The backyard

My husband and I worked on the yard this weekend. I mean really worked on the yard...not just sweeping up the fallen leaves from last month or watering the garden. No sirree Bob!

I (yes, me) cut all of the overgrown vines that were wrapped around the tree in the corner, pruned the jasmine bushes (crossing my fingers that they grow back properly), and completely cleaned out the darn pond, which is no longer a pond. My wonderful husband and I scooped out the sludge, leaves, and other mucky icky stuff that had collected in the bottom, as well as the murky water, and I punched holes in the bottom of the plastic pond mold. We let the rest of the water dry up until mid Sunday afternoon. We filled the now empty pond mold with dirt. I plan on purchasing more herbs and placing them on top of this and decorating with rocks. I want to pull up more of the overgrown and long neglected plants during the last days of summer and through the fall.

I decided on herbs, rather than flowers or shrubs because in researching the best type of plant to grow in my area, I found this website: Herbs 101. An herb garden fulfills my need for easy to grow plants, that are practical, as well as pretty.

Now I totally understand why people love to garden the way I love to knit. Took long enough...LOL!

Of Death and Elvira

Obsession comes in waves with me. I never know when they will hit, but they hit me hard. I just finished reading Mistress of the Art of Death a few days ago. It was the first book that I read cover to cover for over a year. In fact, I was so engrossed in the story that I am reading it again to see if I can pick up things that I missed the first time. In my humble opinion, it is one of the best historical fiction books that I have read in a long time. The story, set in medieval England, spans between 1170 and 1171, after Thomas Beckett's death. It involves murdered children, Jews, religious fanatics, and a female doctor who specializes in what we know call autopsies. There is even some romance thrown in there for good measure. I couldn't put it down for the fast pacing of the mystery and suspense.

Also, I got back into knitting. I went onto Ravelry for the first time in a few months. I need to be really frugal with money; being on Ravelry and seeing all that wonderful yarn would sometimes be too much for me, and I would wind up buying some for a future project that, more times than not, would not happen. I logged on a couple days ago and the Elvira, all grown up pattern leaped out at me. No matter that the weather is getting cooler and the days shorter...signs that the fall is coming and I need to think about bringing out the warmer clothes. This pattern is top down and uses light fingering weight. My dream pattern. I have 3 skeins of Wollmeise that I have been waiting to use. I am knitting it right now, while also promising that the neck down T-shirt that I started will be worked on during my daughter's ballet classes. This should be easy enough, because all I have left is the last sleeve.

I am so glad for the fall season. My knitting is on again.

I'll take it if she doesn't want it...

This morning on the Armstrong and Getty Show, one of the DJs said that Paula Abdul may not return to American Idol. In addition to other reasons mentioned, they said that she was "only" getting paid $4 - 5 million dollars per season. This is chump change compared to Simon's $45 million salary. Since when did $4 million dollars become chump change?

What do you think?

The Fence

Last night I had a dream about our fence. I have one neighbor on each side of me, and one behind. If I ever decide to replace the fence, I would probably ask each of them to pitch in...after all, it's not only mine and it would benefit everyone. I asked my friends for references. I haven't called around yet, because we can't afford it yet. Looking at our yard though, I know that we eventually will need to get the whole fence replaced, plus the gate.

I had a dream last night that the fence fell down. As it was a dream, the details are now getting foggy, but I remember being worried that the our things may get stolen. The dream ended with someone putting the fence back up.

If dreams mean anything what could it mean?

Our First Tomato Plant

Yesterday, my daughter and I planted a tomato plant. It was actually her idea, remembering that I had talked about it with her this past weekend. Since my family and I love to eat tacos, spaghetti, sandwiches, and salad, I thought that we would save a lot of money if we grew our own tomatoes. We were shopping at the moment at WalMart for some summer items, so we swung over to the Nursery Department to see if they had everthing we needed. They didn't (although they had a good selection of tomato plants), so we went to Home Depot.

I chose a Roma Tomato plant...she didn't much care what kind of plant at this point because the heat started coming down. I also picked up a planting container, and some organic dirt. My son fell asleep in the cart, so it was a challenge to keep his little head steady...especially when the cashier sold us the wrong kind of dirt, but we made it home, a little weary and sweaty. I placed my son on the couch to finish his nap.

Remembering to cover 80% of the plant, my daughter and I filled the pot with the plant inside, with the potting soil. She watered it happily, as well as my blueberry plant, which I bought and planted last year at about this same time. Now we are just waiting for our first crop to come in, probably not until the fall.

