Monday, July 12, 2010

Summer resolution



I have long wished I was one of those cool girls who whips out her knitting on the train or during intermission or while sitting around the campfire in the heart of Africa.* My grandmother and great aunts were all domestic goddesses who knit and purled with the best of them, but when they tried to teach me their secrets, their demonstrations confounded my chubby, little-girl fingers and I've never managed to make more than 15 inches of wobbly scarf.

The summer, as I have nothing better to do than finish my master's thesis (which, really, is a minor thing), I am determined to teach myself to knit. To that end, Penny and I walked to the library today and checked out two beginner's guides to knitting, and I liberated four skeins of yarn (three orange, one lemon yellow) from my grandmother's left-behind stash in the boys' basement.

Any and all advice will be gratefully accepted.



* Part of this social fantasy may stem from the fact that I wish I was a girl who rode trains and sat around campfires in the heart of Africa, but I am very good at pretending. Once I learn to knit, I'm sure the rest will come.

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Curb Appeal

I worked in the yard for three more hours this morning and I think I can declare my front yard done for the time being. Mom and I ran out of steam yesterday after planting about 20 perennials in the two front beds, so I finished them up with some annuals and a couple of herbs this morning. I'm really happy with how they came out. It's nice not to have the homeliest house on the block anymore.



From left to right: foxglove (in the pot), sage, lenten rose, dream queen hosta, green mountain boxwood, another sage, holly, plantain lily "halcyon" hosta, caladium, another hosta whose name I didn't write down, Japanese painted fern in the corner, a barberry bush that was already established, and a winter green boxwood. The other side is basically a mirror image of this layout, but with a Japanese beech fern instead of caladium and a "forever and ever hydrangea" instead of the foxglove. The annuals are begonias, impatiens, and dianthus.







Slowly but surely, it's looking like a real house!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Too hot to think

It is 11:52 and it's still over 80 degrees in my house. I'm sitting in the dark eating frozen grapes and thinking cool thoughts.

Mom and I got the front of my house landscaped today, so I finally don't have the ugliest house on the block. I'll post pictures tomorrow. It's too hot to get up and find the camera cord.

Must, must get insulation soon. This is ridiculous.