Orchids in Bloom

It was a boiling hot day today! It is also extremely smoky out. Thick dirty smoke making my eyes burn and my asthma angry. Urg. So I spent the day indoors, puttering. I've been doing a lot of puttering of late. Puttering is when I drift around the house cleaning and organizing small areas that have been neglected (like organizing the junk drawer, and the cup I keep my crochet hooks in, or cleaning the top shelves where I can not see, let alone reach). I've changed light bulbs, replaced batteries, repaired things that need gluing, hemmed pants that needed hemming, finished little projects that needed finishing. I have actually been quite productive, but if you walked into the house you wouldn't know it.

I wish it would cool down a bit and the air clear out. I want to get busy with my newspaper mulching. I bought 20 bags of beauty bark that I have stacked neatly in the front yard. I have quite a few piles of newspapers from friends and family (Thanks guys!).

I have decided I'm pulling out the rose bushes in the front yard. I've had them for years and they have never amounted to anything. They get about a foot tall, have 1 flower each, and that's it. They should be big bushes by now. I need to plant things that will actually like the poor soil, though I don't know what their problem is. I give them rose food, and they are in an area where wild roses grow like weeds. Urg. It's not fair!

The azaelas and forsythia I planted last May are doing fantastic. So there are things that like it out there.

The woods are very dry and crispy now. We've seen deer every day for a week nibbling on our green oasis. I have fences around all the baby trees so they are safe.

Indoors my orchids have been blooming quite nicely for more than 4 months now. I've taken a few pics. I have 5 Dendrobium orchids. 2 haven't bloomed this year. They are pretty small plants so I'm not surprised. One finished blooming last month and I never got pics of it. But these two are still going strong.

This one has a most unusual coloring. This is the last flower on the plant. It had a total of 3.

This one I've had for a few years. Long enough that I couldn't remember what color it was, so I was quite pleased when it bloomed this year. It's a pale green with purple stripes and red lip.

There are tiny red spots on the yellow throatr.

This is the Pansy orchid Sarah and Frank sent me for Mothers Day. It's still going very strong. Has lots of flowers yet.

Today also was my daughter Ruth's birthday. Finally! I could give her the knitting bag I made for her. She loves it! Hurray! This is what it looks like.

Oh darn! I forgot I took this before I put the button on it. It has a lime green and white polka dot button for the tab. Perhaps I can steal it back a bit tomorrow and take a more current pic. Anyway, the pattern for this can be found here: Charm Pack Tote Bag

This is my first project using a charm pack. It is a Moda My Sister & Me pack that apparently is no longer available cuz I was gonna link to it and I can't find it anywhere. I must have bought the last one in all the world.

Well, that's the news for tonight. Hopefully the nephew will be by tomorrow to finish his work. He's leaving for football camp later in the week and I would be quite unhappy if he couldn't finish for me before he leaves. He's got a football scholarship to the University of Idaho, if I'm remembering correctly. He is working very hard to be ready for the football season. He's quite good at it, though he doesn't want to make a career of it. He plans to major in Political Science

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Potpourri of Things

Is it Tuesday already? Time is just flying this week.

Over the weekend we worked on putting the new flooring in the sun room. All day Saturday we worked on emptying the room and getting the floor ready to glue the bamboo to. That required removing about 5 million staples. They must have had a sale on staples the day they installed the carpet. Here's what it looked like after we emptied it-except that desk. We had no place to put it so we just left it and moved it out of the way as needed.


On Sunday we laid bamboo all day. We got about 2/3rds done. Here's how it looks at the moment. We'll probably finish that last part next Sunday.



One of my orchids is blooming.



Check out this site: One Million Giraffes

They are trying to get one million pictures of hand made giraffes posted on the site by 2011. It's an ambitious project. No particular reason for doing it except to say they did. I intend to contribute something.

There is a new very nice stretchy bind off in the current issue of Knitty E-magazine:

Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off

I've tried it and I like it a lot. It comes in handy for toe-up socks and lace shawls.

I am making more Octahedral beaded beads. I thought I was done and was going to do something else for awhile (I have a craving for some ornament covers) but then I stumbled into a little transaction with one of my Ravelry friends. He is going to trade me 3 skeins of hand dyed sock yarn for 3 octahedra bead key chains. I am so excited. I will tell more when I know more.

I am still working on my Bayerische sock when I get the chance. Not much knitting going on with all this upheaval in the house. But I'm managing to get a row in here and there.

I have joined a Mystery Shawl knit along. It starts January 1st, 2010. I've decided 2010 will be the year of lace (last year was the year of socks). It is being hosted on Yahoo groups by MMario if you want to join us. He does such wonderful shawl patterns. I figure what ever he comes up with for us to knit will be beautiful. I've got tons of lace weight yarn in my stash, also known as knitting machine yarn. I might as well use it.

