A few random things...

1) I was at The Spinning Room yarn shop yesterday and got these:

 

The book is the latest by Alana Dakos, a designer I love.  And now I'm obsessed with making the Oak Trail hat:

Ravelry/Book pattern pic

The yarn is Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors in the color The Rising of the Moon, which will be for my soon-to-be-started Glitz at the Ritz shawl.

2) Paul and I went to a wedding last night.  When we got to our table, this was there:

Paul said, "What is that?  White chocolate?"  I informed him it was butter and he seemed disappointed.  He was hoping it was white chocolate.  To be fair, it was right next to the Hershey kisses scattered under the flower arrangement so he thought they were a related item....

3) We keep seeing the strangest things in our yard this year.  The green heron (and sometimes two) keep coming around and they have been fun to watch.  Yesterday afternoon, out of the blue, a baby/teen deer went streaking around the perimeter of our yard, with no one else in tow.   Also, this robin was all puffed up, trying to eat a worm and we couldn't figure out what he was doing.

4) This came today:

Unfortunately, I cannot help stack it since I will be going to visit my mom.   See how I emphaized "unfortunaely"?  It really is a shame that I can't help....

Next time, I'm hoping to give you some book reviews!

Finally...a Knitting Update

I know you've been waiting with bated breath for a knitting update from me.  You probably just couldn't concentrate on anything else, checking your computer every few hours to see if I've posted my latest knitting projects.  So sorry to keep you waiting....

I'm working on my Cozy wrap:

Due to some distractions, it took me a little while to get comfortable with this really very EASY pattern, but now I'm on a roll and each row is easy to memorize - especially the even rows, since they are all purls!  I'm using the very yummy Cascade Alpaca Lana D'Oro which is 50% alpaca and 50% wool. And this picture does not do justice to the dusty plum color.

I also started a Citron shawlette:

This is the first time I've used laceweight in quite some time, so it is taking some getting used to.  I feel like I'm not knitting with anything because the yarn is so fine.  I am thinking of switching from my Addis needle to a Knit Picks wooden needle since the Addis are very slippery.

And, since the new Knitty came out, I am obsessed with the Glitz at the Ritz shawl:

Ravelry pattern pic

And the Vino mitts:

Ravelry pattern pic

Both use fingering weight yarn, of which i have plenty in my stash, so I'm pondering what to use and when to start...

Now... your run-of-the-mill-here's-what's-happening-with-our-yard update:

Paul is working on clearing some stuff for a new project:

....the site of a future new garage.  This one should be fun...

The green heron has been a regular visitor to the pond because we have tons of food for him:

And finally, our peonies are blooming!

love. Love. LOVE!

Backwards Dinner

love. Love. LOVE backwards dinner:
Ice cream sundaes....

...followed by take-out pizza and breadsticks!

What's better than that?  I'll tell you what....backwards breakfast-for-dinner.

Sunset on Sunday after the storms:

Ok, next post will be a knitting update.  Probably.

Yard Related News

With my posts being sporadic lately, I thought maybe you'd want a hint as to what I've been doing:

That's all I can give you for now!  More explantions later, but posts might be sporadic for a little while longer....

But in Gardening News:
I have a wonderfully lush weed garden:

Isn't it pretty?

But seriously, I changed that today and now have some veggies growing:

Tomatoes (thanks to my sister-in-law Anita who is a much more accomplished seed-starter than I am!), cabbage, zucchini and eggplant.  Beans to be planted soon.

In Other Yard-Related News:
This red-winged black bird has been SUCH a nuisance!:

 

A nuisance in that we haven't seen any finches at the feeder in days because he keeps chasing them away, and when we were walking around the pond, he was  diving at us, and chirping up a storm, to warn us away.  We can't seem to figure out why -- we don't see any nests nearby.

Paul did see some activity from one of our pond turtles the other day.  It walked away from the pond and started digging in the grass, we believe to lay some eggs.  Here are a couple of the digging spots:

Isn't it weird that they both look heart-shaped?  During one of our walks, we actually saw the turtle sitting in a hole (but of course I didn't have my camera).

Then, we checked up on the growing frog population:

There really are frogs in those last two pictures.  You just have to look hard (toward the middle of each picture).

That's all for now.  Knitting update next post.  I finished a hat, but haven't blocked it and you can't tell what it looks like un-blocked.  I'm also working on a wrap with some soft alpaca/wool yarn and a scarf/shawlette with laceweight yarn.  The wrap is in the first picture of this post but I forgot to take better pictures!