Time well spent

Ha! I guess that wasn't much of a tease I left you with in my last post. I scrolled back and discovered I had already told you about my trip to Retzlaff Winery. So, I'm afraid there isn't much to tell you in regards to spinning, knitting, reading, etc. The next big event is the Monterey Wool Auction, which I believe is in September. I'm not expecting to go to it, but hey, you just never know. I need to spin down some of the fiber stash first, and I need to see how much wool I will end up with from the fleece I sent home with Shari of Morro Fleece Works to have processed. I'm so anxious to get it back, it's so beautiful! I'm not sure if I am going to leave it as is, or possibly try to dye it.
It would be nice to get away to the Monterey bay area again. I love it so much there, and in fact, my ex-husband and I lived there for two years while he was in the Army stationed at Ft. Ord. Our first child, my son, was born there as well. Sadly, I think the last time I was there was when they first opened the aquarium and we took our children to see it.
My husband I'm married to now has never been to that part of California, so we do need to make a trip there. I would love to show him the Santa Cruz/Capitola area as well, to make our own new memories.

We spent the day yesterday taking down a tree that has been irritating us for a very long time. It's a Chinese Tallow and is so obnoxious when it comes to this time of year! It drops long seed pods that break apart into what looks like tiny popcorn. Our neighbor next door has complained about it falling into her pool for a long time and while she has a pool service, she only pays for him to keep her chemicals in check. Now that we put up the pool for the grandkids, I completely get it! She is in Maui right now, so I sent her a picture that I know will please her to no end, and I don't blame her!!

 

Just to the left of that "totem" in the above picture, is our Morrow 'blood' orange tree. I'm sure it's rejoicing with the new sunlight it will now be able to bask in. I no longer have any shade for my lawn swing, but that's ok. It's portable and can be moved once we clean up that part of our yard. The white lattice in the background is hopefully going to go away too. I don't like how it looks, but that is night blooming jasmine climbing on it, so my husband says once it takes off now that it has sunlight too, it will cover the lattice. It's not my main priority right now anyway. I'm just happy that we now have sunlight getting to the whole pool instead of just half of it, and there is no more 'popcorn' clogging the filter. Today's task will be finishing up with the cleaning, and taking the rest of the tree trunk out. Not fun, but necessary since the root system came above ground and is traveling on top of the lawn. The tree was already here when we bought our home, but we haven't enjoyed it being there at all.

 



On the other side of that little kumquat tree is a major portion of that tree waiting to be hauled off, and this is the bigger branches cut up in small enough pieces to be taken away.

 

 It was a mess, but really not too bad. After a long morning of working at it, I then went over to my daughter's to spend some time with my grandkids. I enjoy that so much!! My grandson made All Stars, so has practice twice a day, every day. I can't hardly wait for his games to start! We're preparing the two little guys for kindergarten, and my granddaughter made the middle school cheer squad. It's going to be one busy summer!!! Anyway, after a couple of hours visiting with them, my hubby came home from his buddy's house down the street, we cleaned up, and he took me to a wonderful dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

 

It was a very good day for sure, and my plans for today...helping with the tree mess, maybe some swimming and playing with grandkids, and definitely some knitting...perhaps some spinning even!!!