Still Kicking!

Well - three weeks without posting!  Some of you may have been wondering if I was still out here.  I'm happy to report that I am indeed.  But a combination of very little posting fodder, then having the granddaughters for a week along with Vacation Bible School, out of the town for the weekend, then coming down with the flu!  Enough excuses for you?

As I mentioned, it seems as if I have very little interesting blogging fodder, especially in the knitting department.  I do seem to have a lace blocking block.  Here's the pile of lace that needs attending to:

I actually finished In Dreams way back in mid-May and Tango two weeks ago, but just haven't gotten around to blocking either one of them.  Usually the minute lace comes off my needles I can't wait to get it blocked.  However, in cleaning out my sewing drawers,  I came across two more scarves that need blocking as well.  I think I just need to bite the bullet and have a lace blocking marathon.

The only knitting that has been accomplished lately are Hedera socks from Cookie A's "Knit, Sock, Love". 

These will again be for my sister.  They are almost finished and when done will leave me with only two projects in the knitting stage - the Advent Scarf and Nagano.  Did I mention that I finished the knitting on hubby's Cambridge Cardigan?  That will go in the finishing pile along with Ylva.  I think I'm ready to start something new and believe I have found the project.  The Kerry Cardigan from Patternfish. 

I have some Peruvian Highland wool that's been marinating in my stash for long enough and I think this will be the perfect project. I'm still recuperating from the flu and think I will pamper myself one more day and just sit, watch TV and do the swatching for this.

As I mentioned, we had the granddaughters last week for Vacation Bible School.  Our church did "Kingdom of the Son" and the girls thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was in charge of the 1st through 3rd graders and had (are you ready for this?) 12 boys and 1 girl!  Needless to say, by the time I got home every day I was utterly exhausted.  Isobel fit right in and had a blast.  Mei-Mei wasn't so sure about the whole idea and by the third day decided that she'd rather be with Nana than with her own group.  I wasn't sure how a 3-year-old would fit in with all those rowdy boys, but they actually seemed to enjoy her.  Several of them asked to sit with her and they all made sure she got a turn when it came time for games.  I asked Isobel if she'd also like to transfer to my group, since her group was even larger, but she politely informed me that she wanted to be with her friends!  Definitely a good thing.

We took the girls strawberry picking - we have a farm here that has the best strawberries imaginable!  As you can see, Mei-Mei was more interested in picking dandelions than strawberries.  She only picked four strawberries and ate them all!

Grandpa is always up for a good time and organized a make-your-own pizza night with some very interesting ingredients.  The girls made theirs with pizza sauce, pepperoni, strawberries, apples and cheese:

And, for Marguerite, pictures of our avian visitors.  We have Flickers that visit on a regular basis and saw this adult feeding a baby:

We've also had a return of the quail who have been absent for a couple of years.  Sorry for the fuzzy photos, but these guys are quick!

I have to send my apologies to all of you out in the Midwest and East Coast who are suffering with the heat.  Last week the Seattle Times reported that Seattle's summer could be measured in minutes - 78 to be exact.  The number of minutes the temp has been over 80 this year.  We have had a few nice days since then, but here on Whidbey Island we have yet to break the 80 degree mark and are hard pressed most days to even break 70!  I know that sounds heavenly to many of you who are baking, so I will NOT complain about our lack of summer.  Stay cool out there!

 

 

Comments

[Margaret Feese Wagner]

I was just about to send you an email to make sure everybody was okay. What lovely pictures of the girls - and love their pizza combinations. So glad you weren't sick when the girls were there. Take care!

[li_b]

LOVE that cardigan but the sewn in sleeves scare me away. No 80's here either. My lunchtime walk yesterday was in 64 degree weather!

[Kristen]

Those pizzas sound delicious! I bet the girls thought them all the more yummy because they made them.
The Kerry Cardigan is awesome and I'll enjoy following your cable-y progress.
The flu in July?! Hope you are all over it.
After the couple of atrociously hot days last week, the past few days have been absolutely gorgeous. Gotta love New England weather.

[Miyamojo]

You two are the best grandparents ever - VBS & Make your own pizza & strawberries?! Hooray! Sounds like fun to me! :)

I'm not complaining about the weather either.

[gayle]

Sounds like you've had plenty of fun - hopefully enough to offset the misery of the flu...
We've had a couple of cooler days this week after last week's oven temps. Vermont is not particularly good at coping with hot weather - we're more used to trying to stay *warm*!

[Marguerite]

What a fun post - all except the flu part. Hope you're better now.

12 boys and 1 girl! Yikes. I'm in awe of your abilities to manage that class and stay sane. Although they must have been good hearted boys to take such care with Mei-Mei.

Thanks for the bird pictures. Love the Flicker training junior how to eat in the wild.

Kerry looks like a fun knit and the style is perfect for you. Looking forward to seeing you knit it.

[marjorie]

All I can say is I wish I were there. I have had enough summer, and six hot weeks are ahead of me.

I've had a similar bout of inertia facing the need to wash and store my knitted sweaters, but I promised to bite the bullet and get them cleaned and reblocked this week.

Kerry is beautiful, and it will make a great project.

And I love those bird pics. I had goldfinches on my sunflowers today, and I was wrestling with the logistics of sneaking up on them to take pictures. You did a great job in capturing them.

[Chae]

Strawberry picking! Lucky ducks! The strawberry crops at our local farming community didn't fare so well this year.
I love the pile of unblocked lace in the first picture. It's soooo pretty!
Quail are awesome. When you see a pair with what looks like 20 baby quail, it's because something happened to another mated pair and this pair has adopted all their babies. I love quail.
We're finally getting a summer over here, it was much anticipated. :)