A little bit of this, a little bit of that… seems like that was the way the day progressed.  I had great intentions.  This morning I set up the skein winder on the deck, got out some silk I wanted to part out into 160 yd. skeins.  As I let the yarn slip through my fingers, first one knot, then two, then… oh my.. so I decided that I would just make 200 yd. skeins and see what happens.  This is the same 100% silk that I’m using for my scarf.  I really like the yarn, I like the way it takes dye and the way it knits up.  It IS annoying to have to deal with the tied ends but hey, I’m dealing.  It’s not THAT bad.  I can’t spit splice it like wool, but it splices and when it’s knit, it’s invisible.  Still, it stopped me while I thought it out.
Then there were the black flies.  They were back with a vengence this morning.  Must have been the 36 F night we had.  Can you believe it?? At 2am I checked the thermometer and it was at 38.  I reset the high / low function and sure enough, we just beat frost.  It was a long night waiting. 
A bit of gardening, a bit of knitting, and oh yes.. I charted out the scarf pattern after downloading the Knitting Symbols Font package.  That was interesting. 
In answer to the question on sock yarn… it is Sockotta.  And yes, I like it. 

More than twice during the past week someone has asked me; ‘what’s a weed’ ?  My answer has been somehting like.. ‘anything that you don’t want in your garden is a weed, if you’d want it, it would become a perennial.  I know this is NOT a good answer, they might just be an annual, but you get my drift. Okay, I’m tired. The
vegetable gardens needed attention. The
birds had pulled out more than the occasional bean seedling. I always plant more than I’ll need. They, the
birds.. robins mostly, always help themselves, some years more than
others. I hoed the spaces and picked out
the weeds and popped new bean seeds in between the little string bean
plants. Then I prepped another row
(weeds grow fast I all this wet cool weather) and sowed another half row each
of spinach and lettuce. All unplanted
areas not presently under black ground cloth needed weeding. After lunch, I walked down to the field to do
the same with the squash and cucumber beds. Although I’m not fond of looking at the black cloth, it is invaluable
controlling weeds and thus making more time for other pastimes (read that fiber
related activities). Several years ago
we began planting our tomatoes in beds covered with black plastic to warm the
ground and give us the extra week. In
doing so we also found that this kept maintenance down and we had far less
wilt, mold and mildew. Pretty good
benefits, so we put up with the ‘look’. Next up, the raspberries. I
weeded them earlier this spring but it was time again. The runners are heading out into the walks
and I want to see them before I mow them down. There is a small patch of garden that they can be moved into and there
are never enough red raspberries come picking time. It seems like I’m always going to the ‘pick
your own’ fields to fill the freezer. So, my fingers and hands are sore, my thumbs and fingertips split. Time now to knit, blog, and relax with a
glass of wine on the deck. Sounds good,
huh? Damn chilly out there now that it’s
time to relax. The wind picked up, the
sun went under and thank goodness the glass is full. 

What am I knitting? The sock:

And a new project (yet another one) to test some yarn I dyed
and haven’t tried yet. It’s the Midwest
Moonlight Scarf.

It’s The Summer of
Lace, right?

Surprise #1: (well not really)
I naturally slowed the car as I drove up my road last evening.  It’s early summer, the babies are usually just starting to show themselves.  Sure enough, there where the culvert goes under the road, a perfect tunnel to hide and play in, were this years fox kits.  They walked into the middle of the drive to get a better look, then jumped up and scampered into the tall grass.  As I looked back in my rear view mirror, I could see them back in the road, watching me drive away.  Last year there were five. I wonder how many were playing out of sight. 

The smell of the farm in the summer is magic.  The lupine are in bloom.  So are lots of flowers, but the lupine overpower all others this time of year.  Sweet!  C had mowed the yard around the gardens before he took off Friday  and it actually looked groomed… sort of.  My gardens are wild, densely packed masses, a semi arrangement of the real hardy bloomers.  The "thugs" of the garden perennials, as  my friend Bruce refers to them.   After dinner, we took a tour, an evening walk (and blood letting… the black fly, deer fly, horse fly and mosquito are sharing us now) around the yard.

Surprise #2:  The groundhog that is "too cute" to shoot has made a huge new home in my garden, relocating ( I wish that were all) some plants and burrowing under my stone wall.  A note here… We set the Havahart trap last night.  We did not get the groundhog.

Surprise #3: C happens to mention that there are tons of BIG footprints around, ALL AROUND and he thinks that the moose have come through.  He was right about one thing.. lots of prints.  Not moose.  Looks to me like the neighbor’s heifers were up for the weekend having a party of the all weekend sort.  I have yet to find a place they weren’t.  Deep imprints in the lawn and field, plops everywhere.  No damage to the apple trees and no damage to the gardens.  We were really lucky this time.

Surprise #4: This is another baby surprise.  After planting the potatoes, really, really late this year… we started going through the hosta nursery to see which plants we wanted to divide.  As we started through the Krossa Regals, a tiny spotted fawn darted out and ran through the fence and into the woods.  C had forgotten to put the 6 lines of electric fence on last night.  Who knows, did Momma hide her baby inside the fence under the hosta, did baby hide itself?? small fawn…  where was Mom?

Knitting stuff..  I posted a few more colors in My Yarns.     I spent hours on the deck winding the skeins I dyed Friday and Saturday.

garden stuff..  I’ve added a new Photo Album.. My Gardens

Almost too much excitement for one post, huh?