Where did August go?

 Yeah... what the heck? August - I kept saying, "gotta get the blog done, gotta get the blog done..." and then - the rest of August happened. 

On August 11, a derecho blew through, 90-100 mph winds whipping through, and several tornadoes in Illinois. This tree limb was about 2 blocks from my house, and it's resting on power lines. 

We live in an older neighborhood, where all the lines are above ground - and no, the city is not going to bother burying them. We're stuck with it. When a grasshopper farts, or there's a slightly quicker breeze or a "not quite heavy" rain, we can be guaranteed to at least have our power flicker. Or go out entirely. 

Mind you - Tornado Season is April - June. And Tornado Alley was "officially" shifted to include Illinois. When I was a kid, we were always told that we were in "Tornado Alley" - while it was, according to the meteorologists, closer to the Great Plains, Iowa going west. Well, now we're actually in it. 

I was at work when the storms first hit. My office is a renovated 1960s bungalow -- with a cinderblock basement. The power flickered, first, and then went out. Then the sky turned black - like night-time black, and it was about 11 a.m. I sit by two large picture windows, and I saw the wind picking up, so I actually grabbed the flashlight, my purse and my keys and headed down to the basement. I hate the basement. It's small, cramped, and claustrophobic. But I hated the thought of being shredded by window glass even more. The power briefly came back on, so I popped upstairs. 

Then, about 10 minutes later, the sky...turned green. I scampered back down there and stayed there as the sirens were wailing, and the rain was hitting the windows so hard that I thought they were going to break. I was not happy. As soon as it cleared, I packed up the office (now definitely without power and no sign that it was coming back anytime soon) and tried to head home. I work in an older part of the town across the river from where we live. I navigated the old streets, and the many, MANY trees and limbs that were down; neighbors were already out there with chain saws and axes, trying to get the roads cleared and making sure there were no downed wires that were under the trees. Several trees blew over, roots and all. I tried to go my normal route home, and found the way blocked by what seemed like the entire town's supply of cops and emergency vehicles -- there was a large tree that had fallen and taken down live power lines. 

Turned around and went the other way home. It was a mess, so many traffic lights out, so much storm damage. 

We were without power for 3 1/2 days. Thank God for generators. It seems like the "music of the summer" here in the summer of 2026 is the hum of generators. We'll be looking at a whole-house system later this year for sure. I called my mom and asked, "Do I remember that I hated camping as a kid?" She said that both my sister and I were VOCAL in our disdain for camping. 

I still hate it. We were lucky, and I know that. I can't complain: we had generators running, kept the fridge and freezer going, Hubby's computer, one light, and a large fan. But we literally lived in 1 room. I slept on a blow-up mattress and Hubby took the couch (my preference, so don't flame him...I preferred it). 

The neighborhood wasn't as badly hit as some, in terms of trees down. But the power -- Wow. So many people out, ComEd was overwhelmed, and some folks who actually DID get those tornadoes? They were out for the better part of a week. 

And those folks in NW Indiana? Good Lord. They were POUNDED and some areas are still - we're talking since August 12 or so - without power. This is nuts. 

But hey... Global warming is a hoax, right? 

The Knitting...

Oh wow - I managed to pull off an entire FULL-SIZED afghan in FOUR MONTHS. Yeah, I didn't think I could do it either. This is the lovely Soft Serve Panel Throw from Plymouth Encore. It's using 2 tones of Encore Worsted yarn - my personal go-to fave for this and baby items - and I added a border, because I don't do fringe or tassles. 

It's for a wedding, the couple requested the panel colors, and I added the dark pewter with the image of "stained glass" in my head. I hope it worked; I think it does. 

Nerdy Notes: MC = 3 balls of Plymouth Encore Worsted, CC = 2 balls. Size 8 circular needles (24" cable does just fine here) and size I (5.5 mm) crochet hook

FYI, I used 2 balls of dark pewter yarn for the contrasting crochet to attach the panels to each other. You can just use mattress stitch, but my mattress stitch sucks, so... And then I did a double crochet around the perimeter of the entire piece to tie it all together. 

