Thursday Doings 8/6/26

 Bonjour!

We had some strong thunderstorms yesterday evening - just when we settled in to watch the first episode of the new season of Ted Lasso.  Fortunately the power stayed on.  We were gifted another inch of rain.

What you see above is perhaps the final glad blossom (there may be one more stalk that has not yet opened) along with a couple of zinnia, a couple of snap dragons and one marigold.  I do love fresh flowers in the house.

Yesterday was busy, but my mile long list was almost fully accomplished.  The only remaining thing that wasn't done was grocery shopping and we will take care of that this morning.  I've been wanting to cut the dead stalks from the Iris as well as the Glads and that was done.  More beans were picked and then blanched and quickly frozen.  Not having a chest or second freezer, my space is limited, but a few bags of summer beans are now in the freezer for cooler days.  There are still plenty in the fridge that I will be using in a day or two.  I also picked more cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, and noticed that FINALLY the bigger tomatoes are beginning to ripen.  There are not that many - maybe four on the plant, but any garden tomato will be so welcome.

There was a bit of running around - a trip to the post office to mail off a birthday gift for Leslie and (of course) a trip to CVS.  Another trip to CVS will be made today or tomorrow.  I'd also like to get to Trader Joe's - either today or (most likely) tomorrow.

Domestic chores (laundry, cleaning) were deliberately left off my list!  HA!  But really, towels should be washed and bathrooms cleaned.  Time will tell.

What are you up to as we wind down the first week of August?

Weekending 8/3/26

 Good Morning!

Whew!  I woke at 2:30 this morning to very heavy rain, thunder and lightening.  We ended up with about an inch of rain overnight.  It still feels muggy and more rain is in the forecast for throughout the day.  I'm sure the garden is happy.

How was your weekend?  Mine was good.  Plenty of back and forth to C&M's to care for Talbot, plenty of cooking to put food for C&M&I in their fridge for their return from Boston and more garden produce was picked.  I made some ginger cream cookies.

Yum!  These cookies are soft (which means Fletch doesn't much care for them) and delicious.  The cookie jar at the house in Vermont was often filled with these (the recipe is from my Aunt Ellen),  More than half will find their way over to Iris today!

There were also blueberry muffins baked, Spicy Cuban Beef prepared and rice cooked.  Also a confetti corn salad (fresh corn, red pepper, cucumber, ginger, garlic, basil and mint with a dressing of oil, rice wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar and fresh lime juice).  The kids made it down from New England around dinner time, so hopefully they enjoyed an easy meal!

Talbot was happy to see me when I made it over to feed him.  I sat and read for a bit on Saturday morning after feeding him and he kept me company!

Talbot is a big licker - LOL.  When I was standing ini the kitchen getting his food bowls filled, he would rub up agains me and then lick my leg.  Better than clawing me I suppose!

I found a wine that I HAD to buy:

Great label - naturally from California.  The wine is ok, not great, a little sweeter than I prefer, but drinkable.

Meanwhile, the garden continues to produce.

A few green beans, some lettuce and Swiss chard, a few sun gold cherry tomatoes and another abundant amount of yellow pole beans.  This was yesterday's haul.  The yellow beans are on a mission to outshine any zucchini plants in the neighborhood!  I have never seen pole beans produce so much (we really do not have that many plants!).  Luckily our neighbors Rob and Eva took yesterday's amount.  I had also left a huge bag in C&M's fridge and still have way too many beans in our fridge.  I may take a page from Bonny's book and start blanching and freezing some.  We love them...just not every night!

Colin's front garden bed has another Tigridia bloom:

I just can't get over how gorgeous these flowers are.  I'm definitely getting some bulbs to plant next Spring.  He also has another flower blooming that I have not seen before:

Very pretty.  I'm pretty sure this is one of the native pollinators he bought.

Well, time for coffee and I want to pull together some kind of lunch to take over to C&M's today.  I'm excited to see Iris again.  Whatever your plans, I hope they bring you joy.

Thursday in the Garden 7/23/26

 Good Morning!

Once again this morning our air feels a little chilly!  It's a welcome feeling.  Our humidity is lowering (finally).

