Sheesh. I don't know what's up with me. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 4 o'clock, didn't look at any lights, didn't talk, barely opened my eyes, and do you think that my brain would stay turned off? It would not. This is probably Fate's retribution for bragging about how I "sleep the sleep of the innocent." Evidently I inadvertently pissed off the Sandman. (sorry, dude) If I wake up at 4 o'clock tomorrow morning I'm going to scream.
The daisies started blooming today. I went out to take their picture and saw dark spots on the biggest, most open one. It was full of ants! They were ringed around the center like horses at a round trough. The other open daisy didn't have any ants. I wonder what was special about that one...
Durwood's been complaining about the right-hand pockets of the lounge-type pants he wears. He has a perpetually runny nose (thanks, lifelong allergies) so he's always taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and putting it back in. He says it's hard to find the pockets. I sewed a loop of cord on one as an experiment but that folded in so he couldn't feel it. This morning I dug out some wide bias binding and sewed a strip onto each of the right-hand pockets to stiffen the edge, to make it easier to find. He says it's working okay. Still folds in but it's stiff enough that he can find the pocket. Whew.
I added a few rounds to the Blues Anklet but I still have an inch to knit before it's time to start the toe decreases. I hope this isn't one of those knitting black holes where you knit and knit and KNIT and get nowhere, before suddenly rocketing inches past where you're supposed to do something different. I'm keeping my tape measure handy.
July 2--Edward Killingworth Johnson, Third Volume. All I need is a cup of tea and a book. It's nice if I'm sitting in a garden with masses of fragrant roses climbing a trellis and swarming over the pergola but I'm just as happy in a chair by a window on a cold or rainy day.
And that was all I eked out before sleep overtook me last night. Not enough sleep, ended too early sleep, but sleep nevertheless. I'm going to post this and see if I can't manage to sleep at least until daybreak tomorrow. Wish me luck.
--Barbara
... is just too damned early to wake up and not be able to fall back to sleep. That was the time when Durwood called out that he couldn't find his cannula this morning and, since that's the hose that delivers the oxygen he needs to breathe, it's kind of important. Well, I helped locate it, patted his head, went back into my bed, and COULD NOT FALL ASLEEP for the life of me. I even staggered up and dialed up the guided meditation I play as I turn out the light so that the correct "time for sleep" voice played. Nope, I lay there for over an hour with no luck. By then my eyelids kept popping open so I gave up and got up. Of course, Durwood was back in bed and back asleep. *sigh* So I went out in the relative cool of the early morning to hose the cottonwood fluff out of the air conditioner vanes so it doesn't get choked out and then I weeded around the straw bales (not the bales, just around them, because the bales don't come with weeds). Around 10 o'clock I decided to get back into bed and try to nap. No luck. After lunch I lay on the couch listening to/watching mindless TV which is where and when I nap, if I nap. No luck. I even sat here playing computer games during which I have been known to nod off for half an hour or so. Not today. Grr.
I noticed this morning that there are green tomatoes on the Wisconsin 55 plant which means that there are tomatoes-to-be on all four of our tomato plants.
The "thank you for the tomato cages" plant has a whole cluster of tomatoes on one stem, kind of like a group of grapes.
Tonight when I went out to unplug the fountain and say goodnight to the garden I saw that there's a bud on the butternut squash plant. I love when things start to fruit.
After supper I cast on and knitted six rows of the Montparnasse Eco Cardi right front. It's the same yarn as the first sleeve. I plan to put the light gray sleeve on the brown gray front and vice versa. The back will be dark red as will the collar that ties the whole thing together (or maybe I'll use the medium gray skein, hmm). I think it'll be one of those sweaters that goes with just about everything and gets worn to shreds. At least I hope it is.
July 1--Ernst Deutsch-Dryden, Poster for Salamander Shoes. Harriet watched the parade of feet that passed her window like a fashion-conscious centipede. Her window was level with the sidewalk so she only recognized people from the knees down. There was a woman whose tights always had a run up the right leg. She wore high heels in bright glitter colors and skirts so short that Harriet wondered how she sat down without baring her bottom.
