Music Monday- Bruce Springsteen - Jack of All Trades.

Beautiful song, from a master of divining the hidden songs in the Hearts of Mankind.

A tip of the hat to Suzi, who loves music, too.

Skywatcher Post,

Trading Chris for her gorgeous skies from Tassie.. 

Hugs to all who read here.  Good night!  My wish for you all is that you have Peace in your lives...

Sunday Matinee

We watched this yesterday after moving a ton of things from "here" to "there":



DH was impressed by the storyline, I loved seeing some favorite actors are still up on their pins, and acting away.  You will, if you watched The Resident Magistrate on PBS or BBC in days of yore, recognize the grumpy old father of main character's new girl friend.  I just watched it, and can't remember ANY one's name!  I hate using the word heart warming but that it is, and fun.  Tragedy is almost completely kept in the past.  It's about one of the very best traits of humans and what they do best for each other, picking to pick up the pieces of someone's life and helping them to put themselves back together.


Anyway, it's well worth the hour and a half in front of the tube spent watching it.  Give it a spin?

Saturday Komeekz

The Bizarre world of Dan Piraro, the eyeball, the piece of pie, the bird, the firecracker, makes me laugh out loud everyday.  Now THAT my friends, is not an easy task!

I'm knitting. There might be pictures of blocking here, but more likely I'm not going to be blocking all that much.  I just bought a book called Finishing School, by Deborah Newton, and she says that not much blocking is necessary on sweaters.  Well, it's a handy book for doing light blocking which is what she recommends.  I'm sure that I'm going to be blocking the Manly/Beastly out though.

DH has been adding some width to his shoulders and chest in fitness,and has been digging in the garden, hefting things around in that way that men have of staking territory.  I have NOT conceded the garden to him, for all his sweat and grunting.  I have the gentile jobs, anyway.  It is only fair.  I can't build muscle the way he can.  He can eat whey for heavens sake!  You know the stuff, that terrible additive in all protein bars and drinks! 

Home and Good...

Yesterday, Wolfie had a BIG "something", very ugly and now in a jar at the vet's, removed from his back.  We are waiting for results on this but it looked benign so we are going with that.  No running, jumping, long walks, or playing for the next two weeks.  Doctor's orders. 

The Frankenstein Scar.  His battle bragging rights just went WAY up

He is whining to be picked up ALL the time and is very insecure.  I don't blame him.  I'd be doing that, too. He gets to wear a baby's t shirt for a few days.  He's being very, very good.  Good Boy!

Tuesday Tails and Knitting News

The Wee Doggie report:

Wolfie has had to have a cyst on his back removed today, and since it's sort of big, he is now getting the royal treatment at his version of an O.R..   We get him back tonight.

He's been having fits as the thing was making him itch ALL OVER, as in "Please, Please will you scritchy scratch me!"  "Hold me!"  "Pet me!" -  I was beginning to think he'd finally gone all NEUROTIC on us, from the stress of middle age.  He's 44 in human years.

While getting ready to take Wolfie for a walk in the afternoon,DH suddenly said, "You are going to have to help me with this.   I can't figure out what it is."  I touched the thing and EW!  It started to erupt!  It was just a tiny hole, for what it's worth, so the vet is thinking there is a sticker in there somewhere but the thing is pretty big on the whole.  I have no idea how long Wolfie's been suffering with this, maybe two weeks?

After discussions of various things with our vet, we talked about getting the stitches removed, so we revealed that each of us has taken surgical stitches out for each other.  Doesn't everyone do this?

Here is Wolfie with his cousin, Mr. T. taken on their Grandmama's back step a few weeks ago. 

Ah the knitting!  Laura asked how the Knitting was going.  The Knitting report is bleak.  *hangs head* But I have been KIPing!  I drag those two sweaters everywhere these days!

I'm struggling like a novice warrior with my Sai (needles)!  Getting enough time to even knit has been one problem, and my making lots of mistakes that have had to be ripped back on the Peach Stardust hasn't helped.  I could have knit the back twice, maybe it's already been said, for all the ripping out I've done.  Probably, I'll never knit this again without rewriting the pattern into my own oblique language.  grrrr.  But we've got blocking pads!