Also -- for some reason, I used 4 balls of the green. I have no idea why. The colors are discontinued - Shamrock Heather and Sunflower. 

I'm back to socks, because I'll be doing some traveling. My mom's white Sophie Hood is going to wait till I'm done being on the road. White doesn't travel well... So I have a sock which I'll show you next time. Right now, it's just the first 6 rows, with my standard "roll" before I start the ribbing. Another vanilla one - using Opal's "The Little Prince" colorway. It's vaguely red-white-blue, which is only marginally patriotic - the tones are pretty muted, so it hollers "blue jeans" rather than "'Murrica!"

So this one is practically "vintage." A long, long long long long time ago, I took 12 balls/hanks of sock yarn, and put them in a large tote. I told Hubby, "Bag these in the brown lunch bags, one hank/ball each, and mark them for one month of the year, starting in January, because I'm going to knit a pair of socks a month for a solid year."

Yeah, no. It didn't work out. First off, I was relatively new at socks at that time, and I'm not the world's fastest knitter from the get-go. I got through the first quarter, sort of. Then, there were other projects: baby knits, a wedding gift, Christmas... and I started realizing that knitting a pair of socks a month just wasn't going to happen. 

I asked him to pull one of those bags for this "travel knitting," and he did - this was July, I believe. The plain vanilla will do well with this colorway, as it's looking like it's more variegated than self-patterning, but it's early yet. It feels nice to have my hands on socks again. 

I was finishing the afghan as the heat wave hit. Having a large wool afghan on your lap (even in the A/C) when it's 100 degrees outside is not optimal. But it's done and ready to hand over to the happy couple. 

Travel... 

Heading out to see Kid #1. It's the first time I'll have been out there in a couple years. Since before my hip replacement, actually. 

I have no pictures, but you'll have to trust me -- in order to prepare myself for the trip, I took a couple horseback riding lessons. I hadn't been on horseback in almost 8-ish years, and since then, with the hip replacement, I just wanted to be sure that I was ok. I ride Western, which is a whole lot more comfortable, given the new "hardware" (and yeah, even though it's been a little over 3 years, it's still "new" to me). 

I was able to ride at the stable where I volunteer, and I rode both Deuce and Zeus -- and yes, I know that sounds terribly confusing. Deuce is a lovely quarter horse, a big boy. Zeus is a Paint, a bit smaller. 

The picture here is Deuce; he's one of the horses I clean up after. Isn't he the cutest? He can be a bit spicy, but he is a very steady therapy horse. 

We have a new trainer in the barn, and she and I have really hit it off. I enjoyed my lessons with her, and I would like to book more - it was fun to get back on the horses, and while this was prep for trail riding, it was fairly easy - just walking, maybe a faster walk, learning (again) to steer, getting my seat back in order, and just moving with the horse. 

That's why I prefer Western. Posting - which I tried pre-hip-replacement - was not for me, and now with the hip, it's a no-go. I'm sure that if I had done it before, it would be different, but I dislike the constant up-and-down, and I want to just sit comfortably on the horse and follow its natural movements. More "Gary Cooper on a horse" rather than "Olympic dressage." 

The Garden...

I have 22 tomatoes. Only one of which looks like it might turn ripe before I have to leave for vacation... The squirrels got a lot of the green ones, and I'm hoping they've moved on to collecting the acorns which are starting to fall - for some reason, my tomatoes are late, even though I planted them on time. 

We had a weird summer, that's all I can tell you. 

And the hummingbirds are starting to migrate. My feeder has been like a Route 66 diner in the days of the Mother Road. The birds are ignoring the two bright red mandevillas next to the feeder and they're starting to fuel up for the big flight back toward Mexico. This little girl seems to be a frequent customer - but it's hard to tell them apart. We may just be getting more females this year. She posed so pretty! That's our maple tree behind her. 

