Pumpkin Sunrise

Well well well.  This weekend was quiet!  I guess when you hear landscaping equipment for three days in a row you notice the silence and welcome it.   I felt so relaxed.  This morning they will be here by 8 a.m. to start up the noise and will be here until 3:30 p.m.  They hope to be done by Wednesday but we'll see about that, it looks to me like Thursday might be the last day. The quote was for a 20 ft boulder wall but the wall builders said it was about 60 feet long...  Sounds like the kind of eyeballing measuring that I do with yarn! Saturday my husband made curry and I sat and relaxed while he labored away.  We always get into it when he declares how tired he is.  I respond that I cook everyday. Did you know that his cooking is more tiring than mine?   In the above photo he was saying take the picture over and over because I wanted it to be just right.  I was laughing too much over that.  So the photo is candid in a way.  Our walk on Sunday morning was a humid walk (not a fan). 

The boulder wall construction has begun!  The landscaper guys arrived on Wednesday and ripped out the old railroad tie retaining wall.  The plan is to move the wall away from the pool to the edge of the property before it slopes down the steep hill.  This will give my husband more area to move the riding lawn tractor around.  Also maybe just maybe the boulder wall will stop the earth from going away from the pool.  That is the plan. Yesterday they were dumping boulders which sounded like thunder to Frodo so I had to console him.  Lots of love and patience. Our zucchini plant is taking over the bed!  So far all of the plants are surviving and no one has nibbled on anything...yet.  Our gardening tends to be lax in that if a critter wants to nibble, we let them nibble.  It's much easier to not fight Mother Nature. My creative process has been ebbing on the low side these past few days. I am down to two knitting projects in my knitting bag and want to finish them before I start somethi

I finished my blush cardigan  last week.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well it fit me AND that I had enough yarn to complete the project.  So nice when the Knitting Gods bless me with success.  It's too hot to wear this sweater but I have something exciting to wear when the weather cools off. I did not enjoy knitting with the cotton, my hands tire quickly since the yarn has no spring.  I truly believe I knit at a slower rate as well. I loved the top down construction and the over all fit.  However I do NOT like how far spaced the button holes are. (they create a gap....).  The button holes are created while knitting the body of the sweater at the same time.  I would have preferred a picked up button band so I could place the button holes exactly 2.5 inches apart. Since this cardigan is 100% cotton I steamed blocked the edges to get them to lay flat and they could be a lot flatter for my taste.  I resisted the urge to use spray starch but I truly wanted to spritz the edges.  Ag

On Saturday we drove to State College to visit our son and future daughter in law for the afternoon.  We had lunch outside at a restaurant .  The weather cooperated with cloudy skies and coolish weather.  It was nice to see them, the days are counting down for when they relocate to Indiana.   After lunch we walked around Penn State University's Arboretum .  I daydream about having a lovely garden like they do.  If only!  Some of the arboretum is under construction for a garden attracting birds.  My husband and I might have to return in a year or so just to see that. Yesterday I did all the chores and found out that I'll be a Great Aunt again.  I'm thrilled to be knitting some baby items in the upcoming fall months.  How very exciting!  I'm will also be knitting a wedding shawl and so far it's looking like maybe, just maybe another citron?  We'll see.   I knit a whole bunch while riding in the car, then ripped out a whole bunch once I was home.  I didn't care

Around here I've been hiding inside my house while the humidity has slowly climbed to a somewhat sticky level.  The wild roses are finished blooming and at any moment the day lilies will bloom.  Every morning when I'm outside with Frodo we check the plants.  On our walks, I've seen bee balm blooming but mine is being kind of shy right now.  I've spotted some elderberry bushes blooming and they reminded me of my gram who would make elderberry pie when we were at her summer cottage.   The cement guy came and leveled all of the uneven pieces around the pool, sometime next week the landscaper is coming to do his thing.  We have some flowering plants that need to be relocated before he regrades the corner of our property or we'll lose them.  The new boulder retaining wall is supposed to take two days.  I'm excited. Around here I decadently read ALL day yesterday.  The memoir, Educated, is really good and I can't put it down.  It's funny because I was sure I w

What does a knitter do when she is so close to finishing a sweater?  She works on a shawl of course.  I haven't spent much time on this shawl and yesterday while listening to podcasts I added 6 more rows.  The border is over half way done. Well now, I was hoping that the sweater would be done and I have merely six rows to go on the second cuff.  I just couldn't finish it last night, I was tired and so were my hands (cotton is unforgiving), so today is the day the sweater will be off the needles. What are you working on this week?

Another weekend has come and gone.  Time is flying by!  Can you believe we are half way through June?  I can't.   I have some GOOD news!  My son and his girlfriend are engaged to be married at the beginning of the new year.  We are beyond thrilled to have her added to our little family.  He will be relocating to Indiana mid-July and my husband and I are helping with phase one of the move.  Lucky for me they have lots of friends to pick up boxes and go up and down three flights of stairs. Onto my weekend:   Saturday was delightful, I read a lot and knit a lot.  I've discovered that I am not a fast knitter when it comes to cotton yarn.  I finished the first sleeve and I'm working on the second sleeve.  I'd like to believe that the sweater will be done today but realistically that will not happen. Our daily walks continue around our area.  The mornings were deliciously cold.  I'm an odd one who loves cold weather but hey, I know that July, August and September will be

This morning I'm sitting at my kitchen table before 7:30 a.m. watching the sunlight beam through the trees.  I'm delighted to report that the heat and humidity is gone.  Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit 'steamy' for me.  My husband was delighted, he loves summer - the hotter the better.  Oh hey - some good news!  My husband is retiring effective mid-August. The massive amounts of paperwork and busy work was sobering but we are down to one more phone call and one more form.  Thank goodness.  I lost two solid days to paperwork and two hour phone calls.  Sadly my knitting and reading and having fun were minimal this week. We have no big plans in retirement except to see our kids.  I'm sure we will be planning something sometime somewhere.  I have to confess, I'm used to the 'staycation' frame of mind and could easily keep this up.   We only walked twice this week due to the weather and schedules.  The daisies are out and about!  Any day now the day lilies w

Hello!  This week my knitting is mostly the same except for the new socks on the needles.  I decided to knit with non-pink yarn for now because well, I'm surrounded by pinks.  This sock is a Christmas gift and I haven't quite decided what pattern to put on the leg, I'm winging it as I go along. My blush cardigan is finally at the sleeve construction, I finished the body last night after the photo below.  I only have three skeins left and I'm positive the sleeves will be 3/4 length.  It's a summer sweater so I'm okay with that.  I'm going to work both sleeves with one skein each and then see try my best to use my last skein between the two.  It'll be interesting!! What are you working on?

How was your weekend?   Oh, I wish I could bottle up this past weekend.  The weather was perfect!  Beautiful blue sunny skies and low humidity.  Why can't August be like June?  We've switched our walks to before lunch instead of after lunch.  Since Frodo is 10 1/2 years old he cannot take the heat nor the humidity so we keep that in mind while we walk. Saturday I spent most of the day reading and knitting.  My pink sweater, that is not photographed, is nine rows from being done with the body.  You know what that means!  Fast and furious sleeve knitting. This weekend the daisies and wild rose bushes started blooming.  Two of my favorites.  The scent of the roses is delicate and I love when I catch a sniff by chance.  My nose is nearly normal, thank goodness.  Now I have to put up with jokes from my husband every time we walk.  'Watch out for that leaf' , 'there's a twig over there, don't trip on it' etc... Honestly it's funny now that I am mostly heal