40 Years

Good Morning!

Yesterday was Fletcher's and my 40th Wedding Anniversary!  How is it possible that so much time/so many years have gone by?

Two of my favorite pictures from that day

Believe I've shared the first one with you before.  40 years ago we had terrific thunderstorms.  Good luck!!  We spent that night at the Black Bass Inn in New Hope and watched a thunderstorm come up the river.  The next day we were off - heading to Nova Scotia for our honeymoon.  We both look quite a bit different these days, but it's been a fun 40 years and there is no one I'd rather spend my life with than Fletch.  💗

It was a beautiful weekend here in Eastern PA.  Our Siberian Iris have opened up (these are in our wetlands area - our bog).

And we have (so far) one gorgeous yellow iris that has opened.

Fletch picked some radishes:

but they were small, and both tough and rubbery.  Not sure why that is, but not good.  Our sugar snap peas are blossoming now and we should start to see some produce by the end of the week.  Also the garlic scapes have appeared!  YUM.  I'm thinking of making home-made pesto and adding the scapes to that.

I'm at work this morning (and will be through at least Thursday).  The front entrance to the building now has a party canopy so there is no need to worry about fallout from the hawks!  LOL.  I did see one of the baby hawks this morning on the nest.  Kevin was in yesterday and said he only saw one, so the other one may have already flown.  I'll try to get a picture later.

Time to get to work - will be a busy day.  Hope your week is a good one.

Baby Hawk Ready to Fly!!

Hello All,

Dropping in quickly for a short post.  I took this picture yesterday.

Look at that!!  These baby hawks are ready to fly the coop.  Actually I was surprised to see them still in the nest this a.m.  Both have been standing on the edge and opening out their wings.  It won't be long now!

I've been surprised at how quickly my days are going back in the office.  I'm not staying ALL day - I get in before 7:30 and have been leaving by 3 or 3:30, but the time is jam-packed.  And today there are a few more folks in the office.  Still a pretty empty place though (which is fine with me).  One of my peers is in and she told me she has decided to retire at the end of September!  She is 75 (please God, do not let me still be working at 75!!) and figures it's time.  I'll say!  So it will be interesting to see what new configuration there is for supporting the folks she currently supports. 

My hope is that tomorrow I can/will work from home.  I have one conference call at 10 and believe that's the only thing on my schedule.  Other than knitting that is....

Hope everyone's week is going well.  I've got to run!

Unraveled Wednesday, 05/27/20

Good Morning!

It is sort of a Sleepy Hollow morning here - quite foggy and damp, grey.

I managed to survive my day at the office yesterday.  It was actually pretty quiet and I'm hoping today will be like that as well.  I'd like to get out of Dodge early if possible.

When I got home yesterday my bike was on the patio.  Fletch had brought it up from the basement, cleaned off all the dirt and cobwebs, put air in the tires and lubed the places that needed to be lubed.  My bike looks brand new!  I had forgotten that I have a big basket on the front handlebars - perfect to hold my phone, some water, keys, etc.  I'm all set to go biking...now I just need some time (away from the office - lol).

While at the office yesterday I did manage to get some more hawk pictures.  In this first shot below you can see the mother sitting on the nest and the two baby hawk rumps right there! 

And here are the babies:

They periodically stand up and hold out their wings.  Won't be too long before they fly off.  So fun to watch.

As I had hoped, I managed to finish up the first of my brother's socks last night, and start the second.

The cuff of #2 is complete, so I can start on the leg tonight.  I also did a few more sections on my Hellebore Hitchhiker, but forgot to take a picture.  However, I did remember to take a picture of the latest Granny Squares:

That one in the middle certainly looks splotchy!  I am still having fun with these - just sticking my hand in a basket and seeing what yarn comes out.

That's all I have for today.  Hope your week is going well!

Weekending

Hello, Hello, Hello!

How are you?  Did you have a nice Memorial Day weekend?  There were a bunch of fireworks that were set off near us - Saturday, Sunday & Monday.  Luckily they didn't go too late at night.