Even though we tried for a second leafing-out of the red romaine, it didn't amount to much, and the basil all went to seed. What was left of all the plants after August 11 with the derecho - they were pretty beat up. The pink petunias seemed to handle things ok, though, and they're hanging in there. 

We didn't even get the fountain up at all this year. The birds had to do with the regular bird bath and the small solar fountain hanging on the lamp post. 

Current Affairs...

I thought I had some stuff to say about The State of Things... but I find that I really just don't want to deal with it. I want to go find dog grooming videos on YouTube. I'm not tuning out, honestly. I just need the mental break. 

I finished my 150 Signs of Justice postcards and they'll be mailed out in a few weeks, as a nudge to voters. 

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: This I will say -- If you have a mail-in ballot - DO NOT MAIL IT IN. Do a search or call your County Clerk's Office and find out where the authorized drop-boxes are. Drop your ballot in there. Don't trust the USPS. There's something brewing, even though there's a court order against it. 

Court orders are - apparently - suggestions. 

Ahem. 

Anyway, our local Clerk's Office has almost a dozen locations for drop-boxes, including several public libraries. I like to drop mine off at the Clerk's Office because the box is bolted into the concrete, has lights on it 24/7, is monitored by a camera, and there's usually a Sheriff's Police car sitting somewhere close by. I don't call that "election interference." I call it "Safeguarding my right to vote." 

The Demented Current Occupant and his merry band of under-equipped and stupid sycophants are determined to hold onto power any way they can. They've been TOLD that they can't implement any part of the SAVE Act. But like the following: 

• The Rose Garden 
• The East Wing 
• The Kennedy Center 
• The cherry trees 
• The weeping willows
• The East Lawn
• The reflecting pool... 

None of that matters. HIS word - his executive orders (which, I will once again point out, are NOT LAW - AND THEY ONLY APPLY TO THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH)... that's all that matters because Congress and SCOTUS have abrogated their responsibilities. 

John Roberts -- NOW you're thinking he's got too much power? Dude. Dude. Seriously? 

Oh. I guess I actually DID have something to say. 

Random Picture...

Who actually eats flour? I'm not kidding - I'm honestly asking. 

I was doing a very rare mid-year baking of cookies, and this label on the top of the flour bag just hit me weird. I mean, when I was a kid, we made paste out of flour and water, and yeah, a kid or two (not me, honestly - I thought the whole thing was gross) would taste it. We used to mix it up, tear newspapers into strips, and then we'd "paste" them over balloons. Pop the balloon and make a "bowl" as a gift to our moms. Hey, it was art. 

But who actually EATS raw flour? 

The cookies turned out fine, but it was certainly weird to make them in August instead of November, like I usually do. 

Now, I am going to go find those dog-grooming videos... 

I Have Something to Say...

I have been very circumspect about a lot of things on here, because I'm normally a very private person, but I've kinda had it and I need to say something. 

"Stay in your lane" is normally a pejorative statement uttered by underqualified white guys while they lecture someone (usually a woman or a person of color, or -- looking at you, JD Vance, and THE FREAKING POPE) on a subject that they really have no idea about, but because of their white-guy-special-privilege, they get away with saying a lot of crap and demeaning a lot of people. 

But in this case, I'm issuing a "stay in your lane" regarding a situation which has come up. 

If a person has, say, 40-ish years of experience doing something, and is accomplished in their field, and has been noted as a professional in that field (i.e., has been paid to do the thing), if you do not have those or similar qualifications, and this person has been doing a job - without pay, and gladly, because otherwise it wouldn't get done and materially affects this person's ability to do another particular job... and if you think that in spite of all the above, YOU still know better? 

Stay in your lane. 

I try to not let this kind of stuff bother me, but man-o-man...some days you just want to tell people exactly what you think. Mind you, that's not always the wisest thing, and you can get yourself into a lot more trouble. But sometimes, things DO need to be said because otherwise, they live in your head rent-free, and you don't deserve that. 

