Objection

About an hour ago I saw this Red-tailed Hawk perched on top of the fence at the back of the yard with its lunch in its talons.  It stood there awhile before starting to feed.  I could hear a Bluejay squawking and realized that this crazy bird was positioning itself in the apple tree so that it could dive bomb the hawk.  It did it over and over again with no regard for its own safely.  The hawk sure didn't care, it ate its gopher methodically with barely a thought for the raucous blue bird bonking it on the back.  


Not being one to let gift yarn lie, "just for fun" (that's what I told myself anyway) I looked up to see what I could make with that yarn I was gifted on Friday Night.  I found a cute hat to make with super bulky yarn, dug out my US 15 needles, held one royal purple and one snow white strand together, and cast on.  The yarn's so thick and the needles are so big that I got the brim part done and a couple rounds of the crown done.  You knit the brim flat and then overlap four stitches when you pick up crown stitches so I get to go dig out a couple cool buttons to use to hold the brim ends together.  Sometimes I just need something that goes really fast, this hat is it.



This morning I planted the 2 new basil plants and 1 rosemary I bought yesterday.  Yeah, yeah, I only meant to buy one basil plant but then I saw the Thai basil and it's got purple on its leaves and it smells spicy and different than sweet basil so I got one of those too.


 



Then I picked off every maple tree helicopter (of which there had to be a thousand) that had landed on top of my bales.  Don't want any trees hogging the nutrients or taking up space now, do I.  No, I don't.  Pretty soon it'll be time to start thinning the lettuce which means we get to eat what I thin out.  Yay.





 
The peonies are blooming.  Gorgeous, just gorgeous.  


I managed to get the fabric, pattern, pins, scissors, and cutting mat upstairs yesterday but didn't get anything laid out, pinned, or cut.  Maybe later.

June 11--Utagawa Hiroshige, Yui, view of Fuji from Satta-toge, overlooking Saruga Bay.  The wind that bent the tree brought boats with white sails taut with the energy to push them toward the mountain.  Yuki imagined pilgrims lining the rails facing Fuji drinking in the serenity of the mountain.  She took a deep breath of salty air laced with the scent of pine.  She felt the knots behind her eyes loosen, felt warmth flow into her muscles.  The boats sailed nearer and she was dismayed to hear the click of cameras and the blue light of cell phones bathing the faces of people taking selfies with Fuji at their backs.  She shut her eyes to blot out the intrusion of technology.  She listened to the sighing of the pines and tried to match her breathing to the rhythm of the sea.

It's terribly hot and unbearably humid today and it's supposed to stick around for a few days.  Oh goodie.  Thank god for air conditioning, that's all I have to say.  Now I need to go meet a friend to talk about maybe reading some of my poetry at a festival next month.  Toodle-oo.
--Barbara