Our weekend was pretty quiet.  Fletch did some gardening and I puttered around.  I did (finally) go through my closet and brought out summer clothes and put the wollens away.  I also ended up with 4 Trader Joe's shopping bags full of clothing and shoes to donate.  Those were taken to one of those clothing & shoe drop boxes on Saturday (before I could change my mind about donating it all - lol).

Sunday Colin & Mailing suggested we come over for a walk and then stay for dinner.  We ended up walking just over 3.5 miles and went to a different park that Colin had discovered.  It is in Lansdale and called Stony Creek Park.  There is a nice pond where people were fishing (all practicing distancing).  We saw a turtle and even a tiny baby turtle.  Off one of the trails was a bit of chalk art:

Someone did a very nice job!!  It was really cool.  There was also a labrynth that we walked as well as a nature trail that went through some fields, some woods and some wetlands.  We came across an amazing grouping of phlox:

So many!  We also saw some kind of growth on leaves and some interesting/beautiful shelf fungus on a tree.

By the time we got back to Colin & Mailing's house, it was feeling pretty steamy and humid.  But, it didn't take long for it to cool down.  Colin grilled some faux hot Italian sausage (Beyond Meat brand) that was pretty good.  Mailing sauteed some peppers and onions.  She had also made Italian rolls to go with the sausage.  Colin made some home-made pesto to go on pasta with artichokes and calamata olives.  So freakin' good!!  But, so much food!!

Yesterday I did a little baking.  I made Basil Lime Shortbread.  Oh my!

Shortbread is not one of Fletcher's favorite things...oh well!

Our PA Primary has been delayed until June 2nd.  Fletch and I both applied for mail-in ballots and gosh!  It took FOREVER for those to be delivered by the post office.  Long enough that we could not/did not want to chance mailing in our ballots.  So yesterday we drove to one of the drop off places which, fortunately, was open from 9-12 on a holiday!  Glad to have that task finished.  I even received an email confirming receipt last night.

Some knitting and crochet was accomplished.  My brother's sock is now at the toe decrease.

I should finish this up tonight and hopefully start on #2.  I managed to make three more granny squares, but forgot to take a picture.

And that brings us to today.  I'm actually at work (I think there are 4 of us in the office!) and budget meetings are starting.  The hawks are still in residence.

And (obviously) there is still a lot of bird poop around!  The entrance has been cleaned up a little bit - most likely it was thoroughly cleaned, but several days ago.  You have to be careful going into or out of the building that nothing comes down on you!!

Finally, I noticed that the parking lot for the River Trail in Valley Forge is finally open.  Funny though as all the other parking lots that I drove by in the park are still roped off.  I probably won't have a chance to walk until Friday (when it is supposed to rain).  Pretty sure I will be here at the office today, tomorrow and Thursday.  I'm not used to this.....

Friday Felines

Good Morning!

TGIF...though this morning I have 3 conference calls.  Yuck.  This is my new routine every other Friday:  a call at 8:30, another one at 10 and yet one more at 11.  That sort of blows the day.

But it is Friday and it is a holiday weekend.  This will be a strange Memorial Day, but then the entire year has been strange.

So I have a tale of Tyg for you this morning.  Wednesday night I went to bed as usual and then was woken at 1 a.m. by a "banging" at the back bedroom window.  I rolled out of bed to look and there, hanging on to a very thin metal edge was Tyg!  Yup - he had climbed up on the patio roof (not unusual), but then had jumped (HIGH!!) and held on.  He shortly thereafter dropped back down to the roof...I opened the window wide and got the screen out of the way and that beast jumped again right into the window opening and came into the bedroom.  After that, of course, he wanted me to go downstairs and give him some treats.  Oy vey!

I was wound up after that so sat up reading for about an hour.  And then, 4:30 rolls around and Tyg prances into the room meowing and clawing the rug to wake me to let him outside.  No, I did not open the window and put him out that way...I went downstairs and let him out the normal way.

I sure hope this is not a new routine (he was out all last night and did NOT come up on the patio roof that I'm aware of - and did not jump up to the bedroom window.

