More Than Twenty Actually

Remember yesterday I said that there were at least ten more lily buds?  Well, this morning I counted and there are 22 more lily buds--on just one plant.  For some reason the white Stargazer lily plant didn't suffer one bit from last winter's cold and snow and endlessness.  The pink plants are half the size, maybe a third the size that they were last year, still alive and blooming but not going gangbusters like the white one is.  I picked a white blossom, knocked off the pollen heads and brought it inside so that the house will smell like lilies.

More tomatoes are turning red.  I can tell how mild the temperature has been this summer because none of the tomato plants are much over waist high.  They're growing happily and making tomatoes but none of the plants are shooting up like they do when it's hot and sunny and rainy.  Rain, that's what we need.  The grass is turning brown except around the garden where the sprinkler water hits it.  I have come to the conclusion that hose water, while it keeps things alive, is not nearly as good for plants as rain is.  Rain is magic, hose water is just water.

I frogged the mitered bib I was knitting for LC.  The pattern I was using called for casting on 80 stitches and, folks, 80 is just way too many in worsted yarn and on US8 needles.  Waaaay too many, the bib would have covered her little self and wrapped all the way around her back.  Too big.  So I dug around in Ravelry's pattern vault and came up with a similar pattern made with worsted cotton on US8s (since that's all I had at work) that only called for 35 stitches.  I upped it to 45 stitches after reading the comments of people who've made it and got started.  Got halfway through too, as the afternoon was pretty quiet except for the phone.  A simple pattern's good for work knitting because it can get put down and picked back up with minimum confusion.  "Now, where was I?"  Not much of that.  When (if?) you post your projects to your Ravelry page be sure to add any notes about things you changed or comments about the pattern.  I always scan other knitters' notes when I'm considering knitting something and find valuable tips and tricks or alternate ways of doing things.  One of the women who made this bib figured out how to crochet the ties without cutting the yarn so that you have fewer ends to darn in.  I copied her notes into the comments box of my project so that when I get there I'll have her directions.  Thanks, mychildrensmother!

I took my ream of paper to work and made a copy of the latest rewrite of The Seaview so I'll have a paper version to work on.  Remember, Barbara, 1 hour per day.  Build that writing habit back up.  Don't slack off.

There's a small gang (flock) of little chickadees that hang around the feeders, especially the suet feeder, and I suspect they're this summer's babies.  They're a bit smaller than usual and kind of cling together.  I like when they pip and dart when I'm filling feeders.  They're fearless.

July 25--George Bellows, Up the Hudson.  Celia sat in the splintering cane chair on the end of the dock.  Hugo needs to fix this chair, she thought, and the dock could use a bit of work too.  Then she remembered that Hugo was buried in the family plot up behind St. Martin de Porres Church.  Dammit, she felt that cold clutch of panic in her stomach and her throat felt like it was closing.  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes while she forced her shoulders away from her ears.  She had come out to sit in the cool spring sunshine looking for the peace that sitting by the water always brought her.  It had worked for a while, the cool, fresh scent of the water and the soft slap of the wavelets on the pilings had taken her out of her head where her thoughts careened like out of control bumper cars.  Today was the first day that she had been alone since Hugo's funeral and it was kind of a relief to be alone.  That is until "alone" was the only word in her mind, echoing until it filled every cell.

Alrighty then.  I've got 3 more tanks to drop off for service (will it never stop?).  I had 4 to drop off yesterday and didn't realize that it was GB Packers Shareholders meeting day and the stadium was mobbed.  Now, if you're not familiar with GB, the Packer stadium is right in town, not in the center but on the west side right between my house and the tank service place.  I probably drive by the huge thing at least half a dozen times a week.  It's by the lot where we buy corn and berries and tomatoes when Durwood makes his soup to can.  I have to pass by to go to the library or the fabric store.  I can see it from one of the grocery stores.  It's RIGHT THERE and all the people in their cars were trying to get there when I needed to get past.  If I'd known I'd have gone around but I didn't so I got to dodge wide-eyed people wearing their best green and gold heading toward their version of Mecca and not paying one iota of attention to a little red HHR driven by a little middle-aged woman on her way to work.  Fun times.  I hear training camp's starting tomorrow so I'll be sure to avoid that area if I can.  Vast crowds of fans come to watch the open practices and it's a zoo.  Anyway, I have more tanks today.  I'll go another way.

Make Friday count.
--Barbara