The Company of Plants...

The Company of plants is always soothing - a quote by Claire Fraser in Diana Gabaldon's latest book "Written In My Own Heart's Blood"

Raindrops look like pieces of glass on the green leaves

Tiny mushrooms sprouting in the grass are food for somebody  - the rampaging squirrel perhaps?

 The garlic scapes are decorated with water drops and looking quite ethereal.

Chive flowers look like tiny stars through the close up lens of the camera

Weekend Girl Style

I've been cleaning out my closet.  It seemed like a good day to do it - raining, cool, a nip of premature fall in the air.   Getting rid of old clothes that don't work anymore is a bit like cleaning out a former life.  No, I lie - it is exactly like cleaning out a former life.

There is a pile of clothes ready for sorting and giving away to "Good Will".  These clothes just don't work for me now, in this life I have and I'm tired of them.  They used to work.  There are memories in the clothes of that former life - but it's time to let go.

Why all this?  Well, I happened upon an episode of  the Marilyn Denis show - Marilyn is slightly obsessed with making over women, and I suppose, making them remember who they have sort of forgotten who they are.  She had on her show Fashionista, Gretta Monahan, who has written a book - a primer really -  defining four types of dress - the girlie girl, sophisticated girl, Sexy girl and Weekend girl.

So, what spoke to me at this time of my life? 

Behold the weekend girl


" This girl prefers comfort and, to her, everyday is a weekend "-( well that might be going a tad far.) . "She is most often found in casual pieces that don't look like she's trying too hard. This girl's style icons are Jennifer Anniston, Katie Holmes and Cameron Diaz" (.Actually I think I'm a bit old to worry about Jennifer or Katie or Cameron but she nailed it about the casual comfort thing)

This is what I'm aiming for when clothes shopping is on the agenda, and now that I've purged the closet, I feel justified.  I guess it's true that in order for a new thing to come into your life, you must get rid of something.  Empty hangers await.   The next clean out is the sweater chest!

Knowing when to fold 'em

I have been fighting with this latest shawl for long enough - today it is coming out - right out - the entire thing - out.  I did it to myself - I picked the wrong pattern, didn't look at how much meterage was needed, grabbed this lovely ball of Allegria from the Manos Del Uruguay company and a 5.5mm hook and got started.

The shawl pattern is called Morning Webs Shawl, designed by Kathryn White, published by Interweave Press,  and there is no doubt it is a gorgeous pattern - just not for one ball of Allegria Botanico (sigh ). 

It was going well, too,  until I came to the border and realized I was facing two entire rounds of double crochet clusters and chains, guaranteed to gobble up yarn.  That was when I put down the hook, went back to the beginning and actually read the yarn requirements - and realized I was some 400 meters short to make the project.  I have 425 meters - the pattern calls for 796.    That's what I get for being in a hurry I guess.

I consulted my books for border ideas thinking I just might be able to pull the project out of the fire.
But you know, no matter how I look at this - and I have been looking at it believe me, I don't like it, can't get into finishing it.  So it has been sitting, waiting patiently, and today while Libby and I were walking and playing at the river, I realized it is time to start over with a new pattern that will actually fit the amount of yarn I have to play with. 

Sometimes you just have to know when to fold 'em.

Summer Doldrums

This time of  year, all I want to do is sit in a comfortable chair and read.  Do you feel that way?  There is something about August that says sit back, relax.  The garden is more or less under control, well, barring weeding, watering and mowing, but for the most part the plants are quietly doing their thing quite nicely, the veggies are growing and we are harvesting as we want to eat.

So...what am I reading?  Diana Gabaldon's latest book, "Written in my Own Heart's Blood" a cracking good story - all 814 pages of it has hooked me in!  This is the latest in her "Outlander" series of historical, time traveling novels and is another page turner.  I can't put it down!

I first came onto Gabaldon's story 20 years ago, browsing the book shop,  looking for a good read.  I remember walking on a west coast hiking trail with a friend telling her about this book I was reading  -the  heroine's step back 200 years in time through some magical standing stones in Scotland and all the adventures that ensued.  She was so intrigued she got the book, then passed it onto her daughters, and so on and so on.  My own copy became so tattered it was held together with packing tape.  I finally replaced it when the second book came out - and by then I was totally hooked on the story - I think like a lot of people - of Jamie and Claire - he a 1700's highland warrier and she, a world war II combat nurse. 

Seven novels later I'm still hooked enough that I don't want the story to end.  Apparently neither does she.  She writes on her website that there will be an eighth novel in the series.

 I'm also reading Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac and thoroughly enjoying her prose along with her immense knowledge about knitting.  "Bear with me", she writes, "and put up with my opinionated, nay, sometimes cantankerous attitude" The book was originally published in 1974 and while some of the projects are a mite old fashioned, the knowledge and advice she hands out around them is priceless.

I'm also reading Ann Lamott's book "Bird by Bird" - the sub title is Some Instructions on Writing and Life.  I picked it up in defence against writer's block which I seem to be suffering  since my accident.  Odd that - a trauma of the body does such a number on the mind - but it does.

So look for me in the lawn chair.