Year end looking back

Well like most of you I hope that 2022 is a better year than the past few. I know the kitties are ready for the world to be better so they can spend less time taking care of mom after shots and more time taking care of napping. OK fine they admit to napping quite a bit while taking care of momma, but still everyone needs less stress. 

Now that the big move is over I am concentrating on keeping us safe and happy. Quite a big task if I do say so. But the kitties are with me so I've got that going for me.

The kitties trying to keep me warm and make me nap after my booster shot.

I can tell you that I managed to meet my sock knitting goal of 12 pairs this year. Let me show you pair eleven. Hubby's Christmas 2021 socks. Yes I know it is not an artistic picture. If the world has taught us anything we need to roll with what we have. They are beautiful and he is happy to wear them. They are from Lisa Sousa Hardtwist Merino Petite in the Aww-Tum colorway. This yarn followed me home from Rhinebeck in 2015. Huh I guess that makes it one of my last Rhinebeck hauls. Incredible color.

My last pair of socks were for me. These are Huckleberry Knits Willow BFL in Honeycrisp colorway. Now these were a pandemic purchase directly from the dyer. Sadly she went out of business this year but I will enjoy here beautiful colors on my feet for quite a while. 

Do we need to look at the tally? Heck yeah I do. Hubby got more than half of the haul this year with seven pairs for him. I got two including my purple socks that I knit on while waiting to make sure my body could handle the vaccine. Those socks hold so much hope and love for me. Our caretaker friend Julie got two pairs knit for her after she gently asked what you have to do to get on my knitting list. Since she kept both of us feed and sane during our separate broken bone confinements, she did not need to do anything she's already sock worthy. Plus she is almost my foot size so she got pick of don't fit me anymore pile. Nice to know my socks are keeping her toasty when she is out camping. She even sends me sock pictures, hard for her to get anymore sock worthy than that. 

I have more to tell you and show you but I might as well just stop here and get this job done while the sun is still up. 

And one last thing RIP Betty White, you made me laugh and feel better. Thanks for that.

Whew Glad I got that off my chest.

Oh what story to tell you today? Sometimes I catch myself composing blog posts and journaling solely in my head, I really wish I could transfer them here so easily. I write such awesome things in my head. But when I sit down here I just stare at the blankness and think of all the things I need to be doing. And I never get the pictures I wanted loaded. Today I scrolled through pictures and I had posted most of them. So I have only this one to offer you.

So I am going to try some freeform writing to see how that goes. I know you're thinking like me, isn't that what I normally do anyways? Let's just pretend this is new and move on OK? Also no I did not write in my journal like I said I was going to last week. 

Yes we are settling in here but there is still more to do. Isn't there always more to do? 

I will tell you restocking a kitchen is not as fun as it sounds. I am starting to set up some freezer meals again. I love having a freezer full of yummy things to eat that I have made. I have been watching youtube videos from a lady that spends six or so hours cooking on a weekend to stock up their many freezers. She is a machine I tell you. Really 40 or more meals in four or six hours. Quite an inspiration but not the level I am looking to get to at this point in my life. The apartment kitchen is less fun than our Oregon kitchen but I am learning to adapt. Talk about space saving. At least I kept our freezer in this move and it fits perfectly in the kitchen. Almost like it was designed to go there. The kitchen does not have a lot of storage space and I sure as heck am not using it efficiently, but we are back to that settling in thing again. 

Hubby has discovered the joy of watching Great British Bake Off with me. And we are looking to explore cooking and baking together a bit more. I have told him I have no interest in making suet pudding but Swiss Roll is very much on the table for experimenting. I have always wanted to make one of those, so maybe a yule log for Christmas?

On the knitting front I am very happy to be close to my self imposed knitting goal of 12 pairs of socks this year. I have started the last sock that is needed. And even if I don't make it I came close and that is all that matters. Since I have only one sock on the needles I am itching to cast on more. And I want to get back to knitting that baby blanket for my friend again. D says the kid will be in college before it is done at this rate. I say it is still going to be done before my friend would have made it so it would still be a win. 

Goodreads tells me I have hit my goal of 52 books this year also, so I have that goal in the done pile too. 52 books read this year, check. Successful move in the middle of a pandemic, check. House sale complete, check. Still enjoying knitting, check. New handknit socks for hubby under the tree, almost check, they just need to be wrapped and put under tree. Booster and flu shot on board, check. Some Christmas cards sent out, check, more than last year's zero! Still in contact with friends in other states, check. Cats feed and petted, check. Momma not too stressed about everything, check.

