The Birthday Meat Ball

  He is afraid of the lit candle so we didn't try that one again.

Ah, to be 10 again! Not really. I am happy to be my own age, well, not happy but content, that is if I can sneak into a spa for a face lift.

Jane, he is called Little Brave Heart sometimes. Paraphrasing the Bard, "Though he be but small, he is fierce!"

I never thought we'd get this far together. Life is very good. 

Himself at 2 years of Age, A little Golden Bear of a Dog

Jazz made it to ten years. Happy Birthday you spoiled brat!

This is Jasper and me when he was about a year old, I think. He hadn't faded out yet to the Red Gold color he is now.



When we first got him, he had to be trained not to attack big dogs. He had been raised with standard poodles the first 10 weeks and already knew they would back off if he attacked. All big dogs won't do this! We were never convinced that we would still have him at ten years but he's certainly mellowed a lot.

Who Knew?

WEll, I stopped knitting so much and this morning is the first morning post op, that I woke up without swollen and sore fingers. So, I'm just going to work out with weights and leave the EXTREME knitting to later.

Update on the Little Red Dog is that we went HEREand watched the videos. We are pretty sure that Jazz has epilepsy, now. He's having pretty classic Grand Mal Seizure, without losing consciousness. The heat is not helping either. In the big scale of things, Life on earth is pretty horrible for people who are a lot more aware of their surrounds. Also, he IS a breed with a 10-15 year life span, and the cause of the seizures now must be found if possible.

I am trying to not be getting all emotional about this anymore because Life itself is just full of surprises; balance and perspective tells me that our human friends have some very serious issues, and it would be unseemly to be expecting them to chat about Jazz's problems. He is still very young seeming, played like a puppy after his seizure yesterday, and otherwise healthy, so I need to be realistic here. His tenth birthday is tomorrow. Ten candles in a hamburger patty?

Going to go watch a movie with DH. "The World's Fastest Indian" Should be fun.

Just a note on the Mini Roses

I found two of the mini roses at the fair. The one on the right rear is called Heart Breaker, and it's one of the best of the minis. And the one that looks like a little Peace rose is called Rainbow's End.

Blogger is busy Let's see if this goes as a post rather than a comment.

Thank you all so much, we appreciate the support. Karen, those fingers and toes have got to help. Solidarity! Jane, Meribeth and Annie, you have seen the seizures then, so you know their affects. They are horrible to watch and you feel so helpless. When he doesn't know us, and runs from us in fear, that is really hard to take. Thanks for all your good wishes, too.

One great thing about the advance in medicine is that it's advanced Veterinary medicine, too. And the price of mri's and eeg's have come down a lot for animals, too.

Meribeth, I'm hoping that it may be food related, but it happens in mid afternoon so far, and the vet can't relate it to anything that he is eating.

Rho, Trish and Yarn-nut, thanks so much for you kind thoughts, and this little guy I would die for. He's that far up on the list for me.

On to the food wearing fashion show. Ah! So many of us wear our food. ;o) hehe I don't feel so alone now but I really felt like a slob walking around the home show and the rest of the fair. I put my knitting bag against my body as much as possible. Turmeric, an ingredient in that yellow mustard, does make a great yellow dye I'm told. I was at the point of taking one of the sponge sticks that ceramicist use, they look like a corn dog, and daubing the whole tee top with more mustard in a rolling dog pattern. But the Oxiclean worked the final magic.

The County Fair, and some unwanted excitement on the home front.

We went to the Fair yesterday to work the Information booth in the Gem and Mineral Building. The trekker socks went with me, and I would knit a little and put the splint back on, knit a little, etc. My mind and heart were at home with Jazzie which I will explain in a minute.

Besides the little kids digging for polished stones, which is always a lot of fun to watch and to help them with, I met a couple of knitters. It's great to chat with knitters for the same reason, their enthusiasm is inspiring and cheerful. One of them had been knitting as long as I have, and she said she knit continental. I had to show her my mixed style, which is called combination, and showed her why I couldn't do continental. Guess what, I had no trouble at all handling the yarn with my left hand. We both laughed!

My little dog has been having seizures, and Thursday he had the two worst that he's had since they started a week ago. We called the vet from our friends' house where we had been all afternoon, and the vet said to bring him in. We had friends with us who had ridden over to the brunch with us, and they just came right along and kindly sat in the waiting room til DH could get away to take them home. We had to get from the beach area, through rush hour traffic clear to the edge of civilization in Jamacha in 45 minutes. It was quite stressful. As we finally were leaving, he had another seizure, so we rushed back into the closing facility and the vet got to see exactly what we had been trying to describe. He's been having partial seizures where he doesn't quite lose consciousness. She gave us a supplement to give him twice daily that is to control seizure by calming the neurons, if I remember rightly. Part of this whole thing is a blur. He hasn't had another seizure but we will be out of the woods only after a month of him being free of them, to know if this medicine is going to work. If it doesn't, then it's an eeg, and/or an mri to find out exactly what's wrong. He's sooooo worth it. But I have to say that I'm glad we don't have the five tiny dogs that I originally wanted to have. One is definitely enough for this woman.

