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!

A Little Relief!

It is raining!  Our first real rain in two months!  It is a slow, female rain.  A little bit of wind occurred in the beginning of the event, and the trees shook with mirth in their treetops.  I heard a little rumble from the thunder beings earlier, but at a great distance.  The frogs are singing!  It is cooler than it has been-71 degrees.  I know what the weatherman said about 100 degrees by the weekend, but right now I want to send out gratitude to the universe for this relief!

Almost Solstice Time!

Well, I am doing the dreaded and awful job of cutting down the bachelor button stalks and spreading the seeds.  I hate to disturb the plants, because in the mornings the doves are usually roosting in there at night.  But watching the fires out west reminds me to cut down the stalks.  I don't need that much dead and dry material near the house.

The neighbor that owns the wooded lot behind my house is trying to do some husbandry things too.  I hate it.  I have piled up limbs and dead flower material for three years now.  I like the habitat I created for the little critters.  You know the ones most people hate are the mice and rats. But they are food for some bigger predators and it balances out.

Yesterday he took a huge tractor and cleared out behind my neighbors on the east side.  He has a nice fire barrier up to their fence line.  Luckily he broke a belt of some kind, and he hasn't made it down to my side yet.  I know it is a fire hazard and I should be thankful that he cares, but I have worked hard to create some kind of natural habitat.  Oh-and the birds love the underbrush too. Sigh! 

I have also been very busy cleaning up my studio space.  That was MAJOR!  I have a tendency to just pile up stuff and let things go for a while.  My friend CF gave me some really nice heavy-duty shelves and they have been sitting out on the deck.  So I started cleaning on Saturday.  I found the nest of all nests of brown recluse spiders that creeped me out.  I sucked up a bunch in the vacuum, and squashed quite a few.  It is the same feeling you get once you find a tick on you.  You think you are covered in them and every little itch is a tick.  Well, I finally had to leave the room and wait until Sunday to finish.

Sunday I moved the furniture, vacuumed really, really well, put up shelves and rearranged the fleeces.  I mean it was WORK!  I was really sweating.  Luckily toward the end of everything, CJE arrived with a chocolate milkshake!  We both went into sugar comas, but I rallied enough to clean the carpeting.  Then I showered and we played a little while.  She succumbed to the sugar coma and took a long, long nap.  While she was asleep, I cleaned the carpet cleaner out, took Patty for a walk, and finally settled into my spinning with a audio book.  She woke up feeling more human, and left shortly afterward.

I finally gave up and started a pair of socks.  I was sitting on the chaise lounge and just looked at the sock yarn bowl.  There was the prettiest yarn I don't remember ever having.  I picked it up and looked at it.  I put it back and said someday.  Well, Sunday night I cast on a pair of socks with it.  This is the first pair of socks I have knit this year.  I don't count those UFO giraffe socks, since that was just a finishing of something I had already started.  I am doing a twisted rib and it looks really pretty.  Sigh! 

I am spinning some baby camel/merino now, and it is really yummy!  I love it.

I think I will go back to mowing my bachelor buttons.  I want to get that done before it gets too hot.

Talk to you after Solstice.

I Can't Remember When I Last Blogged!

I haven't blogged in oh, so long, that I can't remember when I last blogged.  Oh, well!  As I move through day by day, I will say that my days are the same ole thing.  There isn't a new blessed thing going on. 

I did finish this really lovely BFL skein of yarn last week.  I think one roving was called Autumn Splendor with reds, green, orange, and yellow in it.  I paired it with a semi-solid roving of just reds.  It was really pretty.  I took it for show and tell at the knit group, and JF pulled out money immediately to buy it.  She wants the other skein that was to be spun from the rest of the roving.  So this weekend I am listening to books on tape and spinning.  She is such a good knitter that it humbles me that she likes my handspun so well.  She showed me the pattern for the shawl she is going to make.  I hope I get to see it.

Patty and I did take the day off yesterday to go over to see CJE and play with fiber.  She is spinning for a shawl and I am knitting a shawl.  She has her own technique of "I have this bit of handspun that I think will make up nice" and she casts on without knowing if she has enough.  And sure enough, she has to stop and spin some more, still  not knowing if she has enough.  Somehow it always works out.  On her poncho she actually had to pull out some different color to spin and fiddle around with the pattern to make the colors right. And it worked.

I am so OCD that I have to spin up everything and then do all these math equations to make sure I have enough before I will even attempt to cast on.  And sometimes it doesn't work out and I unknit everything.  I wish I were more carefree with that.

Sadly the little bit of rain we got last wasn't enough to keep everything happy.  I am watering again.  My bachelor buttons are almost ready for me to mow down and scatter the seed.  There are enough flowers left that I cannot destroy the bees' happiness.

My althea (some call it rose o'sharon) started out puny and didn't have many blooms.  But when the cool snap and rain came, it popped out all over with blooms.  And my bumblebees are ecstatic.  Unfortunately, the flowers are dropping really fast.

I thought my comfrey died out in the drought last year, but this year three little spindly batches came up.  So I am watering them regularly, trying to get them to hang on a little longer.  Normally they are one of the tough plants.

