Fifty Fridays #38

I'm back...and catching up.  Slowly.  My absence started with a nasty little virus that brought me a cough.  That's it.  Just a cough.  But one that would attack unpredictably and with prolonged bouts of helplessness.  I  did manage to keep up with my commitments but my mental energy took a beating.  So blogging simply dropped off my radar.  Thanks to those who took the time to ask about my absence.  It's nice to know I'm missed. 

Digging into the digital shoebox to find the perfect photo, I came up with this one of me as the young mom with a hideous cold.  There are tissues and Vicks at the ready on the table.  I seem to remember that there was a hot toddy involved somewhere.  That memory is probably fuzzy for a good reason LOL  But can you see that I have my own personal nurse?  I do remember how good she was to me.  I was 'read' to and tissues were fetched.  And I never had a lonely moment.  I think it was actually the only way this mom could look after her little girl that day. 

Do you remember being able to take time out to be ill?  It seems to be a dying art these days.  Even as the health professionals remind us to keep our germs at home, we do our utmost to keep on keepin' on.  Those days of being pale and interesting in a beautiful hand-knitted bed jacket are definitely gone.  I was trying to keep going while I suffered this time and may have been pale but not too interesting.  Having a nurse at my side wasn't an option either.

 I look at this photo and am stunned to realize that that little girl is now quite a bit older than the mom in the photo. 

Two Trees; One Ring

I waited and waited for a good moment to take the photos.  It's raining today after a lo-ong spell of summery sunshine.  The plants are very happy and growing but it is very hard to take comparative pictures. 

The maple has sprouted four grown-up looking leaves where there was only one last week.  If I hadn't had the branch marked, I would have been lost as to where I should be shooting.  Even then, I couldn't believe that the leaves looked so very, very different this week.

My umbrella-holding assistant was relieved not to be asked to climb after me when i went after the copper beech.  I have always had to climb over a bank of ground-cover to get to it.  But the ground-cover (geranium macrorhizome) is now at it's most splendid.  The leaves have shot up over a foot and the blossoms are a good bit taller than that.  Those leaves hold the rain so well and I got just a little wet.

But nevergive up.  Intrepid lady explorers must not worry about a drenching when on a mission.  Here is my trophy.  Definitely, a "my how you've grown!" moment.  There is no sign of the chrysalis at all now.  And clearly there were several leaves hiding inside.  Nature is amazing.

Elsewhere in the garden, I found the snow peas and mange-tout growing happily in the rain.  I can't wait to sample them.

Fifty Fridays #37

Mother's Day is coming up.  Today's picture celebrates my mother.  I found it in the box the other day.  It's another one that didn't make it on to the CD and I don't remember ever seeing it before.

This is my mother and two of her brothers.  They are my Uncles Seymour and Howard.  I think Mom is about 3 here.  It must be chilly weather since she's wearing leggings and woolen bloomers under her coat.  At least that's what they look like to me.  That little girl looks pretty happy, doesn't she?

Two Trees; One Ring

Oh, wow!  What a difference this week has made. 

Maple is all dressed up and even has a little hat to wear.  Some of the leaves have flowers reaching out of these pink petal bits.  But not on my chosen leaves.  The spindly stems don't look strong enough to support this lush greenery.

And the butterfly is almost out of the chrysalis.  Such beautiful fan pleats and such a graceful shape.  As precise as if they had been freshly pressed this morning.  The leaves seem to be darker than they were last week and have a definite green tint to them that the camera doesn't pick up.  The whole tree has been transformed by these longer, fatter leaf buds at the end of every branch and twig.

Last night we had a family dinner and we could have BBQ and eat outside.  It was like summer and I hope it means the start of a long stretch of warm weather.  My grandkids picked flowers and decorated the table for us.  This morning the flowers are still bright and happy-making. 

Saturday Stash

I'm sneaking away from the kitchen to post this.  We're having family for a BBQ dinner tonight and things must be done.  But I do have a kind of discipline and I told myself that when two salads were completed, I could do this.  Obviously not a lot of knitting going on right now.

This is one of the lace inserts for my blue pullover.  Doesn't really look like much does it?  I have to graft the live stitches to the two shoulders and then figure out what that tab thingie is for.  The neck, I think.  These inserts don't take long but they're fiddly.  They are knit in the the round like a doily. 

And because I have need more stash help,  here is a baby cardi.  Sharp eyes will recognize this as the remnant from my garden sweater.  I picked out a pattern that was a gansey pullover and promptly changed just about everything.  The gansey design became cables.  The bottom edge became garter stich.  The whole thing is also to be made into a cardi as I didn't like the pullover neckline.  I think I'm not anywhere near Kansas now.

And that's all for today.  I have my eye on a couple of patterns from the latest Love of Knitting mag but I think I have to finish at least one project first.  Oh, and I have my red sock still to finish.  It involves squinting at the chart on my laptop which seems to be a barrier right now.  But, never fear, there is always more yarn, more patterns and just as little time. 

Fifty Fridays #36

Last week I mentioned that I had found some photos which were not on my CD.  This morning, I quickly took a photo of one.  That's by way of explaining the not-so-great quality of the photo. 

I don't know if this is family or not.  I don't even really know where it is.  But I would say it's more likely a city just because of the subject matter.  And the style of the houses would, to me, indicate north-eastern North America.  It might be a special day - or even a Sunday, since the kids appear to be dressed up.   On the back is written:  "This is the old fellow with the hand organ".  Clearly the real subject for the writer is the hurdy-gurdy man. 

I would put it at the very early 1900's.  That's just a guess given the clothing.  The older boy in the hat has a face and head far older-looking than his size would indicate.  I wonder if that had something to do with the diet?  Are these three (or even five) children a family group?  Three seem to be looking at the camera so it gives that impression.  But I have no clue who their family might be.  There are quite a few mystery photos like this in the box.  And that just makes an interesting mystery that we know will never be solved.