Well I think that is enough rambling for the day. I feel better and I have some calls to make and some kitchen organization to do. 

Remember it always good to have a cup of tea with friends (furry or not furry) and just be you.

 

Post move Randomness

Did you ever notice when you move you always find new items, or new places for items, or new uses for items? Well of course you find new places for items since the old places are no longer handy so to speak. Anyways new uses, I have never been a big fan of afghans. It seemed pretty counterintuitive to expect an item full of holes to keep you warm. But if you have a nice hole filling cat and an afghan big enough to fold over it can keep you quite warm.  Plus it was handy since we never really figured out a new spot for it. I assume this is an afghan my grandmother made but maybe not who knows anymore.

I do know the one on the back of the couch my mother knit while we were still living on the farm, acrylic yarn has its place I guess. Burt does not mind clashing with either. 

You think Big Orange clashes with red Momma? I don't think I clash at all! Afghan has hints of white, I have hints of white, we match perfectly! Plus it is pretty comfy here I ain't moving again!

Before I left Oregon, I found two little journals that I had to pick up. I had looked at the one on the left online and found a page that said write down bad things lightly in pencil then using a dark pen write good things over top of them. They are not erased but they are not so easy to read. My mind immediately rebelled and said this is a bad book how will you be able to read the pencil stuff? 

I stewed on that for a day or so before coming to realize I did indeed "need" the book to learn a few lessons, most importantly how to let that shit go!

Sadly I have not taken a bunch of time to start working through the book. It is another one of the lies we tell ourselves that today is full of tasks and we will do it tomorrow. Plus working on yourself is hard. So on Monday I will do one lesson from the book to get myself working on me. 

Anyways so much for life philosophy. Let me show you something cool one of my former coworkers gave me. It is meant to go into a cup so you have a great place for all those little tools you use.

I discovered it hangs over my little knitting basket quite well too. How cheery and handy is that?

So that is today's report. I'm sure I will think of more things to tell you as soon as I hit the post button. But hey how about lunch first Hmm?

NM Success

Yes moving is hard but it can have advantages too. We found a phenomenal taco place next to a brewery. Mid-day tacos and beer in the sunshine? Yes we did!

My first street tacos and first fish taco. No those were not my first beers... I will say the sun is wonderful but blinding here. That is the only way I can explain cutting D off mid face.

I successfully made high altitude scones! D declared them my best ever scones but I think he was mostly happy to have them back after the chaos of the move. We did manage to find a bakery that makes scones and they were so big four scones lasted us four days.  

Burt is enjoying his momma's lap time. It is his favorite way to start a Caturday. He approves of scones and tea because they keep momma sitting for long enough to get a good nap in. 

Of course Burt does not believe there that a bad nap exists either though.

I finally managed to finish a pair of socks for Hubby. The move really put a crimp in my knitting time. I have a long standing goal of knitting 12 pairs of socks a year. Well it is not looking too good this year. This is pair ten, and we are into December now, yikes.

See Jayne Knit Superwash merino/nylon in Dead for Ten Minutes colorway.

At least I have one other sock done, so I am halfway on pair eleven. Don't you just love how my pumpkin bag compliments my foliage sock? You can guess what time of year these ones were started and know they have been quietly waiting their turn at some knitting time. So technically I am only three socks behind schedule.

Lisa Sousa Hardtwist Merino Petite in Aww-Tum colorway.

Because I had tossed the stash so thoroughly before the move I knew which bag of yarn was calling my name before the move so I easily found my next yarn to knit. 

Huckleberry Knits Willow BFL/Nylon in Honeycrisp colorway. 

 I am so glad this was one of my post ankle break pandemic buys last year. The dyer closed up shop earlier this year. Just goes to show you sometimes you really should buy the yarn when you want it.

So we're all settling in here and finding where we put things and discovering the joy of finding new favorite places while finding comfort in still having old favorites around us. No honey, you cannot call me "Old Favorite" now. It is not romantic at all.

I'm looking forward to being able to show you other successes and not too many failures too.

Happy knitting!

Moving is hard OR to NM edition

We are here in New Mexico now. Finally! Seems like I have been working towards this move for months. Oh wait I have been working towards this move for that long!

