Life is Good

       Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism;
                                           the way you play it is free will.

                                                   Jawaharal Nehru

I am just sitting waiting for my refrigerated medication to arrive UPS.  With plenty of spare time for a change, I decided to come show you my garden.  It is no secret I have MS.  I cannot have an in ground garden any more, but my hands itch to be in the dirt in the spring.  Two of my sage plants.  I love the smell and taste.  They turn out to be beautiful deck companions with shells and glass stones and marbles as mulch.

My second planting of "Bright Lights" Swiss Chard in an old galvanized bucket, a garage sale find last year.  It was old and beat up, a small hole in the bottom and only $1.  There is a short curled wire in the center that needs a hanging bobble.  Maybe I should go through my things to see if I have a single earring that could be attached.  I am thinking beads and a prizm

One of the corners of the deck.  I love herbs, I bet you couldn't tell.  I have had two large batches of basil harvested already, it looks like I can again tomorrow morning.  I have a back room at work that is cool and dry, the basil dries green there.  After this harvest, it will be time for pesto and butters.  The lavender in the tall bucket was a recent addition, and it is getting ready to reward me with blooms.

And now for one of my great loves. Rosemary, new this year. I lost two of my plants this winter.  They were my large mother plants.  My topiaries, all four, made it through, they are just beautiful, this is their second summer and I am hoping they round out and become more full this year.

My Granddaughter is my most valuable helper.  She is 7, and already she is very adept at watering.  She is always excited to get out there and work.  Think she will take after me?

Knitting next time.  My MS has taken many things from me, but I am always looking for ways around.  I can no longer hand quilt, due to m tremors, but I can and do knit.  It is wonderful physical therapy to keep my hands working.  I cannot garden large anymore, but with help, I can do it small.  With God's help, I will continue to be able to work.  Working is one of the reasons I have let the blog lapse.  I realize that is a shame.  The blog is a great journal for what I was able to do last year and it gives me ideas when I scroll back into my past. 

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my morning.

Another Sunday Moment

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!!

 

You're not going to find a man whose socks don't get dirty or who doesn't snore.

Helen Reddy

And I am okay with that, at least sometimes they are the socks I made, and I do love him.  That makes everything right in the world.

I have found a new, talented woman who does amazing things.  Part of this is about her, part is about my him.  My us.  First though, her.  Her company name is Needleclicks, etc on Etsy.  She made the bag, which is just the right size for my sock projects.  My little wooden box fits right in the bottom, the box with all my knitting stuff like my stitch markers and my measuring tape and my little scissors and my needles and my....well, you get the picture.  Anyway, it fits right in the bottom and there is still just the room I need for all the yarn I will need to make socks, and the sock in progress, of course.  The truly great part?  She must have snuck in one night and measured the basket on my walker...it fits there like it was made for it.  Perfect.

And this is her yarn.  She found a sweater, took the time to take it apart, rescuing it for another life.  After she did all that work, she hand dyed it into this incredible colorway.  Amethyst and peridot.  That becomes important in a moment.  The yarn came to me in worsted weight.  The plies were begging me to be separated so that is what I did.  I took it from what looked like four ply to two.  I now have enough for a pair of socks and a pair of mitts.  In Amethyst and peridot.  More about that in a moment.

How cool is this sock so far?  I am so excited about this sock.  I spoke to Bruce and told him this pair is for me.  Did you guess?  The moment is here....  His birth stone is amethyst and mine is peridot.  They just bled one into the other in to something really special....from a man that snores sometimes (sorry Bruce) into a woman who isn't anywhere near perfect who knits socks.  Isn't it a happy Sunday?

Spring

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.

~Ruth Stout

The view from my office at work. The white you are seeing is not...is not snow! The wind came up so high and the flowers still managed to hang on. My rosemary topiaries have made it through the winter, but all the plants seem to like this window. The orchid just finished blooming, it bloomed for a year straight.I knit (knitted?) this Haruni for a good friend. She was kind enough to model it for me. The smile on her face was worth all.

I'mmmmm Baaaccckkkkk.

I Am Not An MSer

I am a lot of ers. I am a daughter and a mother. I am a sister and a grandmother. I am a lover and a worker. I am a knitter and I am still a driver. I have a progressive form of MS, but I did not invite it in and it is not welcome here. We are not friends. Ers are meant to be good and great things. MS cannot and will not ever fit into that catagory. MS has stolen some ers from me. I can say I was a fine handquilter and I was a driver of a clutch...always. Until MS. Please don't give it a term of endearment and call me an MSer. I am not.

Hot!

