Frying eggs on the sidewalk

Here in northern California, we are in for a few days of very hot weather, and I think it has started this morning. We usually keep our thermostat set at 78 degrees this time of year, and the a/c popped on at 10:30. I took a brief moment while the coffee was brewing to step out onto our back patio, and confirmed that it was going to be a very warm one today. I always feel like there is so much to be done on days like these, before it gets even warmer in the coming days...like, transplant some cactus I have been meaning to get to, but to do that, I need to make a trip to the garden center for a planter bowl since I don't want to put them in the ground yet. I also have a hanging cactus garden that has outgrown its digs, so I need to make myself a list of all the things I need to get. My dear friend Kathy, and her sister Sherry, both have beautiful gardens, so I'm going to borrow some of their ideas I think for mine. Sherry has very big planters sitting about her yard, and one of the clever things I never thought of doing was putting some of those walkway lights in the planters. I wish I had some pictures to show you...at night, or even dusk, it's beautiful! I was over at her house yesterday...well, it was actually their mother's until she passed away a few months ago. I think I explained though how Sherry is a realtor, and temporarily moved in so she could stage the home. It has now sold and Sherry has two weeks to move. The home is on acreage, so there are all kinds of critters that live there as well. Kathy and I were in an office off of the garage cleaning yesterday, and when I stepped outside for a moment into the breezeway between the house and office, I was greeted by a mama peacock with her baby. I had never seen a baby one, so you know I had to get pictures!

 

I turned around, and now there was a whole pride of them! 

 

My ex-husband could make the sound of a peacock, and what's funny is, his parents were living on this very same street when he was born. I wonder how long these birds have been there? I wonder if it's possible he actually learned how to do it as an infant and it didn't come out till he was older? haha

After I helped my friend's clean for a while, I came home still filled with lots of energy, so I got busy skeining up the bobbin I had filled up, and today I will give it a soak and hang it up to dry. Shouldn't take long for that to happen out on our hot patio! I ended up with what seems to be a worsted weight...yayyy...I tend to spin thin, so I am very pleased with this! It's a two ply and I don't think I'm going to use it for a sweater after all. This is probably about 4 ounces and I only managed 137 yards. I still have 28 ounces of this fiber, so I'm not sure what it's going to be yet. I do love the softness and squishy-ness of it though! Once it's washed and dry, I will get a better picture....

After I skeined this up and counted the yardage, I then sat down and read for a while. I finished the book I was reading, The Last Days of California, by Mary Miller. While it held my interest, I have to say the ending was a disappointment for me. I don't like it when you're left hanging, kind of like it's the middle of the story and there was no resolution for the issues the characters were experiencing...if that makes any sense? In the story, you are also introduced, albeit briefly, to characters who don't seem to have any real purpose to the story line. Just weird. The next book I will be reading will be with my book club I joined a couple of weeks ago. I'm so excited to get started on Tuesday. We chose Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. Ambitious for our first book, I know, but I love historical novels! This is book one in a century trilogy, and I hope we get to read book two as well. It's about five interrelated families who move through epic dramas of the first world war, the Russian revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. Sounds intense, but I think it will be a great read to take on vacation for the summer!

The summer top I cast on for that I talked about in my last post is proving to be relaxing, and it just feels fun the more I progress on it. It drapes so incredibly that I can see myself getting a lot of use out of this garment!! I am loving the yarn, a cotton and nylon blend from Araucania (see last post). However, I did also say that I might let my granddaughter have the other skein to knit herself one out of it, but the more I knit on this, the more I'm thinking it wouldn't be very flattering for a 13 year old girl. Back to the drawing board on that one! I love the irregularity of the stitches, due to the fact this is a fingering weight yarn being knit with US11 needles.

After a while, I decided to knit for a bit on my Bad Oyster Scarf, and got far enough on it to transition to a longer cable. I love working on this, and I laugh when people ask me if I'm knitting a hat. It has a funny shape to it, but once it's cut open (steeked), it will be magically transformed into a fringed piece of scarf art to wear!

 



My cardigan wasn't left out of the rotation yesterday. I also got most of one sleeve finished. Maybe another ten rows or so? I'm hoping to finish up at least a couple of these projects before we leave on vacation, but if not, there's always the next month when we will take another respite from the daily grind and head for the beach!

 

I think it's Tuesday of this week that our temps will soar over the 100 degree mark, so I'm thinking I might try the solar cooking with my eleven year old grandson. It will be a good educational and fun thing to do with him, if I can drag him away from his catcher's mitt long enough!!