Clean Up

This was a vacation week for the kidos (they went camping at Watkins Glen), so we were almost kid free this week. Just one kid for a few hours on Wednesday. So we have been doing some cleanup around the house and garden, especially since the weather has been much more reasonable, mild days and almost cool nights.

Having overnight guests this coming week meant cleaning out the guest bedroom, which is usually used to house little kiddies. So all the bedding was washed and aired on the line, toys were put away and books were straightened.

The Buffalo Garden Walk was last weekend and we spent several hours touring the teeny gardens in the Cottage district, a couple of blocks that have adorable little houses dating from the 1850's. The way that the tiny space is used to create such high impact is always an inspiration, so I added some touches to my own garden.

I went to the garden center and found a sale table that had herbs and scented geraniums for half price, so I put together three aromatic pots for the patio,

took out this old lantern (circa 1914) that we found in the crawl space of an old house

and put succulents in these itsy pots. I have so many more ideas spinning round my head, it gets the creative juices stirring to see what others have done.

There was a trip to Seneca Lake for a family get together on Monday, which was lovely. The rest of the time we cleaned out gardens, weeding, dead heading. Today I think I will move a few plants that need more elbow room and some that have popped up in the wrong spaces. There has been much harvesting of cherry tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, eggplant and raspberries. I love it when the grandkids go looking for a handful of berries or tomatoes to pop in their mouths. It looks like the tomatoes are going to make it this year and we will have a bumper crop soon if all continues to go well.

Knitting? Ah yes, I continue to make progress on my diagonal afghan ( now on the decrease side) and Diamond and Purls Shawl (only 15 rows of the last repeat then the last chart of 6 rows and bindoff), but have conceeded these will continue into August. I can almost feel the call of fall knitting and the desire to start a cable sweater!!

My SIL wants me to teach her to make socks this week, so there will be a time out of regular knitting for some teaching moments.