A Bear on Thursday!

 Good Morning!

Looks like we are in for a rainy day.  I've a load of wash in already, so the dryer will be put to use.  And I have a bunch of things I'd like to accomplish today.  We shall see...I tend to be full of big plans that don't always materialize.  But, no harm if I don't get everything done.

Yesterday was a lovely day with Iris.  We were outside for some swinging time and also playing in her mud kitchen.  That girl loves to wash dishes!  LOL. As I had hoped, I was able to finish the foot of the sock (25 rows) while she napped.  My intention was to finish up the toe area last night while listening to John of John.  But that did not happen.  I was distracted by other things and then we watched another episode of Ted Lasso and then I was too dang tired to knit!

On Tuesday my brother in Colorado (Boulder) texted me that a neighbor had come up in his driveway to warn him to keep the dogs inside - a mother bear and her cub were sitting on the fence between their properties.  Phil said he would not try to get close enough for a picture.  But then a little later he texted that the bears had decided to move on.

I cannot imagine seeing that in my backyard!

Time to get moving on the day.  Yesterday when I walked out to the garden to check on the large tomatoes (all still green), I noticed more beans:( both yellow and green to pick as well as more cherry tomatoes.  I'd like to get out before the rain comes.  I'll also grab a bunch of parsley as I plan to make some basil/parsley pesto for dinner tonight.

What do you have going on today?  I hope it is something fun!

Unraveled Wednesday 8/26/26

 Hello and Good Morning!

Thanks for the well wishes for my dermatologist appointment yesterday.  I'm so happy to say that absolutely NO spots of bother were found...in fact, my doctor said my skin looked great!  Whew!  All clear for another 6 months.

And now we find ourselves on a Wednesday morning.  Time to link up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers for an Unraveled Wednesday post - the last one for August 2026.  Though my second Honky Tonk shorty sock has not been finished, progress was made.  I knit quite a bit on Monday while Iris napped and I am now just 20 rows short of starting the toe decreases.

With any luck I will knit those 20 rows today while Iris naps and maybe even get to start on the toe decreases!  

I'm anxious to pull out my August Farmer's Daughter yarn and get started on some socks for Fletcher.  The mornings are cool and a new paid of socks may just be the thing.  Of course, I need to knit socks for Iris as well - she has outgrown all of the ones I made for her the other year.  My email tells me that the September yarn from the Farmer's Daughter should arrive Saturday!  Time to get moving.

Reading continues to be good.  Fletch and I are almost finished The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane.  I think we have just about an hour left to listen.  I've been thinking about what we should read or listen to next.  Colin suggested we might enjoy The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman.  I've never read anything by her, so am leaning towards that, but I also re-discovered a book on our bookshelves in the office that we read decades ago and may want to revisit.  Driftwood Valley is about a couple's experiences living in the wilderness of Northern British Columbia.

I'm continuing to read Country People by Daniel Mason and am enjoying it.  For me it is not a fast read, but it's providing some good laughs now and then.  

Tana French is not an author I've ever read...not sure why...but recently someone's review of one of her books convinced me to try one.  I picked up The Searcher which is the first of the Cal Hooper books and really liked it.  I will be finishing up that series for sure.

Finally, believe it or not I started listening to John of John by Douglas Stuart for our Read With Us group.  We will be meeting to discuss this book in September.  I'm only 35 minutes or so into it, but I'm happy that so far it is not like Young Mungo at all!  LOL. There is still a lot of listening for me to get done before our Zoom meet-up.

How about you?  What are you making and reading these days?

Tiny Needle Tuesday 8/25/26

 Good Morning,

Welcome to the last TNT for August 2026.  How is that even possible?  Regardless, I managed to get a small amount of stitching completed in the last week.

The first Quaker motif on the left has been completed and a second one started.  Sorry for the wrinkles.  I did take the sampler outside yesterday when I got home from watching Iris.  I was hoping to get a photograph in daylight thinking the thread color might show up better.  But...that did not work out.  I couldn't get the piece to lay flat enough plus I was worried about deer poop and piss getting on it!  Those critters are all over our yard and don't pick one place to do their business.  LOL

This morning I have an early (8:30) appointment with my dermatologist.  My semi-annual body check.  Hopefully no spots of bother will be found!  A little grocery shopping needs to be done and other than that, the day is open.  I'm hoping for some good making time and some good reading time.

May your Tuesday find you doing something you enjoy!

Weekending 8/24/26

 Good Morning!

It's a crisp morning here in Eastern PA and it feels great.  Feels like the humidity has been kicked away.  We had another strong storm late Saturday night.  Thunder, lightening and pounding rain.  Not enough to measure in the rain gauge, but it sounded almost like hail it was coming down so hard!

How was your weekend?  Ours was nice.  I took it easy and after getting some mild chores done on Friday I successful stayed away from doing any others.  Just as I was getting ready to cook some dinner on Saturday, Colin called and invited us over for dinner.  A nice surprise.  Iris and Mailing will be away this next weekend and then the following two weekends Colin, Mailing and Iris will all be away.  It was good - especially for Fletch - to see everyone on Saturday because it will be a month before we are back there!

Saturday morning I got busy making some food.  First I put up two jars of pickles using a large cucumber from Colin's garden.  Then I made a big batch of ham salad with some left over ham from Friday night's dinner.  Because I enjoy cooking so much, I don't consider making stuff like this to be a chore.  I debated about making a cake or cookies, but decided against that (for now).

On Sunday I finally wandered out to the garden in the afternoon.  I spotted no beans (which is ok) and only 5 cherry tomatoes.  There are still a number of large tomatoes on the vine, but all green.  The garden seems to be winding down.  But then, I discovered this beauty hiding!