Today I thought I would share some garden stuff with you.  First up, our Gladiolas.  You've seen the red ones I've shown, but now we have some pink.  They are nice, but from the patio they look just pink.  Nothing more.  Up close is another story though.  Just look:

From a distance, the gorgeous inside is not really seen.  But, oh my!  And now, we also have a stalk that is an orange-peach color:

Stunning!

Now on to the veggie section.  I am still picking just one or two cherry tomatoes per day.  Soon it will be a mad rush to keep up with the production (at least I hope it is), but for now it is slow and steady.  The cucumber and cantaloup seedlings that Colin gave us have not been doing as well.  In fact, we thought they all died.  But then, I spotted one lone plant with a cucumber about an inch long.  Several days later, the cucumber looked like this:

There is another inch-long one coming along!  Our green bush beans are beginning to form.  We had not noticed any of our yellow pole beans and when I asked Fletch, he said there were not any yet.  However, when I looked I found an abundance of beans!  This is what I picked:

These were cooked up for dinner last night and they are delicious!  I'll check the plants later today because I know there are more hiding behind the leaves.

After thinking we would not have much of a garden, things are growing so nicely.  It's wonderful to pick fresh produce and then use it.

Yesterday brought a lovely surprise for me.  Bonnie is back from China and among all the things she brought for Iris, Colin & Mailing, she also brought something for me!  A beautiful cashmere wrap.

The picture shows it folded in half, but it is roughly 30" by 70" or so - a wonderful size to wrap around you.  Colin thought it would also make a lovely runner for the buffet.  I may try that idea.

Naturally today holds some errand running for me as well as some (previously avoided) chores.  Dinner will be easy - just nachos, so not much bother about that.  Therefore, I am hoping for an uninterrupted afternoon of making!  Wishing you a wonderful Thursday!

A Flower and a Cake! 7/9/26

 Hello and Good Morning,

Dawn is breaking, but I think we are in for a bit of a rainy day.  After the humidity kind of lessened the other day, it now feels as though it is back (with a vengeance!).

Yesterday morning, before lunch but after Colin's meeting, we walked out front with Iris to check on one of the front beds.  Lo and behold!  A tigridia was blooming.  Gorgeous!

Colin planted a number of tigridia bulbs the other year and he may have had one or two blooms in the past, but deer love these flowers.  I'll be surprised if this is still visible when I go over this morning.  This year a number of native pollinator plants were put in this bed.  Some are surviving, but there are noticeable "chomps" here and there.

Last night I had enough energy after dinner (and a load of towels washed) to make a coffee cake!

I used This Recipe for a blueberry buttermilk coffee cake.  (Note:  I did not have buttermilk, so I did the white vinegar added to milk thing and I used fresh blueberries rather than frozen.)

Back in the day (in my late teens/early twenties I was making coffee cakes all the time.  I used my Mom's Betty Crocker cookbook and they were always good.  I like coffee cakes because they are easy and fast to make and usually very tasty.  Once this had cooled, I cut it into eight pieces.  (A little piece did break off, so I HAD to taste it - YUM!!!).  Half of the cake is going over to C&M's today.  This is one cake I will make again...maybe even with raspberries for a change!

Here's hoping your Thursday finds you having something tasty!

The First Week

 Good Morning All,

The temps have eased up a bit I am happy to report.  It still feels humid to me but at least it's not a heat index of 105!

When I pulled into our driveway yesterday afternoon I stopped and got out to get the mail.  Rob, our neighbor and friend from across the street, was in his garden and called me over.  He handed me this group of radishes!!

These may be a tad too big to be tasty, but we shall see.  The funny thing is that Fletch gave Rob the extra radish seeds he had.  And then our radishes never sprouted!  Even funnier is that Rob and Eva don't even like radishes! 

My first week of caring for Iris full time went very well.  Colin said he thought it went better than he expected.  It IS tiring, that's for sure.  Iris is not yet very independent.  Not walking, not even crawling. She sits well, but will topple over when tired.  And, she gets bored easily.  She also still likes to be held.  A lot.  

On Wednesday afternoon there was some nature drama going on in Colin's backyard.  A fledgling blue jay was on the ground.

