Edible plants

Christa asked how I know what's edible. There are only a couple of wild plants that I know are safe (and only in my own yard where I know they haven't been sprayed with weed-killer). Everything else I leave alone.

Speaking of weed-killer, I need to mix some up and spray a couple of places in my yard. I also need to mow again, and do a couple other bits of yard work. But knitting is so much more fun! Besides, it's a little too windy to spray anything.

Knitting Knews

In the last three days, I have finished three of the projects I had going - a baptismal blanket, a small shawl/cape, and a laprobe. I got Lexi to help me photograph them.

Not the best picture (so what else is new?) It is pastel green and has a different cross in each of the four corners. It also has a crown, a scallop shell, a chalice, a star of David, and a butterfly.

I didn't realize she had it on crooked. I don't know why she was looking so solemn. 

The laprobe is a '10-stitch' blanket done with leftover yarns. The technique is a great way to use up small amounts. 

So now I have cast on for two more shawls and another baptismal blanket.

Foraging

When I was mowing yesterday, I noticed some lambsquarters. They always remind me of my childhood (until age 10 1/2) on a farm in Minnesota. I took a little ice cream bucket out there today and picked some. Mother would never have thought of cooking them the way I did. I sauted them in some olive oil, then sliced up a poblano sausage and added it to the greens. I let them cook while I boiled some angel hair pasta. When the pasta was ready, I drained it, put the greens and sausage over it and topped that with some shredded Romano cheese. Delicious!

Knitting & Mowing

Those were my two main activities today. I did three sessions with the mower - about 45 minutes each. That means about half of the yard is done. Now I can barely walk, so the rest will need to wait until another day.

The knitting has been on three projects - a shawl, a laprobe, and a baptismal blanket. I think I'll spend the rest of the evening working on the blanket. When I complete one of these projects, I can start another shawl I have in mind.

Awards Day 2011

Yesterday, I went to the awards ceremony at Mayfield Elementary School. Lexi got an award for getting all A's all year. She's the short one in the middle with the red shirt. They started with the third grade, which had at least two dozen in that category. The fourth (Lexi's grade) had about fifteen, and the fifth had only four (or was it six?) Today is the last day of school.

70 !

How can I be that old? Three of my grandparents didn't live that long. My brother-in-law turned 75 a few days ago, and although he has had a couple of health issues in the last few years, he's still very active. He celebrated that birthday during a trip to Scotland. Grandpa Ross, who lived to be almost 79, was an old, old man at 75. However, except for one who died as a toddler, all of his children (7) lived to be at least 80 - two of them made it past 90. At 75 my father was still going strong - he was 89 when he died. I think my chances of seeing my great-granddaughters graduate from high school are pretty good, unless my multiple myeloma decides otherwise.

Visitors

My brother and sister-in-law spent the weekend with me. They arrived around midday on Thursday and left after breakfast this morning. We didn't really do much - just talked. They came to help me celebrate my 70th birthday, which is actually tomorrow. Jim also wanted to pick my brain a bit about our younger years. 

The cat enjoyed their visit, as well, because Judy played with her, which is something that I don't do.

We picked Lexi up from school on Friday, and went to a reception at the Art Guild Friday evening. (Another good exhibit of the work of Purchase Area artists.)

Sunday we went to church and then had dinner at Olive Garden. I wanted to drive past the Paducah flood wall so they could see the murals that have been added since their last visit, but the streets were blocked off because of the flood.

Graduation Day

Rose 'graduated' from pre-school today. These are a few pictures of the event. There are five classes in the morning and five more in the afternoon, with about a dozen kids in each class. They do AM and PM graduations separately. The kids sang (with a recording) several songs, doing hand motions with a couple of them. We were also shown a video of them working throughout the year. I couldn't go to such programs for my grandchildren, but now that I'm retired and live close to my great-grandchildren, I'm making up for it (sort of).

Lexi still has school until next Wednesday, although it will be mostly fun stuff rather than studying. They had the Kentucky CATS (I forget what that stands for) tests and the Iowa tests (I remember those from when I was in school, I think) two weeks ago. She said she had no problem with them. She gave me a picture she drew on her 'scratch sheet' because she didn't need to do any scratch work.

Derby Hat

The girls in Lexi's class made Derby hats on Thursday. The boys raced (the girls could race, too, if they wanted to.

Here are two shots of Lexi wearing her hat.

It's summer? Maybe?

It's cool in the house, so I wore a sweatshirt over a sleeveless top. About 4 o'clock, I took some paper stuff out to burn. As soon as I stepped out the door, I knew I needed to take off the sweatshirt. It's in the 80's!

In addition to the bit of paper I took out, I burned the small stuff Rose and I cut off the pine and crab apple trees a couple of weeks ago. I also did a bit of trimming on the bushes beside the shed door and burned those trimmings. 

I've cooled off now and the house is still cool, so I think I'll put the sweatshirt back on. When I changed sheets on my bed a few days ago, I put flannel sheets on again. Usually I have regular sheets on by now. The furnace was running some yesterday. Ridiculous!

Two scarves for my uncles.

That reminds me of Perri Klass' book Two Sweaters for my Father.

I may be going to a family reunion in Minnesota this summer. This is my mother's family who get together every four years. Mom was number six of twelve children. Only the two youngest (and their spouses) remain from that generation. I have decided to take, or send with my sister if I don't go, shawls for my aunts and scarves for my uncles. I have a supply of shawls; I'm not sure which ones I will give them. However, I had to make the scarves when I decided to do this. These are what I made.

And this may be one of the shawls. I call it Red Tulips. There are 260 of them. I wanted the tulips to be right-side-up from both ends. The stitch pattern forms the tulips when knitted from the top down, so I started with a provisional cast-on and worked one half. Then I put the original stitches back on the needle and worked down to the other end. I don't do fringes very often, but this is one project that I was considering fringing. However, from two 7-oz skeins of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn, I only had about a yard and a half left, so no fringe.

Out of the mouths of babes

Last Friday Rose spent the day with me. As we were eating lunch, she told me that my face is 'crumbly'. She meant wrinkled. I'll be 70 in a few days; it would be surprising if there weren't a few wrinkles.

And another one from 16 years ago. My three grandchildren and I were on a road trip together. (I took the long way around returning them from central KY to southern NJ - 3,600 miles instead of 700) At one point, 6-year-old Bobby said, "Sara's scooping up all the room." I love his choice of words.