Life is suddenly getting a little intense, isn’t it? I hope that everyone is safe and that you have your plans (and food) in place to prepare for days and weeks at home. I feel that I’m about as well prepared as I can be: months of prescriptions on hand, a yarn and craft stash that can keep me occupied for months, if not years, and all the consumable goods for several weeks at home. I already am a bulk buyer who keeps a well stocked pantry, so the last minute shopping that I had to do was pretty minor. I bought some potting soil, canned goods, some meats to freeze, and the most important item on my list:
I’m not hoarding. This is essential for life! I also need coffee, but I bought a huge bag a few weeks ago, so I am set!
Knitting
I am still running around to medical facilities for testing, and even fit in a dentist appointment and a phone appointment with one of my doctors. The knitting is suffering in consequence, but the sweater, a Pebble Tunic (Joji Locatelli) is slowing growing and I am a few inches away from the pockets. Most of the knitting went into the knitted copy of my son’s kitten Jonesy. I finished the back feet this week and am ready to start the front paws.
I hope to get this done in the next week. I can’t wait to get the eyes in and the ears onto this cat’s head!
Garden
This week all the birds came back and we had rain after months of snow; Spring is right around the corner. My indoor miniature roses are getting tired of the indoor life and long for stronger sun, but I am suddenly getting more blooms on them.
Books
Today I finished (at long last) The Overstory by Richard Power. This is an amazing book and totally worth reading, but I want to make some caveats:
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- There are a lot of characters with intertwining stories. Their names change from time to time. The author jumps back and forth between the characters as he synchronizes the story line elements to build a complex, but compelling, conclusion. This is not a good book to read slowly over a few weeks.
- I listened to a lot of this book while knitting, which was another mistake. It made things too slow. The jumps between characters, which is obvious in the text formatting, was confusing in the audible version. I couldn’t keep track of the names and shifting imagery the way I should of.
- You kind of have to love nature, appreciate art, and value a complex multi-layered story to enjoy this book.
- I am a geek, a biologist, and an outdoor educator for my state. I think that visiting a fish hatchery is a fabulous outing. I long to have a bee hive. I tend to let spiders and shrubs just do their thing with a little gentle intervention… and I also struggle with my neighbors to leave my front lawn alone; they will trim shrubs, spray for weeds, and edge the grass if I don’t keep an eye on them. These men are trying to help, and I appreciate them immensely, but that perfectly trimmed shrub just had all of its flowers clipped off… why do men think that shrubs need to be perfect cubes? I mulch under my rose bushes and they helpfully clear out my flower beds. They also take cuttings from my plants and admire my roses. I do manage to keep the back yard the way I want: the leaves don’t get raked in the fall, and the dandelions flourish back there in the spring for the bees. By midsummer my back lawn looks great, I have bees swarming my other flowering plants, and the neighbors comment from time to time about how nice it looks. Somehow the front yard doesn’t do as well… because of all this I appreciated some of the messages in the book.
I’m glad that I read The Overstory, and the name is really meaningful once you have finished the book, but I do think that it isn’t for everyone. Me, I will never look at a tree the same way again.
Have a great week everyone!! Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
The colour match really is perfect. Stay safe and enjoy your drinks, they look yummy.
They are yummy, and I got them on sale. 🙂 I’m so glad the yarn i dyed is working so well.
Your helpful neighbours are a bit scary 🙂
It’s the pressure to have “perfect” lawns. They also shovel my snow and look out for me. 🙂
🙂
Jonesy and the clone are color matched beautifully!
The flowers are amazing!! You’d think it was the height of summer in CO:)
The color match is great. I’m so glad the dye effort worked out.
The indoor lights I use have made all the difference. I bought them at the nursery and they are designed to mount with brackets under cabinets and shelves. Ta-da! Indoor summer.
Jonesey appears to have grown and is a very handsome boy. Your cat is a great colour match. I have a similar male neighbour who finds the concept of my manual lawn mowing for exercise a little unusual. The orchid is so pretty. You may like a book I have just started called ‘Wonderland’ A year of Britain’s wildlife day by day by Westwood and Moss, two naturalists. Its a lovely thing.
Jonesy is getting big. He’s now 6 months old and we think he’ll be as big as MacKenzie was when he’s done growing: 16-18 pounds. The men get upset that I mow the yard without a grass catcher because I want the clippings for mulch and I cut the blades as high as the mower can be set: we are very dry here and the grass needs less water that was. Silly men.
I’ll check out the book! Thank you and be safe!
Take care of yourself. Who needs loo paper, there are always the Sunday papers 😆
We all have our little weakness, enjoy your drinks ❤
Exactly my thinking!! Be safe!!
Knitted Jonesy is looking great! Your flowers are doing beautifully too 🙂 You are sounding perkier – hope you are feeling much better too!
Tonight I’m on oxygen and feeling much more like myself. Tomorrow I should get the front legs on the knitted kitty.
I love BAI. I also love your flowers! Stay well. xoxo Regina