The pads are Flooring for offices, and there are two big packs from Lowe's.   Once I saw how nice the scraps from DH's truck were - back in the day it was MY truck - I knew that the matting would be perfect for blocking things out.  I'm not sure about using welding rods for blocking curving lace but more research is needed on that.  If they have no manganese, which I won't touch with the proverbial ten foot pole, I will use them.

Flowering stuff:

The portulacaria (elephant bush) is blooming a lot!  I love this plant.

I think that a bonsai of this little plant would be very nice.  Some one made a YouTube of all of theirs.  Bravo!



Enjoy your cactus and succulents!  They are really lovely.  Pssst!  That does not mean I'm giving up ferns, buddleias or roses.

Still ticking along learning to live in the moment and see all the connections, only I think I'm less a Buddhist than a Taoist.  I truly believe in the concept of a Mind of Tao, and a Mundane Mind, having lived mostly in the later for nearly 70 years.

Music Monday-Linda Ronstadt, "Desperado"

Sunday Matinee - sort of - and Birding the garden but no bird photo.

A Verdin came into the garden.  I wouldn't have dared to take a picture, or move or breathe.   It was in a mixed flock of Gray Gnatcatchers and Bushtits flitting in and around all the plants.   I thought for a minute that I was going to go down for the count I held my breath so long .

It wasn't a life bird ( we have seen them in the desert) but this is really spectacular in a urbanized area.  I'm so stoked!  It landed on the tall Aeonium schwarzkopf, and picked little "somethings" off it.  Then my lovely visitor flitted away.  What a lovely tiny bird and a heart warming surprise. *Dances in the Kitchen*

Sunday Matinee, sort of.  For some reason that has not revealed itself to my conscious mind, I've become addicted to "Grey's Anatomy".  I have no idea why this has happened.  Maybe my aversion to blood is over for good, because I certainly don't give a dam about all the tangled sex lives of Interns.   I wish the producers had shown more of Seattle, because I used to want to move there.  Do any of you have strange addictions to TV series on Netflix?  Or anywhere else?  I'm not sure it's helping the knitting.

Glam shot...  This month, all the glorious Crepe Myrtle trees are in bloom.   I can't tell you how glad I am that cities have started using this little tree more and more in parking strips.  It's also turning up a lot along commercial properties and parking lots.  It's a lovely small tree.  Make it big and drink in the peace that flows off of such beauty.

Heat Clouds over Santee Valley

There is a lot of moisture aloft, but it's not getting down here.  It's very lovely to watch though.  I hope it's been cooler where you are. I've been able to knit through the heat because it's stayed below 85 degrees in our house.   The birds have been enjoying the bird bath. 

It was so hot that we went for fish and chips and a little ramble along Shelter Island.  Here's some snaps:

The Yacht Harbor at the West End of the basin.
You have to walk out of the public docks to get out there.  There was only one boat along the public docks, and we felt that to be quite strange.

Tlingit Design on a Boat Trailer

Pacific Rim talisman in the Friendship Park.

The inscription for all peoples of the Pacific Shores.

Stars and Stripes, Entering the Lane

A Western Gull,heading out to see what all the California Pelicans are up to.

On the way home

Art shot, "The Death of a Pretzel".
Or maybe, it's really the Death of Art?

That was our little trip down the road yesterday.  It really was way too hot to cook, or even to stay in the house and make a salad.  It's cooled down again.  I'm happy mainly because sweltering weather is not the greatest time to be knitting with a lap full of wool yarn.

Friday fill in, Puffin Loafing Ledge, some knitting news, ceramics, New Book

 Friday Fill in....

1. Staying active in body keeps the mind awake and alive.
2. A billion US Dollars, with no strings attached, well, that would be nice!
3. The very thought of giving it all away is breathtaking!
4. Peace of Heart is so beautiful.
5. I grew up in Southern California, on my mother's little farm, and then we moved to a place close to the mountains and out in the country that I loved roaming around in- a very special place in my heart of hearts as I had my big Collie dog with me at the time.
6. A Beef Wellington, that I made for my family, was my most memorable meal.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to knitting as much of the fronts on the Noro sweater as I can, tomorrow my plans include seeing my sister for tea, sympathy and cookies, seeing my trainer, and Sunday, I want to knit more; I'm on a roll!


A web cam from Audubon.  Yay, there be Puffins!