That's all I wrote last night. I was tired from a day in and out of the heat and humidity and having company all day. I'll be pleased if I get even those few words tonight. My eyelids keep slamming shut. Better wrap this up, slap on some pictures, post it, and go night-night. (All of the pictures above here are either green, gray, or dawn pale so I thought I'd share a picture of more little zinnias blooming in the planters with the petunias.)
--Barbara
It was so hot and so humid today that OJ didn't want to stay outside to play this afternoon--and that's totally unlike him. I didn't cook, didn't garden (except for tying up a couple tomato plants), almost didn't go to Friday Night Knitting because it's just too bloody hot to cross the threshold from air conditioning to "fresh" air. But I did go to FNK and I finished the left front of my Montparnasse Eco Cardi. The right front is next. Maybe I'll get this sweater done by the end of August for Fringe Association's Summer of Basics challenge after all.
June 29--Franz Xavier Winterhalter, Empress Eugenie Surrounded by her Ladies-in-Waiting. The circle of women looked like a bouquet of flowers but they sounded like a flock of chickens. Peter stood at the entrance to the garden enjoying the view down to the river when the peace was shattered by a sudden cackling. He edged toward the sound, staying in the shadows, and soon saw his cousin Jeanne with a bunch of her school friends. They were all dressed for a garden party in colorful summer dresses. He knew that they would soon be headed his way and he planned to be long gone before they corralled him.
And that's it. I had another guy come look at the rental side's window wells to give me an estimate on fixing them so they don't leak into the basement anymore. I suspect that this one will be the middle bid and we'll probably go with him. I remembered to say the magic words as he was leaving, "we'll pay cash." Get's 'em every time.
--Barbara
P.S. The chili powder on the seeds in the feeder didn't deter the chipmunks one bit. Grrr.
...that sucked me up in the morning and spit me out in the late afternoon and all I had to show for it was a cauliflower ear from being on the phone so much and the feeling that I'd run a couple 10k races.
This morning the day lilies started blooming--and you can see some milkweed in there too so the Monarch Butterflies should come around again.
Speaking of critters coming around, what haven't come around are hummingbirds. I keep refreshing the birdie juice in the feeder and Durwood keeps an eye out for them. He was sure he saw one zoom by, take a sip, and dart away this afternoon but I didn't see it even though I turned as soon as he said, "hummingbird!" *sigh*
Durwood's brother and his wife are coming for a short visit this weekend and I promised my sister-in-law that I'd make some of my WW roasted red pepper hummus for them. I did that after supper, now all I have to do is buy a bag or two of pita chips and some baby carrots or something. Yeah, baby carrots, we're almost out of those anyway.
I didn't take a picture of supper but it was a good one. First, an ear of corn on the cob for each of us, his with butter, mine without. (surprisingly it's really good all by itself. I can't wait until Sunny Hill Farms corn is available) For the main course we had broiled sesame-lime swordfish and fresh green beans. For dessert Durwood had chocolate pudding and I had chocolate ice cream. Yum. Sorry I didn't take pictures but I was too hungry.
June 28--Robert Cozad Henri, Boy and Rainbow. The storm had been fierce. Rain fell like arrows drilling into the soil, lightning forged jagged trails between iron gray clouds and the ground, and thunder rumbled nonstop. Caleb sheltered in McCoy's tumbledown shed at the edge of the pasture. His dog, Rags, flattened herself on the dirt floor and tried to disappear. Once the storm moved away the rain slacked off, dragged east by the clouds, and Caleb watched for the sun to emerge. The first shafts of sunlight threw rainbows over the farm. He wished he could find the end of the rainbow where there was supposed to be a pot of gold. He didn't really believe in it but he'd like to check it out.
Hopefully I'll have something more to show you tomorrow than some incipient flowers and a Tupperware of hummus.
