Lilies!

They're opening!  The stargazer lilies are opening!  They're beautiful and they smell great.  I (finally) went out to trim the mums back so they'd stop blooming in July and bloom in September and October like they're supposed to.












Okay, I'll admit it, I'm obsessed with taking pictures of the daisies.  But they're so pretty!








I got a couple swatches knitted and the stitches per inch counted so the math was done, the pattern adjusted, and I cast on the Dobby's Hat(s).  Of course, I have too long a tail left so I'll rip it out, measure off about 6" and cast on again.  I felt very smart when the numbers worked out.  We'll see how long the smart feeling lasts once the knitting starts.

When I took the swatches of mosaic knitting off the poster PH gave me a couple weeks ago there were little notations underneath them that I interpreted as a volume and page number.  I found Barbara Walker's first stitch dictionary on eBay for under twenty bucks so I ordered it and it came yesterday.  There the stitch patterns are, right where PH said they'd be.  I'll be keeping an eye out for the other volumes for a good price.  (this one came from the Orange County, CA Goodwill)  I'm in no hurry.

July 21--John Warden, Brown Bear.  The print was a big one, like dinner plate big, and the claws had to be at least three inches long.  Being on this trail with its shoulder high brush on both sides seemed like a really bad idea.  Fran fished in her jacket to find her whistle, put it between her lips, and began to blow.  Not loud and shrill like panic blows but regular tweets with each exhale to warn the big-footed bear ahead of her that it wasn't alone.

Those words did not flow from my pencil "like falling off a log" like they did the night before, but then I wasn't writing about diving, was I?  I think I'll go read on the patio.  It is my day off, after all.
--Barbara