year-old room at daycare. He turned 4 on Christmas day but has been stuck with the 3-year-olds because the 4-year-old room was full. He's now officially a big kid and is in the room with his lifelong friend Mattie. Bliss.

--Barbara