All the blood work is back and there's nothing there, the ex-rays showed nothing wrong inside. The blood sugar levels were normal, so it wasn't hypo glycimic episodes...

AT the fair, I succeeded in rolling a corn dog full of the beastly day glow mustard up the front of my pants and onto my top. Today I got it all out again. It went up hill because I was leaning back in a bench that was quite low so my knees were slightly raised. But... DH was very sweet and bought me an ice cream cone and calmed me down, and we went on to the Hobby/Home show. We saw many beautiful baskets and quilts and gorgeous knitted things as well as a rubber duckie collection. There were other collections, but the ducks made me smile largely and got my vote even though they had to go head to head with a Pigs with Wings Collection. I wasn't in the mood for pictures that day so we left that camera home. Just think, I might have sobbed on it when the corn dog rolled up the front of my favorite little top! Gah!

Tiny Roses

These are the sweetest little things.
All my mini's came from a place that was called Tiny Petals which was a local company. The woman who started it was an hybridizer of some repute. I don't know what's become of the business, I just know that it was sold by the daughter after she ran it for years, too. The Pink rose is Pink Porcelaine, and that's the only name I remember at the moment. The one at the back/left, which looks like the rose, Peace, really did look like Peace. I had so much fun while it lasted.  

Answers to some mighty fine comments....

This just got waaaaaay too long for the comment room.

Oh! Please do plant more roses, Meribeth; I am going to! I'm waiting for bare roots season, and a new tortoise proof, timed watering system. Then and only then I can add "Honor" (maybe), "Peace", "Mr. Lincoln", and my second "Angel Face" as well as a deep pink and a red/white I'll pick out at the fair this week. I want two climbing roses, too, for a planned trellis. Roses are the only water intensive plant that I am going to have in the garden, so I'm going all out. Well, half way out.

And yes, Del. Grandifloras are so big, beautiful and sturdy, and with cuttable stems, that they are dazzling. They get full of blossoms all across the head of that tall plant, too. They are amazing.

Jane, did you get your color plants? Hope you are gazing out upon them at this very moment and sighing with pleasure. Spring came in winter here as usual, and arrived in full bloom. The rains really made for a lot of flowers here.

Knittinreed, thanks so much! And may those music making hands of yours be ever blessed to work perfectly. :o) Fragrant roses have made a comeback in recent years. I try to get fragrance as well as form when I pick a rose.

Still feeling pretty useless, except to serve as a bad example of a dizzy woman who can't stop trying to be a circus acrobat in the garden. What? I'm not an acrobat? And, here's to knitting, with a little liquid medicinal on the side.. *clink*

Therapist was very pleased upon hearing that I knit three hours but was he thinking this took place over three days? I thought back about it and now he MAY have said, "in total". Well, if it doesn't hurt too much, I will knit three hours a day. He didn't seem to get upset(he is soooo calm and mellow) when I told him I could only do the weights once a day (because of pain) and that I cannot massage that scar anymore. Gah! I can barely even touch it! ick ick ick... =0)

Apricot Nectar Rose

This beautiful grandaflora came roaring back after a sickly winter season. I thought it was going to die. It's one of the most fragrant roses I've ever had. It is almost as fragrant as Angel Face but not peppery like Angel Face. We just have these two roses left now but the plan is to add at least 6 more full sized ones at some point.  

Cheery little Sunflare rose

I love this charmer. DH took some piccies for me the other day.  

Trekking right along...

Some progress has been made! Knitting through it has been better than trying to heft my little weights. I can tell the therapist that I can't do the weights three times a day or it will ruin my knitting! Yes? I believe that any knitter would understand the logic.  

Le Cowhide Scarf for DH

I have been really hoofing it to get more added to this. Yes, awful.... He said, " That's for the dog, right?" He knows that I can't hit him at the moment. He's the cook! He even scrubbed the toidies and did the vacuuming yesterday. A man after my own heart.  

Knitting Away the time...

I've had weights added to the PT torture- thank you Stephen, and a couple of people who posted here know exactly what that means, I'm sure. That's when gritty determination is what gets you through it all. Meribeth, how you got through this with two wrists I cannot imagine. So far I've stayed off the pain meds because they make me sleep during the day, and it's already hard to get to sleep at night anyway. I think I'm on Tokyo time!

