No, Yitzhak...

thank you.

Remembering

Visit www.kate.net for more Memorial Day images

What a crock

The weather-guessers have been predicting nice weather this weekend; sunny and warm Saturday and Sunday, cooler and maybe some rain Monday. I figured, great, I'd play in the dirt on the sunny days, and maybe bake some cookies on Monday if it was cool enough. Hah!

This morning was cloudy and gloomy. I kept looking from the forecast to the sky; cloudy and getting cloudier. About a couple of hours after the rain started, the forecasts were updated to rain all weekend. &^%$#@!

Since the garden was out, we headed for the movies. Saw Prince Caspian; not bad, but not as good as the first one. If you're a Narnia fan, then I'd recommend seeing it. If you're not, well, it's still worth seeing, but maybe wait until it's on cable.

On the plus side, I did get a little knitting in. I finished one pair of socks for CIC:


Hand dyed Knit Picks WotA. Love those orange toes! I think they might actually glow in the dark.

I started another pair:


using some Cascade 220 I got in a swap a while back. I'm ready to start the toe, which is what the blue yarn is for. For some reason, I get such a kick out of contrast toes. Doesn't take much to amuse me, I guess.

For instance, sneaking up on cats for extreme closeups while they are trying to nap is a hoot.

It had to happen

I knew that if I just held on long enough, the cold and rain would end and I wouldn't dread going outside. I just had to be patient and avoid succumbing to lethal mildew. Well, it finally happened. The clouds cleared, the rain ended, and that fiery ball we like to call the Sun came out to play. We've had three days now without any rain to speak of. It has been just lovely.

In spite of having excessive amounts of work to do this weekend, I finally got to play in the dirt today. The b/f is entirely responsible for this, BTW, because not only did he mow the lawn yesterday without any assistance from me, today he took care of the housecleaning chores. This enabled me complete the "work" work I had to do, as well as the eBay work I needed to do, and still have time to head out to the garden. About time, too; my plants were seriously straining the confines of their little plastic pots.

First I planted the peppers; there are four jalapenos in front, and four bell peppers in back (two yellow, two red).

Then I planted the tomatoes; Early Girl on the left, and Celebrity on the right.

Still to come are the cantaloupe and corn. I won't be photographing those beds today, however, because I have some really serious weeding to do first. The kind that requires a shovel. I'm going to be really popular with the vermin when I'm done, though; most of it is catnip.

Playin' hooky

Well, not exactly. I have to work Saturday night, so I'm taking a half-day off today. It wasn't supposed to rain until this afternoon, so I was planning on doing some planting in the garden. However, it's been drizzling all morning, so I decided to bake instead.


Today I made oatmeal muffins. These are a slightly sweet, wholegrain muffin that I like to take in my lunch. They are very tasty with cottage cheese and some fruit. Very easy to make, too:


Whole Wheat Oatmeal Muffins
(makes 12)

1 egg
3/4 c buttermilk
1/3 c brown sugar
1/4 c oil
1 c whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground white wheat)
1 c quick cooking oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 400F. Beat together the egg, brown sugar, buttermilk and oil. Stir in remaining ingredients, just until moistened.

Pour into lined muffin tin or silicone muffin cups; fill about 2/3 full. Bake about 20 minutes, until slightly browned. Cool on rack; remove muffins from tin (if you used one) when you can without burning yourself; finish cooling on rack.

Makes a nice mid-morning snack, too.

No reruns, please

I definitely don't want a repeat of this weekend. Internet outage Saturday was slightly inconvenient, but we were planning to go to the movies anyway (saw Iron Man; great flick, definitely recommended). Storms started while we were doing a little shopping after the movie and continued all night, so I was robbed of my favorite weekend activity--catching up on my sleep. It was just too darn noisy outside! Rain stopped sometime Sunday a.m., but the high winds continued--what the b/f calls scenic winds, because so much of the scenery goes blowing by. So, with all that, we weren't terribly surprised when the power went out during Sunday breakfast, and stayed out most of the day.

OK, I'll admit that I wasn't heartbroken to realize I couldn't clean house without electricity. But no music, no television, no computers; aaarrrrgggghhhh! I couldn't play in the dirt work in my garden with wind gusts threatening to send me tumbling into the woods. I swear, if it weren't for knitting and audiobooks, I would have gone nuts. I've really been enjoying mindlessly working on my second patch of the 9-patch afghan:


While looking for more yarn scraps for aforementioned 9-patch, I came across some yarn I handdyed sometime back for a project, which I then decided not to make. It's been a while since I've made any socks for CIC, so I figured it was time for a pair. I've got one made and the barest beginnings of a second.


I really like the way this yarn turned out; the way the colors vary from medium blue to indigo to purple.


I'm thinking a pair of socks for me might be next.

Caution, thy name is Hilfy

Hilfy examines the great outdoors--from the safety of her doorway.