Aunt B voted for an orange stripe in the preemie hat so it can go to a tiny Miami Dolphins fan. Can you tell which NFL team is her first love? (Anybody else love Bob Griese? Not like she does... maybe his mom... I'm just saying.) I got a good amount of rounds done so I'll grab the skein of peachy orange and put in a few rounds of stripe in Aunt B's honor because today is her birthday. Happy Birthday to my beloved Aunt B from her devoted namesake. I love you more'n my luggage.
If these daisies and bee balm would bloom all summer, I'd be very happy. Wouldn't you just love to open the curtains in the morning to see these glowing white and red flowers? It's like a fireworks display right in my own backyard.
Not to be outdone, the daylilies are flying their orange flowers like flags. Mixed in with them are a few surviving milkweed plants and there are a few new ones sprinkled around in that bare area. Maybe I need more seeds... Maybe Stein's has some plants...
Last night when I reached to draw the bedroom shade I saw the crescent moon in the clear blue-black sky with Venus hovering like a guardian above it. I took my new (pawn shop) camera out there, turned off the flash and got a wonderful picture. Exactly what I wanted. I darkened it just a bit but this is mostly how it started out. After talking to my pal MW I stopped at the pawn shop yesterday with my receipt, camera, and the part number of the charger to ask if they might have one rattling around somewhere and, lo and behold, they did--and I didn't even have to pay for it. Now all I have to do is find out if I can return the one I ordered on eBay that's on its way, even if I can't it was only ten bucks and had free shipping so I'm not out too much.
In the "if you knit on it, it gets longer" department, I knitted on Sudoku Strip #4 during Friday Night Knitting last night. It's a quick, easy knit but it's so freaking boring I find myself shoving it aside for other, more interesting knits. A few more inches and I can assemble the second of three panels. I suspect this will be done in time to be my shroud. If that's the case, don't for god's sake send it through the crematorium oven with me, kids, get it cleaned and donate it somewhere. It's taking too darned long to make to just burn up.
July 9--Russ Gutshall, Family Hiking. The road dwindled to a trail through the meadow alive with waving grasses and dotted with wildflowers then, when the bushes crowding the trail blended into the woods, the way became a narrow path that twisted around the close-growing trees. It was a relief to move from the hot sunshine beating down as they crossed the meadow into the damp cool of the forest shade. The sudden loss of bright light made them blind and they stumbled a few steps until their eyes adjusted to the dimness. The lilting birdsong of the open meadow faded as the buzz and croak of insects and frogs grew around them. Maya reached for Dan's hand. "Are you sure this is the right way? I feel like we've stepped into a Grimm's fairy tale." Dan nodded and waved his phone at her. "This is where the GPS says to go, so it must be the right way." It wasn't long before "lions and tigers and bears, oh my" was running through her mind in time with their footsteps.
Today my friend JM is marrying her beloved MR in the backyard of their home. It's looking like a glorious day for an outdoor wedding. What shall I wear? Hmm... the invitation says "semi-casual" but I suspect that what passes as dress clothes for me is everyone else's semi-casual. Now, skirt or capris? Probably skirt... I think...
--Barbara
Well, that was dumb. I typed the heading up there, hit "enter" by mistake, and it posted. *head, smack* Sorry about that. Not that I have much to say today but I do have more than just a blank box.
I have some perennially confused mums in front of the house. Every July they sproing up and fling buds and blossoms around like it's October, then I go out, snip them down about halfway, and let them think about things until it's time for them to really bloom. Foolish flowers.
Dad's rose is blooming too, but this is the time it's supposed to bloom. It's just the prettiest thing, smells great too, very rose-y.
I started knitting on the July Preemie hats yesterday. There are four sizes in the pattern I found last month--Eenie, Meenie, Minie, and Moe (largest to smallest)--so since I make four hats a month I thought I'd just start with Eenie this month
and work my way down. I might grab another color of Microspun to make stripes in this hat... yeah, I probably will. Maybe white or maybe some random, off the wall color. What would go with this bright turquoise? Beside the lime green I used last month, I mean. I'll take it under advisement.
July 8--Russ Gutshall, Beach Bike Twins. Two little girls rode their bikes on the hard sand at the water's edge, giggling as the spindrift foam blew through their spokes. Mags sat on her blanket with her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them. She felt the blood race through her veins and pound in her ears. She stared at the bicycle girls...
And that's when I ran out of words and fell asleep. Today I'm meeting a friend for lunch. I think we're going to grab something and go sit in a park to eat. I'm glad that we're eating local and outside. The only thing is, it's humid. Sticky and humid. Ugh. It's not supposed to be humid in Wisconsin. It didn't used to be when I was a kid, at least that's what I remember. Enjoy your Friday. Eat outside.