Next Saturday is the annual Parktoberfest. I've been remembering last years and I was not walking hardly at all then. It was shortly after my surgery disaster. I remember struggling to get from my car to the chair they had for me so I could at least be there. I'm in a lot better shape today. I'm walking fairly well. My leg still swells up, but I've learned how to live with it.

I'm planning on making a crock pot dish for the event, as well as a platter of fresh veggies and dip. I was perusing my crock pot cookbook and I think I will try something new called Enchilada Ole'. It involves tortillas, meat, salsa, green chilies, sour cream, and cheese. Looks super easy and super tasty too. The meat called for is chicken, but I think I'm going to use beef instead. It should substitute just fine.

I wanted to make spaghetti pie, but I have no way to keep it warm. There is no oven at the party location. Spaghetti Pie is not very good cold.

Have a great day.

I'll Believe It When I Feel It

The weather guy on KXLY said it's gonna be 70F degrees next Sunday.

Ha hahaha hoo haha ha heeeee ha............!

I am seeing signs of spring though. In the last 3 days our snow has melted quite a bit, even though it hasn't been what I'd call warm. It's been a 5 minute weather week. You know, the weather changes every 5 minutes. I've seen snow, hail, wind, rain, and sun all in an hour's time. Somehow, though, it's melting the snow. I've actually got patches of bare ground in the back yard, and I found a tulip sprout in one of my flower beds.

I've been holding out on y'all. About 6 weeks ago the purple side of my Phaleonopsis orchid started blooming.




The white side isn't. Blooming that is. It just tickles me pink that I can grow these and they actually bloom.


A couple weeks ago I planted some tomato seeds? Nothing sprouted. I was beginning to think I was going to have to replant them and give it a second try. However, I may have a sprout this morning. I will know for sure by this afternoon. I sure hope so.

Is that white spot a sprout?

Did I mention I've won a contest? Fearless Fibers had one last weekend. I've won a skein of her new sock yarn. It's a superwash wool, tencel, and nylon blend. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

I started another Mermaid yesterday. I'm severely altering the pattern though. I want to see if I can knit the head/body/tail all in one piece, in the round. So far so good. I've got the head/neck done and I'm working on the increases for the upper body. I'm having to work this part in the reverse of the pattern cos it starts at the waist and works toward the top of the head. I started with the top of the head and am working toward the waist. My only concern is that I'll somehow end up with the tail all off center and twisted.


Edaline's nose is a little smaller-buttony, and I put the eyes on now because when I get to the tail it will be a lot harder to do it then. So now Edaline is watching me while I knit. Kind of creepy.

Have a great day.

Eggs and Orchids

Yesterdays class went okay. I was expecting 5 students. When I got there I had 1 left. 3 had rescheduled for a class I'm teaching in April, and 1 cancelled after arriving for the class. She said she wasn't aware it was a seed bead class. Huh? The sample on display, the photo in the newsletter, and the list of supplies needed should have given her a clue. Anyway, I ended up with just one student, but I got paid for two. So I can't really complain.

Having just one made it a lot easier. It was someone I know. A frequent customer to my knit shop, Marge has apparently got into beading too. So it was like spending the afternoon with an old friend.

We got the income taxes done this morning. We're getting a refund (hardwood flooring in my future-hurray!), and I can now officially say, we are done with the store.

I have finished a project for the KnitWits. I've knit an egg. Seemed appropriate with Easter coming up and all. This is my own design, though I must admit to using a Jean Greenhowe pattern as my starting point. However, as usual, when I'm in a creative mood, the finished product barely resembles the original design. By the way, my egg has been in the south for the winter (lucky little gal), so she is sporting a nice tropical tan.

These next pics have a story. In 2002 I bought a Dendrobium orchid. It was in bloom, of course, and was white with purple in the center. Eventually, the flowers died, and my orchid did not bloom for awhile. The fact it survived at all, with me as it's caregiver, is a miracle. My thumb is more yellow than green. However, summer of 2005-lo and behold, a miracle- it bloomed! It had been long enough that I could not remember what it was going to look like. All I did remember was purple was involved. I was very excited about the whole thing.

Imagine my surprise when the bud opened and it was all white. No purple. Period. I scratched my head over that for months. The blooms were beautiful, and I enjoyed them a lot, but still. I could not remember getting a white orchid.

Last Fall it bloomed again. WHAT??? The flowers are white with purple. Now wait just one darn minute! Just a few months ago it was all white. I have witnesses who can corroborate that!

By Christmas the blooms faded and died. However, in January TWO flower stems sprouted. They are now in bloom. I am NOT going crazy. Please note-one branch is white, and the other is purple and white. There must be two plants in the pot. They're just so close together they look like one plant. I've taken photos so I can prove my story. The first is the plant.

The Purple and White flowers.

The White flowers.

Last but not least, this is a new member to the family. Just got her today when we went to Home Depot to get parts for the drippy shower. (Hubby is fixing it as I write this. Such a sweety.) I've never seen a Dendrobium colored like this before.