You may need to click to enlarge, but the fledgling is on the 4th slate from the bottom.  The mother kept flying nearby and calling to it.  The poor thing would flutter its wings and hop around.  I did not step outside to get a better photo as I didn't want to scare the baby or alarm the mother.  We lost sight of it after some time.  Thursday morning I didn't see it, but later in the morning I saw the mother swoop to the ground right by the door from the sunroom.  I looked out and the baby was tucked in grass and ivy taller than it is.  The mother was feeding it.  Later again the fledgling was gone.  I hope it survived and learned to fly.

Our snapdragons have finally started to open.

So far only white ones, but I noticed some deep maroon buds yesterday.  Sitting on the patio yesterday before dinner, Fletch and I both commented on how much we miss seeing our bluebirds.  The babies have flown off and the nest has been abandoned.  The same with the wrens, though we still see wrens and, in fact, noticed wrens checking out two additional birdhouses we have hanging in the apple tree.

I'm excited to pretty much have today to myself!  Fletch is taking my car in this morning for inspection.  I plan to knit or stitch or both.  And then I have my continental virtual knitting class from 12-3.  Really looking forward to that.  Some books in my queue have come in for me - I may pick them up later today (if it is not too rainy out), or wait until tomorrow or Monday.  No rush - they hold them for a week which is nice.  No other real plans for the weekend other than the usual:  catching up on laundry, a couple of cleaning chores and most likely cooking (especially with cooler temps).

I hope your weekend is a good one.  Have some fun!

Weekending 4/28/25

 Good Morning Friends,

The sun is up and we have blue skies!  How was your weekend?  Ours was typical which is fine with me.  Saturday was a rainy day.  Nothing hard, just a gentle rain on and off all day long.  I did not sleep well Friday night and therefore didn't feel all that great on Saturday.  So other than a couple loads of laundry, paying bills and roasting a chicken for dinner, I did not do much.  

Sunday, however, I felt great and accomplished so many domestic chores.  LOL. Vacuuming and dusting were done along with more laundry and scrubbing of floors.  I had planned to bake some lemon blueberry scones, but someone (not me and not Mabel) had snacked on most of the blueberries.  I did go out and get more blueberries, but never got around to making the scones...perhaps tonight.

I did, however, make a delicious dinner!!  

While penne pasta was cooking, I sautéed some onion and garlic.  Then added some white wine, sun-dried tomatoes and marinated artichokes.  Let that cook a few minutes then added some asparagus, lemon juice and red pepper flakes.  Next up shrimp went into the pan and once they were cooked through the drained penne pasta was added to the pan.  It all was topped off with parsley from the garden!  So good and easy and leftovers!!

In between rain showers on Saturday I walked out and cut a sprig of lilac.  The whole house smelled lovely.

And I discovered that our Lily of the Valley are beginning to open, so I picked a few of them along with some grape hyacinths for a small vase.  More heavenly scents!

Today I'm heading back over to help care for Iris.  I need to get there a little bit earlier than sometimes because an electrician is coming at 11 to look at a few things the kids want done.  Whatever you have planned, make your Monday a great one!!

Tiny Needle Tuesday 9/3/24

 Good Morning!

How are you this fine September morning?  There is a little nip in the air here in Eastern PA and I am loving it.  I put the heat on in the bathroom while I had a shower and it felt delightful!  Now I'm cozy in PJ pants, a sweatshirt and slippers!

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend.  Ours was quiet, a bit on the damp side (until Monday) and just very nice.  We had a lovely dinner at Bonnie & Zhongren's Friday night.  The cake I made was a hit and we took some figs to share (they all loved them!) as well as cherry tomatoes and beans for Bonnie & Zhongren to have a little later.  Zhongren usually has a nice garden, but he was traveling and out of the country for most of the summer.  Then we were pretty lazy on Saturday and Sunday.  Yesterday was beautiful - and a great day for hanging things on the line to dry, so I took down the kitchen curtains, washed them, washed the inside of the windows...I guess I'm in Fall cleaning mode.

On Sunday our neighbor Rob brought over home-made sourdough cinnamon buns!  Oh my!!  I have never been a huge fan of sourdough, but he is making me a convert (actually I like Mailing's sourdough bread as well).  There will most likely be more because he is "perfecting" his recipe for the cinnamon buns.  We do enjoy being guinea pigs for his creations!

There was plenty of time over the weekend for stitching, knitting and reading.  A perfect combination.  And, in fact, I have a finish to share on this, the first Tiny Needle Tuesday of September!

