Summer's Passing....fast!

There's knitting, gardening, and music to report, though very little dancing lately. I think my knees are enjoying the rest - I can hear them creaking when I walk up and down stairs. That can not be good.
I did quite a bit of knitting on our trip to and from CIAW...made a pair of baby socks for a woman at work who's having a boy - or actually has HAD a boy by now - and finished a pair of purple Bridgits - one on the way down and one during the week, using down time during the dancing and at concerts, etc. There was only one time when my hands were too hot to knit - the yarn was sticking to them. Yesterday I finished another pair of baby socks, they're very fast and cute, too. Unfortunately I don't know too many folks who are having babies at the moment! Now I'm making a pair of slate grey men's socks, and they're rather dull so it's hard to get enthused.
The garden suffered quite a bit while we were away, so I've been weeding and discovering lots of surprises. There's quite a job of deadheading to come, as the feverfew is almost finished and is looking quite bad now, though it was still fine in the photo, with that (spit) yellow lily. Phlox and daylilies are coming out everywhere, though, in compensation!

Where Have I Been?

Returned from the Irish Arts Week in the Catskills on Monday, and have been working flat out ever since, that's where. The week was jam-packed, with two dance classes every day (morning and afternoon), plus dances every night, concerts, sessions, listening rooms, CD launches, lectures on Irish music and history...it was exhausting! But wonderful.

Birthday Present!

Our Pentax Optio (about 6 years old) has been giving us trouble - or rather, not giving us pictures.  The shutter fires once for every 20 times it's pressed. So yesterday I was given a new Canon A720. Haven't had time to do anything with it yet, and it's blowing and about to rain outdoors, not optimal photographing-the-flowers weather. But my other present was a new garden journal (my last was filled up) so it's time to take stock of the garden, and start trying to remember what things are so I can record their locations. With lovely photos for the facing pages. But it's not fit to be out, and the rest of the day looks to be worse.

Maybe I'll have to stay in and sharpen knives.

Garden News

I planted tomatoes yesterday after dinner - in the rain. I hope that's optimal growing conditions and that they will flourish.

I hope someone sees my flower bed today and thinks I'm a brilliant gardener for matching the foxgloves with the sweet rocket, though if it's a gardener he or she will suspect that the sweet rocket is a volunteer from another bed and just blew in to the one with the foxgloves, The peonies are about to burst, so I hope the rain today doesn't knock them down.  The rain makes for great colours, however.

Summer's here

I've been busy! Some knitting, a bit of dancing, and now that the weather has cleared up, a bit of gardening too. Yesterday I did some deadheading on the lilac hedge (a monumental task, as they are now 'way over my head) and some planting of annuals. Taking away, giving.  

Roses are starting to come out - nothing of particular note, just Blanc de Coubert, Philemon Cochet, and the rugosas - including Hansa. I have planted a few new ones this year, but not on the rose mound - in the flower beds and along the edge of the lawn by the road.  I did buy a new Explorer - a red climber called Henry Kelsey. Robert Osborne (of Cornhill Nursery) speaks highly of Henry in his book. I planted him behind the rose trellis (with Dublin Bay in front), so I hope that 1. Both survive, bloom, and confound onlookers with two sorts of red blooms, apparently from one plant; or 2. One or the other survives and fills in the trellis. My money's on Henry. While I was planting Henry I managed to break a bloom off an iris, which I brought in and put in water. I wanted to see what colour it was because I bought it at a church yard sale last year and had never seen the bloom. It's warped because the slugs had got at it. Next year I'll keep an eye on it. 

In knitting I'm scundered with socks (toe up is doing my head in!) so I'm looking for other options, including fingerless gloves, entrelac and a lace shawl project that requires more concentration than I have, apparently. I've had to start it again.

 

More on the iMac (wonder of the age)

There were a few teething pains after I last posted, but 2 hours on the telephone with the very nice Steve from Mac Tech Support on Monday night seems to have sorted it.

The problem? We have a 2.4 GHz cordless phone (on which I was speaking with him) and that's the frequency of the AirPort, (which is the cordless router). There were other problems too, but that was the one that kept the AirPort from working. I'm shopping for a new telephone (5.8 or 6 GHz this time) at once!

Helen is exactly right - there's barely time for knitting, now that this Macbaby has entered our lives. I have one Blueberry sock finished, and am working on the other - and have one Monkey at the heel flap and have started the mate, because I think I'm going to run out of yarn, and I MAY have to make heels and toes is a different colour.

I am definitely going to make my VERY NEXT pair of socks toe-up, two at a time, so I can be sure of the yarn supply.

New Computer and High Speed!!

I am typing on a new iMac that is so gorgeous that I cannot stand it. And the new high speed provider has just left my house so I am on t'internet full time, full speed. 

I'm so happy I can hardly breathe.