Le Weekend

Good Morning!

How was your weekend?  Mine was nice.  We started Friday night with a fire over at Colin & Mailing's.  We had to escape in to their sunroom for a short period of time when it started raining, but that didn't last long and the fire was burning even better when we went back outside!  They did cancel (or postpone) their solstice party due to the rainy forecast - they did not want a bunch of people in their house.

I was up early Saturday and by 8 a.m. was out on the path by the canal.  Boy was it muggy!  But there was lots to see.  First up, plenty of animal babies.

There were also sleeping ducks in the middle of the path

By the time I was walking back these 3 characters had finally moved over to the side of the path.

I saw a HUGE group of geese on the canal.

A man and his dog on the other side of the canal were chasing herding all these geese off the lawn and into the water.  Pretty noisy and funny to watch.

All of the wildflowers along the side of the trail are beginning to bloom.  So many different scents and colors.

There were a lot of folks out running, walking, biking.  It was a very pretty (though muggy) morning.

Fletch and I made a Costco run later in the morning and that pretty much wrapped up Saturday.  We watched Episode 1 of Laurel Canyon that evening which was ok.  We both liked Echo in the Canyon better - more music.

We ran separate errands Sunday morning and then did grocery shopping in the afternoon.  Fletch did his errands at Lowes and came home with this beauty:

There must be at least 50 buds on this.  It is absolutely gorgeous!

We had a relaxed dinner of chicken sauteed with sun dried tomatoes, peppers and scallions.  Plus a summer squash casserole.  I made strawberry shortcake, but we were both too full for dessert!  Last night we watched the second (and last) episode of Laurel Canyon and it was much better than the first one.

I did manage to start a new pair of socks with the Tomfoolery yarn, but I'll save that picture for another post.

Now it is back to work!  It is a beautiful morning here and I will try to get out for a walk a bit later.

A Crisp Start!

Quite a bit of a chilly start this a.m. (30 degrees).  The seat warmer in my car was very welcome on my commute into the office today.  I know many struggle with the time change, but I am so glad to not have it be pitch dark on my drive into work.  And, at least for a few weeks, it should still be light on my way home.

I ended up with some kind of *bug* on Friday.  I left work before 11 a.m., slept for 3 hours that afternoon and then was back in bed by 8 p.m. Friday night and slept about 12 hours!  Not sure what was going on, but glad it is over.  Fletch is still battling something and we are both having either allergies or cold symptoms.

Thank you all for your encouraging words about fixing the Canary Blanket.  I’m glad to say I accomplished that over the weekend and even knit a few more rows.  The fix was easy just as you all had said it would be and now I know how to do it!  I also managed to get a bit more done on my SIL’s sock:

Well, I still can't add pictures no matter how I try.😭

I’ve started the toe decreases and should finish that tonight, Kitchener it up and start #2.  The color above (if the picture would have been added...) is different from IRL.  This looks much pinker.  Either way it is pretty yarn though.  After that it will be socks for my brother (yarn and pattern already chosen).

Today is a little busy.  I have a conference call at 10 a.m., then a luncheon off site at Noon followed by my annual review around 2:30.

Hope everyone’s week is off to a great start!

TGIF August 2, 2019

Good Morning All!

It was kind of a misty/foggy drive into work today.  Dawn is definitely a bit later these days and this morning felt surprisingly cool (REFRESHING!!).  I ended up turning off both the AC and the ceiling fan last night and just slept with the window open - it was wonderful.

A few more garden things for you this morning.  First up these are the sunflowers we have growing in our tall raised bed box (this is where our garlic was planted - already harvested, and we have a couple of potato plants at the other end which are just about ready to dig):

These sunflowers have grown tall - the other ones we have are fairly short.  The purple blooms in this picture are loosestrife - an invasive species, but we love it.  Another spot of color and it really has not spread in our yard - it stays in our boggy area.

More tomatoes.  I picked these last night from one plant.  There will be the same amount ready to be picked tonight!

So many!  And so delicious!  The cukes in the background are from Colin's garden.

What are you doing for the weekend?  Mine is shaping up to be fairly busy which is a disappointment.  We have a lot of errands and running around to do tomorrow.  My hope is that we can get it all done and just be home on Sunday.  Fingers crossed.

