Thursday, July 12, 2007

LIFE AND DEATH

We recently had some excitement at Chez Earin with the discovery of a rattlesnake by the pool (which is very near the cat door). I prefer to leave critters alone but this one did not wander off so I killed it. It turned out to have recently swallowed a rat (which is a good thing and don't ask me how I know) and was far too big in the middle to slide under anything. I did take photos and they are too graphic.


Something much prettier is the back of Pebbles which is nearing completion. It's been an easy knit but oddly I keep getting off by six. Six rows past where I should have started the armhole decreases, six rows past where I should have changed the number of decreases. I am even more in love with the color and the yarn. It just feels so good.



I recently had a birthday and well, wow. Suzy, The Enabler gave me one of her handmade bead rope necklaces. She puts each and every bead on by hand. The photos do not do it justice. The colors are so vibrant and lively.






My friend John, who lives in Boston gave me several books. Two were of knitting. (Score!) He's a very nice guy, 40, very smart and single. This description hardly does him justice. Single. Hint, hint. Anyone in the Boston area read my blog?

Hubby gave me an iPod knockoff which I have been lusting over for a very long time. Valerie gave me yarn from New Zealand made of merino and possum fur (photos in my last blog entry). What can I say? I was third out of six and I love it when it's my birthday.
Then there were the emails, phone calls, lunch with a girlfriend, a freebie massage, dinner out (I still feel full) and going to see the latest Harry Potter movie. It's a very good but dark.


My friend Kate recently made a very cool bag (crocheted) and has decided to do another. A look-see of her stash showed some deficiencies so I am trading her some handspun and dyed wool that I bought quite a few years ago in Marlboro, MA at the Farmers Market. I was there for the Marlboro Morris Ale. Bells, hankies and beer. Dem were the good old days.

Lady Bird Johnson died on my birthday. She was a woman I greatly admired for her love of wildflowers and the environment. While I was reading her obituary in the New York Times on-line there was a huge photo/ad of Madonna to the side. Now Madonna is someone I've never admired. I consider her to be well marketed but low on the actual talent end of the scale. It seemed such an odd contrast to me: not only because they are such dissimilar women but just what women are now taught to aim for these days. I also wonder when women started to make such an effort to look "preserved". They certainly don't look young. I am not against fighting against time to a degree but really folks. Looking like a wax model of yourself doesn't seem appealing to me. Now Helen Mirren...what a face.

EYE CANDY FRIDAY ON THURSDAY
Small orange zinnias. I just planted seeds for some large ones today. I need more colors so I've started up some Carmine, Lilac, and Scarlet.
Omar was chewing a bone this morning and I liked the way it looked. Toss in a little Photoshop and...

Last year I admired some agastache plants in my friend Lynda's garden. I thought the dead flowers might be too fresh for the seeds to be viable but I was wrong.


My Fourth of July climbing rose is putting out another round of flowers. See the bee on the bottom right?











3 Comments:

At 9:37 AM, Blogger Lene Andersen said...

A arttlesnake??? Urgh!! (hopw sick is it that I want to see the pictures?) I love how you just throw off the "so I killed it" - very casual, very competent, very cool. I'd have been freaked out. of course, there aren't a lot of rattlesnakes in downtown Toronto, so maybe that accounts for some of the difference...

Happy belated birthday!

 
At 10:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Earin, Girl Naturalist strikes again. Literally. I notice you haven't yet mentioned the escapade of the scorpion, the microwave and the jar of bug spray. But that was in a previous locale.

Glad you liked the gifty. I thought the matte peach and sparkly red beads were just your colors.

 
At 10:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The yarn arrived yesterday, hooray! But, I decided I needed just a few more colors, so I ordered some Frog Tree Alpaca in hunter green and cream. (I thought this project was supposed to use up scraps, not make more? Hm..)

 

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