Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Just A Perfect Weekend

Just started up the wash and wonder at the overlap of seasons when there are wool socks and shorts in the same load.



The last day of May is going to be a record breaker, heat -wise. May has already broken all records for rain amount. I have managed to get most of the garden beds weeded and the pots planted. The vegetables are still waiting to go in, the back of the yard is just too soggy.



It's azalea and iris time in the garden, soon to be followed by early day lilies and clematis. I picked up five more lily plants and put them in, both early and late bloomers. Not sure if they will bloom this year, though.


I scored some yarn I had my eye on at my LYS's Memorial Day sale. Four skeins of MadelineTosh (I just love this yarn). The colors are Carnation and Antler, and I am going to use them for the Swallowtail shawl that I have started twice with yarns I didn't like therefore abandoned them part way and the Damask shawl. Yes the Carnation is wildly pink! If I were naming it, I think I would have called it Cotton Candy, sticky-sweet pink. We'll see how this looks as lace.


Also picked up three skeins of Classic Elite Silky Alpaca for the Frost Flower Shawl. This looks like an epic project, but I am really looking for something challenging right now and this fills the bill. Casting on 992 stitches, right off the bat you have a challenge. Since this uses a size 6 needle, just like everything else I've started this spring, its going to have to wait until I finish my lacy cardigan. All the knitting is done, just have to put it together and pick up and knit 6 rows for the front band.


This weekend I read Laura Lippman's "I'd Know You Anywhere". I really enjoy Laura's books and this is one was no exception. Riveting. Her characters are so well drawn and the stories and POV so compelling, they are hard to put down. I downloaded this from the library as an ebook and put it on my iPhone, laptop and desktop computers, so I was able to sit on the patio and knit and read yesterday afternoon after we got back from the Memorial Day parade (official start to Summer). This is the second ebook I've read on the laptop and it does take a little getting used to, not much, just a little. It's great for reading and knitting. Do I want an ebook reader? Maybe.


We watched some old WWII movies on TMC over the Memorial Day weekend. Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, just right.

Friday, May 20, 2011

A Blog of Many Colors

Just started gassing up the lawn mower to tackle the front lawn while waiting for the guys to come and seal the driveway when it started pouring. Both those things will probably have to wait for tomorrow. Sigh. The plan for today was to spend the day getting garden beds weeded and purchasing and planting my pots with annuals. Not going to happen.

The biblical amount of rain here is making for an incredible variety and intensity of green everywhere you look, which is a wonderful thing after the winter. So I will just enjoy it.


The bird feeders got filled and it's time to enjoy the exotic strangers who come for a quick feed on their way to their summer homes. We have had rose breasted grosbeaks stop by, an enormous pileated female woodpecker that made the flickers and red-bellied woodpeckers who are the year round residents look tiny in comparison. The finches are back in their yellow finery and they line up on the bushes next to the feeder waiting their turn. As I was typing I spotted a bird with an orange breast that I think was a bluebird. Didn't have my glasses on and by the time I went and got them and came back it was gone. So I can't be positive. Makes a nice addition of color to the normal browns and black of the wrens, sparrows, morning doves and blackbirds.

The lilacs bloomed and a week later I am still able to cut them and bring them indoors. Most years, it seems to get blazing hot when they bloom so they barely last a day or two. They cover the bush which is up to the second story of the house. We open the windows and the beautiful perfume fills the room.