My Yardwork Angels.

Saturday morning, Mary called and asked if I was going to be home all day. She wanted to bring her nieces, Rena (14) and Sam (12) and mow my yard. (She wanted to give the girls a lesson in charity.) They brought a walk-behind mower and a walk-behind weed-eater. I think she hadn't believed me when I said how high the grass was. They spent several hours here, weed-eating, mowing, raking. Rena got one of my mowers going (I can't pull hard enough.) and I mowed a few circuits of the fenced area behind the house. Mary and her husband came back Sunday afternoon with that weed-eater and a riding mower. They finished the front and side yards, including raking up more than half of it. Mary also started my mower again, and I finished mowing the fenced in area, and raked some of it into windrows, to make it easier to pick up. When they left, they took the wheel from my wheelbarrow to fix the tire.

On Monday, I picked up a lot of the grass-cuttings from the fenced area and raked the rest into windrows. I now have a couple of haystacks in two of the quadrants of my 'herb garden'. They should rot down pretty well over the winter. I also picked up a couple of mop-buckets of black walnuts and dumped them where I always do for the squirrels to take. I think Mary will come out again sometime and take walnuts. Or maybe I'll take some to her.

Tuesday morning, I heard a mower running - my neighbor's friend was mowing in my back yard with the neighbor's riding mower, which has been on the blink most of the summer. When I went out later, the mower was sitting in the middle of the yard - it had broken again. However, when I got home several hours later, the mower was beside Rob's house, and my back yard was completely mowed.

Now for the last two days, Rob and his friend have been cutting brush from the bank on my side of our shared driveway. They did this about two years ago, but some things (like wild olives) grow VERY fast. Now Rob has enough fuel in his back yard for several bonfires.

What don't we do for great-grandchildren?

Wow! I don't post for a month, and then post two days in a row.

Alyssa called this morning and asked if I could bring something with me when I visit her on Thursday. Well, of course, if I can.

It seems that Lexi's science class is studying trees this year, so they need leaf specimens. She only thought of holly and Japanese maple, and asked what else I have. I walked around the yard this afternoon with pruners, zip-lock bags and cards on which I had already written most of the names. I have:
black locust
bald cypress
golden raintree
Washington hawthorn (I made sure to get one of the thorns)
redbud
black walnut
pecan (from my neighbor's yard)
flowering crab apple
Japanese maple (unfortunately, since the sun is no longer so intense, it is no longer red)
crepe myrtle
wild olive
nandino
pine (I think it's white pine)
holly

Knitting for great-grandchildren

Knitting:

Last Wednesday was Kyra's birthday; we celebrated it Friday evening with cake and ice cream, and gifts, of course.

Here's the cake.

And here is the birthday girl with the gift table. (I couldn't get the red eye out in this picture.)

I knit a sweater and matching purse for her.

I didn't realize she has longer than average arms.

More pictures of the sweater and of the purse, which I think she likes better than the sweater.

One side of the purse is the gauge swatch I did to determine what size needle to use. My friend Mary came up with the idea of making a matching piece, sewing them together and adding a strap.

I have also made a vest for Devin. His birthday was in May and I did not give hm anything at that time. He hasn't seen the vest yet; I hope he likes it.

Weaving:

I am finished weaving mugrugs - 515 of them. Now I'm working on book marks. I have 30 off the loom, so far, but they need to be zigzagged across the ends, and you know how I dislike sewing. I wound another warp about two weeks ago, but haven't put it on the loom yet. I've been too busy with knitting.