Woolly Mutts

The oddness of grief.

This week I can not get my self moving. It is only Tuesday morning so I should not be lumping an entire week into a day and a few hours of feeling meh.  But man, I feel meh in a sort of big way.  The heat has broken so that is no excuse.  It is an overcast day which usually rev me up, but no revving so far. Mostly a lot of meh.  (You know "meh".  It's the adult version of "whatever", or the hip version of general sluggish behavior.  Plus, it's just sort of fun to say "meh". Meh, meh, meh. Meh.) I know I should go for a walk, or something to get my arse moving, but I can't.  Not now anyway.

So yesterday I mention that this bout of *meh* has me a little frustrated and a wise person asked me how long it had been since my mother passed away.  Two months last week.  Well, this person says, what do you expect?  Grief is just going to disappear in two months?  Hmmmmm.  Some people are so darn smart. 

Apparently, grief hangs about for awhile, hiding in the background and then quietly, occasionally messes with the mojo so you get some days of *meh* and forget that something HUGE happened to your heart not so long ago.  Not that I should use grief as a constant excuse not to move my arse or participate in life, but now and then a few days of *meh* are ok.  I'm ok.

Speaking of, the angel-on-this-earth Hospice worker told me once that the words "it's going to be ok" are some of the most powerful words possible.  It might be hard, or painful getting through the rough patches of life, but in the end you will be *ok*.  It will be OK.  I will be ok.  Good even. 

I find this little journey that I walk with grief to be rather odd.  I expected the tears and the times of missing, but the depression (which is what I expect is really behind the *meh*) surprised me.  Live and learn and maybe pass the chocolate.

The tall, what my mother used to call Tiger lilies, are blooming right now,  I was standing on flat ground holding the camera at chest level when I took this picture.  They are SO tall and planted en masse like this they make quite an impact.  In other good news, the lightning bugs have returned to brighten the night hours.  Also, the Japanese beetles.  Always the good with the bad.

Saturday's highlights with special care to leave out the boring bits.

Amazing Husband has traveled to NC to spend time with his family.  New job and dog care kept me home which is ok except for the missing him part.  That part is SO not ok.  That leaves me with this whole big Saturday to spend as I wish.  Following are the highlights:

*Ate a candy bar for breakfast.  Also a multivitamin.  Realized later that I could have had chocolate pie.  Rats.

*Went to Walgreens and walked up and down the makeup aisle.  Purchased new eye shadow and eye liner.  Had a pretty good time doing this.  It's been ages since I really looked at all the new makeup in the drug store.  The fact that I almost never wear make up is of no import here.

*Spent quite a lot of time in Farm Town which I access through facebook, but maybe there are other ways.  Not sure.  This also presented a nice opportunity to message with AH for a few minutes. 

*Ate ham sandwich for lunch.  This time I remember chocolate pie.  yum.

*Went with good friend Diana to a garden faire at Windridge Herb Farm.
Brought this little dude home with me. About got a hernia carrying him to the car.  I just love these buddha guys.  Maybe because their bellies bear such a resemblance to mine. :-) 

*Also went to Kohl's with Diana and had a great time girl shopping.  Spent quite a lot of time in the baby department.  Sigh. 

*Came home and Samten barfed on the carpet.  Quick clean up reveals fur....hmmmmm.  Go out to move hoses so I can mow and discover decapitated bunny....hence the fur.  Yuk.  Why do dogs do that?  (rhetorical question.  I know why, but it still grosses me out.) Send bunny to it's final resting place by the creek.  Bunny grave with a view.

*Mow yard while listening to Finger Lickin Fifteen, by Janet Evanovich.  Laugh out loud repeatedly.  Audio versions of her books are especially well done.

*Contemplate what to have for dinner. Gonna storm soon, I think, so might be unkind to order delivery.  On the other hand, they need the money, right?

*Blog.

Life is good. Except for the missing AH parts.  That is not so good.

Keep the beads on the front.