So. Take my advice. If you're confronted with a situation where you want to make a suggestion, please don't let that stop you from making the suggestion. But to wholesale say to that person, "You are incapable of doing the thing you've been doing for 40+ years, because I can do it better, it can't be all that hard, it's just plugging things in..." Yeah. No. 

Stay in your lane. Resist the temptation to open your mouth, because you're only going to insert your foot all the way up to your quads. And I'm not helping you pull it out. I'll actually help shove it in a bit more, just because you deserve it. 

The Garden...

Sadly, we haven't seen a caterpillar on the parsley all season. We really haven't seen the Swallowtails either. 

The Borage has been covered by little black ants. The chervil was destroyed by same ants... 

We trimmed off all the red romaine, and Hubby left the stubs -- surprisingly, we're getting a second leafing of this lettuce. And to be honest, that's about the only lettuce right now I'd trust to eat. Thanks RFK jr and what's left of the CDC... 

We have 6 tomatoes on one plant, and the one on the Cherokee Purples GOT EATEN BY A TREE RAT....  so frustrating! I don't expect any of the yellow cherry tomatoes to actually happen, because I bought that plant late. It was a "rescue buy," and if it actually grows? That's a win. 

The Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris), also known as Gayfeather (who knew?) is doing well, but the 3 new ones? Bunny appetizers. Two of the 3 new ones appear to be trying to come back. Fingers crossed. 

The Coneflowers (the purple native ones) are doing quite well. Happy with that. As are the Brown Eyed Susans. I did plant some additional seeds, but I don't see any evidence of them coming up. 

The basil is going nuts. I'm letting one plant go to flower for the bees, and nipping the other one. The Kid is in Maine, and has tried basil ice cream, so I need to freeze some of this, and see if we can re-create it. 

While the petunias are a bit leggy, they're still blooming, so I'm letting them do their thing. 

And while the dill and Monster Bleeding Heart did come up? Nothing like they were last year. The Bleeding Heart didn't even bloom. And even the Icelandic Poppy was wonky. 

On the plus side, even though this year (so far), we haven't put up the fountain (a/k/a "Birdy Bidet"), we've put up two bird baths and a saucer on the ground for the other animals. And the birds have been rotating between the two baths in the front and the one in the back. For a while, the back one rarely got used, but they've found it and they seem to be very happy about it. 

We usually have a line-up, and woe betide us if we let the baths get low -- they yell at us! 

We're in the middle of a heat wave, complicated by smoke coming down from Canada. But who cares about global warming? Surely nobody in Washington, DC... 

Hold the Phone...

A miracle has happened. I came home after the meeting I referenced in my first paragraph. I was frustrated, hangry, and just Not. In. The. Mood... So I made a sandwich for lunch. I had an avocado that felt a bit squishy. 

I thought, "Oh, FINE. Just. FINE. I'll probably have to toss this one... " because why not - that's just the way my morning went. 

Wait a sec. Here it is. And it's freaking PERFECT. And it was delicious. It didn't quite make up for the crap I put up with at the meeting, but ya know what? 

It was perfect. In the moment, I thought, this is just ... perfect. 

The Knitting...

The afghan is moving a-pace... I might -- JUST - might get it done by the time we visit. I have the two gold panels done, and I'm working on the second green one. There are 3 green panels in the project. 

I'm really liking how the colors are working together. I wasn't sure as I picked them, but the gold is also a bit of a "heather" which seems to play well with the green. The green heather seems to have a little of a yellow cast to it, so it works nicely. 

All that garter stitch...Whew! This separates the knitters from the knitters! You can really see the unique quirks in the yarn, and this is a "tension test." You can see the evenness of your stitches -- or the unevenness? Anyway, like I always say, the plain knitting is where you see more than you might want to. 

I found a dropped stitch about 3 rows back. So the ONE nice thing about all this garter is that I could rip back with impunity. Which I did. I must've been knitting late at night, because I normally am pretty good about paying attention to my knitting; only because dropping a stitch terrifies me!