And, guess what?  The grasshoppers are back!  Patty will have her extra protein, and they will begin eating everything.  They are so awful.  I think I am going to make a batch of tansy dye before they eat it down to nubs like they did last year.

My sunflowers are really short this year, and the heads aren't that large.  What seed I get goes to the finches.  I love to sit at the window and watch them chirpling and flitting around and eating seeds.

So back to the spinning wheel.  I am going to get this done this week so I can give it to her Thursday at knit group.  Then maybe I can finally get my loom warped!  I have been working on that too long.

And I need to send my quilt top off to the quilter this week. 

See-things are just putzing along around here.  The days are the same, but the season is different every time. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

This photo came to me from Paradise Fibers.  They send discounts to their customers on their birthdays.  I loved the two sheep.

Okay! It's Official-I'm Old!

I just returned from a whirlwind tour of the Arkansas Ozarks.  My friend CJE invited Ann Hood, the writer, to attend Books in Bloom in Eureka Springs.  She had to drive to Little Rock to pick her up, and deliver her to the Writer's Colony.  They spent a delightful evening on an art crawl on White Street, with wine and snacks along the way.  CJE had to return home to check on the moms and to check in with her husband.  Sunday a.m. she came over here, and we took off to Eureka Springs for the Books in Bloom event.  The afternoon was mostly HOT, with occasional clouds and wind.  We had a wonderful meal at Carib with a lot of the local folks that CJE knows.  Then after a restless night at a friend's house, we got up Monday to return Ann to Little Rock to fly away eastward. 

We took a quick trip down the Pig Trail, and onto the interstate straight into Little Rock.  We arrived in plenty of time to swing by the capitol building.  Then after dropping Ann off at the airport, we headed westward on the interstate.  We stopped at some friends' house in Conway to check in with them.  We stayed overnight, and then up and out yesterday morning.  Home again around 1 p.m.

I met some wonderful people, but I tell you the best were the kitties at K and R's house in Conway.  They have ten cats.  They were wonderful kitties.  I needed some kitty love by that time.

I picked up Patty at the boarders, and she was ecstatic to go home, too.  Bless her heart, she slept the whole afternoon and evening.  She was worn out.  Well, we both were.  Two old ladies , groaning and moaning, and just pooped.

It was fun to talk to Ann the whole trip, but I don't know how she manages her schedule and her life.  She travels a lot.  It was just remarkable to hear the stories and to laugh and to have fun on this quick little trip.

I am finally getting back to schedule again.  I got the trash out this am, watered what little bit I am watering, and unpacking my bag.  I need to shower and get dressed, but I may just not do that today.

My neighbor brought me supper last night.  I had to keep from hugging her.  I was so tired, and hungry, so I just pulled out something from the freezer to stick in the oven to heat up.  Just as I closed the oven door, the doorbell rang.  She had a platter full of fried crappie, real fried potatoes, and hush puppies.  It tasted really good.  When they cook fish, they usually bring me some of it.  That is the only time I eat fried foods like that.  It always tastes really good, because someone else makes it.

So I am going to try to get the vest finished this week.  I only have a coupla days left in the week, but I think I can do it. 

We are getting water-deprived here.  I have been watering my buckeye trees and some of the flowers.  A friend reminded me last night that I don't have to water the trees.  They go into dormancy to reserve energy.  But it hurts to see their leaves go yellow and fall off.  Nature is so good to figure out how to survive things like droughts.

Have a great rest of the week.  Gotta run!

"As I get older, I just prefer to knit." - Tracey Ullman

August in May

Well-the weatherman says we are in an August weather pattern for two weeks-August in May!  Can this weather get any stranger?  I have been watering already, since we have had no significant rain whatsoever.

I am almost finished with the last motif for the vest, and then onto the easy ribbing part.  I am ready for this to be done.  I can only do the knitting in the early morning hours or in the evenings.  It is too hot during the day to have a sweater in my lap.

I am supposed to go to a wedding this afternoon.  I have talked myself out of that, but I feel guilty.  This is a lifelong friend's son, and I know him.  But I don't know the woman that well, and the wedding is all about them anyway.  I would only be there for my friend, but she will be caught up in all the activity that I won't be missed.   See how well I justify not going!

Patty is going to the doggy hotel for the weekend today.  I am going to Eureka Springs with CJE for Books in Bloom, and then we are going to Little Rock Monday to take someone to the airport.  So a little change of pace here.

 I gave Patty a bath this morning, so she is clean and not stinky.  She is going through an itchy spell.  I can't find any reason for the itching, but she does.  Of course, she rolls in the grass. 

Things are drying up fast around here.  When I walked to the mailbox yesterday, the grass is beginning to crunch.  It is so sad. We have had such lush greenery, and then for all that to dry up.

Nothing new to report.  Just wanted to check in and update a little bit.  I have a new project in mind after the vest.  It will be a long time knitting, but hopefully it will be exactly what I want.  Details are forthcoming.  And it will be after I turn on the air conditioning.  So far I have avoided that.

Have a good weekend.