The design is "Ann's Sewing Tray" by Blackbird Designs from the book "A Schoolgirl's Work."  So named, because the finish shown in the book is the piece put in a frame and then handles added to the frame.  Cute idea (which I have done in the past), but I won't be doing that to this piece.  Not sure what I will do.  Anyway, I stitched this on 40 count linen using DMC floss (1 thread of floss over two threads of linen).  The finished size is roughly 5.5" wide by 4.25" tall.

I've already picked out my next piece to stitch, but I'll wait to share that next week since I haven't even started it yet.

After many weeks of waiting and watching, we finally have a sunflower!

It's not very big and only 2 feet tall, but it's blooming!  There is another plant as well.  And the hibiscus continues to put on a lovely show:

For those of you still working...I'm hoping your work week is easy (I always found shortened work weeks to be way too busy).  And for everyone - have a marvelous week!

Weekending 8/19/24

 Good Morning My Friends,

It is foggy here in Eastern PA this morning.  We had some thunder (loud) storms roll through yesterday evening.  Everything is dripping and the air actually feels refreshed.  My weekend was simply lovely and I hope yours was too.  There was cooking and knitting and reading.  A little TV watching (an episode of Poirot and an episode of "Sound" narrated by David Attenborough).

Initially I had planned to meet up with Colin & Mailing at the Farmer's Market, but I did not sleep well Friday night and Saturday morning was a little on the wet side, so I opted out.  Perhaps we will meet up next weekend.

Despite the storms, the hibiscus continues to bloom and is gorgeous.  Yesterday I counted six blossoms fully open!  We also have gorgeous snap dragons this year.  So pretty!

Saturday just before dinner Fletch walked out to the garden and came back with produce.  Finally!!!  The pole beans are producing.  The cherry tomatoes are beginning to come in (and not split) and some of the mucho nacho peppers were ready to harvest.

We had the pole beans last night with dinner and they are some of the best we've ever had!!  Skinny like pencils and full of flavor.

Fletch and I both have various errands that need to be done today.  With the more agreeable weather, I will do some more cooking - I plan to make escarole soup with chicken for dinner!!  Hopefully there will be a bit of time for making later in the day.

Wishing you all a great start to a new week - enjoy!!

Busy Thursday! 7/13/23

 Hello there,

Whew!  Already it has been a busy morning.  This will be a quick drive-by post as I've got to leave shortly for a doctor's appointment.  My semi-annual check up/in with our dermatologist.  After losing half my nose a few years ago to skin cancer, I am serious about having my dermatologist check me out twice a year.  It's been good since that last awful episode, but I'm taking no chances!

Anyway, life...I did go to the office yesterday and (of course) Bruce did not show up.  He claimed to be in heavy traffic and I claimed to need to leave for an appointment.  LOL  I did have an appointmenet - I needed to get to Trader Joe's and the liquor store before it was crazy busy.  TJ's was a good visit.  I went in for flowers and smoked trout.  $86 later I walked out.  BUT...I got some fun things for the weekend when Leslie and the girls arrive and stocked up on some things that Fletch and I use.  All good.  And the liquor store was a successful run as well.

The rest of the day was busy - work-wise and life-wise.  I managed to get more cleaning done...just need to vacuum downstairs now.  I might get to that this afternoon...we'll see.

I'll leave you with two pics from our back yard.  The first was a morning visitor - so sweet and then our snap dragons at the base of the apple tree.  The deer ignore them!

Have a great Thursday!!

Weekending 8/22/22

 Hello and Good Morning!

How was your weekend?  Mine was filled with all kinds of lovely things.  First of all, Dee and I met up on Saturday morning for our knitting/chatting/sipping time together.  That is always a nice time and this week it was too, other than the obnoxious woman talking on her phone - speaker phone - sitting right behind me.  Luckily she and her friends left after a little bit.

The rest of my weekend was spent wandering around looking at stuff in the yard, doing some laundry and cooking some.  In no particular order, here is what I saw.  First up the regal one:

Such a sweetheart.  You can see how our yard is beginning to turn brown.  Everything is SO DRY.  Fletch said that's what he could smell the other day - dryness.  We are getting a little rain today...hopefully a bit more than a little.

We have an Elderberry bush and the berries are beginning to turn a deep purple.

