Tailfeathers

Pi Shawl Continues

The cats are just as tired of the edge on the Pi Shawl as I am.  I still work on the shawl every day, so I figure I'm about 70% of the way around the edge. 

Persy and Ruso say I must be the slowest knitter in the West...

   

If I showed you a picture of the shawl it would look just like all the other pictures, so my photogenic friends will do today.

Handmade Ice Cream & Candy in Chico, CA - Shubert's

Good Morning America wants you to vote for one of the Best Scoops In America.  Chico's own Shubert's, maker of Ice Cream & Candy since 1938, is one of the four finalists.  Go vote for Shubert's.  It will be fun to see Chico on national TV!

I've had their ice cream and it's pretty darn good, mmm-mmm.

May Garden

There is good news and bad news in the garden this morning.  First the good news.

The geraniums are happy.  The one above is in a pot.  See Sammy helping with the camera work this morning (white arrow, top left of photo).  He loves it when people join him in the garden.

 

The Mock Orange, Gardenia, and new Petunias are happy.  The Mock Orange smells wonderful.  It's a big bush that Tom, the gardener, is going to espalier for me one of these days.  Tom shows up when it's convenient for Tom, so I'm not sure when it will happen.  In the meantime, we enjoy the blossoms.

 

The Roses aren't so happy this year.  I'm not sure what the problem is.  Do these blossoms look okay to you?

Sammy stayed with me for the entire garden photo session this morning :-)

(Note:  My photos are on flickr.)

Typekey

Blog readers, move along - this is just between me and Typepad support.   Thanks.

This is my Typekey profile Configuration page... only shows one link typelist in the drop down, but I have two link Typelists.

Socks and Shawls

I dropped out of Sock Wars III because I am not finished with my Pi Shawl yet.  I'm maybe 40% of the way around the shawl with the finishing edge, so maybe I'll finish it some time in June.  Then I'll be able to knit another pair of socks.

Speaking of socks, Melissa in Portland is having a drawing.  Send her your pictures of the socks you have knit since last July, and when her blog hits reach 10,000 she will give a randomly chosen sock knitter some of her lovely hand spun yarn.  She wants to show the world just how many socks knitters there are :-)

On a gardening note, we have wind.  Dusty, pollen-filled, tree limb-breaking, junk-dumping, hair-mussing, nose-stuffing wind.  So I went to Lowes this morning and bought some plants which will have to wait until tomorrow to be planted.  It's not pleasant enough outside to do the job today.

And... while I was at Lowes I paid for a new window and the installation of said window.  The plants were cheaper.  The window should arrive at Lowes in a couple of weeks and then the installer will pick it up and put it in my house.

Ah, home ownership....

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The diving bell and the butterfly: **** Very Good.

We watched the DVD of this movie tonight.  It was very good.

A rich and creative magazine editor suffers a stroke which leaves him with one eye that blinks, and that's all he can use for communication.  He manages to blink out a book - his memoirs - with the help of many people.

The film shows images of what he might have been seeing in his imagination while he was locked in his body.  It's those images that are beautiful.  His mind is still working, even if he has been betrayed by his body.

I recommend it.

Note:  I cheated.  It's a French film, but I set the DVD to play in English with no subtitles.  I don't think I lost anything, but how would I know?

Click on the movie poster to see Rotten Tomatoes reviews.

Snow on the trail

We wanted to go for a walk in the mountains today.  The weatherman said the snow pack in the Sierra Mountains was melting.

Well... not quite yet.

First we tried Frazier Falls in the Plumas National Forest, but couldn't even get to the parking area.  My little Prius couldn't make it over the snow on the open(??), narrow road.  When I determined I would have to either back all the way down the road or turn around in a narrow space, J got out and helped me turn around by stopping me each time I was about to drive into the ditch on one side of the narrow road or drop into the ravine on the other.

Then we thought we'd take the wider road up to Lakes Basin, but the road to the trail was not open.

Whatever.  The snow and clean air was wonderful.  J got to throw snowballs, one of her favorite things to do.  On the way home we got to smell that wonderful smell of a rain storm in the mountains.

Back here in the valley my front porch is registering 85F.  It's like different but parallel universes.