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Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Rundown

It's been a fun-filled week, and it's only Thursday.

I finished the Green Gable. She is washed, blocked and ready for action. I started and am about 70% finished with a fourth Chickami. I used some variegated Elann Sonata Print from Ye Olde Stashe that had been partially knit and frogged. It's doing much better as a Chickami than it was in its previous incarnation. I've started Samro's A Little Something. I'm not far along at all, however, because this week has been jam-packed with other activities.

I am Tour de Fleece-ing. I'm not on a team or anything, but I have committed to spinning every day, even if I don't get home until 11:40 and only have 20 minutes. That was last night after seeing a show at The Goodman Theater, and the Journey Wheel and I were not getting along at all. I just could not get the tension adjusted properly. Things were better today. I'm currently spinning some Romeldale with silk noil and tussah silk mixed in. It may actually turn into real yarn that I can use.

Tuesday and Wednesday were largely taken up by the joint gardening project my next-door neighbor, Diane, and I took on. There is a 10' swath of parkway that runs between the street and the sidewalks in front of our houses, and it was in sad, sad shape. She had straggly grass on her part, and I had nothin' but dirt on mine. (I had a landscaper put in vinca a few years ago and it all died. All of it. Since then, nothing grew, not even weeds.) We have a few challenges that make it tough to grow things. It is mostly shady (big trees and shadows from the buildings block a lot of the sun, and big trees have big roots), and our neighborhood is chock full of dogs that just gotta go. Still, we were determined. After studying the sun's movement throughout the day and having a landscaper turn and amened the soil, Diane and I went to work. We purchased a variety of plants that featured interesting leaf shapes and colors, made two trips to a stone supplier for limestone and granite rocks, stopped at Home Depot, Lowe's, and a local garden center more times than I can remember, and we got dirty. We went for an informal, woodland vibe, and I think we did pretty well.
Many of the plants will eventually have blooms or the leaves will change colors with the seasons, so we're excited to see how it goes. Hard to believe, but there is a half-ton (seriously...1000 pounds) of stone in there that we hand-picked, loaded onto wagons, pulled to the scale, loaded into her car, unloaded from the car, and placed and replaced in the garden. And now we are tired. And sore. And happy that we did it.
Ooooh, and look at the "skull" rock that I found. I'm sending this pic to Skull-a-Day.

The husband and I also got a surprise invite to a Cubs game this week. We're not big sports fans (that's an understatement), but it was great people watching which made for a fun evening.





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