In some ways I feel this move was easier and in others is was way more difficult. Isn't that always the case? I had the time to plan and work towards this one and we were only in the house for a few years rather than the decade + for the old one. We had less time to accumulate stuff but that meant we wanted to keep most of the stuff we had. And this time we have two curious and active kitties, that had never taken to using halters and leashes. One of whom is quite skittish. So I had to think about how long could we be on the road a day and how would we handle her in hotel rooms? Litter boxes, scoopers, litter, beds, food, water, dishes, uncramped carriers so many things to think of. Honestly it was a bit overwhelming.

Enter the solution to Mellie in a hotel room. We call it the Burt Yurt (trademark) but it is for Miss Mellie. There is a zip on lid so it keeps her fully contained. Room for litter box, food and water and some comfy bedding. Solution to one problem acquired.  

It worked great! I am so glad we got it. Even though she got lonely in the night and I spent a portion of every night on the floor zipping my upper torso in the door. Bonus to that solution was that I was right there to witness she was peeing and pooping which can be a concern. Honestly I have never been so excited to scoop litter boxes before.

I got new tall wide carriers for them to stretch out in. I set them up as soon as we received them so they could get used to them and decide they were a good safe place to retreat. The mesh was great so they had plenty of air flow even in the back seat. I started out with them covered to cut down on noise but that seemed to be too hot for them. 

The problem with these is that they are not really carriers as much as back seat traveling carriages. There is no good convenient way to pick them up and carry them. But we did it and I would choose them again. Bonus they fold flat so they are easy to store. We had them set up in the closet while they were packing the house and again in a different closet here when our stuff arrived. I have not seen the kids in them since our stuff arrived though. Turns out a week in them makes you less fond of them, if you're a kitten.

Our surprise of the trip was that Burt was the one we had a bit of difficulty with. That story will be told later. Mellie turned into our grin and bear it girl. You know other than demanding Momma come sleep in the yurt with her. Our last day in a hotel was a bit more relaxed so we slept in some only to awaken to cat yowls and growls. Mellie had pushed just right on the zipper and got it open enough to escape the yurt. Luckily she let me catch her and put her back in before causing any fits of the vapors. 

One tip I am really thankful to know is to travel with water from home for the kitties. It helps prevent upset stomach due to different minerals in the water in different places. It did feel funny to have human water and kitty water. The kitty water was much more valuable and protected than the human water!

We seem to be settling in fine so far. It did get much better when we could sleep in our own beds. And not have to get up and drive 400 + miles the next day. D commented on that specifically several times. Burt totally agreed each time too.

Well that is the first move report. I'm sure there will be more as I think of it. But we are all safe and sound for a little bit. 

Words

I am still in the thick of things. Getting things ready, giving away things no longer useful for us. Calls and emails have been sent and received. Yarn and fiber have been vacuum packed. 

I texted my BFF (Best Fiber Friend) and got her opinion on a sweater that has been in time out for a long while. I sent picture so me wearing it and came to the conclusion this was never going to work for me. I took a picture before I frogged it. I wanted to like it so much more than I did when I put it on. 

Alas Teatime Cardigan you are all wound up into being just yarn again. It was fun while it lasted but it was never going to be love with us.

The woolie washing continues too. Mellie made sure I was blocking properly. I also compared my shawls and found I do not love purely triangular shawls. The never seem to wrap me properly. But this one will stay handy on the couch to warm me up if needed.

Burt and Mellie are testing out their road gear too. I have made them into nice hidey hole quiet rooms and we both marked our scent in them. But not in the super smelly scent marking way just the warm sleepy fur kind of way.

To contain Momma's Little Pistol Mellie in the hotel rooms while we travel, we now have a playpen for her. Although we are calling it Burt's Yurt just to make sure everyone is happy.

 Soon enough we will be on our way then we will be there and new fun begins. 

A Better Rhinebeck Room

When we moved in I named my knitting room Rhinebeck in honor of my favorite wool festival. As you know I'm not a neat and tidy person by nature. I tend to leave things out that I am working on, even if I have not worked on them in months. You never know when you might need something so why put it away in its proper place when I can leave it here? Luckily I have a darn fine memory and usually know where I have left stuff so that kind of qualifies as its place, by default, right? If I can locate it, it must be in its place?!

In my current clean up phase, almost everything that I consider knitting I moved back into Rhinebeck. Yes it is true Rhinebeck was trashed. Rhinebeck was also used for all my seed experiments this spring and had not recovered from being a multi-use room. OK fine I simply did not pack away my seed stuff. I am a horrible person. No not really I am just easily diverted. Look Squirrel!

