It’s Raining. It’s Pouring!

This is the first real rain we’ve had in something like a month. I spent 4 hours in the garden yesterday, weeding and watering and now Mother Nature is doing the watering for me! Thanks, Mom. It was getting to be a drag actually. Literally dragging the darn hose around to reach every corner. I have 3 lovely coiled watering wands for the veggie garden, each with their own tap, and I can reach the whole thing easily. But the front garden is harder to manage because I have to unwind a long, long hose and try hard not to run it over and crush anything. At least it has a reel to wind it up again. I used to have to coil about 50 pounds of hose and it was a killer! But today I’m officially relieved of the job. Yahoo!

Of course it’s raining because we want to go away for an extended weekend camping with the family in Manning Park! Fifteen people are expected and we have reservations already secured by Milady Daughter. Hopefully the weather will follow the predictions and stop by Friday. At least the yard will get a good soaking in the next 24 hours because it will have to live without my tender daily ministrations until I return next Tuesday. At least most of it is established now and shouldn’t dry out too easily. I hope. It all depends on the weather, doesn’t it? Cool and cloudy or rainy and it will be fine. Hot and sunny and some of the more vulnerable things (like the planters) could be crispy by the time I get back. The risk is worth the holiday though. Family Time.

I was really happy that I managed yesterday to wear my garden boots (very old dilapidated Blundstones) with the customary 2 pairs of socks and No Bandages on the ouchies! Yay! That was the first time in shoes without any extra padding and it was fine. The marks (Tiger Stripes!) continue to fade visibly and today my ankle has started peeling. I’ll have to be super-careful now not to introduced any infection. No scratching allowed! But I’m really pleased with how fast the evidence of my clumsiness is disappearing. It’s not even two weeks yet. I was warned that the new skin will be very sun-sensitive for at least a year so I’ll have to remember to slather the sunscreen on my feet this summer. Now I just hope I can comfortably hike around Lightning Lake at Manning Park. But I’m not going on the full-day hike up to Mount Frosty! Some members of our family are a little too ambitious.

In crafty news and going back to last Saturday’s Ravelry meetup, dear Yarnpiggy had a wonderful post on her blog with photo evidence of our Blue Moon STR extravagances. Now you see why we couldn’t resist, huh? Some yarns have even more deadly wool-fumes than others.

Also I was going to show you the wrinkled alpaca goodness that is my Seaweed Shawl, but it’s too dark today to get a good pic. Besides, it just looks like a string bag at the moment. I’m finally into the first border chart and it has recaptured my interest. I realised I was really tired of knitting the blossom chart pattern and I’m finding renewed energy now that it’s over and I can move on. That’s what I get for knitting the larger size, huh? Laminaria is a brilliant pattern anyway so I shouldn’t really complain. I love the way it goes from dense (star stitch) at the neck to less-dense (blossom pattern) in the middle and then to lacier (alien heads!) at the edges. Can’t wait to block it but that will still be some time yet. Meanwhile I’m making time to work on it so that must mean I’m back to enjoying the process.

Wish I could say the same about the poor languishing Hot Spring Socks. They are now Hot Summer Socks! Apart from the fact that I got sidetracked into other more pressing projects, I’m feeling somewhat disappointed in how the Spring Forward pattern is being obscured by the too-distracting yarn. I dyed it so I have nobody to blame but myself. The recipient (my DIL The White Lady) loves it though so I will persist. Hopefully I will have time to work on them while we’re camping. They’re nearly to the heel turns already anyway so there’s no point in frogging.

If the Hot Springs were just plain socks they’d surely be done by now. But unfortunately I don’t currently have anything on the needles that I can work on while reading. Too much concentration needed for lace. Need to start something else but nothing mindless is calling me right now. Lace is it. I’ve got Ysolda’s Ishbel waiting for me to finish the Seaweed Shawl. And there is more but I’m not saying yet.

Drip. Drip. Drip. What a wonderful sound!