Life is good.

Tomato Plant Blueberry Plant from last year...I think I have to give her more fertilizer or something...

A Wonderful Day

Yesterday was World Wide Knitting in Public Day. However, I had promised my daughter that I would take her to the Second Saturday at the Crocker Museum. This was more important than spending my day knitting...although I knew I would make it up later in the day.

We carpooled there with our good friends. The weather was beautiful: perfect cumulus clouds in the clear blue sky and a soft breeze that complemented the pleasantly warm temperature. Very unusual nice weather for this time of year.

The event was in the bottom floor of the Crocker Museum. The volunteer that helped us gave us each a board with paper taped to it. My daughter and her friend had a great time creating their artwork using tempera paint and Art Stix. My friend and I also created some art pieces.

I had forgotten how good it felt to draw, I have never been good at drawing people and faces; however, I have always enjoyed creating abstract art. The kids asked me what I was drawing. I guess the term "abstract" went over their heads because my daughter kept asking me what I was drawing. She finally agreed to wait until I was finished with my masterpiece.

After our art experience, the kids allowed us to wander the museum. I wish kids appreciated those types of places more...the Crocker is filled to the brim with the most beautiful artwork. This, too, I forgot. It was so relaxing to look at each painting, each sculpture, and discover what the artist was trying to represent in the moments during that piece's construction. I could have spent the rest of the day there.

We went home after a few hours. It was exhausting, but I felt energized just the same.

My daughter and her best friend have known each other since they were 2. When we spend time together, they are inseparable and this gets more pronounced the older they get...they used to bicker over little things but now they are like a pair of twins, who don't look alike and have different mothers but love each other so much that neither of our families can imagine lives without each other. Our families have become close in the years of our children's friendship....so it was easy to understand why the kids have a lot of trouble leaving each other's houses. We often wish that we lived closer so that we don't meet the resistance we always do when the other has to go home.

They eventually left (with the expected resistance) and I took Pippin out for his walk. I thought my day was almost over and I could rest. My daughter wasn't ready; she wanted to take Pippin out after dinner. I agreed, wanting to cultivate her growing desire to spend time with the pup and our newfound friends at the park. We walked there and met our friends. We also met new friends, which we often do because Pippin loves to meet new dogs. I think we've made more friends since we've adopted him; I don't remember knowing this many people that I enjoy spending time with since college. Our walk was uneventful. When the skies started getting darker, we headed home.

Last night after the kids and pup went to bed, I reflected on the day and it felt nice. I may have missed knitting in public, but I spent time with friends and my daughter. This is time better spent.

Pippin versus the Friar

I have decided to accept the fact that Pippin may not really like my brother. My brother, Brother Mary Isaiah of the Dominican Order, aka Uncle Mark, just left after 2 days with us. We always enjoy spending time with him and I was looking forward to introducing the newest member of our family.

When Mark first arrived, I expected some resistance from the pup. After all, this is his territory and a new person was "invading". I took the family (minus my husband who was at work - luckily for him, haha) to the park. There, they seemed to get along and I was optimistic. The drive home was uneventful.

Back inside the house, however, the barking started. I tried everything the trainer said to do: ignore him (how the heck do you do this without going deaf), having my brother act like a bear (he does this very well), tying him to me (he was supposed to be bored to death just watching me clean house...yeah right). I finally had to resort to attaching his leash to a pole in the back. When he didn't bark for a while, I brought him back in. He behaved for a while and finally went to bed without any more barking episodes.

Unfortunately, this did not last throughout Mark's whole stay. It got to the point where I would hear Pippin growl and I would cringe. We were all lucky that the weather allowed us to go out; I think I would have had to keep Pippin tied up outside the whole time my brother was here.

Today, I wanted to go to 2 shops on the Yarn Shop Hop Contest. According to Mapquest, it should have only taken me less then an hour to travel to them both. I expected us to be home within 3 hours. Because of the curvy road and that I didn't have a blasted map of my own city, we were out for 5 hours. Poor Pippin was in his crate for 5 whole hours. I could have cried.

I had to drive Mark to the train station with the kids in tow. I felt so bad about Pippin being alone almost the whole day that I took him with us. I put him on my lap as I drove. My brother was next to me and I was amazed that Pippin didn't protest. Not even a little possessive growl.

I mentioned this out loud, and my daughter piped, "Maybe Pippin is glad that Uncle Mark is leaving." Ahhh the blatant honesty of kids.