Rhinebeck had done its job well of collecting up all my stuff. It had also collected all of D's annoyance in one room. We are well matched but have different outlooks on stuff and just how much stuff is needed in our lives. My minimum stuff level is higher than his maximum stuff level. I come from a family of keepers and he is not sentimental about anything. Sometimes I am shocked that even I have lasted this long guess I am still useful and that's why he keeps me around?

Wait let's get back to Rhinebeck shall we? D tried to help me clean up Rhinebeck!

I know I was horrified too. It is a bit like someone reading your diary and your last twelve entries were all you venting how they are the stupidest, most horrible person ever because they asked you to do some small thing for them. My knitting room is like my journal, personal, private and horribly awkward to explain to anyone what you were thinking. Hey I at least don't have any hot pink fun fur laying around that I need to justify.

Once I got over the invaded feeling we talked and I asked him to give me half an hour to get it to something he could tolerate.

I think I went above and beyond.

And then I disappointed him all over. 

OK fine a little bit of explanation is needed. I cleared it by just putting things in totes to make us feel better. A few days later I received the vacuum bags I ordered and pulled things out to give the stash a proper tossing. Pack it away in a compressed, more protected fashion.

I found four different sets of needles in abandoned projects and reclaimed them safely to the needle storage pack. I have missed doing a proper stash tossing. I didn't rip everything back but I did a few things so I can keep them safe. I did remember most of the stuff I had started thanks to that darn fine memory of mine.

All of my Swedish Death Cleaning has been preparing for a move. I have been washing my woolies and preparing to pack them away for a trip. Turns out I have woolies all over the house. Well I did till Rhinebeck started collecting them for me and I was able to start the wash up process. 

This batch of woolies struck me with its randomness. Guess I will knit almost anything? I found my TARDIS kindle cover. Three tiny knit things that I use as ornaments. I also located a hat, a cowl and a headband. So tiny woolen things washed up and packed away. 

Don't worry I managed to return Rhinebeck to D's comfort level and have opened up two more totes. I am sure I will find more woolies as I prep the house for sale. 

I did find some carefully labeled practice swatches I made from when I first started knitting, December 2006. I think the first knitting group I went to was September 2006 because I know they were going to Rhinebeck for the next meet up and I bowed out of it. Because I didn't know what kind of yarn to buy or if I was going to keep up this new knitting thing. I know sometimes I still kick myself for that. Then other times I realize how overwhelming Rhinebeck would have been for me and thank my lucky stars I did not scare myself out of knitting!

I was able to let the practice swatches go since I never use them and my knitting changed once I started knitting socks. I am glad that I can document how enthused I was with knitting from the start though.

Burt remains as supportive as ever.

Yay it is fireplace weather again!

Cleaning up and finding things.

Burt do you want to help Momma do some Swedish Death Cleaning? 

I don't know Momma would it increase my food allowance? No? Then I think I am pretty comfortable right here. I'll make sure I can cheer your on from here. Go Momma get rid of some stuff!

 

Burt look what I found! Looks like Momma was always destined to find you and bring you home. 

Yep Momma I was always headed your way. Keep up with that cleaning Momma. You can get rid of some of that cross stitch stuff. You're a knitter now, no need to hold on to old stuff. You can just enjoy all the stuff you finished. Keep going Momma!

Momma do you need me to cheer too? I'm valuable too even if I was not "predestined" to find you. Grumble grumble stupid cross stitch stuff forgot about grey kittens...grumble. I'm a pretty good girl!

 As part of my cleaning I have consolidated all my yarn and knitting supplies. My Rhinebeck room is collecting all the knitting things. Yes it is the worst room in the house now. But on the plus side I found a tub to put all my handspun yarn in. I am very surprised at how much I have spun. It is rather nice to be putting things in their places. But oh my Swedish Death Ceaning is so not fun. I am looking forward to having it all done. 

Burt and Mellie are being very helpful keeping me on task.

Keeping busy

Burt would like you to know that we are all about self care in this house. Well and we care for others too but we secure our air mask first. Here he is doing just that. In order to be supportive sometimes you need to be supported. Or something like that, it is hard to be a cat philosopher all of the time. It interferes with his napping schedule, secure your own mask first, blah blah.

