In The Beginning

 

 

 

Dh took all of these with our Canon. Isn't it wonderful to have a little Moon so close that you can see the features with the naked eye? It gave us our first clue about the truth of the Universe we live in.

Lunar Eclipse part II

 

 

 

 

The Grand Finale

 

 

 

Freeeeekeeeee Knitting

 

A friend sent this to me. I have NO idea where she got it, or to whom it can be attributed. Let's just say that it's not your Grannie's head scarf.

I was reading a Xenophon translation today, since I was wondering where Romulus took his cues. This was in a book benignly entitled " "Ancient Travel Stories". Ya, right.......... *sounds of huge disgust*, and of disgruntled repetitions of the mantra, "Nothing ever changes". Did four rows of Gretchen Shawl.

Knitting is a my only escape from the reality of bonehead human ignorance, repeat, repeat, repeat... will finish postcards in the cool of the night. The quilt didn't even get a look in. Is it OK to burn ANY book?

During the storm

 

The water overflowed the gutters and was three whole inches deep in the shade patio. Lovely.. the thirsty plants, which were sitting on the pavers, sucked it all up. Summer rain is a reaaaally big deal in the Southwest, believe me.

After the storm today

 

Tradescantia pallida

 

My friend gave me this plant, and it was so shriveled that it looked dead. I watered it and it swelled it's leaves out and burst forth in purple blossoms. Since then, in checking on the web, I found one growing as a huge bed of ground cover in Austin, Texas. It's always been a houseplant whenever I've seen it here in Cali. I thought my kids would like to see this, and maybe Trish. Trish, you have a ground cover plant now. Tres chic!

Stitch markers and a Surprise!

 

These came in the mail from The Fiber Denn and Pugknits sent a beautifully matched surprise as well. I tried to leave an email Thank you but guess whose mailbox is too full. lol... Thank you so much, Pugknits, and now I can put that pair of lopsided tweezers back into the toolbox. I am thrilled!

Today we had a big thunderstorm and got an inch of rain. Some places near here got 2 inches of rain in one hour. This is very, very strange weather for August here. We are glad of the rain but it felt like a sauna bath afterwards. Our friends are leaving tomorrow for their new town and new home, and there was a sad parting today at a get together that their neighbors gave them. It will be good, in the long run, for all concerned but right now it's a bit sad. We are just taking our peace in looking to the good things that will come of this parting.

Tomorrow, I hope to start on Gretchen Shawl again, finish up some postcards, and start again on the little quilt. If sleep comes easily tonight I won't need a nap! heehee

"Bonne Chance!", as the Cajun folks say....

Hutch and Country Kitchen corner.

 

The cookbooks (take note that one of them offers 1001 recipes for Chocolate treats.... whooo hooooo!)will be moved later to another bookcase, but I was too excited to wait for that to happen. ewwww those are cob webs.. where's my broom!

I'm loving this new arrangement in the little Kitchen. And yes, given a choice, I'm a Country Gal. I also like eclectic style.

Tomorrow, when the light is good again, I will show you what the mail lady brought from the heartland. Good night. It was a very long day. Take care and y'all enjoy your Sunday day of rest. I know we will!

six postcards.. let's see if this works...

 

 

 

 

Well well, looks like four smalls is the limit. It's nice to know that! Laurie, Judi, Obie and Gail sent these. They are all self portraits and all are amazing at conveying the self portrait theme. This was a hard assignment and we really stretched ourselves with it. I will now await the one remaining postcard that is coming and post the rest of the group when it gets here. Great Job Group!

New table and chairs

 

I am so happy to have fallen into getting this set. It's so lovely in the space and fits just right. This used to be the living room area before we added a Great Room in 1978.

Meribeth, you asked a very good question

I'm going to do my best to answer Meribeth's comment on the thunder egg post..

And, I've never seen a meteorite geode but will look them up asap. They sound so interesting! They must have formed when the rock matrix entered the upper atmosphere.

Meribeth, the short theory is that they are formed by hydro thermal- or even by cooler solutions of silica charged water - traveling into pockets, the silicas being leached out of the matrix.