With the blankets completed it was time to move on to smaller, faster baby knitting.  This is the Flurries Baby Beanie, Pattern 177 from Tilli Tomas. Ravelry page here.  Cute, huh?  It was a fairly quick knit, but I have to admit that I was pretty happy to cast off the last stitch.  If you've ever knitted with beads, or even an eyelash fiber, you know that the pretty bits want to end up on the purl side of the work so it's necessary to manipulate each little bead so that it ends up on the front side of the work.  I'm going to keep that in mind the next time I get a grand idea to knit beads.  If you're local, I bought the pattern and yarn at Loop in Milwaukee. Great store in a fun neighborhood.  I have the majority of 1 skein left so I'm on the hunt for a bootie pattern to use it on.

Close up of loopy top.

Gonna be a busy couple of days here so it might be quiet on the blog front.  Stay cool!!!

Stuff you should know

I'm an information junkie.  It's ok, I'll admit it.  Random information about ....well.....just about anything, really excites me.  Following leads on topics is a good time, I know...a little weird, but a good time none the less . The only person I know that might be a bigger information junkie than I am would be my Amazing Husband.  His search for information is a little more focused to the world of science and math, where my thirst is pretty generalized.  I'm on a civil war kick right now.  Could be the source of the Nile next week, who the heck knows.  My brain is sort of scattered that way.

So, being always on the search for new tidbits of info I listen mostly to talk radio (NPR you know I love you) and a fair number of podcasts.  Several of the podcasts are knitting related, or may be aimed at a favorite tv show, (Jay and Jack of the Lost Podcast rock), or possibly more girly like Lipgloss and Laptops.  Lately though, I have become a very devoted listener to "Stuff You Should Know" with Josh and Chuck.  The thing I love about Josh and Chuck's podcast is the diverse selection of topics.  One week it's Habeas Corpus, next week it's about Tesla and Edison.  Spontaneous human combustion, lobotomies, can lakes explode, how propaganda works.....random, researched information.  Josh and Chuck are pretty funny guys who work well off each other and work hard to make the information credible and interesting.  It's become my lawn mower listening for a several weeks and I can hardly wait for the next one.  I understand that the How Stuff Works people have lots of other podcasts with equally cool content.

A quick word about podcasts. I listen to my podcasts via my ipod and itunes.  They are free and can be subscribed to so that they download to your itunes regularly.  I believe that there are probably several other ways to listen, like directly from their websites, but I've never had that experience.  However you find most convenient listening for your life and schedule, podcasts are the worth doing some research on......and that might lead to research on toads, or why leaves are green, or where cotton comes from or the best dog food to feed, or....

Hitting the road on Father's Day.

Amazing Husband is not biologically a father, but he spent several of my kids....ummm...let's say...more interesting years as their step father.  They have a great Dad who I know they love bunches, but having AH in their lives has been an incredibly positive thing on all levels.  I always say that my kids can never have too many people who love them and that has proven true both in AH and in Denise, their Dad's wife.  My father has passed, AH's father is in far away Houston, so I asked AH how he would like to spend Sunday.  He wanted to see the movie "Moon" and the closest theater that it was playing in was Evanston.  What a hardship.

How many ways do I love Evanston?  Many, and for good reason.  Evanston is a northern suburb of Chicago that is about a 2 hour drive from our house, depending on traffic.  Historic, near the lake, home Northwestern University, diverse, great shopping.....an incredibly beautiful place.  We go there pretty regularly so that I can do some shopping in Vogue Fabrics.  Vogue Fabrics is this huge, discount fabric store that has everything you could ever want in the way of fabric.....you just have to be willing to look for it.  There are 5 rooms and most things are on rolls as apposed to bolts. Since we were heading that way we decided to make a quick stop there. In the remnant room I found some great batiks and a few light cottons to make some cuite-patootie summer things for Miss CJ next summer.  In the home dec room I grabbed a few cute patterns of oilcloth to make bibs out of. (remember you can click pics to see larger)  The street that Vogue is located on was having a festival so we had to park several blocks away and walk, which was actually sort of fun and gave us a chance to have a close up look at some of the historic homes. 