A few weeks ago we took a drive out to the coast with a friend. This lighthouse is neat because it is shorter and you come down the trail seeing just the light portion below you. Most if not all lighthouses I've been to are quite tall and you have to look up. this one is short and built into a lower level so you walk up to a great view of the Fresnel lens. 

Plus looking at lighthouses always make you look contemplative. My guy happens to be highly contemplative but looks so much more here. 

Back up the hill we had to go see the Octopus tree. So named because there were eight huge limbs growing from one low trunk. We counted and debated if it were truly octopus now. Some of the limbs have been removed due to storm damage. There were smaller limbs but I don't remember if we got to eight again.

Burt reports that the star blanket is still progressing, but not terribly quickly. Momma has been busy baking and cleaning. Pumpkin bread and muffins are all right. Burt has been a little cranky because he has to use the food ball again instead of a dish. The vet said he is too smart to just sit in front of a dish and eat. Hopefully working to get food will reduce his waistline "smarts." Who knew they could be measured in pounds with a scale?

Both he and Mellie are telling me that she is smart too and should get a second Mellie food ball. She has figured out how to work it and was eating his food ball food he had left in protest of Momma's unfair new program. Don't worry Burt ended his protest just as soon as he heard someone eating his food.

Stay strong and defeat the food ball my friends!

Someone Else's Star

Shortly after I left my job, I had lunch with a former coworker, now just my friend. When her son said he was expecting we picked out a pattern for a baby blanket for her to make. We found a very interesting Ten Stitch Star pattern by Frankie Brown.

She bought the yarn and we started the pattern one day while on lunch. And we restarted the pattern the next week on lunch. And we restarted the pattern the week after that in a lighter color so we could see what we were doing. Alas it went home with her and sat in the bag from the yarn store. Cough for a year and a half cough. 

Yeah it seems like the projects you want to do the best on just sit there sometimes. 

Anyways I brought lunch to her the week after I left my job, and we had a lovely chat. We solved all of the world's problems and I knit on a sock. She sat there and finally got up the courage to ask...could she pay me to knit the baby blanket? 

No! You can not pay me to knit it, but I would consider knitting it for you but reserve the right to give up and return it to you. 

I took home a nice bag of yarn and pulled out some needles and started knitting. I had been looking to do something besides socks for a little while and could not land on anything. I could have knit on a sweater that has been on the needles for a while but nope. I really need to try the sweater on and see if it will work for me before I progress. But that is a story for another post.

I cast on the next day and soon had a star. It required a little bit of seaming but it was pretty interesting to knit. Time to move on to the next color.

I have found that rewriting patterns can sometimes help me make what I am doing, clear in my head. I do have to be extra careful I don't misunderstand something and keep on with an error. But that is always a risk you take. It is just as easy to think you understand reading something when in fact you misread it and have totally missed the point. But my star still looked like a star part of the way through. Keep on knitting.

I of course was heavily supervised. The kids were getting used to having a full desk to sprawl out on since my work computer went back to the office.

They kept me fortified with tea and supervision. They even allowed for bathroom breaks and snacks. What more could a working cat mom ask for?

As the star grew so did the time it took to knit a full star. Such is the joy of knitting?

Once the third star was done it was time to check and see. So the star is 14 inches (I think) from point to not a point. This thing is so hard to measure. Then I started really reading the pattern and thinking about what we have. Yikes how big is this thing going to be and am I really willing to knit it?

So the pattern picture shows 12 stars. Uhm each of my star stripes is about 2 inches. No I did not do the math at this point because ppppttthhh, I don't want to. It is going to get pretty big. We discussed a plan and I knit a stripe of ten stitches on smaller needles. That stripe was slightly smaller than 2 inches. The command was given to knit on as is. Next color is a maroon so we shall see. We may need to eliminate some of the rounds but now is not the time to make that decision. 

So yeah, I am knitting a baby blanket for a toddler. And Mellie keeps stealing the yarn. It only took three times for me to relocate the yarn bag for safekeeping from a stripy kitten star.
 

Recovering

We have been in recovery mode here for a while now and I think it is starting to become normal to feel less stress. I know Burt has been working extra hard at absorbing all my bad emotions and recycling them through Purr Therapy into happiness. He claims a trademark on Purr Therapy. Not only is he inventor, developer and practitioner; he is also a satisfied client.

Melissa is still punching in for work in the old home office. Turns out she did not quit her job just because Momma quit hers. She is even willing to work overtime!

They both have decided the desk is not inherently bad by association and we can work even more comfortably without that pesky computer, screens and phone. More space to sprawl! 

