Gardening in Pots on Deck...

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. ~Hanna Rion

It has been a while.  Life is moving on, steadily.  As you may have guessed, I have Multiple Sclerosis.  I have finally applied to retire, much against my will.  My neuro and the specialist at Mayo highly recommended it.  It is still difficult to give up a job I truly love.  My approval has not come in yet.

One of the things I have added to the deck this year are Key Lime trees.  The baby limes are much slower growing than I would have assumed.  And the trees are still blooming.  Here is one of the babies with a back drop of 8 year old fingers! 

My friend Marge and I went thrifting and I found this great little watering can.  With a few holes in the bottom, it has become a good home for a Munstead Lavender plant.  The photo also shows red and orange cherry tomatoes my Granddaughter and I picked.  We also have green ones that have a bit of a peach tint when ripe.

Bohnen Kraut!!!  I can't tell you how happy I was to find Summer Savory at the farmers market!  It found an immediate home out on the deck.  I first learned about it during my time in Germany and now I have some, it will be great in green beans (bohnen) and stuffings and pork and....

I love herbs.  My bay tree didn't make it after my surgery last year.  I was in the hospital longer than expected.  Right there in front is my new little bay tree.  Not the 6' tree that passed, but it will be one day.  Bruce knows I need more room and a greenhouse.  He is such a good man.

Thanks for stopping by.  I am trying to get back into this.  It is nice to go back and read my online journal.  God Bless.

BATTLE!!!!

In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indespensible.

 

~ Dwight D.. Eisenhower~



Michael was a great movie!!!  I am doing battle.  This battle comes with moodiness and restlessness and leg spasms and sweats.  I am doing battle with a drug I have been on for months, since the knee replacement and all the set backs.  I refuse to take it much longer, I want off.   I am down to 2 narcotics a day.  It hasn't been easy.  I want to go back to work next week, I have been off way too long.  I have been told I am a determined person.  I will kick this.   Better to live with the pain and get back to the me I used to be.  Plans may be useless, but here they are.

And so, here I sit, knitting on bamboo socks.  My friend Penny gave me soooo much yarn for Christmas.  Way more than soooo much.  This was incredibly soft and I had just finished the Birthstone socks.    I have needles coming to start a red sweater., I can't wait.

This year, I have a plan.  I plan to make wrist warmers, to pile in a basket, for Christmas next year.  I want more handmade things to have ready for the great people who help me through out the year.  Just little thank yous really.  My goal, notice not resolution, is to knit more.  Do you have a goal?

And So It Begins

  Keep on beginning and failing.  Each time you fail, start over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished the purpose - - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you will be glad to remember.

 

~Anne Sullivan~

 

Happy New Year - 2013

 





I finally finished that pair of socks!!  It has been slow knitting that past few month.  I just started a royal blue pair of bamboo silk socks.  I was thrilled to finally be able to wear them.  My body is slowly feeling more like I have a little control.

 

This is what I showed you last summer.  I am very happy with the way they came out.  They make me smile and because of the colors, they make me happy.   Always a good thing.

This is the yarn I started with and I described where it came from and how I destructed the plies.

 

And the new year starts.  Like most Americans, I am deeply unsettled over how our elected officials cannot get along, cannot work together with the world's eye upon them and have failed to get the job done.  They need to begin again and again.  We need to begin again will all new elected officials.

 

I saw something on the news I thought was really pretty good for the first day of the year.  A man told the reporter his new year resolution was to step back and take a breath instead of reacting too quickly to situations that in the past have resulted in the hurt feelings of others.  What a great resolution and how insightful of him.  I wish him the best.

 

I am going to take one day at a time.  It will be nice to lose weight, but it is not a resolution.  I will save more and spend less, but that is not a resolution, it is a necessity to get my finances ready for more surgeries.  Like the man on the news, I will do my best to be a nicer person.  Doesn't that sound better than resolving to do all the things I have resolved to do and then failed?  I will keep beginning.

Results are what you expect; consequences are what you get.

~ Anonymous

Sometimes things don't necessarily go as planned. Knee replacement surgery in September was supposed to go quick and easy and I was supposed to be back at work quickly. MS proved to be a bit of a problem and then no one even bothered to tell me that my hip could act up, called Trochanter Bursitis. Oops, then MS kicked in again and last week I fell. Darn. I am getting a little knitting done, but no pictures as of yet. Work is wanting to know if I am retiring. No. Not if I can help it. No. You know what they say about denial.   

 

However, my range of motion has everyone excited, better than what they usually see.  So...here I sit.  Exercising.  Healing.  Sleeping.  And sometimes knitting.  But mostly sleeping.   I am going to kick ass.  I know it, because my knee will reach that high.  If I ever heal.

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Our choices are not always what we would find to be easy.  Mom wants everyone to write in Lee Greenwood for President!!! Do it!! And update the National Anthem to God Bless the USA!!! Gotta love my Mom!!!

This message has been approved by my Dad.  And my Mom.  And Polly.  But the cat can't make up her damned mind (according to my Dad).

“SABLE- A common knitting acronym that stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.”

― Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

My dear Bruce gave me some wonderful yarn for Christmas.  Since it was his gift to me, the finish product would also be for me.  I labored over patterns and scrolled through Ravelry, looking for just the most perfect thing....for me.  And I realized, it was meant to be the Brandywine shawl I have made for others.  Now I have my own!  (Did I mention it will be triple digits outside here today?)  I love the colors in this yarn.  He did tremendous!!!  As I have said many times, he is a keeper.

Catching up and showing you some things I have finished since last we spoke.  Just a few of them.  Socks for my friend Marge.  She is one of those people you love to knit for, one who gets excited.

The smile on my physical therapist's face definitely made me feel like I had done right. I was thrilled she liked her socks. She is the reason I still walk, even if it is with the aid of a walker. She is so very important in my life.

I am trying to be better, I have missed having a log of my life, my online diary. I like that I can go backwards and see things I have made, things I have done. I want this for my family, too. I am trying to be better.

God bless. Thanks for stopping by.

Spiderman, Spiderman.....

How sad is it that I consider this the funniest thing I have seen recently?  I have a warped sense of humor..... and just had to share.

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