The movie was on Maple in the Century theater.  I did a quick look for a link that might have some info about the theater, but didn't have any luck.  You park across the street in a nice parking garage and then when you enter the theater you go up an escalator to get to the theater area.  On the right side there is an actual bar with sofas and eating areas where you can hang out before or after your film. There is a large piano and a pool table, too.  I guess they have live music on Friday's and Saturdays.  Nifty.  Now we know of another theater we can go to see the movies that NEVER come to Rockford.

*Moon* was a quirky little one-man movie.  It was good, and I'm glad we went, but it won't be for everyone. 

It is a day late, but happy Father's Day to all of you Dads.  We appreciate you!

Today's blog post is brought to you by the color purple.

*those of you that read these posts via facebook might want to head over here since I'm pretty sure fb is gonna reject the size of this one.

There is a storm coming.  The dogs are restless and the birds have changed their song from happy to slightly alarmed.  It's nicely overcast so I decided to head out into the gardens and see what was blooming before the wind and rain blow things around.  Lots and lots of purple.

This amazing delphinium is blooming near the back door fence.  It's poker straight, though it probably won't stay that way after the storm blows through.  Only nature could get that mixture of blue and purple so divinely perfect.

Near the old pond is this tiny forest of Veronica.  It's getting a bit lost among the bee balm so after it finishes blooming I might need to move it someplace where it can be the star of its own show.

The very last of the purple iris.  This one looks like it got munched by someone.  The iris were especially wonderful this year.

Spiderwort.  These are volunteers to the center garden that I don't have the heart to pull out.  They stand so tall above the lilies with those burst of purple blooms. 

Purple petunias in a pot on the deck.  Who does not love a petunia?  Happily blooming away all summer long.

My fingers after holding the spiderwort still to get an unmoving shot.

Looking forward to that first clap of thunder!!!

Yesterday we said goodbye to Bill.

It is unfortunate for me that I never had a chance to meet the Bill whose funeral I attended yesterday, because after experiencing the outpouring of love from family and friends, Bill was obviously an extremely cool guy.  I was there yesterday not because Bill Durham was cool, but because his partner, Bill Galaway is a friend of mine.

All those many years ago when I worked at the Roscoe Library I had a big ol' crush on Bill Galaway.  He was a reference librarian whose desk was in direct sight of mine.  Whenever Bill worked I had the unique pleasure of watching him interact with patrons in such a kind and congenial manner that I found myself drawn to him.  In fact one day I went right up and told him that I was crushing on him, which made him laugh out loud.  I'll never forget how kind he was to me at the end of my employment there in Roscoe where I was upset and confused.  Bill is a uniquely wonderful person who I was incredibly lucky to have spent a few years as a co-worker.  The guy also never had a single wrinkle on his shirts.  Ever.  Seriously.

So yesterday I travel with friend Trina, who also knows Bill G., to Holy Trinity Church in Belvidere, IL where the Bills were active members before they moved to Palm Springs, CA. I encourage you to click the link because the church itself is lovely and inspiring.  We sat and listened as friends and family came forward to share how much they loved the Bills; the one now residing in Glory, as well as the one sitting 5 pews ahead of me in a wrinkle free blue shirt saying goodbye to his partner of 44 years.  Forty-four years, we should all be so lucky.  There was so much love for these guys in that building you could almost wrap it around you and I found myself feeling grateful that I had the chance to sit in a church and see so many people offer love and condolence to a beautiful gay couple. 

I hope the day is soon coming where the word *gay* isn't a part of our vocabulary any more.  A day where we can celebrate two people, like the Bills, who are wonderful, loving people who give of themselves to their community, their church, their planet, and most of all to each other, in a positive way, and never once consider the gender of their partner of 44 years. (or 1 year, or 100 years) That will be a grand day.

