Wednesday Whirlwind

The summer heat is in full swing, so we say goodbye to the snow peas. We had about 3/4 pound of them, and they were so tasty. Briefly, I felt like a successful gardener. Really, twelve ounces of snow peas is a big pile. They are our best harvest so far. The stray cats have also declared the end of snow peas in the garden to be tragic. They quite enjoyed spending time amongst them. Sometimes they best loved to nap under the snow peas' cool shade. Other times, they played jungle cat--hiding and then pouncing. I think we will plant more when cooler weather returns. No, not more stray cats, thankyouverymuch.

Speaking of exciting gardening news, I have seen baby watermelons! We planted many more seeds this year in hopes of increasing our success. If you recall, one softball-sized watermelon is our current record. Bruce is very pleased to have found seeds for a variety he remembers fondly from years past called Sun and Moon. I will not even ask anyone to guess the song that runs through my head when I think of this type of watermelon. It is "The Only Time" by Nine Inch Nails.

I think I might need a yellow shirt. The Tour de Fleece is almost here, and I have ideas. Some of it involves spindling. The wheels cannot follow me everywhere I might be next month. If all goes according to plan, there is a small Las Vegas adventure happening soon. One of the travel days might need some extra knitting, but I have not yet made any decisions. Probably it will not be this, though lately, I have had an inexplicable urge to knit it. Yeah, we have conditions in the nineties for temperature and humidity, and I feel the need to knit a stranded vest.

As it has been a number of years since I last flew, I have been reading a little bit about how the rules have changed. No, I am not posting a question about bringing knitting needles on the Big Six, but I would like to be aware and prepare accordingly. Once again, the innerwebs have varied information--clearly, not all of it to be trusted. What I have determined, is that perhaps the quickest, easiest way to make it through security is to have a service monkey. Of course, I did read a lot of advice, and it is possible that some bad tips filtered through with the good.

Sweetness

The gardening is coming along. Not only did the lavender plant produce its first bloom, but kept growing enough so that I could make a lavender wand. I could not find ribbon, so I used crochet cotton to weave it instead. The wonderful fragrance has filled the living room as it has dried. After cutting the stems to make the first wand, the plant shot out some more, so I think I will be able to make another this week.

Speaking of sweetness, Sara chose me for a Beautiful Blogger Award. I am humbled and speechless. Thank you, Sara. Now, I am supposed to list ten things about me that you do not know, but I am not going to because I cannot think of any. Instead, I will try to catch up on reading, commenting, and email.

I Might Need to Borrow a Stronger Cup of, "No."

Actually, I just need to be alright with having said that I will not be able to do something for someone, and let the other person be responsible for understanding that my saying, "No, I will not be able to do that. I'm sorry; I cannot take on that commitment," means just that. Having someone disregard that threw me for a bit of a loop.

When the phone rang Monday morning, I learned that someone out in the family is having a new baby this year, and that the great-grandmother would like me to knit a blanket for the occasion. Twice in the past, I have knit baby blankets on her behalf. Once again, she ordered the kit, and then asked me to knit. I feel a little bit bad about turning her down, but I think that this is the right decision for me. After I had told her that I would not be knitting the blanket, I went on to explain that I am very busy right now and briefly touched on some other things going on in our life. I thought I had been polite and firm, and as we were wrapping up the conversation, her response caught me completely off-guard. She told me that I could just stop by her place and pick up the thread (her word for yarn). I am quite sure that she ignored me turning her down again as I hurried off the phone. I could hardly believe it. I was glad to have the garden to work in after that exchange.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July to all of you celebrating! The neighbors' lengthy, early celebrations last night began to dim my enthusiasm for the holiday. I was just tired and regretting my decision to eat a little of the leftover filling for the pies. I am excited for today's family get-together, but I am not yet recovered from all the busyness of the past week. Staying home to knit, spin, and relax would be nice, too. I also keep thinking that I have plans for Saturday. Does anybody know what they are?

Anyway, I am bringing my sock along today. It is about time to turn the heel. I hope to make nice progress with it. The little bag where the sock lives has offered more minutes of knitting than I imagined. It is so handy. It seems like my knitting time has been limited lately. Several other projects call out to be completed, and others just cry for a few minutes of my time.

The gardening adventure continues. We have more green bits popping up out of the ground. Our late start means it is not yet harvest time for anything. Rather than brooding about this, I allow myself to focus on the excitement of the small changes I discover each day. I am not the only one interested in what is happening on our small plot. More than once, this guy has startled me while I watered the garden.

Socks and Seeds

Socknitting has been my near constant companion this week. This is how it looked Monday night. The color in this photo is close, but does not quite show how beautiful it is. I am doing a toe-up Spring Forward. I am most the way up the leg. I think I will work one more pattern repeat before I am on to the cuff. I know Cara is getting anxious to see more progress on these test socks. I hope to have them finished by the end of the weekend, but I am not making any promises.

For this week's Friday garden report, I present the beginning of a cucumber. Impressive, no? We put out many more (fifty-ish?) corn seeds, peas, and an Ichiban Eggplant. We also managed to lose a package of pea seeds. I bought my husband a tumbling compost bin for his birthday. He wanted one back when he did a lot of gardening. I was excited to get this for him. Exciting things are happening inside the bin.

Required Report

Norma says that Fridays Are Garden-Along Reporting Days, and who am I to refuse? This week we have a new garden hose attachment because the last one leaked. We got new plants and sowed seeds. The 'yummy' orange petite sweet bell pepper plants look like they are going to make it. It was iffy for a while. In addition to the orange, we have a new red bell pepper plant. We got a new okra plant and thinned out the other okra spots. There is also a hot banana pepper plant and eggplant new to the garden this week. These are from my sister. She lamented that we should have planted the garden at our house. My husband stated that it is about a fifty-mile round trip for watering and weeding. She said she could water, but was not too thrilled about the idea of weeding. Also, she did not know that watering would be more than a once-a-day event. I think by the end of that conversation she knew that it is good the garden is here. However, if all goes well, she may put in her own garden next year. Besides, we see each other at least twice a week, so she will be in on the harvest. Buying things for the garden gets you in on that. My nephew tried chewing on a mint leave he picked from the plant. He decided that perhaps he would like it when he is older. This is progress for him in so many ways.

Now we get to the seed news. The corn seeds have sprouted! That was most exciting. I went out just after midnight to inspect the garden when I discovered the green bits. I also spotted the first tomato bloom of the year. I had an accident with my lavender. I dumped the pot over. It is unhappy, but will probably be OK. I want to be successful with lavender. Maybe the lavender seeds I planted will grow into something wonderful, too. We still have more corn seeds and radish and turnip seeds, but the last two will not go in until July and August.

Somebody's birthday brings another goody for the garden, but that will have to wait for next Friday.

We Hereby Claim This Land

There is hot, gardening action over here. We have taken over a little bit of land next to us and are growing good food. We are a curiosity to our neighbors. Of course, that was true even before the undertaking of this latest endeavor. Anyway, one woman is quite interested in just what we are growing and says she is going to raid our garden. She just might be serious. I do hope the harvest is plentiful enough for us to be able to share with family, friends, and neighbors. I am not much of a gardener, so I am following the direction of my husband on much of this. Still, I was upfront about the amount of time and effort I am prepared to dedicate to the project. He has grand visions of our garden, and I am not up for the challenge of all that he would like to do. Neither is he. I think we are getting close to overdoing it. Tonight I will drift off to sleep with dreams of swapping the ever-elusive okra for yarn. Oh no! Now we both have gardening related delusions.