Fortunately, I am not interested in making Elderberry Syrup or Wine...or dying anything because the deer have been munching on the berries quite a bit (and all of our Winter Berries have been digested by those critters).  Elderberries in this state are not a good thing to eat.  They are not really poisonous, but they will make you pretty uncomfortable if you eat them raw.  But what a PITA it would be to get all those berries off the stems.  So, I say let the deer have a feast!

You can tell summer is winding down because the Goldenrod is blooming.  It is very pretty this year.

When I was a kid goldenrod and marigolds were the worst things for me.  I had very bad hay fever as a kid and those two plants were the main culprits.  Now they don't seem to bother me, thank goodness (because we have a lot of it!).

There are a few flowers the deer have left alone (most likely because they are too close to the patio and house).

The deer also have not bothered the snap dragons and I picked some for a vase yesterday morning.

And a shot of the entire buffet:

(Do you see that I'm hanging on to the dried Protea bloom?  I even like it all brown and dry!)

As mentioned, I did a little cooking.  Yesterday morning I made a Blueberry Gateau.  Yum!

Delicious with a dollop of whipped cream!

And I made a new salad - a vegan recipe I came across recently (can't remember where) for a Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad.

We had that last night with fish (baked cod for moi and fried blue fish [yuck] for Fletch).  The salad was fabulous and I definitely will be making it again.

And that rounds out my weekend.  I'm heading to the office this morning to do a few things, but hopefully will be home in time to do my workout before lunch.  Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead!

Snapshots From a Walk

 Good Morning and Happy Friday!  Happy Long Weekend!!

Work has really slowed which is always the case leading up to a holiday weekend.  Yesterday my only conference call scheduled for today was cancelled, so I feel rather free and really don't plan on doing much work at all.  I've already done a few things this a.m., answered emails, etc.  My hope/plan is to get out for a walk early before it gets hot.

Yesterday I finally walked by the canal.  I managed to do the usual 3 miles but was a bit on the warm side when I got back to my car (I walked from 9-10 a.m.).  It's been a number of weeks since I walked anywhere - my feet have been bothering me ever since we walked around China Town when we went into Philadelphia for Dim Sum a few weeks back.  Not sure why - maybe because I was walking in leather flats rather than sneakers...and walking on city pavement rather than a trail.  Anyway, it felt good to get out yesterday.  Flowers have started to bloom alongside the canal.

So pretty!  There were also day lilies, purple loosestrife, some tiny white flowers and other "weeds" which are just so nice to see.

There were also some animals.  No blue herons sighted, but there was a cute baby duck:

And, perhaps my favorite turtle picture:

The back legs on that one turtle crack me up!  They are so wide!!

I saw a few other walkers, a couple of joggers, a couple of folks on bicycles and 3 kayaks on the canal.  I'm hoping to get out before 8 a.m. today and am thinking I'll walk at Oaks along the Perkiomen Creek.

The day will also be filled with some errands.  I need to gas up the car (particularly painful these days), pick up a couple of prescriptions at CVS, get to the bank to get some $$$ and pick up a few things at the grocery store.  I'm making pizza for dinner and our mushrooms in the frig are fairly slimy, so I want to get fresh.  And, the store I'll go to has cherries on sale!

Yesterday before dinner Fletch and I were sitting on the patio with our beverages and there was a goldfinch on the thistle at our side yard.  We had just been commenting that the goldfinches were not around much this year!

I know it looks more like a yellow leaf in this picture, but it was the best shot I could get with my phone camera.

Sweet Mabel, of course, was right near us.  

Sleeping Beauty!!

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend and a great 4th of July!!

Unraveled Wednesday June 15, 2022

 Good Morning,

Mid-week and mid-June.  It doesn't seem possible.  Yesterday ended up being very nice after the early morning sprinkles and thunder.  But, I stayed in and did some domestic chores (dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing the kitchen floor) - not as fun as getting out for a walk, but necessary evils.  There are times I think the house is dustier in the winter with the heat on and then there are days like yesterday and I swear it is so dusty due to windows being open.  There is still an awful lot of pollen out there.

I've mentioned before that most days around 4 p.m. you can find Fletch and me sitting on the patio.  We watch and listen to the birds, play with Mabel and chat a bit.  Lately our senses have been overwhelmed with the scent of honeysuckle.