Here he is:  beast extraordinaire!

In other news:  the catbirds are back and the Goldfinches have arrived (in color):

Beautiful birds.

We went over to Colin & Mailing's last night for a fire.  We hung out for about an hour which was nice.  It got surprisingly cool.  Not sure if we are going to do a cookout with them this weekend or not.  They have a lot they want to get done around the house (gardening, mowing, etc.).

Yesterday afternoon I walked along the towpath at the canal.  No blue herons in sight.  Plenty of turtles (as usual), and not too many people on the trail which was nice.  I remembered to map it this time and was surprised to see that it is 3.2 miles that I walk when there.

No real plans for the weekend - hopefully plenty of knitting.  Perhaps this is the weekend I'll put away the winter stuff and get out my shorts and capri pants?  Whatever you do - have a good one!

Unraveled Wednesday 05/20/20

Good Morning!

Time continues to be moving at warp speed for me.  The days are just getting away from me.

A little bit of knitting and crocheting has taken place.  Not a lot, but a bit.  First up, the Hellebore Hitchhiker now has 12 teeth and 50 stitches on the needle.

So many pretty colors in this yarn and it is all flowing together so smoothly.

My brother's sock is progressing as well.

Hard to see the herringbone pattern on this, but it's a bit more visible in real life.  Again, this yarn is full of such pleasing colors.  I'll probably do about 5-10 more rows and then start the heel flap (right now it has 15 rows of ribbing at the cuff and then 62 rows with the pattern and plain knitting).

Finally, a few more Granny Squares were made.

This is proving to be a fun project.  I'm up to 16 squares so far.  I think once I hit 25 I'll lay them out and see how they all look together.

My reading mojo isn't fully back yet.  I keep starting and stopping books, but I am almost finished "Olive Kitteridge" which I am re-reading in preparation for reading "Olive, Again."  I must have read Olive Kitteridge when it was first published and I don't remember any of it!  Some of the stories are just so bleak (maybe it's the time we are in right now?).  I have one or two stories/chapters left and then I will pause before picking up Olive, Again.  Fletch and I are continuing to read "All the Little Live Things" by Wallace Stegner (a favorite author of mine).  This book too has some dark bits to it, but we are now more than halfway through.

Once again, linking up with Kat for Unraveled Wednesday.  Head on over to her space to see what she and others are making and reading.

Baby Hawks!!

Good Morning Everyone!

Yesterday I managed to pull it together and head into the office and I'm so glad I did!  I could see the mother hawk sitting on the nest as I walked up to the building.

Look at that disgusting mess on the wall of the building!!  And, as I mentioned, the entire entrance area to the building is covered like that.  Anyway, can you see her on the right?

Once I got to my office I grabbed my phone and went into Bill's office where there is a good view of the nest (still below it, but a good view).  At first I didn't see anything, then the mother flew back in and two babies came into view.

The two babies are big!  And so downy looking - black and white...and the mother is brownish (I'm pretty sure these are red tailed hawks which are plentiful in the area).  The mother flew off (guessing in search of more food) and the babies were a little more visible.

So cool to see! 

I didn't hang around long - was probably at the office only an hour or so and then headed home.  I did what I needed to do and got out!  The afternoon got a little busy with work-related things, but not over whelming.  Still, I did not manage to get out for a walk.  Today I may have Fletch bring my bike up from the basement, dust that off and take it over to Oaks just for something different to do.  The weather should be good for bike riding.

Last night after dinner I did tackle the canning.  First up I made Bluebarb Jam (blueberry-rhubarb).  When that was finished I dove into cutting up the jalapenos I had gotten (they were the largest I have ever seen!!) and made candied jalapenos.  I love these added to salads, or on tuna sandwiches, or just to snack on out of the jar!  Voila!:

Eight half-pint jars of jam and four half-pint jars of jalapenos.  That's not a whole lot for 2+ lbs of peppers!! 

And that's it for me on this Tuesday morning.  Hope you are all doing well!