Yep, It's Going to be Summer After All.

Usually Memorial Day weekend's a bait-and-switch kind of weekend.  You know what I mean, it seems like it's going to be warm and dry for the holiday weekend so people plan cookouts and camping trips and when the weekend rolls around it's cool and wet.  Not this weekend.  Not so far anyway.  Yesterday and today look like they could be poster children for "perfect spring weekend."  They'd get my vote anyway.

The apple tree out back is blooming!  Yay!  The Lilies of the Valley are starting to bloom too!  Double Yay!

Yesterday I got to go play with LC while her parents did yard work.  (did I get the best part of that deal or what?)  Don't worry, I got my lawn mowed before I went and played with the baby, who is doing all sorts of amazing things like rolling over and scooching along when she's on her tummy using her feet to push.  Durwood and I noticed last week that she wants to go places, she'll stiffen up and try to slide off your lap already.  She wants to GO and SEE.  I'm not sure what it meant but she kept her right foot in the air while she played on her mat.  ???  Now I understand my parents coming over and just staring at DS when he was her age.  I find I can't tear my eyes away.  Riveting.

As soon as I hit "Publish" up there in the right corner of this window I'll be getting the pitchfork and shovel, then going out to weed the big weeds out of the garden and put in the tomato plants and green pepper plant.  Maybe I'll even get all the flowers planted in pots today too.  Or I could save that for tomorrow, don't want to cram all the fun all into one day.

In knitting news I'm learning a new technique making another pacifier keeper for LC--double knitting.  If you look at the petal on the right (the one still on the needle [OTN]) , it looks like it's all garter stitch, right?  In fact it's "knit 1, slip 1 purlwise" across for 12 rows, then you take the needle out, thread the tail through a tapestry needle, squeeze the sides of the little square so the stitches pop apart, and you thread the yarn tail through them, then you turn it inside out and draw up the yarn through the stitches to make petals like the other 2 in the picture.  Brilliant.  I'm not sure I want to admit it but I totally didn't get it until I cruised the Project Pages in Ravelry looking for errata, reading other people's notes and found a short YouTube video by the pattern designer showing and explaining how to do it.  It's like a magic trick. I only got a few rows of Fiddlehead sock foot, Oriole Wings Wrap, and Packers with a Touch of Vikings Bib in this week because there was WORK to be done at WORK.  All that work cut into my knitting time.  I guess that's the real sign that the weather is changing and the Summer SCUBA diving season is approaching.

May 25--Italy, Gradual.  "This is not in English," Mia said.  She flicked the page in the ancient book as if it had offended her.  "No, it isn't," said Jacob. "Most 14th Century Italians didn't speak English and the Church used Latin as its ritual language.  She seemed taken aback that the world didn't revolve around her.

And that's when the day caught up to me, my handwriting degenerated into illegibility, and I slid seamlessly into dreamland.  Now it's time to go play in the dirt.  Woohoo!  I love my red pitchfork, it's great for digging out big nasty weeds.
--Barbara