--Barbara
Not much happened in my world in the last 24 hours. I worked yesterday, was moderately busy, and got to fill the air bank, which meant the compressor ran for hours. Good thing there are ear plugs there for me to wear. I don't understand the science behind it but that loud noise for an extended period of time makes me tired.
The only knitting I did was actually crocheting. I filled in the heel of Advent Garland Stocking #1. Isn't it cute? I thought it might look lame but I like it. I like it so much that I dug out more leftovers of colorful yarns and I'm scheming ways to put them together to make more stockings. And knitted mittens too, of course.
I filled the feeders this morning (after I did yoga) and managed to capture a chickadee on the suet. They're such hit-and-run birds, they're hard to catch at the feeders. Before I filled the suet a male downy woodpecker came for a snack. They're amusing because they seem to enjoy landing on a Slinky and taking a little ride up and down which scares off most birds.
The day lilies behind the kitchen window were just opening when I was out there but all of the tomatoes are growing by leaps and bounds. Yay, tomatoes!
July 7--Mike Klemme, Green Coast. It looked like a golf course without flags, holes, sand traps, or golfers. The sea winds sculpted the shore exposing and then covering the jagged rocks. Sand the color of clay swirled and blew in eddies like small tan tornadoes caught between the sea and the land. Daria stood looking out to sea for a long time before making her way through the dune grass down over the crumbly rocks to the flat, gray brown beach.
~~~~~
I would like to have a shore out my door, or at least within walking distance. Maybe someday. Gotta go get the trash bin in and zoom off to work. Bye.
--Barbara
I saw the doc yesterday and he was mightily impressed with my progress. He had me walk and he twisted my foot around, had me hold a position against his pressure, and pronounced me cane and cast free and back in regular shoes. Yahoo! I told him I've been focusing on not limping and he said that was the secret, to train your brain that you're better and you will be. I knew that but I let him feel smarter and tell me. I'm nice like that. I'll still keep it wrapped or wear an elastic sleeve on it but essentially I'm healed. I don't have to go back for 2 months. That means that LC can come visit, parentless, for the first time in 3 months. We're so glad because we've missed having her all to ourselves.
Life is hopping in the backyard. There are baby tomatoes on all of the plants and a few blueberries are bluing nicely. The daisies and bee balm are putting on a show and a hummingbird flew over to visit a few of the bee balms while I watered the blueberries last night. I had my camera in my pocket but she was too quick for me. That's okay, I saw her and that's what matters, that moment of wonder. One of the chipmunks has laid claim to the dastardly step that broke my ankle. It sits up there grooming, nibbling on seeds, or sprawls on its belly chilling out. It's so very cute but I wish it would find someone else's plants to chomp on.
In indoor farm news, there're roots on the celery. Look! Time to find a pot.
Speaking of cameras, I got tired of the poor quality photos I'm getting with the refurbished Nikon I got a few months back so I went to the pawn shop and found a last year's model Canon for only $70, $50 cheaper than the lowest one I found online, so I bought it. Of course it didn't come with the battery charger and won't charge with a USB cable so I had to go on eBay for a charger but I found one for ten bucks with free shipping so I bought it. It should be here in a few days. There's always something, isn't there?
Knitting's going well. I was right thinking that the only way to get through the half-cuff ribbing on the Autumn Cumulus sock was to knit it all in one go without putting it down for any reason. I plan to declare silence for an hour tonight and get the other side done, then I am confident that I'll be able to go around and around to finish the cuff without having to be in a soundproof booth since it won't involve short rows and going back and forth.
Yesterday I finished the Advent Garland knitted mitten #1 and plunged right into Advent Garland crocheted stocking #1. All that's left to do is add the heel in the creamy white. I think I'll go up a hook size for the next one, it seems a little stiff but then no one's going to wear it so I won't be frogging it.
July 6--John Henley, Fishing, Outer Banks, NC.
Two figures, tall & small,
stand in the surf zone
rods in hands
hope in hearts.
Fishermen are made of hope
with some small measure of delusion
spicing the mix.
How else to explain
their patience
in the face of stolen baits
and empty creels?
~~~~~
I think sometimes I'd like to learn to fish. Maybe someday my grandson, Aa, can teach me. He's a fisherman. I get to go to work today and to stop at Aldi for a few things on the way. The oddest thing happened this morning, I opened the freezer intending to get some meatballs out for supper when Durwood said, "while you're in there grab those meatballs, they're looking a little icy..." I started laughing and told him that was exactly what I was in there to get. I got a jar of spaghetti sauce up from the basement and we agreed to make salads too, which is why I'm going to Aldi, they have grape tomatoes and mini cucumbers on special this week. Blueberries too. Yum, blueberries. I might get a bunch so I can make a pie. Hmm... *taps lips* yes, we need a pie. Tootle-oo.