I can't wait to start putting it together. And -- since we're in that heat wave, of course I'd be working on an afghan. Lucky it's in parts, and I'm not having a whole big wool-blend afghan in my lap! 

My next project will be a single sock - I have to find one of my sock bags. We're thinking of taking some short trips, and socks are great car-knitting. I usually try to have the fiddly bits done: ribbing and heel turn. So I will knit on the leg or foot - the mindless stuff. A 7 - 8" leg takes a while to knit, so it works for a trip. 

The Grand-dog...

Well, we have Basil for a while. It's been a long time, and she's shedding. A lot. I'd forgotten how much ONE dog can shed, and it's like, "How did we do THREE DOGS shedding either simultaneously or in sequence?" It was a constant snow-storm in the house, I guess. I never noticed when they were around, but I sure do now that they're not...

She's doing really well, considering (the heat wave...) -- we have to be careful when we walk her, because of the hot sidewalks, and she really zonks out when she gets back in. 

She has, however, proven herself to be The Sploot Queen. She sploots on the carpet, on the floor, and even on the couch as she's napping. Boy, I wish MY hips were that limber again! 

She hasn't quite plopped herself on the AC vent, and surprisingly, she's quite incurious about what's going on outside. She's not much of a barker, but I don't think she has to -- take a look at her and you'll think twice about anything stupid you might want to try. 

Fun story: Well, it's not actually fun... Basil gets car-sick. We've tried everything: not feeding her, confining her, even taking away her water (which sucks). And finally, the vet suggested some meds. The last time I transported her, she yarked up so much (on an empty stomach) that she literally flooded my back cargo hold; thank goodness for WeatherTech liners. She's nearly 70 lbs. That's a lot of "tummy juice." 

This time, we had a slight miscommunication. I was at a birthday party (80th) for a friend, and I told her I had to bug out early because Basil's ride home was coming. Hubby gave her the pills around 1 p.m. We waited. And waited. And waited. You're supposed to give it 1 hour after eating and 2 hours BEFORE travel. She hadn't eaten since 6 a.m., so we know her tummy was empty. About an hour after she had the pills, she took quite a nap. 

Finally, around 4 p.m. I get a call, "I thought you were bringing her back..." (sigh) So into the car we go. Basil was doing really well. I kept thinking, "don't jinx it, don't jinx it, don't jinx it," and "who's the patron saint of dog barf??" 

I pulled into the driveway. And.... There was NO barf. None. Not even a tummy rumble. We were gobsmacked! 

I think, to make this all work, we have to give her the meds, WAIT for longer than 2 hours, and then she can get into the car. That's such a good outcome. She was so upset, she'd barf her guts out, and it was just so nerve-wracking to drive her anywhere longer than 20 minutes. 

So. Yay for a miscommunication? I'll take it. 

The Houseplants...

Well. My snake plants have had babies! We have three pots which have little pups. Two of the older ones are a little shaky, but I think they're still ok. And the big one in the back (upper right corner) has FLOWERED!! Yay!!! 

And Hubby's orchids are really doing nicely as well. A few are ready to pop again, I think this is the third time this year they've bloomed. 

I'm still looking for that elusive Golden Haanii, which was one of the first ones I bought and promptly killed. My Moonshine is a bit leggy; it seems to like the grow lights a bit too much. But I don't want to risk moving it. 

And my baby spider plant is fluffing out well. So the green thumb is working inside almost as good as the one outside. 

Random Picture...

We've had some pretty impressive storms. Lots of night time tornado threats, too. This was a shot I took from the studio, and these seriously look like "mushroom clouds," and were quite stunning when I left after class. 

That was a night when we had some particularly intense storms. With hail and all... while we didn't have any actual funnel clouds, they were around us in other counties. 

We've had so much wet weather. The maples didn't do their "twirly bird" thing, and the storm sewers are running like crazy. The rivers are high. I mean, I'm not necessarily complaining -- too many folks out west and in Canada are in droughts with wildfires burning like crazy. 