There is quite a bit of it around the (dead) clothesline tree and in our hedge at the side yard.  Yesterday we noticed that our 7 Sisters Rose has opened as well.

This rose is one that was growing at Nanno's (Fletcher's grandmother) house in Suffolk, VA.  Fletcher's Mom took cuttings and had it growing in her yard in Norfolk.  Then she gave us cuttings and now we have it growing here.  The roses are small and not fragrant, but they sure are pretty.

It's going to be pretty warm today.  I had thought about going into the office (check mail, etc.), but I can't get motivated to do that.  LOL  I think I will wait till next week.

And here we are at Wednesday.  Specifically Unraveled Wednesday where like minded folks link up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers to talk making and reading.  Kat is actually taking a bit of a break this week, so I'm not linking per se, but I do have two new starts to show!!  Woo-Hoo.

First up is a new dishcloth...at the halfway mark.

The pattern is Nai Nai's Favorite (Nai Nai is Chinese for Grandmother) and I really like it.  The pattern is free on Ravelry.  I'm using KnitPick's Cotlin (a cotton/linen blend) which is knitting up so nicely.  Not as rough on my hands like Sugar and Cream can be.  This particular color is Conch (it looks a bit washed out in the photo).

I have also started a new pair of socks for Fletch.

Just starting the leg.  Using the free pattern Hermione's Everyday Socks.  The yarn is some I picked up at a Festival - either Allentown or New Jersey.  It is Youghiogheny Highlands Festival - a 2 ply tweed yarn that is 85% superwash Merino and 15% NEP.  What is NEP?  I have no clue.  But, the yarn is very nice to knit with and this particular colorway is Cafe Au Lait.  I love the blips of blue, pink and yellow that appear.  More importantly, Fletch likes the yarn!  I don't think the pattern will really show with this yarn, but it's a pattern that feels good on the leg.

On the reading side of things, I finished two books.  First up is Island of the Blue Dolphins.  After finishing this I'm pretty sure I never read it as a kid.  Fletch and I read it after dinner and we both enjoyed it - reminded us of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen in some ways.

The second finish was Meet Me At The Museum by Anne Youngson.  She wrote "The Narrowboat Summer" which a number of us read last year.  Meet Me At The Museum is written as a series of letters between two people and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a good, light read (especially nice after Mungo!!).

I decided to pick up on some of the mystery series I started reading last year, so I just started "Copper River" by William Kent Krueger.  This is in the Cork O'Connor series which I enjoyed a lot last year.  Copper River is taking me a little longer to get into, but the writing is good.

That's it for this Wednesday.  Work emails are flying in as I type this, so it's time for me to pour another cup of coffee and get to work.  Hope this finds everyone doing well.

Miscellaneous Things on a Foggy Friday Morning

 Good Morning!

Yup, it is another foggy morning here.  I'm sitting at my desk sipping cardamom black pepper coffee and the world outside is a bit hushed as can only happen on a foggy morning.  I like it!  Today's post just has a bunch of random stuff in it and then a sweet picture of Mabel.

First up, wine.  Another bottle I bought for the label:

Zinfandels are not my favorites, but "all profits donated to equal rights" caught my eye.  Here is the back of the bottle.

The wine is ok...not great...probably won't buy it again, but I just thought it was interesting.

A little bit ago I posted about an unusual flower I found at Trader Joe's.  I think Kat and Bonny are correct that it is a Protea.  It is still looking pretty much the same.

Click to enlarge.  I had hoped it would open a bit, but it is still just as it was when I bought it!  The scent (which wasn't all that strong to begin with) seems to have vanished.

Finally sweet Mabel.  She just loves to sit in Fletch's lap when he is on the couch.

She is such a love bug these days!

This morning I hope to do the domestic chores I avoided ALL week - LOL.  Fletch is running out for a bit this a.m. and I will have the place to myself.  I have a conference call at 11 and another one at 2 p.m. which is an insult to the start of my weekend.  Also, the afternoon call is a full division call and there could be upwards of 100 people on the call.  Not fun.  I may log on and then quickly get off.

Tomorrow morning Dee and I have plans to meet up for coffee, chatter and knitting.  A nice way to start my Saturday.  wishing you all a wonderful weekend!