Knitting report:

I have practically finished knitting the back of Stardust, and am starting on the neck finishing, rows and rows of some easy stuff... AT LAST!

And, the fronts are so close to being finished on the Noro Sweater that I just have to brag about it, with an obligatory knitting porn strange photo that shows, to the layman's eye, huge hunks of knitting that only a knitter can appreciate.  I have to get some feed back on buttons for that belly band.  I think some nice wood ones are called for, but it's not knitter's choice here. hehe  All that is left to knit is the rest of the fronts and both sleeves which should go PDQ. 

Ceramics:
We did a so called overglaze fire last week.  One of the tall snowmen went into it, and he came out so well that I think I'll try putting a teapot  I made a few years back through one.  This won't happen for some time as the last things were in the kiln for a year,  It takes a long time to gather enough to do an overglaze fire.

Here's the snowman, look for the tiny polka dots on the packages at his feet:

He's a lot cuter in person.  He's my favorite one.
The fish looks agast! Did not want to be in the picture, I reckon.

And, this is the book I'm reading now.  It was a suggestion from my "Iron man", G.  Thank you!  :-)

I've always been (as William F. Buckley once said of himself, "I am a congenital Christian.") a Christian.  But since my teen years, this has been with Buddhist leadings, as the Society of the Friends of Jesus (aka Quakers) are wont say.    The Spirit lead me "thisaway".  I'm following this way with my mind fixed on Christ as a lode stone.  I don't have a problem melding the two traditions of a "Way", or a Path to Peace.  Tibetans have a Wonderful Aerospace.  I'm in.

Dark side of a Bain success

Dark side of a Bain success

From Salon, via DH, who cares a more than a tinker's damn about the truth, unlike a certain candidate for public office.

It's long, but every word is worth reading.  What have we become????

The ACLU's PDF on the exponential growth of For Profit Prisons:

www.aclu.org/files/assets/bankingonbondage_20111102.pdf

What on EARTH have we become as a people???

You Tube from a report on Private Prisons:



There are at least four other programs in this series.

And yet another from RT News.



Why are so many people in prison in our country?  It's an industry, a money maker.  Is it right to do something just because you can?  

Normal is Being where you are meant to be.

Akshobhya Buddha

I love blue people.
And, we are back up, on line, and running!  yay DH!  Video wonky card. 

Music Monday .... Pipes! Andre Rieu's Orchestra with The Australian Pipe Band...

This is Gorgeous!  This will get your blood cooking!  Go "full screen".  You will love it!



My great grandmother was 100% Scottish.   She was part of the Highland clearings, going to Ireland and then to Ameriki.  She gave me the love of the Pipes.

And this YouTube came to me by way of Pina, who is Amazing on those web search engines.  Thank you Pina!  I have the Royal Society of Pipers recording which is very good, too - just the pipes, not an orchestra with it.
----------------------------

Ah the knitting... I finally got into the pattern for the peach colored Stardust, and was roaring along.  Then, I stopped that thought, "Where am I going with this?"  Now I have to rip back a few lines because I was so happy that I made it too long. Lol!  But it's working, my knitting mojo.  The brain fell into line and stopped fighting me every inch of the way.

I think it just needed to have a little chocolate.  Yes, Sensei, I am firmly attached to chocolate in all it's myriad forms.  I'm glad to be on the only planet in the Universe that has chocolate on it,  or so we've been lead to believe....

We have a new San Salvator being built here...

I don't care for the man but the boat that the museum is building is pretty special... here's the ribs and the keel.  This is the aft.  It's looking very good, and I think it's practically hand built.  There is a little "shop" that you can tour, if you get there at the right time.  We were too late to go in.

It's being built at Spanish Landing, across from Lindbergh Field.   If you come to San Diego, be sure to go look at it.  It's fun.

Friday Fill-ins, Horoscope, New Attitude, cactus flower

Friday fill-ins:

1. For the first time in weeks, I feel more calm.  It's a wonderful feeling!
2. Seeing the newest succulents bloom is one of my best memories of the summer so far.
3. My recipe for potato salad is one of my favorites because it was my maternal grandmother's recipe.
4.  I will use it for years to come.
5. It starts with a group of eight fist sized red potatoes. steamed.
6. Pine is a fragrance I enjoy most in a candle.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to knitting more on two sweaters, tomorrow my plans include knitting even more and Sunday, I want to have fun with my family!