Finally, because it's Friday, there should be a feline picture.

Here is the handsome Tyg looking like he would like to say "put the camera away and just let me be."  He is sprawled on one of the deck chairs on the patio (he stole my seat when I got up to pick the tomatoes).

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - Enjoy!

Weekending

Hello All,

Chilly this a.m.  This is the first morning I had to scrape my windshield!  A frosty (but pretty) world out there.

The weekend has come and gone so quickly.  Fletch and I decided to postpone our day away until Sunday as Saturday was bitterly cold with high winds.  Instead we did the grocery shopping and I picked up my new glasses.  That night I fixed a chicken dinner:

This is such a tasty and easy meal to fix:  I sauteed garlic, red onion, orange bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes and capers in some EVOO.  Added some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and continued cooking.  Added some fresh basil near the end.

Sunday did turn out to be a gorgeous day!  We headed out around 10:30, going West and then North.  We passed some beautiful farmlands and even saw some Amish buggies on the road.  We stopped for lunch at a diner and then continued and ended up around Hawk Mountain - a favorite place to hike (but we didn't stop as it was already around 2 p.m.).  Basically we have turned into "those Sunday drivers" we used to shake our fists at - lol.  It was just so pleasant and for the most part there was not much traffic.

We were home in time to relax before dinner which was vegetable beef soup I had started in the crock pot that morning.  Easy peasy.

I am still in the "lack of cowl" phase, but a new sock has been started:

The colors remind me of an Icelandic sweater - black, grey and white.  I'm almost to the heel flap of the first sock.

Hope you all enjoyed a fine weekend!  And here's to the week ahead.

TGIF

Oh My!  A HUGE TGIF!!!!!


It has been a week, for sure.  I won't bore you with all the details, but things are heating up at work.  The LD was in yesterday.  The Successor to LD does not "officially" take over the region until 10/1 (the start of our new fiscal year), but he is already "ruling" in his own way and making life extremely unpleasant for many.  Additionally, after getting the green light for one final meeting (the one in Hilton Head), the LD now tells me that it is being "questioned" by some.  I've already paid a non-refundable deposit of around $7K, but only time will tell.


Meanwhile on a more pleasant note, Colin was over twice this week for dinner again (Mailing is once more out of town all week for work).  Meals have been pleasant and we all just enjoy hanging out together.  Colin and I have started playing Cribbage

My Dad and I used to play this occasionally and it's fun to be playing once again.  Neither of us has been skunked...yet!!


Saturday Colin, Mailing and we are going to Nectar for dinner - one of our favorite restaurants.  Other than that, I have no plans.  I hope to get to knit some since I haven't at all this week. 


I did finish "White Houses" and give it a 3 star rating.  It was interesting (I think anything about Eleanor Roosevelt is interesting), but as I mentioned before a bit on the soap-opera-ish side.  Last night when I went to bed I picked up "What She Ate" which I've been reading periodically.  I finished the chapter on Eva Braun (which was really more about Hitler - what a wackadoodle - but we all knew that anyway) and started the chapter on Barbara Pym.  It's not great writing, but I do enjoy reading about food.


OK, I need to buckle down and get some work done.  It is Friday (YAY) and I want to make sure I'm on my way home by Noon or 1 p.m.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Wet Monday

Hello All,


What can I say?  More rain here.  Two of the roads I take to work were closed this morning due to flooding.  Fletch mopped up 3 buckets of water in the basement last night.  The ground is so saturated!  And it is chilly again - 58 this morning. 


But, on to more pleasant things.  Sock # 1 of my Sunflower socks is finished!

I love it!  And the heel fits and feels great.  YAY!  I forgot to mention the other week that these socks are actually reversible!  The inside is a basket weave pattern:

I did not carry the pattern onto the foot, so the entire foot is just purl stitches on the wrong side.  Sorry these pictures aren't the greatest - it was grey and rainy yesterday afternoon and pretty dark.  The second sock has been started - the ribbing is done and I knit about 8 rows after that.


