Thursday, 21 July 2016
How, with temps daily cresting the 90s lately, did I start thinking about yarn? Because following a pattern can be a challenging puzzle to solve?
[Photo is from needlepoint kit in a museum shop in Paris last spring.]
Wednesday, 20 July 2016
I didn’t stumble this morning (yawn!) when I made the switch back to our venerable drip coffee-maker from the northern coffee method, a French press.
Tuesday, 19 July 2016
Three high rollers, no?
Ice-cream-cone trailer, with sprinkles.
And, as we finally deviated from the Interstate, we drove into a gullywasher, with knee-deep water gushing across the city streets in some places. Didn’t last long, though—whew!
Monday, 18 July 2016
We saw this peeling red gas station horse.
We saw and heard digital/digitized(?) music that involved this machine and a laptop not unlike the one I am typing on.
We also beheld the last clematis bloom of the year in this garden. There was more, including stupendous conviviality, but my memories are shaded by a phenomenal manhattan that featured Rittenhouse rye.
Sunday, 17 July 2016
MaNachur is ripening the black raspberries—not the same as blackberries. My favorite. Thank you, the Botanist. And next to these canes are some newly planted foxgloves, rescued from this side of the road, resuscitated on the other side of the road by a far better gardener than I, and now returned to this side of the road. I think they may have originally been planted by my great-grandmother (or under an arrangement she made).
Day 2 of the two-day project: the workbench is assembled and all parts are functional (note the nifty built-in light!), and the drawers now hold some tools. The (back) porch is pretty darned clean and we are taaarrrred.
At this late hour, we have had a line of lightning-thunderstorms come through and now its all drippy out, although another cell may tease us before midnight.
Saturday, 16 July 2016
The sun broke over the trees this morning, finally lighting the dew-wet field of grasses, sweet peas in bloom, and milkweeds with wide leaves.
Later, it looked like we were preparing for a yard sale, except that the items were junky or weird. Some has been purged, and the remainder, is separated from a veneer of dust and cobwebs, and replaced in the entry-porch.
This is Day 1 of a two-day project; stand by for more tomorrow.
Friday, 15 July 2016
The moon is big tonight (but not full), and my day was full(!!) of many things, some delightful, some housekeeping, plenty of laughter and fun, too.
As a kid, I called these plants, lost in a stand of orchard grasses, “tiny pine trees” to myself. I knew they weren’t pines, but don’t they resemble them?
I do not know what they “really” are, and I’m not looking them up now….
These are raspberries, mmmmm, kindly picked this morning and delivered to us as a hostess gift by our evening-guests. The berries made an outstanding dessert with this fine (commercial, boughten) vanilla ice cream (with almost no crap added). Add a ration of PAMA, and we are all smiling, happy not-campers.
Thursday, 14 July 2016
#TheGuru transformed himself into #HomeHandiman and installed this ceiling fan on the front porch (that is, the part of the house with windows and facing the lake). I added the low hanging pull-chain. See, I was helpful!
Of course, this was a day that was cool—meaning the heat wasn’t pocketing fiercely under the porch-eaves, making installation easier—and the need for air-movement reduced. Quirk of fate.
It was not only cooler, but we had two modest sessions of rain. This one included enough wind that moisture came in the open panels (too late closing them) and pooled beneath the west windows. Another homeowner problem to be solved? Or just towel and go….
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
This is the kind of plant I’d look up starting with sedges. I think of sedges as funky marshy-land grass-like denizens. Maybe these cotton-top, stiff-stemmed plants?
I found out the other day that there are kinds of insects known as sedges—a new one on me. I got this from a fly-tying book on what the insects and the fishing-flies that imitate them look like—not actually how to tie them.
Later, I checked the big world of the internet, and found out that bug-sedges are what I have heard called caddis flies. Their wings fold into an inverted V making a lengthwise ridge above their backs.
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
We did a big walking/hiking* loop that gave us fine views of the Grand Portal of the Pictured Rocks. In some places the sandstone(?) is more colorful than here…. And, yes, that is the color of the water along here.
My fitbit is cranked, having today logged in excess of 30K steps and 70 flights (of imaginary stairs), with 250 active minutes (these are KW levels). And that is why I am [see title].
* Including dancing over exposed roots, slogging through both soft sand and many mucky spots. Feet tired. We have decided that if we do this hike again it will be in October when the biting stable flies have abated and the temps have dropped.