Horoscope, and, because I am in the cusp (and let's face it, the stars have moved back a notch) I read two.

First is Sagittarius:
"The unconscious is an extremely important part of your psyche and not to be underestimated now.  Strive to create the kind of peaceful environment that fosters a sense of safety on all levels".

Amen to that!

Second is Capricorn:

"Loved ones will require patience.  This means more than you waiting around for them to get with the program.  This is you waiting around with a smile on your face ready to assist in whatever way is needed."

OK, I can dig it.

Here's a flower for reading this far:

Aloe, it's very first blooming, ever.
Make it Big.  It's Luscious!

 I'm finding my path to peace. I've also been developing a secret weapon.  It involves Santa Claus - in the off season - since he knows who's been bad or good.  But that's all I will tell you until I figure out the delivery system.  A "wink" is involved, like the one in the round table game, "Killer", that kids and families play.  I will entertain all magical suggestions about what to do with the bodies.  Look, if they can all employ magical thinking to get all the money, we can employ magical thinking to get it back, right?

Catch you later!

Knit All Day Day... /cloudy day, some tiny rain..

It looked like this when we left for some meds tests for me:

It rained a little and just glowered all the time we were out.
It's even darker now at 3:30

So far this has been a "Do anything but knitting" day.  "Get Fasting Blood Test" Day, Shop for "How to Knit with Charts book" Day,"See if shop has Macco Glazes" Day, "Water the Thirsty Shade Patio" Day,

and I found this while watering when we got home:

This is a favored food of the Torts so I have to keep it up off the patio pavers.
They will eat it down to a nubbin. It's a crassula but I don't know which one.
Isn't it a pretty little flower?  Look at it very BIG!

I also found about five billion little babies from this Mother of All., Crassula Multicalva.  Get it?  Makes many calves?   If you get weak at the knees and get just one of these "mommas" from a place between the pavers at Spanish Village ( or anywhere else), believe me, you're going to regret it! 

OK I'm trying to find a couple of books that will help me with color knitting and with charts.  Please feel free to email me with suggestions about ones you've found helpful.  I can buy one of each.

I'm taking my aching back to the Comfy Chair and the Pink Bates knitting needles.  I'll try to stop looking at the needles long enough to get the YOs/SKPs and K2TOG/YO's straight.  That is slippery yarn on slippery needles, and I dare anyone to turn their back on that combination. 

Stealth Politics:

I'm going to read The Beginner's Guide to Walking the Buddha's Eightfold Path  by Jean Smith.  I think I'll also read  Don't Just do Something.  Sit There.  Vacation Reading, eh? 

I need to get my head back from the Never, Never land of Crooked Politicians/CEOs and Their "Merry Men".  You know, the ones who we are learning about, those villains who steal from the Poor (as well as the middle class) and give to themselves.  I've found the only way to calm down is to sit and do nothing.  I'll be doing a lot of that from now on.  Being Hyper busy just isn't good for me.  I threw the knitting across the room this afternoon.  I'm losing confidence in my ability to knit.

SkyWatcher Post. knitting chatter Stealth Politics

Today's sky at about 6 pm.  Make it BIG..

I'm knitting.  I've got nothing to show for it, other than knit-frog/knit-frog angst which is not worth sharing.  I would rather stick my head in an oven than do that to you.  I've figured out that the problem is that my brain doesn't like charts.  Because of it's  old foggie poot like nature,  my brain has to translate charts into lines, which it's used to and LIKES VERY MUCH, and therein lies the problem -  Faulty Schematics from a bygone age!  "Reet!"  Every sweater that I've knit so far, using charts, has suffered from the knit-frog dilemma.

It was a rather cooler day but a little muggier.  I'll take a little mugginess if it keeps the "eggs from frying on the sidewalk" weather that we had a day ago!   The little black dog is a lot happier that it is actually cooler with a cloud cover.  Little black dogs do not like hot weather.

I went to my sister's house and tried some wax on my face, because she knows about such things.  OUCH!  End of experiment!  She gave me a bite of her Dinosaur Egg fruit (also called a Plucot), and that soothed my lower lip a bit.  She showed me her new magazine and inside of it was a much coveted Pink Phone!  It has a dial.  I have a red one with buttons but it's must not the same.