--Barbara
Are you feeling rebellious today? I think about those overdressed, be-wigged men sweltering in that Philadelphia meeting room, hashing out how to extricate their colonies from King George the Third's grip, and I'm bewildered that they had the balls to do it. I also think about other colonists and countries under the control of another, bigger country (economically, not necessarily geographically) today and think that someplace on this Earth, in another hot meeting room, men, patriots are plotting ways to wrest back control of their own destinies. Kind of makes you take a step back, doesn't it? We were taught in school about the brave and noble Founding Fathers who made this county but nobody talks about how crazy that must have seemed to most people at the time. And it was treasonous too. We're talking hanging offense here, folks. Happy 4th of July!
Yesterday Durwood and I plotted our own little 4th of July celebration. I bought Salmon's weenies to grill and some buns too, we have baked beans, and I volunteered (in a moment of insanity) to make some potato salad. See, I was on my way to Walmart after dropping Durwood off at Sam's when he said he'd like some potato salad but would I please taste it so it wasn't too mustard-y and he wished we still had some of the potato salad I'd made for Father's Day. "I could eat that day after day." Flushed with flattery, my mouth took off before my brain engaged and I said, "I'll just make a half-batch when we get home; I know we've got all the ingredients." I will confess that I did berate myself as I walked around Wally World and I was sorely tempted by prepacked potato salad for only $2.49 but I resisted and made some in the afternoon. I gave him a taste before putting it away and he called it good. I'm excited because I love me some hot dogs on the grill. Yum.
I weeded out all of the nettles across the back on top of the retaining wall this morning. I wasn't going to do anything today except sit on the couch and knit but I couldn't stand staring at that long row of gigantic nettles anymore. So I got some heavy gloves, a garbage bag, and then a garbage can, and filled both of them, which meant a drive up to the yard waste dump site, but now it's nettle free back there. I do need to get me some Roundup because the nettles are so big I can't uproot them, I have to poison them. I hate doing it, hate using that stuff but I also hate getting stung by nettles so I'll do it.
Our little green tomato isn't so little anymore and it looks like it won't be alone for long. See the blossoms on the other plant? Tomatoes are in our future.
I left a few catmint plants on the retaining wall, mostly so it wouldn't be too bare up there, but it seems the goldfinches like the seeds.
July 4--John Henley, Runner.
Sunset light slants between trees
striping the trail.
A runner scans
the day's barcode as she passes.
~~~~~
Okay, now I'm going to go knit on the cuff of the Autumn Cumulus sock. I started it, got about 5 rows in, and then nearly fell asleep so I went to bed. I know I said I planned to knit it all in one go to prevent the ribbing shift but, man, I was just too sleepy. I keep thinking I should be ALL better, after all it's been three months now, but I tire out of an evening. I stopped wearing the air cast a couple days ago when I realized that my Achilles tendon hurt more in the cast than out. I'm still wrapping it in an Ace bandage for support but, since I'm against pain, I'm not wearing the cast. I hope the doc doesn't yell at me when I see him later this week.
--Barbara
I frogged the cuff. I just couldn't bear the thought of leaving such a glaring booboo alone. That sock will be examined by many a knitter and I would be constantly explaining my laxity in leaving the cuff ribbing shift mistake. The hardest part of frogging was not losing any of the stitches held from previous scallops and I only dropped (but quickly caught) one purlwise slipped edge stitch. Once I get potatoes on to boil for a half-batch of potato salad to go with our wieners on the grill tomorrow, I'll be buckling down to redo the left cuff without a pause in mid-cuffing. (I think that's when I went astray--maybe)
I've got red and white in the yard but no blue quite yet. The red daylilies down by the streetlight are blooming (I really need to weed that little area) and Dad's rose has some flowers perfuming the front of the house. In back the bee balm and daisies are exploding in bloom but the blueberries haven't quite caught up. There's the tiniest hint of blue on one berry but it's really hard to see.
I snuck across town and raided the henhouse, bribing "the grand-chickens" with a bag of bean ends, carrot peels, aged grapes, and some kale that had outlived its "best by" date, and coming home with one brown egg and one blue-green egg. (Actually I had the chickens' owners' blessing but it's a lot more fun to raid a henhouse than say "they said I could collect eggs." See? Boring.)
July 3--David Lissy, Wild Dunes, SC. The grass growing on the dunes bent nearly flat in the strong onshore wind. The waves pounded their way up the shore, flinging white foam up to fly far inland. Marnie huddled in a cleft of rock that forced the dunes to curve around it like embracing arms. The wind blew sand to sting her cheeks and make her eyes water. No one would find her there. No one would come to the beach on a night like this one. Soon the tide would come in and it would wash away her footprints. They would be sorry when she wasn't around anymore.