And in case you even THINK it, no -- raking the forest floor won't help. These are ANCIENT forests burning. Mother Nature is screaming at us. When will we listen?

We're pretty much past the tipping point; right now, we need to realize that the Earth will survive. As far as Mother Earth thinks, WE are the pestilence. We can be gotten rid of. And it seems like she's really trying. 

 

A KAL - What was I thinking??

For the non-knitters: KAL is Knit-A-Long. This is a thing whereby a group of knitters (can be neighbors or across the globe) choose a particular project and everyone knits the same thing. 

Sounds boring, but being knitters, it's not. It's usually this-side-of-crazy if you don't like stitching to a deadline (aside from baby knitting or wedding knitting).

So of course, I joined one. It's a sock KAL. And I'm knitting Plain Vanilla socks - which basically translates into "the easiest sock pattern you have: no lace, no cables, nothing fancy). 

I'm using my favorite: Opal yarn. And a colorway that I had in stash: The Little Prince. Here's the start... 

Opal Sock - The Little Prince

The ball is the usual 400-something yards, which is ample enough for a pair of socks. The color is 7760 and the dye lot is 758.

I'm not using the wooden needles. I'm using Karbonz dpns. You can see them in the other pictures. They're steel tips, carbon body. Really interesting to knit with. If my regular Kollage weren't stuck in the second Teal Sock, I'd have used them. 

Speaking of the Teal Sock... I'm stuck. The second heel is OBVIOUSLY different from the first, but I have no notes telling me what I did for the first sock's heel. Note to self: Don't EVER assume you can remember. Because clearly - you can't. 

KAL cuff

So Teal #2 is set aside. As is my schedule for knitting, because the end of the KAL is June 30. Yes, that's more than a month away. But you all know how life can get in the way. So I'm knitting furiously on these. And here's the cuff. What I did this time was knit SIX rows straight for the beginning before I started the ribbing. It rolls, but that's ok. The point is, the ribbing won't cut off my circulation and it'll also go over my insanely high instep, too. Without too much stretching of the sock itself. 

Oh, the pattern!  Basic Top-Down Sock Pattern. It's in Teach Yourself to Knit Visually. It's got a slightly longer leg than I'm used to - a whole 7" on the leg, where most of my socks are about 5" or so. But I'm going for it. Look at the Pink Socks - I have a lot of that Opal left, so I figure I've got enough in this ball for a pair that are slightly longer.

One pattern repeat

I've been plugging along rather intently, and since this is a self-PATTERING as opposed to a self-STRIPING, I was motivated to see what a whole pattern repeat would look like. Here's what it looks like so far. I started with that tan-ish brown, as you can see, and it went into the orange, then the crazy colorwork. I am really liking how these are turning out. Rather autumn-ish, but not, if you know what I mean. That zing of green is really nice. And there's enough white to make them "light" and not like the more mellow tones of the fall.

The Karbonz? Well, they get high marks. They're not as grippy as wood, for sure. But they're not as slippery as a traditional aluminum DPN set would be. Which is nice, because I need a tad bit of grip on this. I just need to be careful to not knit off the tips, which I have a habit of doing with socks. I actually really like these needles. The issue I have is again - the markings. They're already rubbing off, so I need to be meticulous in putting them back into the package. They're a US 1.5. 

That's what I particularly like about the Kollage: it's engraved. 

Atkins...

Well. I'm on Thursday. I've been on Atkins in the Induction phase since Monday. The sample induction layout that I'm following from the book is really heavy on cheese. I mean REALLY HEAVY ON CHEESE. Where you're having four servings -- yes, FOUR - on 5 days out of 7. I'm sorry, but that's wayyyyyyyyyyy too much cheese for my tummy. And without going into TMI - let's just say I have some strategic fiddling to do. I figure that as long as you stay within the carb count, you can substitute from the approved list. So if a cheese stick is 0.5 grams of carb, then I can substitute 6 radishes. I have to make sure that I'm getting enough of the foundation veggies in, but also the fats and proteins, so it'll take some strategic balancing of the ingredients. 

