Sometimes Monday | 5.20.24

Sometimes Monday | 5.20.24

Is it just me or is May just flying by? It sure feels that way to me… and I have really focused on slowly savoring the days!

So perhaps a bit of a celebration of what May has brought to my life this year….

It’s a Bud-o-rama!

Starting with my poppy… it is unbelievable this year! My single plant is loaded with dozens of buds with more appearing each day! It is also pacing itself on blooming… only 5 or 6 new poppies open every day. We have been lucky with cooler days but we have also had an abundance of rain (which is not a friend to the fragile poppy blossoms!) But I am so happy with the gradual opening and that each day there are some magnificent new blooms. I am savoring and celebrating them while they last!

I love their fragile, fleeting beauty!

Next up on my May celebration is the lavender plant which last fall I thought for sure was on its last legs… well, a mild winter must have been the exact CPR needed because this spring it is suddenly enormous and so heavy with buds… I am very much looking forward to this blooming! (as will the bees!)

We have some ancient weigela bushes on the east side of our house and some years the blooms are few… not this year, the branches are weighed down with the volume of flowers! Hummers love this… so on my list this morning is to finish opening the porch so I can sit in the morning with my coffee and savor those hummer visits!

My porch is a riot of dark pink!

I had huge success with the first allium bulbs that I planted last fall and second wave of bulbs is on the precipice of blooms! These are much more tender and fragile looking than the first alliums. I have no idea what kind of alliums they are, sorry. I will have a better idea when these tender buds open!

I am so excited for these alliums!

Some weeks ago I shared a recipe for sourdough crackers… my first attempt was an epic failure (entirely my error!) the recipe clearly states the need for an offset spatula to spread the dough. Well, I forged ahead with just a plain spatula… and my outcome showed clearly how necessary an offset spatula was – the crackers never achieved cracker status… rather gummy, chewy, unappealing lumps of seasoned dough. Once I got home from Erie, I ordered an offset spatula and tried again… I am happy to announce that my second attempt was a HUGE SUCCESS!! (However, I might have now put myself off “store bought” crackers, lol) My second try was with Za’tar added in… oh yum! There will be LOTS more of these in my future… the recipe is super easy if you use the right tools, lol!

These crackers were the perfect addition to tomatoes and mozzarella! (they were also excellent on my Friday Happy Hour Board!)

Finally… slowly but surely the pages of my 100 Day Project are coming together! It should all be together this week! I have a tiny hurdle about how to make the front and back covers work, but I am hoping that by putting them together some light will shine at the end of the tunnel… stay tuned!

Happy Monday all… I hope you all have things to celebrate today as well! See you all back here on Wednesday!

Sometimes Monday | 5.20.24

Sometimes Monday | 5.13.24

Like much of the world on Friday, time stood still for a few minutes while I saw the effects from the coronal mass ejections (or CME’s) with my eyes in the south hills of Pittsburgh!

Yes, it was amazing. Yes, I took pictures (because our eyes are limited but a camera lens is not!)

And I have not stopped thinking about the aurora borealis since… and those memories will carry me through my list today as I count the minutes to being a hearing person again tomorrow! (1893 minutes at this writing!!)

Happy Monday all! See you back here on Wednesday!

 

Sometimes Monday | 5.20.24

Sometimes Monday | 4.22.24

The environment is where we all meet; where all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. — Lady Bird Johnson

Earth Day 2024… it seems somehow more important after a winter that wasn’t really winter. And spring, well… she has been springing. Lots. But last night’s hard frost will set back things a bit. Sigh. This will be the second year in a row that our “backyard” tree will lose its first leaves to frost. (In previous years, this tree had not bloomed until mid-May.)

Ironically… I put up the new Oriole feeder and heard the sweet song of a Baltimore Oriole yesterday. Fingers crossed they like the jelly I put out for them!

I spent a good bit of time doing some “knitty maths” around my gauge over the weekend. This always makes me a bit nervous, but took my calculations and cast on based upon those calculations… a big yay that I am knitting a smaller size, thanks to my gauge! But still… there are nerves, it is bottom up construction – which is not always the “easiest” to try on for fit… I managed to knit about 30-ish rows which I then threaded on some waste yarn and “tried it on” and then promptly ripped back… I am bumping up a size, because I do not want “snug around my ass ribbing”… so I have a bit more confidence with the second try. I think once I get going, this sweater will move quickly! The pattern is fun… so fun! I am knitting with some skeins of Briar Rose Fibers yarn… Chris has been much on my mind recently and my plan is to knit some love her way…each stitch a meditation for her.

The one yuck thing on my list is packing this week… We head to Erie Thursday afternoon and I have LOTS to get ready between now and then.

So I better get started! See you all back here on Wednesday!

 

Sometimes Monday | 5.20.24

Sometimes Monday | 4.15.24

Hello everyone… I hope your Monday is starting easy!

Mine started with a bit of an explanation point! Yes, just after midnight, I was awoken by the sound of an explosion of hail stones being hurled at the house. It was so loud and the winds were so wild!

That exclamation point was soon followed by more flood warnings as some areas near us were evacuated. April sure as heck has been rainy and we added another almost 3 inches to those totals last night! All this rain has upset my “sweater washing” apple cart… that task might have to move to May!

But… I do have a tulip or four to share with you!

Please ignore the jaggerbush at the top, I did not have a glove handy to pull it out! But it will soon be gone… never fear! 

I have never, ever seen such short-stemmed tulips, but I guess in their Tulip Minds, they thought that with the lack of leaves to protect their blossoms, closer to ground might be better…But they BLOOMED!

Tomorrow is a big day for me… and I am more than a bit nervous about it. I go to meet with the audiologist to figure out hearing aids. So if you could send me all your calming juju, I’d be so grateful!

Happy Monday everyone! See you all back here on Wednesday with something FUN!

 

 

Sometimes Monday | 5.20.24

Sometimes Monday | 4.8.24

An eclipse is one phenomenon that is actually more impressive from the ground. — Leroy Chiao

There has been so much Eclipse Hype on everything… the local news especially, here in the South Hills of Pittsburgh but I am not sure they counted for grey, cloudy skies… very cloudy skies and rain!

But today, as we creep up to the eclipse, I will be making Mourning Dove silhouette’s to sit on the lines from my backyard. These doves will grace the seventeenth page giving a bit of me to my daughter’s book. I love the doves that sit on those lines morning and evening… they are a constant in my day with their meditative calls and gentle nature. They bring calm to my day… for it is impossible to be angry or stressed with these sweet birds.

Ready for the birds!

I have some bits of fabric that I will use to create the doves from to “perch” on my stitched lines. I don’t know how many I will be able to do in my timeframe… but maybe I can get 6 or 8 of them cut out in 15 minutes today! (And no, I am not counting the drawing time in the equation!!) But this will be a very peaceful way to begin my week! Even a rainy, cloudy, likely to ruin an eclipse kind of day! But I am not going to worry about a potentially obscured eclipse, instead I will keep myself grounded in this Monday… with Mourning Doves and slow stitching!

Happy Monday everyone!

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