Recently...

Flowering Magnolia

Lovely Lilacs

Japanese Quince

Lovely white and purple Violets

Grampa (my Dad) sowing potatoes in the upper garden

Flowering pear tree

Flowering Almond

Flowering crabapple tree

Lamp post garden all ready for the annuals

Herb garden ready for some basil, lavender and parsley.
The chive is ready to flower and I've already harvested some fresh greek oregano.

Annuals garden ready for planting!

Whew! I haven't been posting much lately because we were having some major problems with our computer. I was bummed because it was one I built, albeit one that was built with 2004 technology. In any case, the CPU was outdated and had been tweaked about as far as it could be tweaked. I couldn't upload any new software - it taxed my poor PC too much! So, we were getting limited on our activity. I tried cleaning up the registry and uninstalling superfluous apps - running the disk defrag and compressing old files. In short, I did every thing I could short of wiping the darn thing clean and reloading the operating system to start fresh. I realized I could do that, in fact I have done it dozens of times in the past 5 years, but it still wouldn't solve the problem of an outdated CPU and maxed out RAM. The solution ended up being right under my nose. When my FIL passed away and my MIL went through his things, we inherited a fairly new (less than a yr) PC. It's been sitting in the office since he passed and it didn't occur to me that I could use it until 2 weeks ago! So I began the tedious process of transferring stuff from one PC to the other. It helped that I have an external hard drive and could transfer up to 70 GB at a time. It was figuring out which applications I wanted to reinstall on the new PC. Which ones we ACTUALLY used! In the end, I think we've done rather well! I repurposed a 2GB RAM card that was sitting around collecting dust and installed it into our new PC, upgrading it from 1GB to 2GB. I also repurposed the USB card, providing us with 4 more USB ports - comes in very handy! Unfortunately I was not able to save the video card - it, too, was too old. So now I have this really nice, mostly updated and upgraded PC, that is only missing a decent graphics card. It's been nearly a decade since I used a PC that didn't have a decent graphics card. The good news is it's the only thing we need to buy for this PC that I didn't already have! With the installation of an opensource photo editing program, GIMP, downloaded today - I'm finally good to go with my pics again! Yahoo!

On the yarn front, the never ending hubby sweater and the diamond trellis socks still languish in hibernation. I've been working on my MIL's lovely sweater vest and it's coming along beautifully! I've also started a simple pair of socks for hubby - his consolation prize for the unfinished sweater. I've also been working on some spa cloths - my goal is still the same - to have 12 done for the charity I'm making them for. And, this is BIG HUGE and MOMENTOUS: hubby bought me some lovely Tahki Cotton Classic DK yarns from yarnmarket.com, 14 different lovely luscious colors, to make the Hexie afghan highlighted in Lucy's blog, Attic24. Wasn't that absolutely wonderful of him??? Especially since he really doesn't get why I'm so obsessed with knitting and crochet. Massive kudos to my man!


The wild man is as wild as ever...his favorite word is "NO" mixed up with "That's MINE". He's talking ALL the time now and growing like a super weed. He still naps, mostly, which does give me a mini break in the pm. He's loving the warmer weather and wants to play outside all the time. Which is fine with me! I'm a TV addict and if not convinced otherwise, I'd stay inside all day! So he gives me the perfect excuse to get my fat butt outside and enjoying the fresh air. He amazes me every day - he also provokes me into tearing out my hair everyday but hey! We take the bad with the good and try not to go crazy! He's my beautiful strong-willed boy!


I've been reading up a storm, too, which is definitely a cramp in my knitting schedule. I wish I could knit and read at the same time! The only way that is possible is listening to my iPod and praying I don't drop a stitch or knit outside the pattern! Anyway, check out my book listing below and be amazed at how many I've read so far this year! My goal is 75 books. I read over 50 last year and I think 75 will be a cinch to surpass.

Time to upload some pics so y'all can see what we've been up to!

Ok, pics are done...my lovely SIL is here...food is being grilled, which means it's time for me to sign off.

Have a lovely safe holiday weekend! Happy knitting!