I have had the crockpot going for three days straight. Cooking up some tasty meals and getting some stuff used up. So nice to have the time to think about making things again. I do need to pull out the bread machine too but one day at a time, according to Burt. We wouldn't want to rush into anything.

I have been attending to my garden also. I love that I can grow things to eat too. I will need to start planting for some fall produce too. This is my second ever home grown zucchini.

I am being closely supervised in my knitting project for a friend. See how easy it is to convert a work desk into a hobby desk if you follow your cat's recommendations?

Started a puzzle but they are not as much help with that as they would like you to believe.

So yeah I have been keeping just the right amount of busy. Thanks kitties for making your momma feel more like her true self. 

 

Sigh, Letting Go.

 I am not even sure where to start. As you know I have been struggling for the last couple of years. Heck all of us have been struggling. Turns out a worldwide pandemic is a huge stress. Add to that how many people it brought out the worst in and oh boy, what a shitty world we live in.

OK I feel better for saying it but it is a hard thing to admit. We are horrible to one another. Kindness is something that is demanded as a right and not reciprocated. I am done, just done with people acting like petulant children. Demanding this and that without giving anything back. Mine, mine, mine is all I see.

Sigh, maybe I should just write this all in a journal somewhere, but nope it is here on this page. Seems I am having a moment...

Sigh, I made a decision a couple of weeks ago to help me. I quit my job. I stayed on to train my replacement but I made the decision to walk away from a very bad situation. Honestly I feel better. I worked my way through some things. I felt like a failure but then I slapped myself with the kindness stick and let myself off the hook. It is not a failure to admit things are not right, and you have done everything you can to make them better, but things are still not right. 

Sigh, I am worth it. I am better than this and I will always be worth it. 

As I was cleaning out my desk I found a piece of paper. Remember a couple of years ago when someone anonymously sent me a letter telling me I was not living up to their standards? You know buy a blouse, wash my hair and put on makeup. (Side note I'm really not doing that now in a pandemic.) No I did not keep that piece of paper. Hubby collected all the nice things people had said to me after that and typed it up and sent it to me anonymously. Yes I know he is a good hubby even if he scared the pants off of me that day. That is the piece of paper I found to help me get through a very tough day of leaving. 

Sigh, I am worth it. I am better than this and I will always be worth it. 

For my Father in Law

My father in law is a good man, who has had a rough few years. I know last year was rough on all of us but I kid you not when I say he had a really rough time of it. So when he tells me I need to move on from windowsill gardening to the outside world, you bet your sweet bippy I had to send proof of just that. 

I did indeed get a late start to planting outside because I was slightly obsessed with my seed starting project. Hubby would say more than obsessed but hey a girl needs a hobby. Shh don't tell him knitting is my hobby. Ok fine a girl needs an experiment sometimes too. I was so busy watching things grow inside and so worried about the last freeze date that I missed my sow seeds outside date. 

I know! I even have a month by month garden book to refer to. I blame pandemic brain!

I did get myself a nice little tent greenhouse. I had a thermometer that kept the daily highs and lows in it. I can tell you it got pretty near freezing and if I did not open it up whew, it was sweltering in the day in that tent. It was not uncommon to get a face full of steam if I did not get out in the morning. 

Anyways back to the pictures. I swapped the bed the tomatoes were planted in this year, it is the far bed in the above pic. It has been interesting to see how much less light it gets. The house and back porch shade it pretty well till midday. Plus I mixed up how I planted the tomatoes this year since I had so many. The ones that get the most sunlight are also the ones I planted sideways. They are much stronger and fuller plants than their shady not as deeply planted cousins. So yay more data for my experiment. Now I will always plant tomatoes sideways to give them better root development. 

Lettuce plants from the nursery seem to have taken off. We got one cucumber from the greenhouse cucumber plant too. Now if this weekend's heat does not scorch everything to death I will be happy-ish. Yesterday was a record breaker at 107 I think and today and Monday are both expected to be over 110. Climate change is real!

We have dusted off the cards and Cribbage board. That is Hubby winning yet another round. He one that set and is on his way to winning the next set. BUT I WON last night so I am feeling feisty!!

 Speaking of feisty Mellie says a fur bikini is not all that much cooler. She feels save tucking herself behind my chair and letting it all hang out. A cat has to do what a cat has to do!

Try to stay cool and safe my friends. Hope you enjoyed this one H!!