I had a really busy weekend. Went clothes shopping on Saturday, something I REALLY hate to do, but it is necessary every once in a while. Most of my chinos and "business casual" attire for work was looking pretty ragged, and with the weather warmed up now, I need stuff like. I have some very nice suits that I wear through the fall/winter/spring, but...hey, they call 'em 3 season suits for a reason. No one wants to wear wool in the summer, even if it is light weight.
I hate to shop for clothing/shoes/accessories because I know exactly what I want. Then, I get into the stores and I can't find what I want or it doesn't fit right and I get frustrated. For example, I like long, flowing skirts in the summer because they are cool, and the office dress code doesn’t require that I wear hose if the skirt is calf-length. At the shops this weekend, I discovered that long skirts apparently aren’t the style this year, so I couldn’t pick up one. *sigh* It feels like a big waste of time to me, and I really hate to waste time. I have lots of other things to do with my limited time, ya know.
I was able to get some new chinos that fit nicely, so Saturday’s shopping trip was counted as a success, though. Now I won't have to go through this again for at least 6 months. *yay*
We had a bit of excitement Saturday afternoon when a really ugly storm whipped through the area. Mark [my DH] was out on one of his long bike rides when he got caught by it, and called me to ask me to pick him up. Such great timing he had, too. I was just settling down for a short nap, and had not been prepared for the storm to hit. He's on the phone trying to explain to me where he is and what "supplies" he wants me to bring (towel, dry shirt, etc.) and I'm running around the second floor slamming windows closed at the same time!
By the time I picked him up, the storm had already passed on. The high winds did knock down several tree limbs in the area -- some quite large, too -- and tossed all the potted plants that had been neatly sitting on a plant stand on the upper porch all over the floorboards. What a mess!
I missed my chance for a nap, too, because we had to get ready to go out to dinner with friends by the time we got back to the house. We did have a lovely dinner with Eve and David out in St. Charles. It's a pain driving out there [it takes just over an hour even if there's no traffic], but I hadn't seen her in a while. David had arranged the dinner as a birthday surprise for her, and Eve was speechless [now THAT's pretty amazing] when she saw me at her house. We had a fun group of three couples and 3 singletons at the restaurant. David is a state trooper and 2 of his buddies were there, one of whom is now a police officer in Chicago and the other who is also a state trooper. Cops have some of the best stories, that's for sure!
Sunday was devoted to helping Rachael, one of my friends from Stitch n Bitch, move to her new apartment. It was a sticky, hot day, and the move took pretty long. After about 8 hours, Mark and I had to bail out and leave the rest of the crew to finish up. We were exhausted and had to get home to feed the dogs. We ended up eating our dinner around 9:30 PM, and then it was off to bed.
I had to do my usual Sunday grocery run on Monday night after work, then last night was Stitch n Bitch, so it was a pretty late night. All of this is a looonnnggg way of saying, “I’ve been really busy and haven’t been able to blog!”
…On the needles…
The little shawl I had planned to just whip up for Eve’s b-day present is still in the works. I have to get this finished by next week so I can mail it to her in time for her trip to Greece. I guess family and friends of hand knitters must be used to getting gifts a bit late…or at least I hope so!
I’ve put aside my swatching for Lily and work on Soleil for now until I finish this shawl. It's looking pretty good, right?
…In the garden…
Wow, has it been HOT the past few days. IMO, it’s too early in June for the temps to be in the upper 80’s and 90’s. Despite the big storm on Saturday, there was little rain. Yes, it did pour for about 15 minutes, but that didn’t amount to much. So, today I’ve been moving the hose around and hooking it up to the soaker hoses laid out in most of my beds to give the thirsty plants a long drink.
I really need to do some deadheading in the garden and some weeding. The peonies are looking really ragged and the old bloom stalks on the irises should be cut. I’m hoping to get out in the garden sometime today or early in the evening to trim things a bit, weed out the little maple seedlings that have sprung up from this year’s bounty of samaras, and generally tidy things up a bit. It’s just so damn hot, that I really don’t want to spend a lot of time in the sun.
The water lily has put out another bloom, and it is so beautiful. The ‘Texas Dawn’ water lily bloom is yellow, but it has a sort of pink blush to the lower petals, as well. I saw one daylily bloom today, and there are definitely more on the way. The climbing roses are still knocking my socks off, and the new Zepherine Drouhin has opened up single, fragrant, deep pink bloom. I think I’ll try a foliar spray with baking soda on the Zepherine Drouhin, as the foliage looks a bit spotty.
The veggies are really taking off in this heat, at least. I swear the tomato plants have grown a foot in the past 5 days, the pole beans are twining up around the fencing and trellising, as is the cucamelon – a new veggie for me to try this year. Something is making little holes in the leaves of my wax beans and eggplant; probably flea beetles, but I can’t see them, and the holes aren't really bad right now, so I’ll just let nature take its course for a while.
My "now blooming" photo is actually of one of my houseplants, a Phalaenopsis orchid called 'Summer Beach.'
Isn't she pretty, especially with the morning sun touching her petals?
No comments:
Post a Comment