Some geodes have levels of criss-crossing banded agate layers inside, which seems to show a process over time. Geodes with nice quartz crystals inside usually form in ash layers and sometimes get washed away afterwards into other places, enmasse pile-ups if you will, in ancient floods,etc. The Blue Grotto in Italy is a big Geode.

At Quartzsite and Tucson rock shows there are people from Brazil who sell geode like forms called "vugs" that are five feet tall and are not round but shaped like a giant butternut squash, for want of a better example. Practically anything bigger than that is too expensive for them to ship to the show.

The way to tell the relative emptiness of the inside of a geode at the Fairs or rock shows, is to heft a couple of them, pick the lightest, discard the heaviest one. Just keep going this way and make the guy crazy, but pick the lightest one you can find. Then ask him to cut that one. :o)

Old Gas Station link...

I think that the old gas stations deserve a little more attention so HERE a is place on the web that put a lot of the links together in one spot. Rissa, I agree that the architecture is fascinating. Independent gas stations really gave local color to little towns and small cities. It was a lovely time.

We picked up the dining table and rest of the chairs today and are doing some fast foot work in getting the area re-organized. Poor DH has an aching back after toting some very heavy tables around today. Bless your Heart, Dearest, should you see this. It was 97 degrees yet again and the heat is building up. Tomorrow we bring home the hutch and cabinet. Is the hutch the top only? I've forgotten.

Laurie, that serpentine boulder had to be so beautiful. They weather out so well in the "wild". =0) I'll bet your knees have never been the same. Yard rocks are my favorite thing to tote home from a dig. Believe me, I've got my eye on some of them at our friend's house and the minute one of them goes into the sale, I'm slapping a tag on it that says "Zippi's Rock". And yes, you are right about Thunder Eggs, they are named that out of respect for what they will do to a toe should they fall on one. Ooooooo another rock maniac! Yippie!

Pugknits, Isn't it a cool name? Some of them actually look like potatoes but most of them are mostly round. Also, I'll be over to your house soon to order a baker's dozen. Wow are those ever adorable! And thanks for looking in at the thundereggs and kitchen window. I knew your kitchen crew would like that one. ;o) Thanks for your lovely comments. Someone I know put up a 4 "light" window frame over her windowless kitchen sink. She had a window box full of silk flowers below it, and mirrored glass in the frame. She was forced to keep the oppostite wall and stove cleared up for the affect but it did look rather nice.

Knitting activity has not completely died on the vine of summer withering, but it's sickeningly hot and no knitting will happened now that the temperature has climbed over 90. It will most likely stay this hot until late fall; unfortunately we have the hottest month to go through still.... September. By wearing thin Indian cotton dresses, wet to the hips, and standing in front of the floor fan, I've made it this far. Next summer I will have five more of these marvelous dresses... survival gear!

Should I have a blog contest about how long into winter I'm shivering and whining about being cold?

And, Voila! Open after cutting

 

Yes, there is a slice missing. These nodules are the Great Pretenders, and you have to know what you are looking for. Our friends collected them. By the time we were able to go on trips with the rockhound group, the bed where these were was under a highway, or something similar.

Septerian Nodule closed after cutting...

 

Annie, is this the one?

 

There are about 100 pictures in the set that my friend Denis sent me a while back. All the pictures were from a Guy's "How to Fix Anything" site. Really interesting set of photos.

Kitchen window

 

This is one of my favorite things to look at in life. I really love my little kitchen window. The rock pile, tiny vase of flowers, the mood rock, the tiny plants, and the windchimes above are all cheer me ups. But I must paint that shelf!

Teapot Gas Station

Rachel asked where this little Gas Station is so I went poking around the net; I found this page about it. Thanks Rachel! Your inquiring mind which wished to know opened wide a door of informaion and a another site that has a lot of pictures of many old gas stations.

