It is finally getting cold, but there still haven’t been any official snowfall in our area. As of today we have set the record for the longest recorded gap in snowfall in modern recorded weather history for the state of Colorado. I have moved all the potted plants outside again and all indications are they will still be healthy and blooming on Thanksgiving. Okay, there was a little issue with the potted geraniums that I brought into the house a couple of weeks ago… I found a caterpillar on a geranium cutting in the indoor garden!
The cutting had rooted successfully, but with that caterpillar it was immediately tossed outside with the remains of the violets and all of the other geraniums that had come indoors for the winter. Poor geraniums. In a few days they should succumb to an overnight freeze. Life is cruel, little guys.
Yarn
I am still knitting like crazy for Frayed Knots, the community knitting group comprised mostly of Kaiser employees in my area. Last week one of the infusion centers that we knit for requested that we supply them with some PICC line covers, so I did a little search on Ravelry, found a pattern, and started knitting some of the covers along with the hats.
I have settled on a few hat patterns that are easy and should be comfortable for chemo patients. They are Barley Light, Barley, and the Sockhead patterns. The pattern for the PICC line cover, designed for one in the upper arm, is here. I am so happy to be putting the leftover and unused yarn in my stash to a good use.
Garden
Well, the garden sure took a hit this week. The African violets are toast and you already know about the geraniums. I am happy to report that the orchids, however, evidently weren’t all that tasty for the caterpillar as they seem to be unharmed.
These gorgeous bloomers are the plants that I bought this fall. Inside the garden, under the grow lights, the plants that bloomed last year are flourishing with lots of new growth, an explosion of air roots, and new stems for blooms are emerging!
A couple of other orchids are also putting out stems; one plant has three new stems on it. What is that liquid on the orchid, you ask? I sprayed Neem oil on all the plants left in the garden after the caterpillar was escorted out the door…
Books
I’m back to reading science fiction. The main character in the book I’m reading right now is a sentient space ship called Trouble Dog and of course the captain of this ship is a woman facing down the monsters in the dark of space. I just finished the first book in the series called Embers of War and I’m hooked. Luckily I get the audiobook for no additional cost so I can listen to the books at times while I’m knitting away on the hats and PICC line covers. I have to laugh a little as I knit and listen to Trouble Dog’s tale as I manage my yarn around my own little Trouble Cat…
That’s it. Have a great week everyone!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Laughed a lot at that photo of Mateo: he looks ready to rock – meaning, to cause a bit of trouble. Did he ?
Your phallies are SUPERB, Marilyn ! You obviously know exactly how to look after them, as they’re looking as happy as it’s possible for phallies to be.
Poor geraniums, poor African violets. Here’s hoping that at least that rather handsome caterpillar turns into something beautiful !
Of course he caused trouble!! He lies on his back and watches me constantly. Any flips of yarn that come his way are his, or at least that is the way he thinks of it.
Five of my six orchid plants are now putting out stems. I’m pretty excited! I’ve been told that the trick to getting them to bloom is to have fairly large temperature swings in the fall. They are in a room that gets pretty warm in the day and I leave a window fan running in there to bring in the cool air overnight. So far that is seeming to do the trick.
I did think of keeping that caterpillar in a bug keeper to see what type of moth it would produce as I was carrying it out, but I was so irritated with it I tossed it outside. Bye-bye, violet assassin!!
I guess you must feel ambivalent about that snowfall record
You are right. We need the moisture on the lawn but shoveling it is a pain!
So sorry about the caterpillar and the violets and geraniums, but glad your orchids are doing so well! They really are lovely 🙂 As is your little Matteo! Love the hats and PICC line covers – they will help people stay much more comfortable for sure 🙂
I started reading this post the other day and went off to google what a PICC line was and forgot to come back. Naughty caterpillar, what a shame cats don’t eat them. I’m sure all the hats and line covers will be really appreciated. I think I should probably throw out my orchid. It’s just leaves and a bud that never opened all year.
I did put two orchid plants into the garage last month because they were definitely on the way out. They are still green and bravely trying to convince me that they should go back into the house, but nope. I want the pots back. For some reason that I don’t understand they are trying to make a comeback after failing to thrive in the house.
The group delivers so many hats… there must be a need. They delivered 140 hats to one of the clinics last week and got the request for the PICC line covers. I have a lot of yarn that I’ve saved over the years (okay, I don’t throw away anything…) and now I’m just churning out these hats and covers. They provide stuff for the three major centers here in the Denver Metro Kaiser system plus the Ronald McDonald house.
We, just to the south of you, are hoping for a good snowfall year but it isn’t predicted 😦 Let’s hope the weather folks’ predictions are wrong! You’ve got some great stashbuster projects on the go – and for a great cause too!
I think that there is a La Nina system building that will keep us low on moisture this winter, but we do need the snow! Let’s hope it breaks down. We had a relatively good fire season this year because of last year’s snow and I was hoping for a couple of more good years to follow.
It feels great to be stashbusting!!