This is a bunch of trash talk because I didn't want anyone to think I'd died of ingesting sludge from the other night, but had absolutely nothing worth saying today or yesterday.  Once I watched Ethos, I sort of gave up on most Politicians and  Corporate Heads, and just went to work immediately on a death ray that is Highly selective!  One that possesses pin point accuracy.  This is not your common garden variety drone we are talking about here.

Stealth politics...

HERE is a Grist article on what the Oil industry hacks in Congress are trying to force on the Military, which is a WHOLE lot smarter than the average Bear!  David Roberts makes it fun to follow!

Don't forget to eat Pretzels and chocolate, or anything that comforts you.  Hugs and Kisses!

Music Monday. Elton John, "Tiny Dancer"

For Margaret....With love always, Good Friend and Forever Sister of the Heart.....

PS. I am really trying to catch up reading all my blogs. Knitting time has sprawled all over my life but sweaters must be knit. As most knitters know, they take a hulluva long time to make. I have three that I desperately want to finish before the Fall.

Today was fitness. Since it always makes me feel alive and awake, it's very good to go work on their machines even if I am on my own without supervision. I'm starting to wonder if that is a very wise thing for the management to allow!

I have a documentary for you. It's called "Ethos". Keep in mind that as a People, Americans have never had a true democracy. And that, in and of itself, made it hard to keep the forces that love money more than anything else in the world (it's a phallic thing) from running, roughshod, over the lawmakers and thereby enabling these same "Hounds of Hell" to buy elections.

"Ethos" says we can, after all these years, make changes that will stop this runaway freight train. I hope you can find a copy. It's on Netlix, maybe someone else has it, too. It's worth the trouble to find it.

Ethos the Movie.com

Keep on knittin' mama, knitting your troubles away.

Apricot Stardust, so far, and a cautionary tale about aliens..

I was abducted by aliens, that's actually more than a 3rd level Encounter.  This is the mother ship.. as I was being raised in the tractor beam I was able to take this snap on the camera phone.

Actually this is a rather pretty light fixture at the local We Fix Broken People Shop.

Earlier in the evening, the aliens took over my brain, and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I have a few questions about my experience. Is activated Charcoal fattening?  Will the new pink pills ever be part of my life again? (Right now the only thing they have going for them is that they are a very delicate baby girl  pink.)
Wolfie's question: "Is the Woman just bat sheit crazy, or are all the things she does sort of normal for most human females?  The Man's Question.  "Is it catching?"  I  said to him, "If you mean Stupidity, no, it's not."

This is the promised knitting blah blah

Me and 25,000 other Ravelry knitters are making or have made this very nice cardigan.  Some have mods for about five small buttons in the front and I'm thinking I could do that instead of ties.  Ele will tell me soon enough which she prefers.  This is the back.

The Noro sweater body is nearly finished and would have been if not for the abduction, but it will have to be blocked.  DH will get me some truck liner interlocking pads for a blocking board.  I'm excited about all this, though my throat still hurts from efforts of self administered first aid.  lol

 Life!  If you don't laugh, then you just gotta cry.

I've said this ever since I got caught under a truck that flipped on it's side and semi smashed my legs when I was 12 or so.  People have endured worse.   

Friday Fill ins..and some flowers and a favorite song from my teens

1. I am happy because I have so much to do with my hands, have color vision, and so many earthlings to love!
2. Apricots, Peaches, grapes, tomatoes, and lettuces are my favorite summertime fruits and vegetables.
3. To help me be the happiest, just let me use my camera more.
4. Visiting my family is the one thing I want to do this summer more than anything!
5. Just the other day I was saying I wish I could still play my guitar and sing.
6. I think of it over and over again.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to playing games with my friends, tomorrow my plans include knitting as much as possible and reading blogs, and Sunday, I want to Knit even more!

She's dying and I can't save her.
So sad to lose a 39 year old rose.

~*~Pink Carnation~*~

This is the hardest thing to get a decent recording of from uploaded YouTube.    I loved this songwriter. 

Backyard Bird watching 10 minutes program and knitting.

This wasn't supposed to post!

