Thursday, May 31, 2007

Yarn for lunch!







Sadly, a wonderful local yarn store is closing. Sigh. So I drove the 25 minutes out there on a long lunch hour today for the closing sale. I've been yarn dieting for over a year now, with only some sock yarn in the meantime (my 10-year old handknit socks are finally showing some wear - THANK GOODNESS). And well, there was that one other exception that I blame Wendy Johnson for. But we'll share that when the yarn arrives. I take my lunch to work everyday and save my lunch money......today, my ship came in! It was like getting yarn for free! Actually, I bought a number of deeply discounted patterns because I never buy patterns and these are cool ones that have ideas or design solutions. And oh yeah - three felted bag patterns. (Wendy - see the Noni bag? Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery.) A gardener needs a felted bag with roses on it, don't you agree? And there is a set of Pony Pearls dps in US 0, Lantern Moon rosewoods in US 2 (one of my most-used sizes), and some bamboo US 2s as well.




















This is my stole (long rectangle shape of knitted lace). It's Knitpicks Alpaca laceweight in the light blue color, knit on a bamboo circular US 5. So soft, with that fuzzy halo of alpaca. The pattern is blissfully easy - it's actually my TV knitting. From Victorian Lace Today (VLT), it's Scarf with the striped border from Weldon's, Volume 5, 1890. Yes, it's an actual lace pattern from 1890! I doubled the width from the VLT pattern, because I love stoles but hate scarves. It has not been blocked out yet, so it will be about 1/3 wider, and totally stretched out to the nth degree. The pattern will become much clearer. Just wait and you'll see!


Gardening projects are everywhere: Here's Mike with the supervising gardener in the melon patch.


Monday, May 28, 2007

How do you make a long weekend better?



By taking an extra day off, of course!

I took off today, just in case the weekend needed 24 more hours to steep and reach perfection. I am spending today (wrote this last night) in my backyard, just soaking in it. I love our backyard. Mike has planted it beautifully and it is our private park. It has sun and shade, and there is no single spot where you can stand or sit and see everything in it. You must move around, explore it, be curious. Collette said, "Regardez." Look - observe - explore - notice - wonder. I love to sit and read a book out there, then move to another location and read some more.

Last night for dinner I made cold beet soup, AKA Pink Perfection. Totally new to me, made from scratch (well, canned beets is not really cheating). This has to be the most bizarre food I've ever seen - bright pink chilled soup with chunks of vegetables - but eating it is heaven. It's like a salad with too much of a delicious dressing and a baked potato on the side. I took a picture of my lunch today, served al fresco on the deck. Technical lesson of the day: never delete all the pictures on your memory card until you're absolutely sure they're successfully transferred to your hard drive. Needless to say, Mike has no interest in this soup and was happy to eat his suggested entree: cereal.

A good book, and the company of a good friend from the taxononic family Canis, completes my day of leisure. My friend has completely exhausted himself with hours of play with his adored big red ball. See above for relevant technical lesson.

As summer closes in on us





Welcome!

Today begins our blog. These pictures were taken on our recent Tour of the Falls. The one on the left is Triple Falls, and the right is High Falls. They were taken with my point-and-shoot camera, no fancy zoom lens or anything. Mike hiked to both of them while mother and I just admired them. We kept asking what in the world took us so long to get there?


This kicks off our new blog, so we easily share our goings-on with family and friends. Today's post runs the entire fenceline - time will demonstrate that we actually move very slowly toward our ridiculous number of goals. We don't actually have much to say, day to day. Please leave your comments - we'd love to hear your thoughts!!

Geneology


Today we celebrate Memorial Day. http://www.ancestry.com has made their entire collection of military records available to the public through D-Day. We signed on for a free three-day account yesterday, jumped in and were quickly swimming through our set-aside geneology research. First thing was to look up my father's service records. Guess what he gave as his occupation when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps? ACTOR!! He claimed to be an actor in motion pictures, also a motion picture director and entertainer. And here he is - just as he was in life - giving us a good story, and presenting the lighter side on a day of remembrance.

Since there was a war during almost each generation in US history, we have a number of records to find.



Then we worked at finding my great-grandmother's family. Despite much searching several years ago, records were holding her memory dear and she remained "off the grid." We wondered, what secrets did her life hold?



So when her name showed up on the MS Federal Census, listing her children right there - WOOOOO HOOOOO!! We found her and were able to trace her back through the 1900 Census, when she was 37 years old. Finding her in the 1880 Census is getting tough though. Her multiple marriages are complicating research, too. Finding a woman's maiden name is a major challenge.



Mike began researching his family, and found some very interesting records to send to his dad.



Gardening




We are expanding our former vegetable garden this year and building a fence around it. Our melon-farming of the past few years has been shelved in favor of a temporary herb garden. However, these melons don't give up without a fight, and Mike is going to nuture along a few volunteer melon vines.

Herb gardening is the greatest gardening!! It's easy, and you can eat the results without planning a menu around it. Our flat-leaf parsley is most productive, and we have plenty already frozen for the winter. The next project is making herb butters.



Thanks to Jane, and her major house remodel set to get underway in the fall, we will soon have a rose garden running outside the garden fence! She needs to move her rose garden, rather than bulldoze it, and we are most excited to be the future home for many of her gorgeous plants, as well as her 25 years of rose-growing experience to guide us along.



Dogs

The latest dog toy is our digital camera. What took us so long to make the switch to digital?!!!!???

Tillie went for her 6-month checkup and saw the vet who originally set us on the homecooking path. Dr B was stunned at her improvement and obvious, shining good health. Tillie is continuing to recover, becoming more and more active, curious, demanding, and engaged. You can only conclude that the Aussies were not getting the nutrition they needed on their former food.



Rowdy is doing great. Our Atlanta obedience teacher is encouraging us to aim to enter him in Novice Obedience in December! It will be a big step, and we'll see how we do playing the tough, tough game of competitive dog obedience.


Knitting



My progress on an easy lace stole from Victorian Lace Today continues. It's in Knitpicks laceweight alpaca, very soft with a pretty fuzzy halo, in a sky blue. Very yummy. I doubled the width of it so it's more stole-like than scarf-life. Incredibly easy - a 2-row repeat, and the second row is simply knit across. Pictures to be up soon, I promise!