The Flowers and the Bees

I have a lot of iris, and after the storms we’ve had in the past couple of days, a lot of the flower stems were bent over or broken. Since another storm system will be arriving any minute, I thought I might as well go out and cut the broken ones for the house.

Hey look – they even coordinate with the painting in the background. I totally planned that. *Ahem*. I have a few other colors of iris, but since they were in good shape, I didn’t cut them.

By the way, if any of you locals want some of the dark purple ones in the center, or the light purple and gold ones, I’ll be thinning the herd this year – just let me know. I can’t seem to give them away faster than they grow.

Now for a more serious subject – the declining bee population, and the threat to the world food supply.

CarrieK posted about it on her blog, with a link to SaveHoneyBees.org, which is working to increase the population of healthy honey bees in the world. They don’t raise the bees to harvest the honey commercially, and they don’t ship them across the country for commercial pollination, as many beekeepers do. Their focus is simply to raise healthy bees, which can be used for research and breeding.

Please consider making a donation to this or another bee organization of your choice – I’m sure there are many others.

While I don’t have the time or space for a beehive, I am considering making some sort of insect house, to help encourage other kinds of bees in my garden. Here are lots more for inspiration.

 

 

 

Cat on a Hot Wood Roof

Doesn’t have quite the same ring, does it?

Say hey to Boo (ooh – another movie quote):

No, she’s not mine. But she spends about as much time in my yard as in the neighbor’s. Except for when she’s on the roof of his deck.

She’s one of the stray kittens from a year and a half ago – the only female and runt of the litter. The silly girl got stuck under our deck twice during the winter, and both times was under there for days before we found out she was there when we heard her meow as we shoveled snow. We’re still not sure how she got under there in the first place, but I think she crawled in through a small area where a tree stump comes up through the deck, then got stuck when we had heavy snowstorms that covered the opening. I stuck chicken wire in the opening to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Then her big brother Fluffy also got stuck under there for a few days, but that was because we’d been using a shed attached to the deck, and the door was left open for a little while. Oy.

Now brother Spooky has been missing for a few weeks. He’s the one peeking over the fence in this photo. But at least this time, we don’t seem to have a cat under the deck. Perhaps he decided that three’s a crowd.

 

 

 

Zippers!

I haven’t ever attempted to put a zipper in a sweater, partly because I’ve been a bit intimidated by the whole idea.

But I came across this tutorial that uses blocking wires to stabilize the edges of the sweater as you sew in the zipper – looks like a great idea!

Maybe I’ll give it a try one of these days.

Full Bloom

Have a great weekend!

And then the rains came…

I was having a lovely afternoon planting flowers in the garden.

The sky grew darker and darker. I knew afternoon thunderstorms were in the forecast, but I continued onward.

Until that big flash of lightening and boom of thunder.

I skedaddled in only a few minutes before the downpour.

These are the days when I love having my huge covered front porch. It’s wonderful to sit out there to watch (and smell) the rain.

Cheers!

Did you know that cocktail glasses (for drinks served chilled, but without ice) originally were designed to hold only about 3 to 6 ounces? Like everything else that has been supersized in the U.S., most are now 7 to 12 ounces. Old Fashioned glasses, or “rocks” glasses, for drinks served with ice, have likewise doubled – from around 6 ounces to 12.

When I have a cocktail, I’m usually using a fairly standard bar recipe which rarely makes more than 3 to 4 oz of liquid. Why stick that in a big, oversized glass? It just looks silly. Even when I make something on the rocks, it rarely takes up half of a standard Old Fashioned glass.

I’ve read a few articles lately about why smaller glasses are better for your drinks.

For my birthday present to myself, I decided to buy a few small, vintage cocktail glasses. I settled on these Fostoria “liquor/cocktail” glasses in the “Holly” pattern. They’re just over 5″ tall, and just barely hold 3 ounces.

So sweet! I love them dearly. I only bought four, but I might have to get some more. Maybe even some of the small water goblets or juice glasses for a slightly larger drink or for the “rocks” drinks.

I also have a single vintage cocktail glass that my ex-MIL gave me, but I have no idea who the maker is. It looks sort of like the Fostoria “Wheat” pattern, but isn’t. If I can find out what it is, I might have to get a few of these, too.

If I have a hard time finding the Holly pattern glasses, I guess I could just have a variety of vintage glasses, and guests can choose their own pattern. At least they’d know which glass was theirs.

They make me feel all Nick and Nora.

Embarassing Photos

No, not THAT kind.

The really-lousy-work-in-progress-photo kind.

I’ve gotten through clue 3 and have started clue 4 of Monica’s Shawl. It’s been a fun knit so far:

And then there’s my Bias Loop:

I do have a better photo of it, from when I first started it. Well, except for the schmutz on the ball of black yarn:

I hate schmutzy balls, don’t you? o.O

Anyway, that’s what I decided to do with the yarn left over from my Mohair pullover. I decided that I didn’t really like it knit in garter stitch with the two colors held together, so it needed to be something in stockinette. This should be a simple, easy project.

Except…

After a lot of travel knitting, I’m really suffering from tennis elbow. It started when I was working on the bulky sweaters a few months ago. It was getting better until the knitting frenzy this past week. I guess I’m going to have to go on a knitting diet for a little while, and see if I can nurse it back into good health. I don’t think these projects are going to be progressing much in the near future. Instead, I think there’s going to be a lot of ice and ibuprofen in my future.