EDIT: I've edited this to include this picture of a young sharpie - too big and the eyes were light eyes.  It was a young Cooper's Hawk.

It sat on our fence, minutes ago, trying to catch a Chipping Sparrow or English House Sparrow in the mixed flock that was gathering seeds from the piles of drying weeds.  The hawk flew over my head, off the roof and landed on a different place on the fence, and stayed there.  I walked slowly out, and it didn't fly away.  I said,"You aren't afraid of me are you?".  It sat there for several more minutes, the two of us at peace, then turned and flew away over the rooftops.

I wondered why the Allen's Hummingbird was no where to be seen!  I also heard a Lesser Gold Finch, saw two Mourning Doves, heard a Mocking Bird, the one who usually sits at the top of the Cape Honeysuckle, singing for a mate.

OK back to the original Post:

I decided to go to THIS PLACE called "Celebrate Urban Birds" at  the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  But I can't enter many birds I see, because they aren't looking for a lot of them.  I was disappointed.  I want to report all the species that I see in my backyard, actually I count my whole yard because it's so little. 

But I wanted to share this with you so that you can get in on it, if you wish, and help them to get a better idea of how their target birds are doing in cities.  I watch in the afternoon from about 3 to 5 pm, but only count birds for 10 minutes.  It seems the best way, I suppose so that the little "come and go" bird flocks don't get counted 24 times.  I'm thinking of watching later so that I can report the Bushtits and the Lesser Goldfinch, plus if I HEAR a bird, I'm counting it!  Oh well.

Mostly I'm vacuuming and knitting today.  And I'll clean up more of my junk.  You know,  I'm out to disturb the urban spiders a bit.  Should I count them?

I'm trying to figure out if I should block pieces of the sweaters before sewing them together or just block on the manikin, or the sweater blocking frame.  Any answers will be appreciated.  You can email or comment here about your best methods.  Please, I need the help.  I never blocked the sweaters I made, I just knit them and they fit.  I was probably incredibly lucky!

Here's a Cooling Shot from the New Mexico Blue Agate trip, for all the victims of the Heat Wave...

Make it BIG!  Dive in and make a snow angel....

Have a happy day, and a cooler day. 

A Kool Way to Kool-Aid dye Yarns.

Maiya put this up on her blog sometime ago and it's just absolutely brilliant! 

Have a Look! 

I'm knitting away, and I really should go get some sleep.  So, Good night Blogworldies!

Happy Fourth of July!

 I hope all you Americanos had a great day, and the evening fireworks will be worth the drive. 

We plan to cook some polish dogs - hey, it's America! - on the BBQ later, and eat potato salad that I made this morning.  DH cook ed potatoes last night, and some of the cutting up of ingredients, and I did  the rest.  It was fun to be in the kitchen again, for a bit.

After doing that, we took off for Sis's house, with a stop along the way to get some vegan treats from Starry Lane Bakery.  She was open a half day for special orders.  Star cookies in red white and blue caught my eye, and some brownies for later.  Yummmy, and Beautiful.  Ok, you can't come over from the North, Midwest, East Coast, Guatemala, or Turkey, I know, but I hope you can find someplace close to home that really "gets it" about baking vegan.

Of course we shared all the treats with my sister, and had the most pleasant time making plans for another Ghetto/Garden craft project (A bird bath) for her tiny back yard.  She had made a plant stand out of cereal boxes and a table cloth, or some such, so I had to tell her that she was doing "Ghetto Crafting", in the time honored tradition of Ghetto Crafting.  I can't find a live link to that Art any more, but  HERE is an intro to that amazing world of Guerrilla Gardening, almost as much fun.

I sat and knit many rows on the Noro Sweater, and Wolfie sat in DH's lap and snapped at the two flies that DARED to enter my sister's yard.  Wolfie was probably dreaming about those wild days when he could go anywhere he wanted to, and sit in the sun snapping at flies, down in the San Diego river bed.  Or where ever he was let go feral and almost die.  We gave him half a benadryl for this evening in a cheese ball.  He will need it, if past years are any indicator. 


The backyard cactus apples.

These will be bird food..  All the photos were taken today, in the late afternoon 4 pm.  We had solid cloud cover all day until after noon sometime.  It was a cool, lovely day, and it makes me sad for Colorado and Texas and the whole east coast.

