One day left!

Just one day left to get in on the drawing for some nice hand knit socks. See this post.    Never mind that it is 90 degrees today, you can wear the wool socks in January and your toes will thank you. 

We saw these cool little bugs on some sedums on a rock wall, while visiting Clay's house today.  Masses of tiny bugs.

Other wildlife included Clay's dog

Chloe

Two of my favorite men deep in discussion about manly things.

Clay's garden, all corn.

Family words

Did you plant a garden this year? We did.  Yesterday I spoke to my parents about their garden plans and I got this answer----
"We are going to make garden today. " Make garden....My folks use these words to describe the act of planting and marking the rows.  Present tense, I guess ....Making garden happens only once a year, and after the fact, they say....."we planted a garden this year." Language used in my family only?  


My Nana had her own vocabulary, some examples include
Davenport  ----sofa or couch
Petticoat----- slip
Nightdress------pajamas or nightgown
Icebox--------refrigerator
Soda Water-----7 Up
Pocketbook---------her purse
Goods---------fabric
Her Man-----that person's husband

My favorite of my Nana's phrases was the word "Possible"  for part of a woman's anatomy......when asked why she used that phrase,,, she said simply "It's important to wash up as far as possible and down as far as possible.
My Nana, she was great.

a lazy sunday

poppies in the backyard

Round and Round

It's like I am 12 years old........all over again.........Listen

North

It was a short visit to the cabin, but the northwoods never disappoints.

Spring is in full bloom,
 the woods are carpeted with trilliums.

A wild strawberry

Young ferns among the rocks.

The weather was lovely for walking

Knitting

And toasting our toes by the fire

It was a short visit, but it was glorious!

Is anyone out there?

In an effort to motivate you, the reader(s),and motivate myself, I am announcing a contest/drawing! Want to own a cool handknit pair of socks? enter the drawing!

Notice I said PAIR of socks? That's the motivation for me. I will finish these socks before the contest ends. One is finished and the other just needs the foot and toe, but they have been hiding in a pile of UFO's since last fall.
To be entered in the drawing, all you have to do is COMMENT on this or any other of my posts before May 31. Commenting is easy, You can do it Anonymously....no need to sign up for blogger. I will draw by comment number and then post the winning number on June 1, so you will need to check back to see if you are the winner. That way there is no need to leave your name.

I will send these cool socks to the lucky commenter. Keep them, wear them, give them away. Heck , you can even tell people you made them yourself, I don't care.

Socks are a lot of knitting time,why am I doing this, giving them away, possibly to a stranger? Because it feels like there is no one reading my blog. I am just wanting to see if there is anyone out there?

Let the contest begin!

Fish Sketchbook

Drawing fantasy fish is a relaxing pastime. Here is my fishbook.

unfinished

Needle in a haystack

The idiom "a needle in a haystack"

a needle in a haystack
something extremely hard to find ---It's pretty much a needle in a haystack because these fish are extremely hard to find.
Etymology: based on the idea that it is to almost impossible to find a thin sewing needle in a haystack (a very tall pile of dried grass)

I am constantly misplacing items, every day. I am not an organized person, and I have a lot of "stuff". My stuff is often missing, but eventually found, mostly when I have given up looking.

Last week, my son and my dad were undertaking the annual task of burning the dry vegetation off the asparagus patch. They used an old, old bale of straw to get the fire started.

Years ago, my folks operated a dairy farm and grew oats to feed the cows and used the straw for bedding. I was always happy to work with the straw bales, packing them in the barn, because straw bales are much lighter than hay bales. We would put hay in the mow for weeks, so when the short straw season arrived, it seemed so easy...It was one of those straw bales, left in the barn since the 1970's that was to start the fire on the asparagus patch.

As my son opened and started shaking out the old bale, my dad spied something red and shiny falling amongst the straw. It was a red crochet hook. Mine, I am sure. I do not remember losing it, But I do remember crocheting in the barn while waiting for the next loads of bales to arrive.. 40 years later..........hmmmmmm.

Eyes of a child

The first thing that my 16 month old grandson does when he visits my house is search for the "kitties".. He is a busy, busy, boy. Small for his age, he can get into tiny spaces where the cats like to hide.

After the cats have been harassed a bit, he looks for Grandpa. He really loves his Grandpa.

Invariably, the next thing he wants is "ousside". We have a big yard and he is an explorer. "Ousside" is a favorite word.



Last evening, just as it was starting to rain, before the storms, he was determined to be "ousside", asking over and over. I explained that it was raining, we needed to stay inside. Well, he is sixteen months old, the word rain means little to him. Finally I decided to take him onto the deck "ousside" and show him the rain, thinking that he would want to stay inside then.



He stood there, very still, letting the drops fall on his head. Then he turned his face to the sky, and let the rain fall on his face. He crinkled up his eyes when a drop of rain fell into them. A HUGE grin appeared..the the giggling began. He said "agua" and laughed and laughed. So did I.