It's a gorgeous day. We went to Home Depot for some 40#-for-$10 charcoal and to Sam's for ALL of the vitamins (how come they all run out at the same time?). Yesterday I went to the closest grocery, Copps, for some things. They're resetting and rearranging the store and the discontinued items are on shelves in the pharmacy niche (where else?). Of course I looked and I found this coffee--Decaf Librarian's Blend, a smooth chocolate base with a hint of lime sparkle--I bought some but didn't realize it was beans until I got it home, so I took it back this morning to grind it. One of the things they took out of the store and haven't (and may not) put back is the coffee grinder. If you sell coffee beans, don't you think you should have a grinder? I do too. Not everyone has a grinder at home. I'm lucky that we do (DD called it "the Vv-vv thing) so I can make some of this oddball but intriguing sounding coffee soon. Because if I like it I'll go back looking for more. I know I'll like it because they always discontinue the stuff I like best. It's the story of my life.
--Barbara
I got to the cuff of the Autumn Cumulus sock last night at Friday Night Knitting and then hit a direction I wasn't familiar with so I picked it up this afternoon at home where the book with the directions is. It was only after I finished the left side of the cuff that I realized that I got one stitch off on about Row 6 of 15. If you squint at it, it looks okay. If you spread it out and really peer it at you can see that the ridges shift to the left one stitch. *sigh* I really don't want to rip it out and start over, I really don't. As I was taking this picture I thought, "if I wore this on my right foot this would be on the inside of my leg and no one would notice it" then I thought "if I cross my leg and my pants ride up this side will be out there for everyone to see so I'd better wear it on the left leg." To frog or not to frog, that is the question.
In the meantime, I cast on and knitted the I-cord hanger and the cuff of the first Advent Garland mitten. I saw this pattern a month ago or so and thought it'd be a fun thing to do. Then I found a Christmas crochet book at Goodwill (for 99 cents) that has a mitten and sock Advent Garland so I thought I'd try my hand at a knitted mitten and then crochet a mitten and sock to see about making a melange of yarn craftiness. (I also have the three "training" socks I made to teach sock knitting at Guild so I've decided that means I'm three stockings ahead of the game--and if I can find the first one I made, with DD's patient coaching, that'll be 4 socks on the plus side.) Full disclosure: this might be ready for Advent 2017, probably not for Advent 2016. Good thing 2/3 of my grandchildren are kind of too little for Advent-ing. (But then I also just realized that I've got two new grandsons who need full size Christmas stockings this year... on your mark, get set, crochet--because I'm faster at crocheting and I found the pattern I made DS's stocking with the year he was born and plan to use that one because I love it and I want to.)
The celery is rocketing on and there are a few roots snaking out around the edges of the bottom which means I'll be digging out a pot one of these days so that it can have its own home with soil and fertilizer and everything good.
The sky was just gorgeous when I drove across the Mason St. bridge on my way home from work on Wednesday. I'm very glad that I can snap a few pictures without slamming into the median or other drivers. It helps that I set the cruise control for a few mph over the speed limit so most of the drivers speed by me leaving me alone to take a couple snaps.
July 2--David Lissy, Skier. "Not on your life." Carole stood next to the ski lift, a slight figure in sea green ski clothes. She leaned on her poles looking down the slope that was dotted with boulders sticking out of the snow and groves of pine trees. "It's the only way down," Gary said. "You lied to me. This isn't a beginner's slope." He heard the quiver of fear in her voice and was almost sorry he had bent the truth to get her up there. "No, it isn't but I knew you'd never have come up otherwise. All you have to do is follow me. I'll go slow." She watched families get off the lift and some of the kids were pretty small. If they could do it, she could too. "Okay, but go slow." He grinned his daredevil smile and took off straight down the mountain.
What a jerk. I hope he runs into a boulder. Hey, I did yoga again this morning. Woohoo! It feels great. What didn't feel great was strapping on the air cast afterward. When we got home from meeting friends for brunch and doing a couple errands, I iced my ankle and heel (which was the part that objected most to the cast). Then when I did another errand later this afternoon I left off the air cast, put a sock on over the Ace bandage, dug out a pair of regular shoes and it felt great. I see the doc next week and I'm hoping that he'll say I can chuck the air cast. Fingers crossed. I won't give up my PT exercises he gave me or stop icing it at least once a day but I'd like to quit with the cast already.
--Barbara
Aunt B voted for an orange stripe in the preemie hat so it can go to a tiny Miami Dolphins fan. Can you tell which NFL team is her first love? (Anybody else love Bob Griese? Not like she does... maybe his mom... I'm just saying.) I got a good amount of rounds done so I'll grab the skein of peachy orange and put in a few rounds of stripe in Aunt B's honor because today is her birthday. Happy Birthday to my beloved Aunt B from her devoted namesake. I love you more'n my luggage.
