Eastern Comma

 





That's what kind of butterfly stopped at the birdbath yesterday.  I told you that I thought I had a butterfly ID book downstairs and I did, so I paged through until I found one that looked something like our visitor.  I also searched for butterfly ID sites online and found one that let me pick the main color of the butterfly and there my initial identification was confirmed.  It's an Eastern Comma, which I have never heard of.  Have you?






 

The red-skinned potato plants are growing by leaps and bounds.  The sweet potato, not so much.  I think it has only grown one more leaf but I'm afraid that the chipmunks might be nibbling on it.  Only time will tell.



 

This woodpecker has been visiting the suet on a regular basis, so regular that OJ has learned to recognize a woodpecker having a suet snack.  He's very smart.  Just ask me.  I'm completely objective about both my grandchildren.

I've been adding rows to the Montparnasse Eco Cardi left front and I'm liking the gentle angle of the decreases but my gut tells me that it's not quite steep enough so I think I'll figure out a way to ramp it up.  Let's see... 50 stitches decreased to 12 stitches=38 stitches.  80 rows divided by 38 stitches = 2.1... so I need to decrease one stitch every 2.1 rows.  Hm, that seems problematic.  I foresee more stitch counting and math in my future.



I went out to look at the garden just before dark and saw the moon hovering over the house.  I haven't taken a sky picture in a long time so I thought it was time we had one.  Just for old times' sake.


June 25--Paul Cezanne, Apples and Biscuits.  Paula smelled the apples when she opened the door.  Mabel turned from the stove, her forehead glistening and wisps of hair sticking out.  "Help," Mabel said, "can you get those jars into the hot water for me?  This batch wants to stick."  Paula dropped her purse on the sideboard and hurried to put as many jars into the sink of hot water that she could.  Two hours later both of them sat sprawled in chairs, glasses of iced tea at hand, looking at the rows of gleaming jars of pale pink applesauce.  "It's a pretty color," Paula said.  Mabel took a big gulp of tea, put down her glass, and said, "I hate peeling apples."

I can't think of any clever way to wrap this up.  Oh, I did want to say that I've lost 33# since the middle of November and I bought a pair of knit pants at T J Maxx last week that are three sizes smaller than I've bought in the past.  Granted they're pajama pants so they're roomier but still--yay, me!  I bought them thinking I'd use the knit fabric to make leggings but I might just keep them the way they are AND wear the size tag on the outside.  Not really but it's tempting.
--Barbara