Meribeth, you're welcome to the word use. Lol.. I do feel like I need a complete OTHER house for a studio! After what I've seen our friends going through, I know it's time to do some serious downsizing before we end up having to have a "firesale" of sorts. We would have bought the house next door if we could have. What a dream studio that place would have been.

The ankle is marginally better - Gout+heat+ not drinking enough water-, and we will go back at the job today. I'll only work for about an hour to get the chairs home.

Bits and Pieces

Today we got a lot of work done at our friends' house. They are the ones who are downsizing and moving away. A sewing machine cabinet came home with me, and soon a dining room set will as well. It's little and fits the space. Lovely thing it is, too. Of course that means a lot of moving about will have to occur in the Habitrail but some excitement and change is good. Anyway, 5 hours later, after hopping around like a bird in the heat, I had a swollen, angry looking ankle, but what the heck.

Of course, not being able to knit, I went looking for more fun stuff to tack into the side bar, under Fun Stuff

Paleo Future is an extremely interesting and fun blog, A Blog of Note, actually, so I stole the blogger's terrific button and will stick it in the side bar with a link.

Today at the pricing party for a rock sale, some beautiful things came into my possession. I bought them to keep them out of the hands of anyone else who might cut them up or do some other dastardly and cruel thing to them. No one can tell this partly Native American that rocks do not have souls. If I could have a few monoliths in the backyard, I would be tres happy! I will post some pictures when it is not so hot. Did I say it was 100 degrees for the last two days? Well it was, and the meltdown has occurred. A puddle has a lot of trouble pushing buttons on a camera. It must cool down some so Puddle can re-form.

Wait, I do have a picture, A friend who knows I like them sent it. This is to celebrate that I will finally have a hutch to display some of the teapots. Yay!

Teapot Gas Station

Pink Ladies make their late summer appearance

  It's great to see these blooming in the early morning light. They are lovely flowers.

This Morning in the Garden

  The runestone-like look of these cobbles is always an attraction for collecting them. They come from Central Coast, and can be collected in small amounts, legally.

Dove Family Adventures

  I took this picture from 10 feet away, with the camera fully extended over my head- so from a height of about 6.5 feet) The mother Dove(see her giving me the "eye" in the piccy?) was hidden down inside the stag horn fern.


Last week, we had knocked down the other nest after two broodings, since it was August, after all, plus the pair had lost three other nestlings on the night after they fledged. I was totally sick of doves at that point. So, we knocked the empty nest down, and by so doing, we forced her into this more hidden place.

This particular stag horn fern is well over my head, so when I watered it yesterday, I could see nothing. The female dove burst out of top of it and flew to the top of a nearby fence. I continued to arc water into the fern. Then I thought, "Dove in fern, why is that?"

What she had hidden, when I took the fern down off it's nail and looked, were two feathered nestlings which I had, by then, thoroughly wetted down! The only way I comfort myself over all of this is that doves provide a lot of food for endangered hawks.

She returned to the nest, as the picture shows, and will fledge out two more morsels, for what ever is catching and eating them, at the end of the week. I will keep an eye on this determined little female. How can they stand it? I can't even stand it, and I'm not the mother!

I'm working on this and I could be gone awhile..

I will be gone unless an eye should fall upon some Accidental Art somewhere. Eww, that sounds painful. This is what I'm working on. You've seen it before but now it will become a reality. The block of time is allotted.

And Lucy Lockethas promised me some pictures of spiders on her blog. In general, I love spiders except for the deadly ones.

Speaking of deadly, The book, *See No Evil*, by Robert Baer will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't forget to look for hidden clues. I will say this about it. It gives you to understand that if politicians were all Tractors, 90% of them would run on Crude Oil.

Tata! Have fun and I will be reading lots of blogs if I can, and showing some progress on the WIPs and, of course, progress on the quilt.

The Heart Cloth

 Is that sweet or what? I am thrilled!

A Package Has Arrived =o)

  Sarah-Hope had a contest which was very intriguing. I just had to try my Googling skills! She sent this lovely dishcloth, see next photo for the heart pattern in it, and additional sweet goodies. Thank you Sarah-Hope for having the contest!