To say it is hot would be the largest of understatements. On the news this morning, they were reporting that in places Interstate 90 is buckling under the heat. I have actually witnessed this in person as I was driving north a few years ago. Asphalt sprays up into the air when it explodes and can do some major damage to vehicles. Pretty scary.

"Whether the weather be fine,
Whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not."
Unkown I bought a little raindrop pot from AntB over at Etsy. Check her out, she has more and they are all different. What a way to fire a young person's imagination!! If it ever rains again, we will catch the rain in this minute pot for either fairies or hermit crabs...I need to make a few fairy gardens in pots on the back deck. Bruce - I need a larger deck!
People have been making me things. Glorious things. The little yarn flower was made for me by my Granddaughter. She is 6 years old and I treasure it. She had a select few she made them for, my Mother, my best friend - Grandma Penny, and me! My daughter got one too, but instead of being a pin, hers was a plant stake.

I have a wonderful friend, Bev, over in Scotland. She made these great earrings for me. My birthstone is Peridot, Bruce's is Amethyst. Aren't they wonderful!! I had to take a pair off just to get pictures. I have pretty much worn one pair or the other since they came in the mail. Today was a good excuse to trade them out again.
Look what I found a few months ago at my most favorite thrift store? Not only do they have the occasional cabinet (scroll down), they also have the occasional piece of handthrown pottery to fill with trimmed rosemary set out to dry. How could I pass up this cute ewe to stand guard over my wool?
Farmer's Markets turn up neat things, too. Penny and I went a few weeks ago and I found a wonderful artist with a rock painted to look exactly like my cat, Schuster. The rock found it's way into my box of mint plants, one bronze fennel plant and a rose scented geranium. What a haul!
What have I been working on? I seldom ever have more than one project on the needles at a time. Now is the exception. My daughter wanted rainbow bright socks. I should mention she just turned 29 last week. She chose the yarn and is very happy with the results so far. Look...the heels and toes are scraps!! Ahhh...my Monet period. They didn't turn out in the sharp contrast like the picture in my mind's eye (isn't that always the way?), but I am very happy with them. Qutecowgirl has touched my knitting life in ways you could only imagine. She was the first to convince me to try alpaca and I am grateful. I love it. I am thinking about starting a column on the sidebar listing all the natural fibers I have knit with. Yak will be on there now. Do I seem proud? You betcha! Finally, cherry tomatoes. We have been waiting....and waiting....and waiting.... One of two egg baskets bought for $1 apiece at a garage sale. They both now house my extensive leftover sock yarn balls. I really need to do something with all this wonderful yarn besides look at it.

Friday Moments

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt

I came around the corner and my favorite thrift store and bumped into this yesterday. Wow...! I called my best friend over to talk me out of it. She did such a great job that it took me 5 minutes longer to pay the $19.99 for it. You gotta love friends. She knew I would regret it forever. I will let you know it is Heavy. She thinks it may be mahogany. I love the blue though and don't think I can bring myself to strip it. What do you think? Imagine loads of sock yarn behind the glass.....

Socks and Herbs

“Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

Most of my gardening...no, not true....all of my gardening anymore is done in pots. It is a great thing to see the plants doing so well this year with all the cool weather and rain that is flooding people in this state out. I have been picking the top whorl of leaves off this mint to dry for tea and to add this winter to brownies. Socks for Dad, made from Qutecowgirl's yarn. The toes and heels were dyed by me, first with lime Kool-Aid then in three baths of strong black tea.Socks for me!! Again from Qutecowgirl's yarn. You can't really tell from the photos, but the peachy colored yarn has minute purple places in it. My favorite socks so far, but I say that about every pair.I have found new sock yarn suppliers recently on Etsy. NeuroticKnitterz. And in finding them, I found an interesting site and group on Ravelry. Phat Fibers. I am still new to this group, but I have found if you purchase from one of their contributors, your name can go into a hat for the drawing of a neat box of stuff, go check it out. I am in twice because of this yarn purchase. The colors are outside of my normal range, but the yarn is fantastic. I have already wound one of them into a ball and can't wait to start something with it. I am open to suggestions from any of you currently working on something wonderful. These skeins contain 460 yards.My dear friend Penny gave me this small strawberry pot. My thyme is certainly happy in there this summer. I love it!!Yarn my parents gave me for Christmas. I know it will become a sweater but currently I am trying to decide which one. I have lost a little bit of weight, too, so am trying to decide on a size. I wind the balls by hand, good physical therapy!And my last picture today is of one of the two wire egg baskets I found at a garage sale. I have been stuffing them with all the ends and pieces and leftovers of all my sock knitting. I am currently looking for a good scrap yarn sock to use some of these up.

God Bless,
Lynn