What To Do On A Hot July 1

 

My friends CJE and AE are taking care of both of their moms in their home.  One is 92 and the other is almost 90.  They are not well, but with the care given them they could last a while longer.  Because my friend CJE is a weaver, spinner, dyer, knitter, and a writer, she had to give up some of her own personal space to house her mom.  It has been a long two or so years of grumbling and passive behavior.  So my friend took her own money and bought a portable building and yesterday it was delivered.  JE and I showed up to support our fiber sister and to watch the events. 
Needless to say it was hot outside all afternoon.  I was pooped by the time I got home and Patty went to bed.
 We are gathering on Saturday to move things in.  It will be a great space for her to play and be creative.  She will have her looms out and ready to weave.  Her spinning wheel can go from house to studio and back.  So can her knitting.  Now the containers of fiber can find a home, the books can find a home, and it will be really nice to put things in their places.
Just as Virginia Woolf said, a woman really needs her own room.  Congrats to CJE! It is wonderful to have you back in the mood to weave and play and spin and knit and write whenever you walk into the door.

Wandering through March!

Yes, it is March 10.  We are stoically marching on through March.  It has rained two good rains.  Last night we actually had thunder and lightening and wind.  It was lovely.  Thank goodness, Patty has had a hearing deficit for a while.  She does panic when she sees the lightening strike nearby, but I don't think she hears the thunder as much as before. 

It was lovely to dig out the umbrella and push Patty out the door and take a little walk in the soppy ground puddles.  The ground was quite mushy and verging on muddy. 

Spring is popping up in odd places, as it always does in March each year.  My yard originally had been a pasture.  So I don't really have decent grass, and I have a lot of pasture weeds.  Chickweed, henbit, wild onions, plantains, etc. are popping up everywhere.  The teensy-weensy bluets are blooming.  When I bought the house the yard had been mowed carefully to make it appear there was yard. 

One year later I discovered that I don't have a yard, but a pasture.  And in the pasture are pasture daffodils.  They are the kind that were not planted by anyone, but suddenly there they are blooming away.

I am watching the forsythias carefully from now on.  They are the forecasters that tell me that it is time to rejoice.  It is over.  We will still have cool days and evenings until May.  When the forsythias are blooming, winter is over.

One of our weaving guild members died last fall.  Her sisters are trying to sort through her studio and mountains of stuff.  Several guild members have helped them along the way.  Yesterday they held a sidewalk sale for the weaving guild members prior to our meeting.  It was astonishing how many bags of yarn there were.  I am seriously trying to limit mine, and it hurts to see how her stuff was sorted and pawed through.  I know Sally would have wanted us to do just what we were doing.  We honor her by taking good care of her things.

I am on the second bobbin of yellow yarn.  I have switched today to watching Miss Marple.  It isn't something I have to think too much about.  She is so clever with her logical observations.  I love to watch the actress knit.  She has an interesting style of holding the right hand needle.

I am knitting a beautiful scarf with the green Polworth wool I spun. The pattern is in the book One Skein Wonders.  The pattern is easy and I don't have to think too much. I am also knitting on a pair of fingerless mitts-just plain and simple-no pattern on the mitts.  The yarn is enough interest with the dyes.

I guess that catches me up to date.  It has been cloudy, windy, and chilly all day.  By week's end we are supposed to be 70 degrees!  Unfortunately, it is time for me to clean up the winter debris out of the flower beds and do some weed control early.  So my short reprieve from the yard is coming to an end early.  I like working out in the yard.  For some reason, I never can see an end to it.  It goes on and on and on.

Enjoy the winds of March.  It blows out the old staleness and brings in the freshness.

It Rained!

Yesterday morning when I took Patty for a walk, it was warm, muggy, and it certainly felt like a storm was coming.  There were Peepers making noises, calling up the rain.  My head hurt, my back hurt, and I felt every ache in my joints.  A storm was coming!

Sure enough, about 10:30 am I heard distant rumblings of thunder.  I hurried Patty outdoors to get a potty break before the rain.  I know she hates storms.

Then the gulley washer came.  This was a real Spring-like storm.  Winds howled, rain gushed, and it rained all the day and into the evening.

I lost all cyber communications at 12:30 pm.  I have a bundled service for internet, t.v., and landline.  It was all gone.  I did not get these services back until this morning.  It was a long, quiet evening of knitting, reading, and a little bit more spinning.

Strangely I never felt any tornadoes nearby.  But there were some tornadoes south of us.  Those storms headed East, and it is the same storms that got Georgia.  I think they are heading further East today.

The weatherman said tonight that the amount of rain was significant.  We got the most rain in one day that was last recorded in 2011.  We are still in severe drought.  But it was a good rain.

Oh-and this morning we had some kind of snow event for about an hour.  It was weird snow pellets.

Now it is really cold, windy, and normal winter weather.  This is supposed to last two days, and then another warm-up is coming.  SIGH!