A nice, hefty cucumber (which Fletch says looks more like a zucchini).  It is about 8" long.  For some reason the cucumbers from this plant are not all that tasty raw, so I will most likely be making more pickles.

Next I started looking at the apples on our tree and ended up picking a bunch.  Our tree is a red delicious that Fletch planted 3+ decades ago.  There were many years when we had good crops of apples and made a lot of applesauce.  Then the apples started looking damaged and fell early from the tree.  This year we are back to having nice looking apples.

After dinner last night I peeled and cut up the apples and made a nice pot of applesauce!  YUM!!

When I wasn't cooking I managed to read a bit and knit and stitch a little.  How about you?  What was your weekend filled with and what did you do?

It is August's penultimate Monday - let's make the best of it!

TGIF. 8/21/26

 Hello and Good Morning!

It's a drippy morning.  I successfully made it home from watching Iris yesterday before the heavy rain.  We had had a little bit of light rain mid-day, but after I was home the sky opened, the thunder boomed and the lightening was shining.  And we received 2" in under an hour!  Colin and Iris were running some errands after I left, so I hope they did not get caught in the downpour.

Meanwhile, look at our hibiscus!!

It is so gorgeous.  I snapped that picture just before leaving for Iris yesterday morning.  I also looked and saw there were a few more large tomatoes to pick.  Two were picked.  The third which was the largest and  beautifully shaded in red had a giant slug on it happily munching away.  I got grossed out and left that one on the plant.  There are still a couple of cucumbers that might grow and there were just a few cherry tomatoes.  I avoided looking at the bean plants - LOL

Zhongren (Mailing's Dad) was recently in Japan.  He retired a couple of years ago, but is back to consulting (can't sit still - hahaha) and does a lot of international travel.  He will often bring us a little something from wherever he was.  I'm pretty sure this is a box of red bean paste mochi.  I do love me some red bean paste and am looking forward to trying these.  But just look at how pretty the packaging is:

Last night when I woke around 2:30 (as one does), I looked out the back window and spotted a doe browsing the Rose of Sharon plants while a fawn was resting on the grass.  Too cute.

My plans for today include booking a massage and booking a hair appointment.  The house plants should be watered and the stairs need to be vacuumed.  Also, dinner needs to be decided.  But before any of that will be breakfast once Fletch is up.  I'm making multi grain pancakes (so we can feel healthy about eating pancakes) with blueberries.  Also bacon AND sausage (Fletch wanted both).  That should get my Friday off to a great start!  I hope your Friday is a good one - enjoy!

Unraveled Wednesday 8/19/26

 Good Morning All,

How are you this morning?  I am doing ok though I wish I had slept a bit better.  It feels as though I woke up every single hour!  But, the coffee is almost ready to pour, so let's get on with it!

Here we are back again at Unraveled Wednesday.  Time to link up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers to chat about what we are making and reading.  Though I did not get as far as I had thought I would, knitting has been good.  The first shortie sock was finished and the second one was cast on.

The heel flap on the second sock is about a third of the way knit.  Maybe I will finish that and turn the heel while Iris naps today.

As for reading, I am so happy to tell you that last night I finished The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett.  I even finished it in time to return it to the library before they closed (it was due back yesterday).  Whew - what a long, long book.  Stockett is a good story teller and this was a good one.  It just could have/should have been shorter (my opinion).  About half way through the book I got bored.  It felt bogged down.  After another hundred pages or so I just got annoyed!  But, I persevered and I am glad I finished it.  There were a lot of different story lines going on and not all of them were wrapped up (again, my opinion), but there were so many laugh out loud parts in the story and I loved Meg's character.

Last night I started Country People by Daniel Mason.  I'm only 20 or so pages in, so no review yet.  I am looking forward to this particularly since both my parents were from Vermont and I spent so much time in Vermont growing up.  Someone wrote that Mason does an excellent job of portraying the quirkiness of Vermonters (and they sure can be quirky!).

Thanks to enabling from Kat, I also have two new (to me) Ted Kooser books:  Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps and The Wheeling Year: A Poet's Field Book.  Neither of these are volumes of poetry, but rather snippets that Kooser has written about the area of the country where he lives (Southeastern Nebraska).  I started looking at The Wheeling Year and was immediately drawn into it.  I forced myself to put it down and get back to The Calamity Club.  Now I'm looking forward to delving into these two books.

Time to sit back and enjoy my first cup of coffee.  I hope today finds you with a good book and a fun project!

Tiny Needle Tuesday 8/18/26

 Hello and Good Foggy Morning,

Oh my!  It is close and very, very humid out there.  We had 1.5" of rain Sunday and Sunday night and everything is dripping.  I'm late to ask, but how was your weekend?  Mine was good.  No pictures.  A delicious meal at C&M's (the flourless chocolate cake and homemade ice cream were wonderful!!).

The X-ray results of my knee show that my bones and joints are all normal (not even any sign of arthritis!).  So, who knows what's been going on?  I will say that things have improved a lot - whether it's just time or my exercises or something else, I don't know.  I'm just happy to not be in constant pain.  And happy to be able to walk somewhat normally!

Meanwhile, it is Tuesday and time for a TNT update.  Once again a bit of progress was made on my aqua marine sampler.

Two sets of numbers completed and the third line is complete.  The large space in the middle will have a bit of "something" coming up from below once I get started on it.  The beginning of a typical Quaker motif has also been started on the left side.  Things are moving along.

I've already poached some chicken breasts which will turn into a chicken salad for dinner.  I'm thinking a nice cold carrot salad and maybe some cucumbers with radishes to go with that.  It's hard to think of anything hot in this steamy weather.  Yesterday I heard my first cicada of the season (Fletch says he's been hearing them for weeks, but I have not noticed) and I guess the dog days of summer are upon us.

Stay cool and don't do too much in this weather!