--Barbara
Dad's roses are blooming with abandon right now. There are clusters of buds and flowers on the end of each cane... well, except for the one that the %#$&! chipmunk gnawed off. This is a time that I wish we had smell-o-vision because these roses smell like heaven. Actually they smell like Grandma Angermeier's garden did when I was a little girl. She didn't have a pretty, decorative rose garden, she had two loooooong rows of rose bushes along the edge of the field right next to the house, all colors, all types, and she knew every one by name. Her favorite was the Mr. Lincoln which was a deep red rose much like Dad's rose but I know for a fact that this isn't a Mr. Lincoln. I don't know which one it is but I do know what it isn't. Oh, and speaking of the chipmunk, I put seeds in the platform feeder this evening and the little devil can shinny up the crook, even with a Slinky on the pole, so I liberally sprinkled chili powder over the seeds. It won't bother the birds but it should wreak havoc with the chipmunks. I hope.
These are the last of the yellow Asiatic lilies for the year. There are no more buds to open and the bunnies have nibbled up the leaves to just under the flowers.
I was excited to see that the first zinnia bloomed today. It's tiny, maybe the size of a half-dollar, and I think it looks great towering over the mass of white petunias it shares a planter with.
More red day lilies to come. One seems to open every day.
Today was a knitting day. I added quite a few rows to the left front of my cardi--after counting stitches and rows and engaging in some arithmetic to figure out the best plan to decrease to the correct number of stitches in the correct number of rows. I think I've got it. I do like knitting that decreases rather than increases, it's just so satisfying when progress speeds up.
June 27--Royal Crown Derby, Vase. Clarissa stood at the table dusting the ornate vase that she always thought looked like a genie should live in it. Every week she rubbed the vase with a soft cotton cloth and while she did she murmured her three wishes--that Mama would make someone else dust all this stuff, that her pimples would go away, and that her sister Hildy would stop hogging all the cute boys at choir practice. She didn't think that was too much to ask.
I wore my new fish dress today. I like it. I look good in it. It's probably too scratchy to wear without a shirt underneath it but I suspect that I'll be wearing it and washing it enough that it'll soften up over time.
I see that I'm getting better at getting this blog written before the witching hour. Good for me and good for getting enough sleep. Pleasant dreams, dudes and dudettes.
--Barbara
I have very little to report today. Most of my time was taken up with calling around to schedule estimates to get the leaking window wells of the rental side of the duplex repaired.
Then I went downstairs to sew. Look what I made--a red fishy Dress no. 1. The fabric is outdoor fabric so it's pretty stiff which means it'll stand out instead of drape so I'll look a bit like an escapee from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta but I don't really care. Can you imagine how good I'm going to feel in this bright red dress? I know I'll be smiling all the while.
This little plant is called penstemon. I bought it last year and planted it in the row of blueberry bushes. The bunnies didn't eat it down to the ground and according to the tag butterflies and hummingbirds like it. It's kind of out of my sight line but I like its flowers and the purple green color of its leaves.
June 26--Amadeo Modigliani, Jeanne Herbuturne Wearing a Hat. Her ice blue eyes stared at the rain. She didn't blink; she was beyond blinking. She didn't try to shelter from the rain; she was beyond that too. Martin Ellsworth stared down at the young woman lying in a field behind the warehouse district. He thought that her night had started with eagerness and gaiety but it ended here in the cold rain and litter. Martin hated seeing people discarded like empty candy wrappers, carelessly tossed aside like they didn't matter. That was what kept him on the force, kept him out hunting the people who held life in such low regard.
Those words came fast and with very little effort. It's very satisfying when that happens. Look, I'm might get to bed at a decent hour tonight. Wish me luck.
--Barbara
Sheesh. I don't know what's up with me. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 4 o'clock, didn't look at any lights, didn't talk, barely opened my eyes, and do you think that my brain would stay turned off? It would not. This is probably Fate's retribution for bragging about how I "sleep the sleep of the innocent." Evidently I inadvertently pissed off the Sandman. (sorry, dude) If I wake up at 4 o'clock tomorrow morning I'm going to scream.
Durwood's been complaining about the right-hand pockets of the lounge-type pants he wears. He has a perpetually runny nose (thanks, lifelong allergies) so he's always taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and putting it back in. He says it's hard to find the pockets. I sewed a loop of cord on one as an experiment but that folded in so he couldn't feel it. This morning I dug out some wide bias binding and sewed a strip onto each of the right-hand pockets to stiffen the edge, to make it easier to find. He says it's working okay. Still folds in but it's stiff enough that he can find the pocket. Whew.