I finished plying my BFL today.  I will wind it up on the skein winder tomorrow, wash it, and block it.  YEAH!

And I got an order for two pairs of socks.  I am knitting as fast as my little hands will let me. 

I am also half-way through with the last kitchen towel on the loom.

So some progress is happening.

Snuggle up and keep warm.

The Bizarre Weather Continues!

I think it is totally boring to always talk about the weather.  But the weather is bizarre.  We have been in drought since May-three months.  Suddenly we are getting a Fall-like pattern of thunder storms without a lot of rain.  It certainly isn't a drought-buster with a total of less than an inch.  But a lot of thunder and lightening. 

And the temperatures are cooler.  I mean-whodathunkit-high 50's at night?!?  Perfect camping weather!

I have also begun feeding the songbirds.  I never have done this so early before.  There is very little food for them in the weeds.  The finches have returned, and I have the usual chickadees, titmouses, cardinals, blue jays, wrens, etc.

I saw a show on t.v. about the hummingbirds the other night.  There is concern that the drought will effect their migration pattern.  So people are putting out more food for them all over the place.  I haven't had a lot of activity, but the birds do eat a lot of sugar water.

 I also saw a blurb on t.v. that said butterflies will have a similar problem with their migration.

I am so very close to the end of the shawl/wrap/scarf with feather and fan pattern.  I am ready to be done and move on to the next project.

SIL socks are getting there too.  I have turned the heel and I am in the gusset on sock two.  Once I finish the gusset, the rest is easy-peasy.

CJE loaned a DVD set on Loom Maintenance, and I watched disc 1 last night.  Nothing new.  I am thinking I really had good teachers when I learned to weave a long, long time ago.  There is so much more to weaving than just sitting down at a loom and weaving.  I hope that the students I taught a long, long time ago think I taught them so much more than how to get a good product off the loom.

With the cooler weather, I want to get out in the yard more.  I did pull some weeds this morning early.  I have been cooped up with the a/c for so long this season.  I am ready to get out. I want to take Patty on a long walk in the woods somewhere.

Noodles has adopted Patty's bed, and sleeps in it all the time.  So I guess I will look for another one at the Dollar store next trip.  Patty gets really upset when she sees him in her bed.  Poor little mistreated puppy. 

I am thinking about next projects in my head while I finish up the current ones.  I want to do a Fair Isle hat with the leftover yarn from the sweater vest project.  I also think I will make some fingerless gloves. 

CF just finished her first pair of gloves, and is excited about that.  Gloves are like socks-once you do one pair, you know they are not hard and can continue doing them.  It is getting over the fear part that is hard.

I guess that's it.  Nothing too new.  Just bizarre weather patterns.  The usual household drama going on.     

It's July-It's Hot!

I am certainly not going to talk about the weather.  It's July-It's Hot!  And dry!  Watching for fires.

Sometimes I find certain amusements in my two fur kids.  Noodles has been teasing Patty a lot lately by lying in her bed.  Then one day I put my basket on the chaise while I was doing something else.  And there he found his nest.   Maybe the message is "Fill the space you are in".  He is a 17 pound cat, and it is a wonder what he can do with his body.  Today he is snoozing in my photo cube I set up on the screened porch.  A great cave place.

Patty has been going to the neighbor's to find junk thrown out.  The other day I had to walk over to their yard and scream at her.  She is great with her selective hearing.  She came trotting up with something in her mouth.  It was a piece of garlic bread they had thrown out for the birds and critters.
Today she just wants to play on the floor and eat her "chewy".

I finally put out a bowl of water for the woodchuck and other rodents.  I know that everyone is looking for water lately.  I put water in the bird bath everyday.  I also put out half of a small watermelon the other day, and it was gone in one day. 

Oh-I am happy, happy, happy that my grocery store has yellow watermelons.  I don't know why, but I really like to eat fruit in season.  The melons I have been getting lately are super sweet and wonderful when cold.  The peaches are local grown.  They are small, but oh, so sweet and juicy.  The corn is really sweet now too.

I have finished one skein of my baby camel/merino that I plied with black alpaca.  I really like the contrast of the natural beige and black.  Now onto #2.

I finished sockie #1, and I started #2. 

I am still knitting on the soft, squooshy, merino wrap. 

I am still weaving the dishtowels.

I am still sewing squares for the next quilt.  Oh, I should be getting the latest quilt from the quilter today.  I can't wait.  Then I can put binding on it and be done.

I am still using the air conditioner.  Can't take the humidity and wool together.

So that's it! 

My nephew's wedding was cancelled for tomorrow.  Something going on, but he is not talking to his dad about it.  That's my brother-who is really upset over it all-and I emailed my nephew with all the love a meddling aunt could muster.  I just want him to be happy.

No plans for the 4th.  Just trying to stay cool and hydrated.

Have a fun time tomorrow, enjoy the week, and stay cool!