That being said, I'm eating a ton of salad, and making my own salad dressing is lovely. I had forgotten (a) how easy it is; and (b) how much you can do. Atkins actually has a recipe for Ranch that's fantastic. I'm ok with having the same dressing for a while (they give you about 4 or 5 variations within this one-week sample, and I don't have that kind of room in my fridge). 

I'm hoping that my system adjusts to this. I "feel" lighter, but maybe that's a placebo. I'll have to let you know when I step on the scale.

I'm not sure "you can lose up to 15 lbs. in 2 weeks" -- I know that you first lose "water weight" but I'm not feeling it. 

Reading...

So I'm re-reading The Canon - the complete Sherlock Holmes. But I have joined a book club with some of my yoga classmates, and I'm reading a self-help book. I dislike self-help books. I mean, I dislike the "know your better self through embracing your pain" kind of self-help books. If there's something concrete, I'm good. The "Yoga for Depression" book is good - she's not only relating her story, but she's giving you steps to take to help yourself.

I guess I'm not a person who can effectively absorb what this book is saying, but then again, I'm going into this with a bias, and I haven't really gotten too far into the book yet.


I may change my mind. Luckily, I'm a fast reader, so I'll be able to whump this out quickly. 

I'm also working on my thesis for yoga training. Here's a picture of Raisa nosing my Mudras book. I'm doing a presentation on yoga for hands, including mudras, which are specific hand positions used in meditation. 

Raisa is not interested in the book. She's interested in what's going on outside the window. I suspect the across-the-street neighbor's cat is out or the Big Evil Squirrel. I don't know what happened to the Big Evil Bunny, but I'm sure he'll come around again.

Anyone have any specific examples of self-help books that are useful? I'll look into them. Can't make any promises, but I can give it a shot. 

Garden...

We have the seeds for the flower garden, as you know. Hubby bought a thing called an Herb Trug. He has a cover for it, to keep out the marauders (a/k/a squirrels) but that kind of defeated the purpose of my wanting to plant chives and borage for the birds...

So those will go into the garden itself. And I'll still put plenty into that trug. It's large, and nicely enough, tall so that I don't have to stand on my head to garden. 

Garden Trug

We also have the beds improved with new soil and compost. I still want a compost pile, but honestly, I know we can't have an open one. I'd have to have a compost system that's enclosed. Too many people let their animals roam free, and we already have some opposum critters around - I don't need to encourage them. 

Here's what the trug looks like, sort of. I don't think ours is as long as this one. It's going to be interesting and I think it'll be a lot neater than the rows of pots we'd been using for ages. We did use chicken wire around the pots to keep the critters out, but it was cumbersome, and frankly - not very nice to look at. 

As soon as we plant (probably this weekend if the weather cooperates), I'll start documenting the garden. I can't wait to see what we come up with. 

And I'm also anxious to see what the Seed Exchange seeds do. Can't wait for my OWN lettuce!

Random Picture...

Graduation!

In honor of the many graduations happening in the next few weeks, this is what Tippi wore for her last visit to the university. Honestly, she tolerated it better than the bunny ears!! I wanted to get something that didn't have the year on it, so we could wear it different places.

We'll be picking up some work at the local Children's Advocacy center over the summer, but we aren't sure how often. Which is fine. 

Everyone needs a summer vacation, if they can get one. 

My plans this summer are to continue knitting, get on the bike (if it's not beastly hot) and try to enjoy the outside a bit more.

Which won't be easy if (a) it's hotter than Hades; and (b) we really ARE going to get the Pollen Vortex we've been warned about.

I'm going to talk to the allergist about the new sublingual drops and get that rolling before too long. I can't do the shots; this seems to have good results, though for some reason, Hubby isn't happy this week. Can't decide if it's allergies, or whatever it is that Kid #2 brought home from his job...