The knitting keeps me from doing too much whining though because the trekkerXXL boot socks are coming along so well. I found that I'd only gotten one of the pair up to the gussets before I had to stop knitting on them. I thought that I'd never be able to manage gussets at this time but they went in like a dream. I've never had such an easy time of that fiddly little area.

Today was Knit in Public Day, and I raced outside.. well, actually I walked carefully outside, and put the little black sock bag down on the jeep to knit a bit on my wall, while the sun set. At about the same time I noticed a commotion and two police cars. An 85 year old neighbor had had some sort of trouble with teenagers on skateboards while walking. He called the police to get them off the sidewalk, I'm sure. Nice neighbor, very nice kids, but the sidewalk's not the place for a skateboard. So, I knit out there as all this was going on, so that I could join the worldwide movement of K.I.P. I am so proud.

The scarf is coming along and will take two more skeins before it's long enough to bind off. It is looking more and more like an ad for Tom and Jerry's. Lol..

Pictures tomorrow of some VIP(Very important Progress)! Yeay!

Y is for Yeats

This amazing Irishman wrote some of the most moving poetry I've ever read, and re-read. He kept me company in my tower, literally, when I was so lonely emotionally that I would have done myself a harm. I spent all my free time up in a tower above the stage at my Junior College that no one else seemed to visit or to even know about.

I dedicate this to my four daughters, who, with their sweet father helped to alleviate, and then erase, that deep, aching loneliness I'd experienced in my college years.

A Prayer for My Daughter

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory's wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.

I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger's eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.

Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-leggèd smith for man.
It's certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.

In courtesy I'd have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty's very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.

May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.

My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there's no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.

An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.

And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony's a name for the rich horn,And custom for the spreading laurel tree.

No more old videos!

The Surgeon give the Green Light to a little weight bearing activity. The knitting needles are out and poised for use.

There's only one little area for the bone to grow back into, and when the bone KNITS (don't you love that word?) back together it will be "business as usual" around here. DH just asks that there be no more flights off the top tier of anything, flowerbed or otherwise, Puleeeze!

First I will finish the scarf which had come off the needles, and the hat to go with it. Moooooo!

Webcam at Nepenthe in Big Sur

Trish's post reminded me to put this up.

I'm off to scrub up and get ready to partay!

Beautiful Hawaii!

My twin DDs save their pennies and go visit this gorgeous place whenever they can. This mountain cliff face is on one of the smaller islands. Those girls know how to survive on outmeal and native fruits. I've never been to Hawaii. It's a some day thing maybe. =o)  

Delicate Green of Fountain at Lick Observatory

It's also become a little wishing well.  

The Beautiful Sea Green of Big Sur.

It is so peaceful here. I feel better already! But tomorrow, the tomatillo suace!  

Green Aran Sweater Project spectrum Knitting

Well, no, it's not moving, but, "Please, watch this space for further developments!"  

Green House, well Wall actually. Mine.

Is this cheating? I plead guilty due to insanity. Someday I'd like to have a real greenhouse, for orchids.   

I am soooo nervous

Monday's consult with the surgeon just can't get here soon enough for me. Right now I'm a bundle of anxiety, fear, anger, and insecurity, with a little "salt and pepper" of mania sprinkled on. I'm going so stir crazy about whether or not everything in the arm/wrist is back in place and healing well enough for me to resume some knitting that the condition described by junkies as "wired" comes to mind. I don't care if knitting re-entry hurts some; I do care that it's not actually going to be re-injuring the broken bones or do harm. I feel like one of the chimpanzee's in that Jane Goodall Nature film that just starts screams as he picks up a big stick and pounds it on the grass.

We've also had a wicked scary two days. Jazz got very ill with the heat, and was having something that resembled heat stroke. He seems now to be fine, after some more episodes today, but we are watching him pretty carefully. I know that the world is full of a lot of hurt, and he is only a dog. Still, this little guy is so dear to us that we get pretty horrified if it looks like he won't make it to his tenth birthday later on in June.

Also, May went by me without any green things! It just flew right out the window and kept going! I will try to find some good looking green things for the May Project Spectrum and post them. I can now handle the camera again. Salad mix, anyone? Dial soap and tomatillo sauce? Ooooo I think I can do this!

"Y" is coming, too, in the retro-grade alphabet stew. It won't be yarn, though I can spin some good ones, especially about how Locomotive mountain got way out there in Southern Arizona.

Tomorrow is My DH's mother's birthday, and all the family who are in town are going to help her celebrate it. It should be fun, and it may be cooling off a little bit, too, which cannot hurt!

Two magazines came, back issues of Knitting from Interweave Press, which I am now going to subscribe to again. Shipped to your home and NO Gasoline expended trying to find a copy somewhere in the county! Anyway, The lovely embossed leaves sock pattern is in one. Ooooo! Another Green thing!