Saturday turned out to be a nice day.  My brother and sister-in-law came up in the early afternoon and Colin and Mailing showed up a little later.  Colin grilled burgers, made coleslaw and oven fries.  Thank goodness we could eat outside because the kitchen got very, very smoky from the oven fries.  They also brought over 3 different types of fresh sauerkraut from the Lansdale Farmer's Market.  One was curried, one was apple & fennel and I forget the 3rd kind.  I put the curried one on my burger and it was wonderful.  And my SIL made home-made rolls for the burgers.  The Cardamom Tea Cake did not turn out that great.  It seemed too dry to me and not flavorful enough.  Colin texted me this morning that he had a piece toasted with peanut butter that was really good.  Meanwhile the rhubarb sorbet was (and still is) delicious!  I will definitely make that again.


On the reading front I started Never Caught which I'm enjoying very much.  It is about Ona Judge, a slave who was owned by George & Martha Washington, who escaped.  Interesting reading.


That's it for this rainy, dreary Monday.  I would have preferred to stay home for sure!  Hope everyone's week is off to a great start.

TGIF 06-08-18

Good Morning,


I am so TGIF today!  I stayed up too late last night to finish The Crane Wife which I did enjoy.  The writing style was a little different from what I usually read, but I enjoyed the book based on a Japanese folk tale.  A quick read (and bonus:  it fits one of the squares on my Book Bingo card!).


We did have a fire last night which was so nice. 

Yup - that's a bottle of whiskey on the bench and nope...I don't drink that stuff.  It was a very pleasant evening to be out and we listened to some old, old music while sitting out there (Marvin Gaye, CCR, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young) - -fun times.  And someone hung around with us a little bit:

He had climbed into the apple tree and was heading towards the bird house where wrens are nesting.  Not to worry - no harm was done!


I've got a busy day ahead of me.  A conference call at 8:30 and another one at 10.  I am planning to get out of here no later than 1:00 (summer short Fridays - yay).  I need to stop at the bank to get money and the grocery store to pick up a few things.  And, just remembered, need some wine also.  My brother and SIL are coming up from Delaware tomorrow for an early cookout.  Tonight I'll be baking a cardamom tea cake and mixing up ingredients for rhubarb sorbet which I'll finish tomorrow morning.  And, of course, the bathrooms need to be cleaned and some other places as well.  I'll be happy when I can just sit down and knit this evening!


Wishing you all the best of weekends.  Enjoy!

Not Quite The Weekend That Was Planned

Well Good Morning All!


Last week, so busy (!!) seems like a blur now.  There were several evenings where I was just too tired to knit or read.  Add to that our friendly construction workers behind our woods - they were pouring concrete again at 3 a.m. Thursday night/Friday morning.  Once again Fletch called, once again apologies were offered...but apparently just issuing cease and desist orders is not sufficient.  The code enforcer sounded pretty wimpy on the phone and I don't think any fines have been levied.  Per the company who is having the addition built, it shouldn't happen again...because there is no more concrete needed.


And then it was HOT (90+ degrees)!  We don't have central air, and Fletch had not yet put our window air conditioners in.  Very little sleep on Friday or Saturday nights.  (Now that it is cooler, the air conditioners are in...we're ready for the next onslaught of heat.)


Fletch and his brother (who lives in Virginia) had planned to go boating/camping in the Pine Barrens this weekend.  But Damon cancelled on Friday.  The weather forecast was pretty iffy and thanks to all our recent rain, the Mullica River was extremely high and not really safe for paddling a kayak or guideboat.


Saturday I got up early and baked a Pavlova (my first!!).  As it was in the oven baking, Colin texted to cancel his and Mailing's plans to come over for dinner that evening.  Luckily I read that a Pavlova will keep in an airtight container. 


I made my way to the Lansdale Farmer's Market and met up with Dee!  Always fun.  We walked around and I bought some veggies and a rosemary plant.  Then we headed over to "our" coffee shop - Backyard Beans - where we drank lattes and knit and chatted up a storm.


It was pretty hot and muggy, but I noticed our Siberian Iris were blooming, so I walked out to get a snap of them:

I really like these better than our "normal" iris.  These are such a deep purple, very tall and just gorgeous.  We also have some yellow ones and the first one had opened up:

Sunday was a mess!  I was up very early thanks to not being able to sleep and before Fletch was out of bed the rain started.  We had probably 2-3" within 45 minutes or so!  The entire basement floor was wet (not deep, but water everywhere) which has never happened in the 28+ years we've lived in the house!  You probably saw on the news about Ellicott City, MD - we did not have that much rain, Thank God!  The temps dropped some, but it was still extremely muggy.


