pictures!

I'm sitting here in the gloom and darkness. No, it's sunny outside, but that's the problem--from the beautiful cool weather we've been having, the temps shot into the 90sF/30sC, with the humidity around 70% (or better, depending on the day--yesterday evening we had a doozie of a storm). At any rate, to try to keep the living room from turning into a steambath, I've got not only the miniblinds down but the heavy drapes drawn to keep the sun and heat out. As soon as it moves around toward the front of the house I'll open them up.

Speaking of the storm, I came straight home after work instead of going out to feed cats, since it was a really mean storm and as I left work the rain was starting to fall. I was feeling smug because the two friends I left with both have dogs who are afraid of storms, and here I've done all this work with mine to keep them from being afraid of thunder. Well. Imagine my surprise when I went from the living room to the bedroom to see if it was raining in, and here came Ms. Taenzer right behind me, whining!

I patted her and teased her and told her she was fine and she was very silly to be worried, but I'm not very happy about this, since dogs tend to get more storm-phobic as they get older (which has happened to my friend's GSD). I think it was the wind--it was pretty bad. She barks at thunder, and anyway there wasn't much thunder (although I saw some pretty scary lightning on the way home), but I myself don't like wind and get pretty, um, anxious when the wind picks up, and she's always been too sensitive to how I feel, so--apparently I need to take tranquilizers during storms to keep Taenzer from getting upset!


Stella used to be sensitive to barometric pressure--she would get anxious as much as 24 hours before a storm, and start pacing and panting and trying to hide behind the sofa. The storm didn't upset her at all, once it arrived, but I always had plenty of warning that there was one coming.


When I went out to do cats after the storm, there was a lot of stuff down. I didn't see any trees down, but lots of limbs and branches all over the place.

Well, anyway, meanwhile, the birthday present from my sister arrived. Surprise! It's a learn-to-spin kit:



If you click on the pic above to get the large version, you can see that the bag on the right has "Use me first" written on it--it's undyed Corriedale. Once you perfect your spinning skills on the plain stuff, apparently, you advance to the pretty handpaint.



The drop spindle is cherry wood, and I think it's a nice touch that it's signed by the maker.

It comes with a couple of sheets of instructions. I dunno--I suspect this will be something I'm not good at, like sewing--there's not much room for fudging if you're trying to spin a nice even yarn, and if you mess up, you can't go back and re-do it. One of the things I've always liked about knitting is that you can fudge it (got a couple of stitches too many? k2tog. Made a mistake? Rip it out and do it over. Or fix it while it's still on the needles. Or make it again and turn it into part of the pattern!) But I'll give it a shot, and we'll see.

Garden pics!

The Asiatic lilies are starting to bloom. I still think the color on either side of the door is the best one for the garage, given that the lilies are mostly so light-colored. Course, none of the light-colored ones are currently blooming in front of the lightest green paint, so I'll check it again in a day or two.

Here's the lily bed from the side. As you can see, they're all leaning toward the sun. I've been wondering if I should stake them to get them to stand up, but I guess if they don't mind, I don't mind.

Last year I planted a red astilbe on the far side of the lily bed, and this year they're blooming. I think they're very pretty! I need to read up on astilbes, because I'd like them to be even bloomier next year.

Over by the back door in the shade garden, there are white astilbes blooming. Here's one. I need to encourage them, too--I'm afraid they'll get mugged by the European ginger. I guess I need to be more ruthless about that stuff. Maybe I can dig up patches and move it over to the far side of the house and let it compete with the weeds.

The oriental lilies have set buds, yay! There are six here. I need to feed them more or something--I'm always reading about oriental lilies on 4-foot stems, and mine are about 2 feet. Though I suppose the problem could be that they only get part-sun, although they're supposed to do well in part-sun.


Here's another picture of my Obsidian heuchera. I think this picture shows the silk-taffeta sheen of the leaves that make it so beautiful.


I'm off with a friend to a nearby home improvement store to see if I can find some peel-and-stick tiles for the bathroom. I only need 36 12"x12" tiles, so I think I can afford them!

I have an appointment to get Timber shaved a week from next Tuesday--stand by for pictures. I'm very uncertain about this, but he's been so miserable in the heat. I'd always read that their coats insulated them from both cold and heat, but the subject came up on a couple of all-breed lists I'm on, and several people with different double-coated breeds and mixes piped up to say that their dogs were happier, livelier, more playful, had better appetites once they got their summer haircuts. So I thought I'd give it a try with Timber this year and see if it makes a difference. I hate to do this to my beautiful boy, but if it makes him more comfortable, it's worth it. And if it doesn't, his coat will grow back and we won't do it again.