This fallen Opuntia stalk is a windfall of Tortoise food!  These tough little desert animals do well in the back yard because something is always "falling into their laps".  I think I heard this thumbing, big branch fall over last night, while we were watching a scary episode of "Life".  It made quite a thwack!

The evidence of "predation".  lol  The thorns never seem to stop them eating a fallen cactus.

Tonight I hope to knit more as the two front's of the Noro sweater are into neckline cast offs, and fully half the back of Stardust is done.  It was all 7 inches of 3x2 rib- so not bad.  unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to knit the two fronts and the back together.   The pattern is the very next row.  My plan is to have these two sweaters all knit by the end of the Month of July, and then have the sewing up partly done by August 1st.  We'll see! 

Tuesday Tails...A cowboy joke

There was a cowboy out in Wyoming who liked his life and his tiny shack on a homestead.  With the wide blue skies and the grass all waving, as well as and his two good dogs for company, it was a good place.  It was like the best Manly heaven.

One day a friend stopped by on his way to somewhere else, and dropped off a letter from the nearest town.  The letter was from the cowboy's two sisters who lived in Denver, and it announced that they were coming, by stage, for a two week visit.  What could he do?  He prepared for their visit.  He hitched up one of the horses to the wagon, and drove into town to pick them up on the appointed day.

There was a lot of chattering and happy greetings all the way back to his homestead.  The sisters busied themselves with cleaning the place and noticed that the table was already set, so they picked some wild flowers for an old tin cup and set that in place.  One sister thought it was odd that the plates seemed to be nailed to the table.


After a nice meal of meat, beans and cornbread, the eldest sister told her brother that they would " take care of the washing up".  The Cowboy said," No, Sis, just come sit on the porch, you two".  Then he whistled to the dogs who came rushing into the house from the porch  and licked the plates as clean as they could polish them.  The sisters left the next morning.

Love to all the Cowboys out there!  We know you like to be manly and eat apples and bread off the ends of those big scary knives you carry.

PS.  Thanks to Pina, who sent me something that reminded me of this joke. 

"We Take Care of Our Own"... Music Monday. Bruce Springsteen

Turn this up and let it thump all the way through your body......

Thanks Suzi.. This is also good for the Fourth, but that's not a Monday, eh?

Sunday Matinee... "Cowboys and Aliens"

Cowboys and Aliens is based on a novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.   Though there is an argument over this, don't let it distract you.  This film isn't sketchy in the least. The excellent Director, Jon Favreau needs some kudos for fantastic work in the tight shots and keeping all the horses from dying,  just joking, Jon.  And no, you don't know me.   He skillfully directed what is a great cast and some of the scummiest outlaws since "True Grit".

The film has all the elements you would expect of something that Lucas Films, and his Electric Light and Magic Studios could put their hands to.

It's also got lightning fast action, both spectacular and explosive.  The tender moments are mainly between the father/son and grandfather/grandson, as well as a few flash back remembrances of main character Jake Lonergon, played by Daniel Craig, of his sweetheart.

There is nothing hokey about "Cowboys and Aliens", despite the bordering on comic title.  It's a solidly built and intense Thriller as well as a Western of the truest tradition.  There are incredibly terrifying aliens who have come to mine gold, to study as well as to eat humans, according to someone whom I will call "The Warning Woman"- played by Olivia Wilde.   She tells the outlaws, cowboys and the Chiricahua, the last of whom are portrayed, in part, by the Mescalero Apache tribe (yes, it's in the credits) that the aliens consider humans "no more than insects".

Every actor makes you believe in their character's back story.  This film is well acted, well crafted and, despite the lawsuit of copyright infringement, completely absorbing.

I sort of didn't like Harrison Ford's character, Colonel Dolarhyde.  I was hoping, at first, that they aliens would add his hide to their collection and eat him, but grew tolike him more toward the end.  My personal favorite, Hottie Adam Beach, did well as a thoroughly whipped Indian guide accepting mistreatment at the hand of the Colonel until the reasons unfolded for his admiration of the man.

And Harrison Ford still in the saddle at his age.  Fantastic!

The flashbacks didn't leave you guessing, as some will, but they filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle in a surreal and dreamlike way.

Lovely film.  It deserved to do much, much better than it did.