So Bill D., may the saints and angels be carrying you home to a beautiful peace, and Bill G., I sure wish there weren't those 2000 miles of highway between us, because some old crushes never die. Namaste.

Baby Cambria's Pinwheel Blanket -or- how a picot bind off is evil.

A picot bind off, in itself, is not a big deal.  In fact,it is a perfectly lovely way to get a beautiful edging on any knitting piece.  You cast on 2, bind off 4, repeat and you get a nice little bump.  Making those little bumps about 250 times over 495 stitches could possibly be used as a method of knitting torture.  Still, the end result was worth it.

Miss Cambria's Pinwheel blanket, Ravelry page here, took me a little more than 2 skeins of Dream in Color Classy in the Beach Fog colorway.  The second skein ran out 25 stitches from the end of the bind off. That's where the evil part comes in.  Man, I said a few not pretty words when the end of that skein showed up. Luckily I had one more skein so the day was saved.(Moral of story: the pattern calls for 3 pattern repeats and I did 4. Follow directions.)  I started the blanket before we knew the gender of our new sweet one and I thought the color was suitably gender neutral.  Now I hope it's girly enough.  The pattern stops at the end of the stockinette portion and it's up to you to decide what sort of edging you want to add.  Originally I thought I might knit a LONG series of leaves and then attach them, but just before we left for Nashville "Knitting in the Sun" arrived and has a pattern for a beach blanket (which is essentially the same pattern) so I used the edging from that book.  Nice timing!

Now on to nice, quick, little baby things to knit!

Sudance Channel- Eco Trip: The Real Cost of Living.

Through the wonder that is Netflix Watch Instantly and my beloved Roku box I have been watching the absolutely fabulous series "Eco Trip". Eco Trip takes something that you or I use every day (the first episode I watched was about chocolate) and tracks it's journey from beginning to end.  The host, David de Rothschild is very British and obviously very committed to the green cause.  He is also adorable and actually rather funny. 

Being me, who loves this planet in a tangible way,(If you know me you probably know what I mean by *tangible*.  If you don't and want to know, just ask. I'm trying really hard to stay off my soapbox here.) I could go on and on about the wonders of this series.  It's well produced, chooses it's topics wisely and while it certainly highlights all the many creative ways we humans are destroying our planet, it doesn't do any real finger pointing.  It's more like, "here's the info, do with it as you will".  Again, being me, I don't completely understand why every person who breathes isn't doing everything they can to be kind to the planet, but I try not to point any fingers either.  Oprah once said something to the effect of " we make our choices based on the information we have.  Once we have the information, we can't say anymore, I didn't know."  I have thought of that bit of wisdom as I have watched each episode.  Everyone needs to know these things.  If you hear it and ignore it, that's on you, but if you hear and are inspired to act ....there lies the beauty.

So, Sundance Channel, Eco Trip.  Go forth and be enlightened.

My footprint just got a little bit smaller.

Yesterday, as it rained, Amazing Husband and I decided that it was high time to stop talking about getting  a rain barrel and actually go get one.  It took a little research to find a place here in town that had one and finally ended up at our local Farm and Fleet.  This barrel is made by Fiskars, which was a bit of a surprise to me since I associate Fiskars with cutting tools, but there apparently they do a line of garden products as well.  So, the idea here is that the rain comes down the spout (you can see it there on the right side of the barrel) and is diverted to the rain barrel by a little tube. (AH was still working on the hookup when the pic was taken, hence the level.) There is a sturdy lid to keep debris out and a nifty little nozzle to get the water from the barrel into the watering can.  We have quite a number of plants in pots as well as several gardens that need regular watering and I was always a bit concerned about the amount of water we use during the warm months.  Now all we need are a few rainy days and we've got good, free of water processing plant chemicals, water to keep our garden alive.  If this works really well there is an option to get more barrels and have them link to each other.  It make me happy to feel like I'm working with nature instead of against it.

No outdoor job can be completed without the supervisors. :-)