Colin and Mailing did come over for dinner on Sunday and the rain had stopped enough that we were able to grill.  And we had the Pavlova!  I covered it with fresh whipped cream and a mixture of blueberries and raspberries.  We all loved it except Fletch (which really surprised me).  Col and Mailing left soon after dinner - we were all tired.


Monday was extremely lazy.  I never got dressed until I took a shower after dinner!  I did manage to finish the lace medallion socks:

The yarn (Barncat from Valerie) is wonderful to work with - soft and easy to knit.  It's interesting to me how the legs are striped, but the colors pooled on the feet.  I love them.


I started a new pair yesterday - Cataraqui Socks - in some Trekking yarn.  I'm not completely sold on them.  The pattern is for 54 stitches (I usually cast on 64), so I went up a needle size to #2.  but they look a bit bulky and big and I'm not sure the pattern is really showing up well.  I'll do another couple of repeats and decide to either keep on or rip them out.


Apparently I have been missing my dentist too.  Yesterday I managed to break off a piece of a (very old) filling.  Luckily it isn't painful, just extremely rough.  So I'll be back in the chair this afternoon having that repaired.


That's it for me.  A soggy, lazy holiday weekend.  I'm looking forward to an easier week at work. 

Tuesday Updates

Hello All,


A quick post on this grey, damp (again) morning. 


Saturday was very wet, so Dee and I met up for coffee, knitting and then some lunch.  No Farmers Market and therefore, no Alpaca...hoping they will bring the animals to the market another week.


I did manage to finish the first sock Saturday evening and started the second before I could enter the Second Sock Syndrome world.

I love the way it turned out.  The lace pattern is pretty and very easy to do.


Well, I've got approximately 15 folks in today for budget reviews (including the Lame Duck - that's what I am now calling my boss who has resigned - lol).  I'd best get back to work.  Hope everyone's week is going well.

Monday Rolls Around Again

Happy Presidents' Day!


Not a holiday for me, unfortunately, but on the bright side, traffic was very light driving in this morning.  The weekend was good, but Monday seems to have come rather quickly.


Friday night I was exhausted and ended up going to bed early and slept 10 hours!  It was wonderful.  Saturday morning was taken up with a visit to our tax person.  We are still missing some info (didn't it used to be that all paperwork for taxes had to come to you by the end of January?  Apparently that is no longer the case.).


We ended up going out Saturday afternoon to grocery shop due to the weather forecast.  And, sure enough, right around 4:30 p.m. it started snowing.  Very wet and heavy snow, but it was beautiful and pretty mild out.  This is what it looked like around 10 p.m. Saturday night:

I love when snow blankets the branches of trees.  Sunday was mild and most of the snow is now gone.  Fletch did walk around 11 p.m. Saturday and said it was very ethereal looking - lots of fog and beautiful snow (I was sleeping again - lol).


Meanwhile, it was the Chinese New Year (Year of the Dog).  Colin and Mailing went into the city Friday night to have dinner with friends and spend the night.  They planned to go to the parade, but it started much later than planned so they only saw a tiny bit on their way to dim sum:





Finally, there was some knitting over the weekend - Sleeve #1 is complete:

I'm thrilled - the sleeve is the perfect length (and I won't be running out of yarn!!).  I've decided to weave in all the ends from the colorwork in both the yoke and the first sleeve before I cast on for Sleeve #2.  There are So Many ends!!  I really don't want to finish the sweater and be ready to block but have 50 million ends to deal with, so I'll get the majority of them done now.  The knitting went relatively fast, but was a pain with the body of the sweater twisting around in my lap.  And, using size 9 DP needles for the cuff was hard on my hands.  Luckily it's not a ton of knitting.  Hoping to get the ends woven in tonight after yoga and then I can start the second sleeve tomorrow.


Now I've got to get to work.  I expect it to be an easy day and am hoping to get out of here early - maybe with enough time to weave ends before going to yoga!


How was your weekend?